Free Enough to Serve
Galatians 5:1, 13-26[1]
I recently spoke about one of the reasons some people give
for not being involved in organized religion. It’s because they see the church
as “full of hypocrites.” And I suggested in that sermon that one reason for
that criticism is that they hear us saying one thing while they see us doing
something very different. I think another reason why people avoid religion is
because, truth be told, we can come across like very selfish and self-centered
people. Especially when it comes to salvation. When we make salvation all about
“me, my, and mine,” what other people may hear is that we really don’t care
about anyone else.
I think that’s a sad state of affairs. The Gospel is about
Jesus Christ making the ultimate sacrifice, giving his life away selflessly so
that we could all live together in the freedom, peace, and joy of God’s love.
And somehow, someway, too many of us who profess faith in him do so in a way
that strikes the people around us as so utterly selfish and self-centered that
it turns them away from the community of those who claim to follow Jesus. To
some extent, I can understand that. Too many in the church have focused on
their own salvation to such an extent that it can come across as if they have
no concern for anyone else’s salvation. Surely those of us who follow Jesus
must share his concern for the whole human family!
I think part of the problem is that we can get caught up in
our own “stuff” so much that it’s hard for us to look past it and really care
about those around us. It’s a natural thing. And it’s true for all of us. It’s
part of being human. Our life experiences are what are most real to us. But we
can get so bent out of shape about our malfunctioning cell phones (just for
example) that we lose all sight of the fact that there are many people in the
world who have to walk miles for clean water! Now, I don’t want to suggest that
what preoccupies us is always as trivial as a malfunctioning cell phone. We
have much bigger concerns that, very naturally, occupy our attention. But the
“optics” of that mindset don’t make for a favorable portrait of the church and those
of us who are devoted to it.
I think our lesson from the book of Galatians for today
addresses this question. Paul emphasizes the freedom we have in Christ. A big
part of that freedom is that through his faithful obedience to God even to the
point of death on a cross, and by placing our faith in him as our savior and
lord, we’re set free from all the guilt and fear and all the other “stuff” that
might plague us. For Paul, the cross means that God has “justified” us. That’s
the language of the Bible. It’s a theological word for the idea that God
accepts us and loves us just as we are. Unconditionally and irrevocably.
Paul was insistent that we don’t have to do anything to earn that love and
acceptance. In fact, he made it clear that if the believers of his day thought
they could do anything to earn it, it would cancel out the message of the
gospel!
We can read a passage like this and think that freedom is
simple: you don’t “do the works of the flesh” and you “do the works of the Spirit.”
But in reality, true freedom is something that’s really quite complicated. For
one thing, if you look at the vice lists in the New Testament and think that
any one of those behaviors excludes us from God’s love and acceptance, then we’re
all in that boat because we’ve all fallen short in some way. And if you look at
the “fruit of the Spirit” and ask whether we consistently embody those
characteristics in our daily living, the answer is “sometimes we do and
sometimes we don’t.” It’s a tough list to live up to. Freedom is something that’s
quite complicated.
Many in our society think freedom means “I can do whatever
I want, whenever I want to.” But that’s not freedom. It’s just “license.” As in
taking liberties that aren’t necessarily thoughtful, kind, or caring to others
or to ourselves. License differs from freedom in that in that it means doing
whatever we please without thinking about how it may affect anyone.[2] It’s a
matter of indulging ourselves however and wherever we want. License means
choosing to ignore that there are always consequences to our actions and
choices. And such blatant self-indulgence never results in real freedom. We can
do whatever we please whenever we want as much as we can get away with, and
never feel truly loved, or accepted, or valued as a person. And when we lack
that basic foundation in our lives, we are never truly free. Freedom is
complicated.
I think that’s one reason why Paul insists that the gospel
of salvation through Jesus is a free gift. It makes a difference in how we not
only look at ourselves, but also how we treat others. Recognizing that the only
“justification” that really means anything comes to us through Jesus and the
unconditional acceptance God extends to us through him frees us from all that
would bind us in this world. That also frees us from all the ways we might
think we have to bolster ourselves by putting down others. Trusting the gift of
God’s unconditional acceptance frees us to serve one another, all others, in
love![3] The only
way to truly find freedom is to give yourself away in love, and the only way to
truly give yourself away in love is when you find freedom from all that can bind
us in this world.[4]
If we truly find that freedom to love, we’re naturally going
to extend that love to everyone. We’re naturally going to be concerned with the
salvation of the whole human family, not just ourselves. We will be motivated
to serve others in a way that truly brings “liberty and justice” to all, in a
way that recognizes the dignity of every person, regardless of race, gender,
ability, or class. Serving others in love starts with recognizing the dignity
of every person. Now, I will be the first to admit that it’s incredibly
difficult to live out this level of love and freedom all the time. We all have
a variety of influences within us that get in the way of giving ourselves away
to others in love. What St. Paul wanted the people of his day and ours to know
is that what God has done for us in Jesus sets us free to explore what it means
to share love in a community of people, like this one, who are committed to
sharing God’s love with the whole world.
[1]
© 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 6/29/2025 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2]
John Paul II, in “The Gospel of Life,” 19.3, said that we have “a notion of
freedom which exalts the isolated individual in an absolute way, and gives no
place to solidarity, to openness to others and service of them.” See J. Michael
Miller, C. S. B., The Encyclicals of John Paul II, 808.
[3]
Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the
Power of the Spirit, 188. He says that the church is the “fellowship of the
justified, who no longer have to justify themselves” He goes on to insist that
this freedom sets us free to serve others in love. As I have suggested before,
I believe this is idea of freedom to love is a central theme in Moltmann’s
understanding of the Christian life. It runs throughout his discussion of the
church’s identity and calling; he begins the idea that Jesus establishes the
freedom of God’s kingdom by sacrificing himself for others (117), by breaking
the powers of oppression through the resurrection (98-99), and by assuring us
that we are accepted by God, and therefore enabling us to accept others
(188-89); therefore Moltmann understands the freedom of God’s kingdom as that
which enables us to serve one another in the effort to bring freedom to others
(84, 195, 278, 283-84, 292); he construes this life under the concept of
“friendship” which Jesus models and we are called to emulate those who are
“open for others” and who “love in freedom” (121, 316).
[4]
St. Augustine said it this way: “love, and do what you will”; cf. Augustine,
Homily 7 on the First Epistle of John; http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/170207.htm.;
See John Caputo, On Religion, 3-7,
24-28, 109-116, 134-36, 139; cf. similarly, John Calvin and W. Pringle, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the
Galatians and Ephesians, 160 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc):
“He who loves will render to every man
his right, will do injury or harm to no man, will do good, as far as lies in
his power, to all.” See further, Karl
Barth, Church Dogmatics, 4.2:732-33.
