Living in Freedom
Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:34-42[1]
Sometimes I think organized religion may be
more of a hindrance to people who are looking for God’s love than a help. You
may find that strange for someone who’s spent his whole career working in
organized religion to say! Nevertheless, after spending almost five decades
working in the church, I would say that religious organizations tend to get in
the way. We create structures and rules to ensure that everyone winds up at the
same place in their spiritual journey. But structures and rules always have to
be tweaked. It might be tempting for us to point the finger at those “other”
religions out there, for “straining a gnat and swallowing a camel” (Matt
23:24), as Jesus put it. But the reality is that all religions are human
attempts to understand ultimate things like God and eternity. And because
they’re created by flawed and fallible people like you and me, they all in one
way or another tend to get in the way of those who are looking for God in this
life.[2]
In the Hebrew Bible, we see an approach to God
that essentially defines the spiritual quest in terms of carefully conducted
rituals and equally careful observance of rules about staying “pure.” Holiness
is defined by eating the right foods and having the “right kind” of
relationship the “right kind” of person. That may have been a good place to
start, but I would say that many very deeply religious people no longer believe
that we please God by observing the right rituals, or eating only the right
foods, or having the “right kind” of relationships with the “right kind” of
people. And yet, even in our day there are still some who cling to those old
rules. As if Jesus endorsed all of that! They may not believe that having a
plate of oysters somehow makes us unclean in God’s sight. But there are still
many Christians these days who believe that the essence of sin is having the
“wrong kind” of relationship with the “wrong kind” of person. Many still
believe that marrying a person outside your faith, or person of another race,
or anyone who is somehow “tainted” by our human standards makes you “sinful” in
God’s sight.
As Jesus pointed out in many ways, the main
problem with this approach to religion is that it becomes about what we avoid
and whom we exclude. Last week I talked about one aspect of what makes it
difficult to read Paul’s letters. I think another challenge we face is that
Paul’s letters still reflect some of this kind of thinking. I see it when we read
our lesson from Romans for today. While we are clearly indebted to the great
Apostle for many of the building blocks of our faith, I think his views on sin may
have some problems. In a very real sense, I would say Paul has a very
“First-Century Jewish” notion of sin. Of course we don’t want to be “slaves of
sin” but “servants of righteousness,” as Paul urges us to be in our lesson for
today. But the problem comes when you ask how Paul defines “sin.” It sounds
very much like it’s about what we avoid and whom we exclude.
But I would say that while Paul may have hung
on to some of those notions, he was a follower of Jesus. And that meant
ultimately he was much more concerned with putting faith into practice by
treating other people as Jesus did. I think that should give us some sense of
focus when we talk about how “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). I want to
ask where you see sin leading to
death in our world. Well, I see power-hungry dictators unleashing drones and
missiles against innocent people. And the result of that sin is death. I see
impoverished people living in ramshackle slums that are swept away
completely—men, women, and children—whenever an earthquake or a flood or a
hurricane comes through. And the result is death. I see the death that results
from the sin of the wealthy hoarding all the resources so that the weakest and
poorest of their people literally starve. I realize that Paul was talking about
a “spiritual” kind of death. But I think it would do us well to ask ourselves
where we see sin leading to death in this world. I would have to say, in all
honesty, that I don’t much “death” resulting from failing to exclude the “wrong
kind” of person.
I’d have to say that this is one area where
some of the most “religious” people of our day still “miss the point.” I would
go further and say that whenever we make the essence of our relationship with
God a matter of following religious rules, not about the love we have received
from God through Jesus Christ, we continue to miss the point. But more
importantly, our manmade and rigid religious rules always become obstacles to
loving other people. Jesus called them “burdens too heavy to lift” (Mt 23:4) and points
the finger at religious perfectionists of all stripes for ignoring their own
sins and focusing on the mistakes of others (Mt 7:3-5). It all becomes just an elaborate
way of justifying oneself by condemning others. But at the end of the day, even
religious perfectionists can’t bear the burdens they create for others. And so,
as Jesus said, they condemn themselves when they condemn others! That’s not
only because they fail to live up to the expectations they demand of others.
It’s also because making our devotion to God about what we avoid and whom we
exclude inevitably turns into hostility toward them, whoever “they” may be. You
can’t love your neighbor if you really hate them down deep inside!
Jesus had a way of cutting through all this religious
hypocrisy. He said that true holiness is about loving God and loving others (Mt
22:37-40). He said that true spirituality is about embracing a child (Mt 18:1-5).
True religion is about not only having empathy for the weak and outcast, but
also about taking steps to care for them (Mt 25:34-40).[3] It’s about feeding a hungry person, visiting the sick, and being a companion to
those who are in prison. For Jesus, a truly spiritual way of living is about
being willing to give someone a cup of cold water on a hot day (Mt 10:42). It’s
really no more complicated than that. No elaborate systems, no obsessions with
keeping tedious rules. At the end of the day, it’s not about what we avoid or
whom we exclude, but rather it’s about having a heart that’s willing to give to
others the same mercy that we have received.
That doesn’t mean it’s “easy.” In our Gospel
lesson for today, Jesus describes this kind of life as “losing your life for my
sake” (Mt 10:39). But he also said that was the way to truly “find” your life.
I think that’s the lesson we can take away from Paul talking the freedom to
live for God. Through the love we encounter in Jesus Christ, we’re set free
from all the habits and attitudes that bring “death” not only to ourselves but
also to those around us. Through the love from God that we encounter in Jesus
Christ, we’re set free from all the habits and attitudes that harm not only
others but also ourselves. That’s how I would define “freedom from sin.” It’s
the freedom to stop draining the life out of ourselves and others by our
actions and attitudes. And in the process, we’re set free to live for God, to
live a life of love and mercy, which is the life we were always meant to live.
[1] © 2026
Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 6/28/2026 for Hickman
Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, 1933, 242: “Religion compels
us to the perception that God is not to be found in religion.”
[3] Cf.
Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 126-9, where he
says in effect that those who truly follow Christ are to be serving where
Christ awaits us, “amid the downtrodden, the sick, and the captives.”
