Freedom

July 1, 2007     Proper 8 C

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14             Psalm 77

Galatians 5:1-11, 13-25         St. Luke 9:51-62

"It was for freedom that Christ has set us free."

Everything else paled when Elisha was anointed by Elijah. He left all for the call. The commitment became his life. The promise was all he would keep of himself. There was a whole class of people known as "the sons of the prophets". But Elisha was not just "one of the gang". Elisha was to be the one who would stand where Elijah had stood, and cry what Elijah had cried.

We do not easily make commitments. Still less easily do we keep them. This is true of any time and nation. And yet it is particularly true of us. These days, it is difficult for a person to keep a promise fifty hours, much less fifty years. We have come to accept commitment as meaning what works right now and what I will do right now. Tomorrow that may change. So we have to be open to new possibilities.

And so we avoid commitments or postpone promises. "I will be your follower wherever you may go." But it will have to wait. I have other things to do, jobs to accomplish, plans to realize. "Let me bury my father first... Let me return to what I cherish." I am not ready to give it all away. There are many things that are important. I need to deal with them.

It is often presumed that freedom is a state of being loose and unattached. Some people go so far as to think they lose their freedom when they commit themselves to something. Freedom is construed as giving in to any immediate desire and impulse. And yet such a notion of freedom, "giving free rein to the flesh," as Paul calls it, is slavery.

We only begin to be free when we start the process of self-definition called commitment. And our freedom is only realized when we give ourselves away in love. Our commitments, ultimately, are our homeland, our nests, our lairs. They are where we reside, where we center our being.

Such a prospect is awesome: that our fundamental task and responsibility is to commit in love. This is why, like the Galatians, we might be frightened by such liberty. Comfort and escape, as well as other cravings of the flesh, entice us when we confront freedom's awesome implications. Freedom is the hallmark of Christian existence. But this freedom is constantly threatened.

For the Galatians it was threatened because they were succumbing to the blandishments of Paul's opponents and falling prey to some kind of syncretism that included circumcision. For Paul, this completely undermines the gospel. This kind of freedom is slavery because it comes with strings attached that ultimately become ropes that bind us.

Christians are free because they do not have to acquire salvation by their own works; because they have already been given salvation as a gift, they are free to work it out in obedience. This is the positive truth behind what gained popularity in the sixties as "situation ethics."

There is one obligation for Christians, and that is the law of love.  "The whole law is fulfilled in one word, ?You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Paul does not overlook the first and greatest commandment, the love of God; he is speaking to those who have already heard the message of justification, and who have therefore been brought into the love of God. For Paul, everything starts with loving God. You cannot be part of anything else meaningful unless you are first united to and love God.

Paul is talking about how that love of God can only express itself historically as love of neighbor. Love of neighbor should provide the Christian with a set of antennae, enabling him/her to know in each concrete situation what that love requires, without a lot of rules and regulations. The guidance needed is provided by the Golden Rule: Do to others as you would have them do to you. Do you really need any more rules than this? Put yourself in the other person's place and see how it feels to receive your actions, your words. Then decide how you will act and talk.

"Flesh" and "Spirit" in the last paragraph are not our so-called higher and lower natures, though they are frequently thus misunderstood, even in modern translations.

"Flesh" is our old, unredeemed humanity in its totality, including what we call our "higher nature." "Spirit," as the capitalization suggests, is the Spirit of God, the eschatological possibility that transforms our whole human nature, lower as well as higher. There is then an aspect of the "other" or of God, that is necessary for us to fully comprehend and put to use our true freedom.

Perhaps the only lasting things we humans make in this world are our promises, our commitments. Perhaps, too, our promises are the only parts of us that we ultimately keep. As Elisha said several times to Elijah, "As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." Without such making and keeping, it could be possible that we die having never fully lived.

But when we make bold to respond to the vocation of our humanity, that call to loving commitment given us by God and nurtured by Christ's Spirit, we partake in the very life of our Creator.

"It was for freedom that Christ freed us. So stand firm, and do not take upon yourselves the yoke of slavery a second time." We cannot truly understand what freedom is, or be truly free without being committed to God and our neighbor. Any other freedom is selfishness. In the coming week we will be reminded of that commitment to neighbor as we celebrate the birth of our nation. That birth came at the cost of many lives, lives that were given for neighbors born and unborn, known and unknown.

But the national celebration of our country is not all there is to be known about freedom for Christians. There is also the freedom that comes from service to Christ. In Christ's service there is true freedom. True freedom comes from loving God and loving our neighbor. Any thing else is but slavery masquerading as freedom.