Freedom: Perspective for Our Enigmatic Present and Uncertain Future [OR Freedom: Beyond a Moral Imperative] Luke 9:51-62 and Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Pastor Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on June 26, 2016

[sermon begins after 2 Bible readings]

Luke 9:51-62 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53 but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 Then they went on to another village. 57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Galatians 5:1, 13-25 1 For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. 14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. 16 Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

[sermon begins]

“For freedom Christ has set us free.”

“For freedom Christ has set us free!”[1]

Paul’s letter to the Galatian church is a treasure trove of bumper sticker one-liners.  Except that the opening line of the verses read from Galatians today would need to have a few more bumper stickers added just to clarify things.  Pretty soon they would break the bonds of the bumper and start moving towards the side of the car.  There would be arrows to follow from one bumper sticker to the next. The arrows would be necessary because the language of freedom has incredible power.  Freedom as a theological framework gets especially conflated with freedom as a political construct as we cruise towards the 4th of July.  So, you see, freedom needs to be unpacked from Paul’s inspiring one-liner.

Where to begin?  So many options.  I chose Douglas John Hall, late 20th century North American theologian.  Why choose him?  He has a lot to say about Christian freedom from the current time back through Bonhoeffer, Luther, the Apostle Paul, and the Hebrew scriptures.  He goes way back into scripture and mines historical Christian theology for what there is to be found through a thinking faith.[2]  Here’s why I really chose him.  Because he says things like this:

“The future we confront is uncertain, and the present moment is an enigma. We turn to the past for help, for perspective – not, it should be hoped, for refuge!”[3]

Dr. Hall said great stuff – the future is uncertain, the present is an enigma, the past is perspective.  Perspective is a gift in these early years of the 21st century when so much seems to be shifting.  Cases-in-point, Great Britain’s Brexit referendum to leave the European Union affirmed by popular vote this past week and the scene that is the United States’ presidential primaries.[4]  Perspective is also incentive.  Incentive to mine the past with courage, eyes wide open.

Dr. Hall argues that throughout the many traditions within Christianity’s past, the one most in need of contemplation is theologia crucis – the theology of the cross so labeled by Martin Luther in the 16th century, so preached in the first century by Paul, so rooted in the prophetic tradition of ancient Israel revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament.[5]

Theology of the Cross is foreshadowed in our gospel reading today.  Jesus’ face is set towards Jerusalem.  Up to this point in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is working on his ministry in Galilee.  These are hinge verses. He is now resolved to the inevitable end of his life.  He’s brooking no delays with his disciples even to the point of telling one of them not to bury his father.  This is Jesus’ at his hyperbolic finest.  Jesus is resolute as he sets his face for Jerusalem and he draws his followers by and into his resolve.  The kingdom of God that he mentions twice in this story, is already on the way.

Dr. Hall confesses that the cross of Christ is the supreme statement of God’s commitment to a suffering world: “…the theology of the cross takes as its point of departure the brokenness of the human spirit and the human community [placing] its hope in God’s transformative solidarity with fallen creation, with the world in its brokenness.”  In this light, one take on the Gospel passage is a then-and-now moment of urgency for Jesus followers to use their freedom to usher in the kingdom of God.  Especially if you pair the gospel with the Galatians reading and Paul summing up the law in the single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”[6]

Paul is encouraging his listeners to use their freedom well.  It’s so easy to take freedom and throw a big party for the self.  Paul gives us a laundry list of options in which we self-indulge our freedom.  He’s the classic party-pooper.  In his list of self-indulgences, he names us all somewhere.  There is a lot we can do with this direction from Paul.  He calls us into freedom, to live out our freedom committed to our neighbor, and not to “submit again to a yoke slavery.”[7]

We can mobilize on Paul’s directions about freedom and slavery quite literally and some people of faith are doing just that in a movement called “No Slavery, No Exceptions.”  Together Colorado, a group of faith leaders across faith and race, are petitioning the state legislature to strike an exception to slavery. [8]

The Colorado State Constitution, Article II, Section 26 reads:
Slavery prohibited. There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.[9]

“Except as punishment for crime…”  So the incarcerated, the literally “not free” people in prison may be conscripted into free labor on behalf of the state.  There’s an upcoming ballot initiative coming up for vote this fall, supported across the aisles, to strike this from the state’s constitution.

This is but one example of the many ways that Paul in Galatians can be read as a moral imperative.  But there is more in these scriptures than a moral imperative.  Who better to take us beyond that moral imperative than Jesus at his hyperbolic best?  He flips the moral imperative in the speech he gives his followers.  In the 1st century world Jewish worldview, hospitality is paramount.  Without a touch of irony, the Jesus followers suggest raining fire on those pesky, inhospitable Samaritans.[10]  Jesus rebukes his followers.  In the 1st century Jewish worldview, honoring mother and father is a commandment found in the big “10.”  Jesus tells two of his followers to ignore the responsibilities set out under these commandments.[11]  The rebukes, the redirection are all because Jesus’ face was set for Jerusalem.”[12]  This is Jesus’ perspective.

Dr. Hall suggests that the past gives us perspective.  For Christians, our past hinges on the cross of Jesus.  Our perspective comes through that cross.  Paul says, ““For freedom Christ has set us free!”  Christ.  In Paul’s language, “Christ” is the crucified and risen One.  Freedom is Christ’s gift through that cross.  Freedom is gifted through baptism.  Remember Dr. Hall’s words?  “The future we confront is uncertain, and the present moment is an enigma. We turn to the past for help, for perspective – not, it should be hoped, for refuge!”[13]  The cross is our past, our present, and our future.  The Holy Spirit unbinds and frees us through Christ’s cross to live in freedom.  Now that we are free, we live out of the gift by the power of Christ’s Spirit for God’s sake and for the sake of a suffering world.

“For freedom Christ has set us free!”[14]

 

[1] Galatians 5:1

[2] Douglas John Hall. Thinking the Faith: Christian Theology in a North American Context (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991).

[3] Ibid., 23.

[4] Amanda Taub. “Brexit, Explained: 7 Questions About What It Means and Why It Matters.” New York Times – June 20, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/world/europe/brexit-britain-eu-explained.html?_r=0

[5] Hall, 24.

[6] Galatians 5:14

[7] Galatians 5:1

[8] Kieran Nicholson. “Movement Calls for End to ‘Slavery’ in Colorado.” The Denver Post on February 11, 2016. http://www.denverpost.com/2016/02/11/movement-calls-for-end-to-slavery-in-colorado/

[9] Colorado State Constitution, Article II: Bill of Rights, see Section 26: http://law.justia.com/constitution/colorado/cnart2.html

[10] Luke 9:52-55

[11] Luke 9:59-62

[12] Luke 9:53

[13] Ibid., 23.

[14] Galatians 5:1

We Begin at the End [OR “YOU Are The Man”] Galatians 2:15-21; Luke 7:36-8:3; Psalm 32; and 2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15

 

Pastor Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on June 12, 2016

[sermon begins after 2 Bible readings; the King David story and the Psalm are at the end of sermon]

Galatians 2:15-21 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. 17 But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20 and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Luke 7:36-8:3 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. 37 And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. 38 She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.” 41 “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” 48 Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
8:1 Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, 2 as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

My mother has given each of us kids many things over the years.  There is one gift that is relevant today.  It’s a Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language.  I and my siblings each have one. Included with the gift is a metal or wooden book stand to put it on.  People walk into my living room, see the huge book on its wrought iron stand and assume it’s an old family Bible. Easy mistake when you walk into a pastor’s home.  It’s not a Bible.  But the dictionary came in at a close second to the Bible in my family.

When we’d hear a word and didn’t know what it meant, Mom would send us to the dictionary, always opened on the book stand, with a quick, “Go look it up.”  The equivalent of an old school web search except with legs and paper.  Off we’d go and come back to report our findings.  Words are a memorable part of my childhood.  Now words are the tools of my trade in the pulpit and beyond.

In the Galatians reading, we find Paul emphasizing certain words through repetition.  Paul redirects the church in Galatia using words like justification, law, works, and faith over-and-over.  Much as they were for Paul, these four words are tools of the trade for Lutheran preachers, too.  Justification. Law. Works. Faith.  Four words that make sense when, off we go, to look up and find Christ on the heavy wood of the cross.  To paraphrase Martin Luther in the introductory words of his Galatians lectures, we begin at the end.[1]

We begin at the end and the end is our justification – being made right with God through what God did in Christ.  This is passive on our parts.[2]  Simply receiving by faith what God has already done for us.

Luther argues this about Paul’s purpose in the letter to the Galatians: “Paul wants to establish the doctrine of faith, grace, the forgiveness of sins or Christian righteousness, so that we may have a perfect knowledge and know the difference between Christian righteousness and all other kinds of righteousness.”

Then Luther goes on to list various kinds of righteousness including:

Political righteousness that politicians, philosophers, and lawyers consider in regards to guilt, innocence, and justice.

Ceremonial righteousness that Christians consider in regards to preaching, worship, and sacraments.

Lastly, Luther emphasizes the righteousness of the Law, the commandments – righteous, indeed, but only after the passiveness of faith is given.

I care so much about this passive gift of justification we receive by faith.  I care about it personally for myself and for people like me who were raised in different faith traditions in which you never knew if you were good with God. A lot of how God and I were doing had to do with how well I could keep up with my own active righteousness in the Law.  I care a lot about it for people who have grown up in with the message of passive justification by grace through faith and leave the tradition without understanding the magnitude of this promise.

Here’s Luther again on this topic:

“Thus human reason cannot refrain from looking at active righteousness, that is, its own righteousness…”[3]  We’re an active people, after all.  Passive is a word used in the world that is often given a negative meaning.  But passive in terms of justification is something to revel in – floating in that baptismal promise until we get all pruny.

If there one thing I know, it’s people and their sin.  I’m difficult to surprise with the ways people hurt themselves, each other, and the planet.  If there’s one thing I know better, it’s me and my own sin.  I also know what Luther is talking about as he warns about how easily we fall into trusting our own works, our own active righteousness by which we try to justify ourselves.[4]

In the snippet of the story from Second Samuel, King David stands accused by Nathan.  David wants the woman who is married to Uriah.  He sends Uriah to battle in the front lines with the knowledge that he would die.  Then he marries Uriah’s wife.  Nathan is sent to challenge David with the truth.  Nathan tells him a story about a man who has acted unjustly.  So unjustly has the man acted that David’s “anger was greatly kindled against the man.”[5]  Nathan turns to him and says, “YOU are the man.”[6]

“YOU are the man.”  It’s crushing to stand accused and have the accusation be true.  It’s easy to try to explain it away even when our own culpability is so obvious.  Last week Pastor Ann preached about compassion.  She used the example of the mother whose child ended up in the gorilla enclosure and how quickly the critique and defense began – self-righteousness pouring in from all sides in the news and social media storm.  Pastor Ann encouraged us to remove ourselves from the bandwagon of accusing, pointing fingers.  Slow down our rush to judgment and consider ourselves – our reactions, our own moments of culpability.

This week many of us can’t look away from a rape trial that happened on the prestigious Stanford campus.  The accused is obviously guilty and his father’s justification for a lenient sentence is splattered across the media.  The hue and cry is so great that Congress plans to read the woman’s letter to the rapist into the congressional record.

The thing that gets me about this case is it’s irrefutable.  The crime was public, witnessed. The heroes caught the perpetrator and stayed with the woman while awaiting emergency personnel.  There is no he-said-she-said confusion on this one.  If Nathan were standing with the accused, he might say to him, “YOU are the man.”

The last few weeks, much has been discussed in public about rape on college campuses that includes the sexual assault scandal at Baylor University along with the separate incident at Stanford.  As recently as yesterday, a missing 18 year old woman was found dead in Larimer County – her ex-boyfriend the suspect.  The sense of entitlement that wounds and kills women is appalling.  The temptation to be Nathan and the Pharisee with accusing, pointing fingers is great.  I’ve certainly indulged in my own finger pointing along this line.

There is a challenge here from the scripture.  Jesus says to Simon the Pharisee, “Do you see this woman?”  It’s a convicting question.  “Do you see this woman?”  Simon, so quick to point out the woman’s sin and shame, overlooks his own.  There are many ways we do this pointing and shaming similarly.  Actively justifying our goodness in the world.  “Active righteousness” as Luther would call it.  Stacking up the good-wins in a column.  What would happen if we put our efforts to name ourselves righteous to the side?  Put our fingers away for a moment.  Specifically, confessing the ways that we as both men and women participate in a culture and a world that preys on women.

What would happen if our starting place is passive righteousness?  As Paul says it in verse from Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”  What would happen?  Would Christ in us free us to confess our culpability in this culture that preys on women?  Would we become part of a culture shift?  Would we find the relief that the psalmist describes so well?   The Psalmist writes, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin… You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.”[7]

Passive righteousness is the end that serves as our beginning.  From there we begin living lives of courage.  We begin at the end – no longer content to let our own sin go unspoken.  This kind of courage is a bit thin in the culture at the moment and is an oh-so-desperately-needed gift.  This is a gift Christ offers through us for the sake of the world.  Claim the promise as you move through your week.  Say to yourself, “It is not I, but Christ who lives in me.”  This is most certainly true.

 

[1] Martin Luther. Introductory paragraph to Lectures on Galatians in Luther’s Works Volume 26, 1535.  (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1963), [3].

[2] Martin Luther, [4]

[3] Martin Luther, 5.

[4] Martin Luther, 9.

[5] 2 Samuel 12:5

[6] 2 Samuel 12:7

[7] Psalm 32:5, 7

 

Psalm 32 Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. (Selah) 5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Selah) 6 Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them. 7 You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. (Selah) 8 I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. 9 Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you. 10 Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord. 11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15 When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. 27 When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord,
12:1 and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds; 3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. 4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.” 5 Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; 6 he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.” 7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; 8 I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more. 9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan said to David, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall die.” 15 Then Nathan went to his house. The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became very ill.