Logos: 1 Corinthians 6:12

•  I have freedom of speech - I can say what I want and you can't stop me.
• Why should I worry about political correctness? Why do I have to be so concerned about what might hurt someone else?  You should have a thicker skin - I can say what I want.
• There is no law against that.  I can do it if I want to.

Living in this country, we do have freedom.  People have fought and died so that you and I can say what we think, worship as we feel called, and live a life of freedom within the laws of society. 

Christ has died to give us freedom, too.  Freedom from our sin, from our  hate, from our pain.  Christ has freed us so that we can love others.

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth:  "All things are lawful for me," but not all things are beneficial. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything.  (1 Corinthians 6:12).

Christ has freed us so that we can consider the impact of what we say on the lives of others.  Christ has freed us to that we can show others love instead of hate in what we do.  Christ has freed us so that our first thought is not "it is legal so I'll do it" but instead, "it isn't loving, so I won't do it."

Christ has freed us to live.

Risking for Freedom

One weekend this month, Steve and I took a trip into Ohio on a self-guided lighthouse tour.  The first lighthouse we visited was the one at Fairport Harbor.  The original lighthouse in this town was built in the early 1800s.  It was later replaced by the present stone structure.

As I read about the history of the lighthouse, I learned it was a final stop on the underground railroad.  This source ( http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=285) says, " Not by accident did the lighthouse act as a beacon of freedom to escaped slaves—the townsfolk actively made it one."  The people who lived in the town so firmly believed in freedom that they "colluded" to keep escaped slaves safe from slave masters who hunted for the slaves.  The town hid them in the tavern and in the lighthouse until escape could be made to Canada.  And the town fought to repeal the Fugitive Slave Law.

What do we believe in so much that we will work together, risking ourselves to help others to freedom? What will we risk to transform the world? 

Freedom at a Cost

On the way out of town this weekend, I saw a church sign in front of a church.  It read, "Freedom is never free."  I understand why it was there - it was Memorial Day weekend, and the sign was there to honor those who have fought for, had their lives changed, and died for the freedom our country is defined by.  And I honor that.

However, the sign made me wonder - is it true for all freedom? Is no freedom free of charge? 

Christ died to free of from our sins.  That was a definite cost to Christ, and I get that grace is not cheap, but does saying, "freedom is never free" support the idea that grace has an exchange rate? That, yes, God gives us grace, but only if.....

We live in a culture that believes that nothing is free.  Everything has a price.  Kindness deserves payback. Favors are debts. We live in a culture where fairness is the golden rule.  

But grace is not fair. Freedom in Christ is not a debt to repay. It has been given to us at great cost to Christ, but at no cost to us.  Free. No strings. No exchange necessary. 

We can't believe it because we have never seen anything like it. But faith is not exchange-based. Love is a gift to all - to me, to you, to all.

I think expecting there to be a cost cheapens it.

 

Liberty and Love

Think about the passage from 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 where Paul is telling the people of Corinth that their actions, even if "correct," are still harmful to the faith of others.  In Corinth, food that had been sacrificed to idols was later sold in the market.  There were those members of the church at Corinth who would not eat this meat because of its source.  Others ridiculed this stand, saying that idols weren't gods and that eating food that had been used in sacrifice to nothing was not sinful.  Paul says:

But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.  For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?  So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. (verses 9-10)

What does that mean for us?  Think about the issues that confront our churches, that swirl around our church meetings, that create discord among our congregations.  Does our desire to be right sometimes override our ability to love?  Nancy Neal, in Disciplines 2015, wrote:

We get caught up in blaming, which drives wedges among us instead of building relationships in love... [W}hen we dig in our heels, we can't hear the other's wisdom.  By letting love guide us, we gain an openness to others.

Christ calls us to love each other.  Could openness offered to the opinion of another instead of stubbornly clinging to what is "right" be a way we offer another person love?

Chains forged in life

In the book A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Scrooge is haunted by ghosts (Is that sentence redundant?).  The first ghost is Jacob Marley.  Marley had been Scrooge's business partner.  When he appears in the book as a ghost, he is dragging chains made of "cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds and heavy purses wrought in steel."  His chain is made of all the tools of his profession.  Marley says, "I wear the chain I forged in life...I made it link by link and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it."

What an vivid picture.  I heard that quote on the radio while we were traveling one day.  It made me wonder what chains we forge for ourselves in life, through our own free will.  In what ways to we imprison ourselves?  If you had to describe the chain you wear, what would it be made of?

Once again I hear the phrase I love from the United Methodist Communion ritual -- "free us for joyful obedience."

May it be so.

Passover Freedom

This morning I read Luke 22:1-13.  In these paragraphs, Judas plots with the chief priests and the officers of the temple police to betray Jesus.  Following that is the paragraph about the preparation for the Passover meal, and Jesus' instructions concerning it.

The study Bible I read makes a point to emphasize that this meal is Passover, "with its emphasis on the exodus as liberation for the marginalized and oppressed..."  Remember when Passover was established in the book of Exodus, during the time when the Israelites were freed from the control of Pharaoh in Egypt.

I remember when I was taking the Bethel Teacher's class.  Chuck Echols (the minister who was teaching it) and the curriculum reminded us that Jesus came to the world when the time was right -- in God's time.  There has to be some link in the timing of the crucifixion for it to fall right at Passover.  This act of God frees his people, once again.  We are freed from the bondage of our sin. There is a line in the United Methodist Communion ritual that says, "free us for joyful obedience." It is at the end of a confession.  Through our communion with Christ, we are freed from our sins.

Considering that I read today from Luke, with his emphasis on the fact that salvation is for everyone, and that Christ came for the oppressed, it's no wonder that he makes it perfectly clear to us that this last meal will be Passover.

To choose to be a slave

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

Do you hear any contradictions in this passage?  You are free - do not submit to the yoke of slavery, and yet, become slaves of one another?

I was thinking about this today.  Could it be, that even if we don't recognize it, we are all slaves to something?  Are we slaves to material gain?  Our schedule?  Are we slaves to our own selfishness?  Our pride?  What rules our lives?

Christ calls us to the freedom he offers -- freedom to leave all of that behind and serve each other in love.  To choose to be a servant or slave to each other.  To choose it.  For truly, love must be chosen - there is no other way.

We have the choice to love ourselves more than we love the person next to us.  We have the choice to be blinded to the needs of others by our own self-centeredness.  I ought to know!  I find myself there quite often.

Christ offers us a different way.  Voluntary servanthood.

What difference does is make if service is voluntary?  All the difference in the world.  In this is freedom.  To offer service freely is to offer grace.

Fences and Walls

Go read this news story.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police on Thursday detained five women at a Jerusalem holy site for performing religious rituals there that ultra-Orthodox Jews say are reserved for men.

I thought the above image was striking. The woman is reaching across the fence, trying to touch the container that holds the Torah. She can't get to it because only men are allowed on the other side of the fence. (Note that this is not an image of the women who were arrested and is not the act for which they were arrested.  It is an image that accompanies the story -- one of several that show how women are excluded from particular areas on the site of the Temple.)

The image is striking. The problem is prevelent, and certainly isn't isolated to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem or to the Jewish faith.    Do you think it doesn't happen here?

What about the church in our Annual Conference where attendees stopped coming because a woman was appointed as pastor?

What about the leader of an Emmaus walk who said that she would only be comfortable serving with a male spiritual director?

What about the committee at the church that was organized to raise funds for a capital improvement project but included only men?

What about the steering committee organized with only women members to plan a new ministry for children?

What about the United Methodist Men's group that also serves as the Endowment Committee?

What about all the ushers being male while all the teachers of non-adult classes are all female?

What about the family that keeps changing church membership to avoid having a woman serve as the pastor of their church?

We don't have fences like the one in the picture, but we do have walls.  They are walls built by men and women -- not by God.

Freedom

What Freedom is...

• The ability to worship God in a way that leads you to God.
• The strength to let go of self-righteousness to see the righteousness in someone else.
• The humility to let go of pride to open your mind.
• The compassion to reach out and help someone who needs it.
• The love to offer forgiveness when you are hurt
• The integrity to ask for forgiveness when you hurt someone else.
• The confidence to dance to the music you hear
• The sense of humor to laugh when it's funny
• The empathy to understand the pain of someone else
• The need to seek after the right
• The voice to speak for justice
• The courage to proceed in fear
• The gratitude for the blessings you have received

What Freedom is not....

• Doing what you want when you want it
• Using the Bible as a tool of hatred
• Judging others
• Blaming God for our own shortcomings and sins
• Binding God to patriotism, and assuming they are the same thing
• Closing our minds to the idea that we might be wrong
• Trapping ourselves in the despair of vengeance
• Cutting ourselves off from the love of others and of God

Today Steve left Huntington as part of a bike ride to raise money to benenfit the homeless veterans in our town.  He and seven other men are riding from Huntington to Washington, DC - a total of 425 miles in six days.  They have so far raised over $23,000.

He is my hero.

Saying Yes, Saying No

I read this today in a blog comment:  A yes is only a yes if a no is possible.

The quote was in a comment to blog post concerning a book written by an author who believes that a hierarchical marriage structure is Biblical.  Can a wife really say yes to a husband if he is in absolute authority?  If her no is not possible then her yes is not really a yes at all.

Think about that.  And think about its implications and how it can lead to situations in which the wife is abused or assaulted. 

In a related thought, think about David and Bathsheba.  Did she really commit adultery?  Could she have said no to King David?  If she could not have said no, then would her yes had been real?  The New Interpreter's Bible goes so far as to call the intercourse between David and Bathsheba rape.

Stretching the point even more (to a point completely unrelated to the other two ideas), it follows that if God desires us to say yes to him, then he had to grant us the ability to say no.  A loving response from us to God is only possible because he has given us free will.  We can say yes only because we can say no.

Romans 8

Today I read Romans 8 from The Message.  I would highly recommend it to you.  I think Paul's writing can be difficult to follow, and Peterson's Message paraphrases it in a way that allows me to hear it.  As I read Romans 8, I was prompted to rewrite what I heard in it.  Some of this might be direct quotations from The Message, and I haven't marked those parts.  Go read Peterson's version; it's really good.

With the arrival of Christ, we are freed.  God has acted in a decisive way -- he is not remote.  He has entered into the human condition and has done what the law could never do.  He has done what we could never do on our own.

"Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life."  Attention to God rather than self leads us to a free life.

When God takes up residence, we cannot help but think of him.  Those who have welcomed him -- even though they still experiencing sin -- exprerience life on God's terms.  With God's spirit in you, you will experience life!

Let go of the life you have -- embrace the life God offers.  This is not a grave-tending life - it is a life expectant.

All around us is a pregnant creation, waiting with anticipation for what will come.  When we tire of the waiting, God is there. When we don't know how to pray, God is there.  He knows us better than we know ourselves. 

God reveals to us this plan through what he has done in Christ.  We see the intended shape of our lives through Christ.

If God is like this -- present with us, at work re-creating us, groaning with us -- how can we lose?  If God will do what he has already done, there is nothing he will not do for us.  And what or who can separate us from God?  Nothing -- not life, death, pain, joy -- not the best or the worst in life -- can separate us from God's love for us.

Freedom

I was having a discussion today with someone about Philemon.  My thoughts:

One quote from Philemon started my mind wandering to a metaphor  “…I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love.”


A metaphor (that has holes, I know):  I see an unintentional parallel between Paul’s relationship to Philemon and God’s relationship with us. Paul clearly believed he could have commanded Philemon to “do his duty,” but chose instead to appeal to him on the basis of love. God appeals to us on the basis of love. He could have created us without free-will – obedient. It is our free will that allows us to sin. Why set up the universe that way? Because he would appeal to us on the basis of love.

Paul is asking Philemon to care for the least of these, as we are called by God to do. We are called to do so out of love. We are called to love our neighbor, not care for him out of duty, but out of love.

Love makes the difference. Love is the point. Love would be transformational, for Onesimus, for Philemon, and for us. That’s what Emmaus is about – we are called to love the person we do not know, and when we do, the other person is transformed, but so are we. Perhaps Paul is writing to free Onesimus, but also to free Philemon.

(Thanks to JtM for the conversation and the start to these thoughts)

Freedom

Joyce, in her devotional in our office meeting today, read us the words to a Charles Wesley hymn, Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus:

Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set they people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.

She read more than that, but as I listened, I was struck by a similarity to a contempory song I had just listened to as I baked on Saturday morning, Free by Ginny Owens:

So when I am consumed by what the world will say,
It's then You're singing to me,
As you remove my chains

You're free to dance-Forget about your two left feet
And you're free to sing-Even jofful noise is music to me
And you're free to love,
Cause I've given you My love, and it's made you free
I have set you free

Free from worry, free from envy and denial
Free to live, free to give, free to smile

They aren't the same, of course, but as I listened to the one written in 1744, I was reminded of the one written at the just a few years ago. Our desires have not changed. The freedom we are offered through Christ remains the same.

I think that's one of the reasons I like so many different kinds of music. I'm always struck by the idea that we -- both the ones of us born ten centuries after Christ and the ones born 20 centuries after Christ -- have the same desires, the same longings, and the same God.

The words of one song and the words of the other speak to that idea.