[either play this clip from Braveheart or get two people to read it out]
William: I am William Wallace, and I see before me an army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny. You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What would you do without freedom? Will you fight?
Tall soldier: Fight against that? No, we will run, and we will live.
William: Ay, fight and you may die, run and you’ll live. At least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom.
[I then charge onto the platform wearing my Scottish flag and yelling …]
Freedom!!!!! [the charging and yelling are obviously optional but attention getting]
Our society loves freedom. Exalts it to the be all and end all. Free country. Freedom of religion, freedom to vote, freedom to work anywhere that will take you, freedom to choose to eat or not eat genetically modified food, freedom to choose which rail or bus company you use, freedom to choose the shop you buy you clothes in, in fact in our society the ultimate punishment is the depravation of freedom through imprisonment.
America likes to see itself as the land of the free, but they’re not the only ones
[Show clip from Chicken Run where Rocky is asked where is from and he says the land of the Free and the Home of the Brave to which the reply is Scotland!! If no video is available the scene can be described]
We do too, not only in Scotland but most of the Western world, including England, Canada and Germany.
Last year it was the first ever Holocaust Memorial Day when we remember the Jews and others of the Second World War, and their loss of freedom and lives. On Remembrance Day we remember what our freedom cost. One of the justifications used for the bombing of Afghanistan, as well as the terrorism angle, was so that the people and the women of Afghanistan could get their freedom.
So when we talk about the gospel to non-Christians one of the ways we can do this in a way that they will understand is talk about freedom.
Paul says in Gal. 5:1 it was for freedom that Christ has set us free
So I want to look a bit at freedom, what we are free from and what we are free to do.
Galatians was written to a group of Jewish and Gentile Christians in a Church that Paul had started.
Problems had arisen over the issue of the Jewish law. Did Gentiles have to keep the law or not to become Christians? Or did Gentiles have to become Jews before they could become Christians? The main emphasis in this letter was on the issue of circumcision but in other letters that he wrote the issue was observing Jewish food laws, only eating kosher food. Paul writes to tell them that they do not need to observe these rituals. They were free!
They were saved because of Christ & his salvation
We are saved through faith not by observing the law. Continue this way.
If you could be saved without circumcision then why was it necessary?
Illustration: Business man who works his way through company through hard work yet stops working and lounges about when made director
Illustration: Athlete who trains really hard for Olympic trials yet before the Olympics eats fry ups and lives like a couch potato
Gal 5:1
We are now free. But free from what? Badges are things that declare our identity. 1st century Jews, circumcision and food rules were the badges that told others I am a Jew. In remembrance of the Holocaust, in Nazi Germany, the badge of Judaism was a yellow star. Trekkie (jumper, ferengi head gear, starfleet uniform, badge or the spock ears). Evangelic Christians, earlier last century, don’t drink, don’t dance and don’t go to cinema. Learned the lesson, this isn’t what makes us Christians. But have we replaced it with other things? Quiet time, WWJD bracelet, fish sticker on your car, speaking in tongues, singing the right old hymns, clapping in the right bits of choruses or something else. If our criteria of what makes a Christian is anything other than faith in Christ and his death we are wrong. In here you could also include legalism, where obedience to the law instead of faith in Christ is what makes a Christian, and many Christians have interpreted Paul to be saying this, but the issue is more than this. Also freedom from the flesh. Gal 5:16-18. What is this? Firstly is not a view that our bodies are evil while our Spirits are good. The NLT sinful nature, Message sinful self-interest. Some theologians describe it as sinful nature, some as the effect of an evil society without God’s Spirit as restrainer. However, you describe it or whatever language you use, it is a compulsion to sin, an inability to do what is right. And Christians are free from it. No longer are our lives to be dominated by sin and evil, we are no longer slaves to sin and the flesh.
Some great words written by Charles Wesley
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
Freedom from flesh, freedom from badges.
BUT is that all?
No it is not just freedom from things but freedom to do things.
Implication of this is Freedom
Remember our key verse Gal 5:1
Illustration: Neighbours (Australian soap), one of the girls discovers a man hiding in house, he was in prison for killing wife and daughter by drunk driving, released yet stays in house and never leaves. He can go to the shops when he wants, go out with his friends when he wants, go to cinema when he wants, go out and party if he wants. But he stays in his house and does nothing. He is free from prison but is he really free? “It was for freedom that Christ has set us free”
It is not just freedom from it is freedom to.
So what are Christians free to do?
Gal 5:13-14. Freedom to love.
Paul’s idea is that before we became Christians we were slaves to sin so we could not love others as he does even if we wanted to. But now we have been set free from this so that we are now able to love. We are free to love. This needs to be recognised as different to the kind of freedom we normally think about. Our society tells us that freedom is to be able to do what we want. That is not this kind of freedom. It is freedom to love.
Back to Chicken Run. What does Rocky the American rooster think freedom is. Freedom, according to Rocky Roads is being free of responsibility and not having to care for others. I don’t want to spoil the ending for those who haven’t seen it but Rocky falls in love and discovers that this kind of freedom is no longer possible.
Let’s think about this for a minute. Most of you will know what it’s like to fall in love or have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Suddenly you want to please them and you end up doing things you would never have chosen to do if it was just you. Guy’s go and see You Got Mail or Sleepless in Seattle at the Cinema sorry for all you guys who liked those films. You make compromises, why? Because you want the other person to be happy. It restricts our freedom to do what we like. Just think of all that God has done for us. We are to respond in love to God. Does that not mean we have to give up a bit of our freedom to do what we want? What about loving our neighbour as ourselves. Does that entail giving up of freedom?
Paul further describes this as freedom to be lead by the Spirit. 4:16-18,25 and freedom to follow the law of Christ 6:2, sharing each other’s troubles and problems. Loving one another in a way which causes us to act to help others, but this also carries with it an implicit instruction not to do things which can harm others. This is made explicit in 1Corinthians 10:23-24ff. Here Paul instructs the Corinthians not to eat meat served at pagan temples not because it is wrong (he says that it’s not wrong in Chapter 8) but because it could cause other Christians to fall into sin.
Unlike our society personal freedom to do what ever you like is not what Paul means when he says that Christ has set us free. But, it is easy in our society to forget this and live our Christian lives as if personal freedom to do what we like is the be all and end all.
Earlier I quoted from Charles Wesley’s great hymn “And Can It Be”, but I deliberately left off the last line “I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.” Sometimes we live our lives as that line didn’t exist. “My chains fell off, my heart was free” and then we leave it there and go and enjoy our freedom, but the complete verse is this
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
Christ gives us our freedom so that we are free to follow him and love.
Freedom from Badges. Freedom from flesh. Freedom to love.
Illustration: Good Samaritan, condemn the Levite and Priest for putting the law before helping the man and we are not guilty of legalism. So what are we guilty of?
Too often we walk by on the other side because we value freedom more than helping our neighbour. I’m not obligated to do anything, I’m free. It would infringe my rights to walk down this street without interruption to help you. It would contravene my human rights to force me to stop and help. A bit extreme. Yes. But our natural attitudes are to think about our rights, our freedom before we ever consider our responsibilities and obligations. We always ask can I do this, but never seem to get around to should I do this?
In all of this our example should be Christ. Phillipians 2:5-11. He was God. He had everything and was the most free of all, yet as the year drew to a close just over a month ago we remembered how he gave it all up to become human As he lived his life, Christ was free. Not living his life tied to others’ expectations. He went to parties and hung about with sinners. Yet he did nothing out of selfishness or for his own gain. Matthew 8:20 tells us that he had no home. He lived his life for the benefit of others. Then he gave his life by dying for us. Christ’s example is of voluntarily giving up freedom for the sake of others. We are called to follow his example. Remember Philippians 2:5 Christ did all of this and your attitude should be the same. So when you are doing whatever it is you are doing, think about why you are claiming your freedom to do what you want or is it freedom to love, freedom to give and freedom to give up.
I like to finish a sermon with a suggestion of something that those who feel God has been speaking to them can do, so that no-one leaves touched but unsure about what to do. But here any instructions would seem to flow against the idea of freedom and sound like legalism. Besides this is more about attitude than actions. Why you act rather than how you act. Do you do things because it’s your right and because you’re free to do it and no-one can tell you otherwise or because you love and it’s best for others. So I ask that you think, reflect on freedom, what we are free from? Badges and flesh and that we are free to love. I want to read Galatians 5:13-14 from the Message.
Gal. 5:13-14
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure you don’t use that freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather use your freedom to serve on another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.
To quote William Wallace, well Mel Gibson as William Wallace “You are free, free from badges, free from flesh and free to love. What will you do with that freedom?”
