Dare to Be Free Again: “Up From the Grave: Lent 2003”
March 22/23, 2003
Intro:
Once again we find ourselves in the midst of a world at war. We’ve seen the pictures of bombs dropping, of soldiers racing through the desert, of people surrendering. I didn’t anticipate that today’s title, which I planned several weeks ago, would be quite so timely: “Dare to be free again.” I anticipated continuing in our Lent series, focusing on the resurrection of our Lord Jesus and what that means for us, by looking today at the freedom we have from sin because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. And I still plan to spend the majority of time on that topic, but before I do, let me ask the question: how should we as Christians respond to what we see on CNN and what we read in the paper? What is a Christian perspective on the war in Iraq?
The Facts:
I am the type of person who wants to know the facts before coming to a conclusion. And that is what makes this issue difficult for me – I don’t believe it is possible for us to really know the facts. Does Iraq have weapons of mass destruction, and an ability and desire to use them to attack innocent people? I don’t know. Was there really no more hope that a diplomatic solution was possible? I don’t know. Is there a strong economic motivation for the US to lead a coalition into Iraq, or is the main desire truly the “liberation of the innocent people of Iraq”? I don’t know. We all have opinions on these questions, but none of us really know all the facts – and what facts we do have are so thoroughly processed through shrewd spokespeople with obvious agendas that it is difficult (if not impossible) to find the cold, hard facts.
Even if we did have all the facts, different groups of Christians could easily come to different conclusions. Our Mennonite brothers and sisters have a strong theology of pacifism, and conclude that war is always (or at least almost always) wrong. Other Christians would assert that there are occasions when war is justified, which would be my conviction – which then leads me back where I started, lacking sufficient facts to make a reliable decision about whether this is one of those cases when war is justified.
So I retreat to what I do know. On Thursday there was a whole lot of talk on CTV about whether a particular figure on video was really Saddam or one of his doubles. Lloyd Robertson led into an interview with expert, an Iraqi professor at U Ottawa, with the question of what he thought about this. The man responded (and I’m paraphrasing here): “who cares? That is a waste of time to talk about when the reality is that bombs are being dropped on a city. People are being bombed – bullets are being shot – people on both sides of the conflict are dying. That is more important to talk about.” It was a rare moment of honest clarity. So what do I know for sure, and how does that translate into action for Christians:
1. God is a God of Peace. We can (and most certainly do) have different opinions about whether peace should have been maintained the way the UN desired it, or whether peace in this case is something that can only be obtained with new leadership in Iraq, as the US coalition describes it. But we would all agree that God’s desire is for there to be peace. So we pray for peace.
2. God desires justice. God’s character is one of justice – His desire is that people be recognized as His precious creation and be treated with justice as a result. And here is where I relax with not knowing all the facts. Because God does. And He is the true judge, of actions yes, but also of motivations. God fights against evil and for justice. So I pray for that as well.
3. We are in the midst of conflict. War has begun, you and I are powerless to stop it – that isn’t our decision. So in conflict, we have a responsibility and an opportunity to pray for God’s will to be done and His Kingdom to come. Can somehow this situation advance the Kingdom of God in our world? I think so, though it might be somehow very different from how it appears. God can use all things to draw people and nations to Himself, and so that is the third thing I pray for – for God to bring some good out of this conflict.
4. In conflict, innocent people suffer. Parents lose children. Bombs go off target. Angry people retaliate. So we have a responsibility to pray that God would protect the innocent – that He would minimize the overflow of war and its effects on people who do not deserve to be robbed of life through a conflict that they are not willingly a part of. A big part of this is praying for a quick end to the conflict, so that as few people as possible are negatively impacted.
5. We are commanded to pray for our leaders. “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” (1 Tim 2:1-2).
So I invite you to pray – for peace, for justice, for God’s Kingdom, for protection and for the leaders and decision-makers in our world. Let’s pause and do that now.
Are You Free?
Let me begin our look at freedom as God sees it with the question: “Are you free?” Most of us would probably answer that question in the affirmative – yup, I’m free. But I wonder if that is actually true. The author of Hebrews writes: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1). The author suggests that we all face sin “that so easily entangles”, and it trips us up and keeps us from running the race marked out for us. I think that is accurate – I think most of us can relate to that image of being tripped up by sin.
But I wonder if most of us haven’t learned to adapt. If we haven’t learned to “cope” with this “inconvenience.” Instead of being freed from this entanglement, we rationalize that it isn’t so bad – we can still struggle valiantly forward on our hands and knees even though our legs are wrapped tightly with chains. I think we tend to settle for something far less than what God desires for us. We learn how to get around in a spiritual wheelchair rather than being freed from the things which bind us and then knowing the freedom to run and jump and play.
Several weeks ago, one of our young people came to me after our Sunday morning service and said she thought God was maybe showing her a picture that maybe she should share with me. It was of a bunch of people on a bridge – in the middle of the bridge. The far side of the bridge represented the future, and God’s desire for where they should be headed spiritually. The middle was the present. The other side represented the past. The picture this young girl had was of this group being unable to move forward across the bridge because their spiritually they were stuck in the past. Something had happened in the past that had hurt or wrapped them up, and they couldn’t move forward because of this hurt in the past.
That picture rang true for me. We see the same thing happen in emotional and psychological things – where a hurt or a relationship or a conflict that was never dealt with impedes a person from developing a new relationship or working through a new conflict. I think the same thing happens in our spirits – we can get stuck. And that is maybe where some of us are today. Let’s look at a few verses of Scripture:
Romans 8:1-2
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”
Paul’s statement here sums up the argument he began in chapter 6, where he teaches that in Christ we are “dead” to sin and “alive” to God. That brings Paul to this definitive statement: through Jesus (specifically, through His resurrection), we are now set free. The chains of sin fall off, the slavery to sin is over, we have changed sides – from sin and death to Christ and life. I state that first, because that is the truth. That is the spiritual reality.
John 8:32
“you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Jesus is speaking, and He makes this profound spiritual statement. What is it that sets us free? It is truth. Truth tears through the lies of Satan, ripping them to sheds. Truth reaches back into the past and clears away the deception to reveal the core of whatever the issue was, so that we can confront it and move on in freedom. Truth reaches deep into the core of our being and says, “You are God’s precious child! You are incredibly, potently loved by the God of the Universe!! Yes you have sinned, but Jesus’ sacrifice has covered it all – and you are forgiven!!!” And when the truth of who we are as God’s child comes to our minds and our hearts, we are set free from the lies of the devil that seek to keep us in misery and bondage.
The most central truth, which we are focusing on throughout this period of lent, is that God sent His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins and to defeat sin and death by rising from the dead. Jesus is alive. That is the truth. And that will set us free.
John 8:36
A little further in John 8, Jesus makes another strong statement on freedom. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” This is a promise – a strong promise. One to hold on to, to cling to when your observation of reality seems different.
And this tells me how we are made free – Jesus does it. When we meet Jesus and ask for forgiveness, He untangles the chains that wrap us up. He breaks them off of us, and places them on the cross. I don’t know what mental image you have of what happens when we seek forgiveness from God, but this is a Biblical image: Jesus sets us free from the punishment of sin, Jesus sets us free from the slavery to sin, and Jesus sets us free from the chains of sin.
I think we have briefly established the truth in these four verses: sin entangles. The Spirit sets us free from the law of sin and death. It is truth that sets us free. We are free indeed. So let’s apply this truth to our lives.
Getting Free:
This past week I was having a bit of trouble with the snow melting off my roof and into my basement. So when Joanne came home from work I decided to climb up on my roof in my rubber boots (mistake #1), and shovel off the remaining snow. So instead of grabbing my tall extension ladder, I got my little 6’ step ladder (mistake #2), stood on the second top rung, and crawled up, shovel in hand. Now, the roof was a little slippery where it was still wet. But I wasn’t worried, knowing Joanne was home should I get into any difficulty. So I began to shovel, without paying really close attention to what I was shoveling on to (mistake #3). I covered the dry part of the roof I had climbed on to, and also my step ladder (mistakes #4 and #5). And of course I discovered that most of it was frozen and impossible to shovel anyways. So I gave up the shoveling, and turned my attention to more pressing matters – namely, now how do I get down?? I thought through numerous possible scenarios, all of which ended me in the emergency room and a good candidate for this year’s “Darwin Awards.” And so I did what any self respecting male would do – “JOANNE!!” I paused. I called again. Of course, not so loud that I would embarrass myself in front of any neighbours… But still nothing. I walked over to the plumbing stack and yelled down it, hoping that might work. Still no wife… So I thought, maybe I should stomp around a bit, and she’ll hear the noise on the roof and come to my rescue. Well she did hear the noise, and of course assumed that’s what a goofball shoveling snow on the roof sounds like, and so did not appear. I paused and enjoyed the setting sun for awhile, thinking she might be alarmed by the absence of sound. It was a nice sunset… I tried yelling a bit more. I tried stomping rhythmically. I even tried stomp-stomp-stomp… stooooomp-stooooomp-stooooomp… stomp-stomp-stomp, hoping that the universal Morse code SOS would somehow bring my wife to my rescue. Finally, after about 25 min, my 18yr old neighbour arrived at home and I was able to entreat him to retrieve my extension ladder and free me from my roof. Joanne spent part of the evening making chocolate cookies to thank my neighbour for saving me…
Why do I tell you that story?
1. Often we are stuck by our own actions. We mess up. We sin. And then we get ashamed, we feel like losers (believe me I could relate to that on Tuesday!), the devil whispers nasty things about how we always do that or we did it again and how could God love us when we did that thing again???
2. Being stuck isn’t always a life-and-death situation. I was relatively comfortable on the roof – plenty of water, I could have lasted a few days… I could even enjoy the view. I could have made the best of it for a while. I think that is what we do spiritually – we rationalize the place we are at, we make the best of it – we decide “these chains aren’t that tight, I can still hobble around, it isn’t that bad…” Meanwhile every moment we are missing out on God’s best for us. We are missing out on the life and freedom that He desires for us. I’m not talking here about the “big stuff” in life that wipes us out – I’m not talking about chains that are so tight around us that we can’t move and can’t breathe. I’m talking about the “sin that so easily entangles” from Hebrews 12 – the supposedly “little things” that we don’t think are significant but that rob us of the things God desires for us.
Let me share a personal example. It is easy for me to slip into prideful thoughts. Many of you are very encouraging, every week I get to stand up and share my thoughts with you, and it is very easy for me to slip into doing that in my own strength. It is easy for me to fall back on my training and write a sermon out of my own thoughts rather than realizing that I need to spend time with God hearing His message and allowing Him to lead. Pride isn’t even on our societies list of stuff that is bad anymore – as a matter of fact we are taught to “take pride in ourselves!” But every time I preach in my own strength and not God’s, I rob you of the power of God to speak to you. I rob myself of the blessing of serving God. That probably wouldn’t look like a life and death situation – but it would definitely rob us of the things of God for us.
3. The way out on our own will make a bigger mess. I thought about jumping, but the only place I could have jumped was the exact place I had tossed the shovel down. I thought about sliding down, grabbing the eaves trough, and then hanging, but my rough mental calculations of momentum led me to conclude that I would tear off the eaves trough and likely land on my head. Spiritually, it is the same thing. We’ll only make it worse on our own.
4. We need help. We need someone to come along and help us get free. That is what Jesus promises to do for us. He is the truth, He will set us free. And we need one another here to help also – we need a guide, someone to point the way, someone to show us the truth and expose the lies we so readily believe. Jesus sets us free, and He often uses someone else around us in the process.
Let me close with two more Scriptures very briefly:
Galatians 5:1
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”
I share this verse because it tells us why Jesus sets us free – simply for freedom. It’s not for service, although that comes afterwards, it’s not to somehow make us more attractive to God. Jesus sets us free simply so that we can be free! So that we can have the freedom and spontaneity of children – to run and leap and dance and play. My friends, freedom is good! It feels great to have the chains removed!
2 Corinthians 3:17
“where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
This is where I want to close. I believe God’s Spirit is here, and He longs to set us free. He longs to take the chains off of us and lay them on the cross, so that we can be free. It is offered – it is here. It can happen today.
