Galatians 5:1 For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free. Reformation Sermon 31 October 2012 The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer The Rt. Rev. Munib A. Younan Freedom. Freedom is coming. Freedom is coming, this I know. Twenty-eight years ago, when I was just a young parish pastor in Ramallah, I was invited to attend the Seventh Assembly of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Budapest, Hungary. One evening we gathered where the Swedish rock band, Fjedur, was playing, and a young South African black man led the singing of Freedom is Coming. They rocked us to sway back and forth with the music. Was this a dream or reality? Had I been caught up in a vision of utopia? Rationally I thought, No, this is impossible, but that African singer touched my heart as he sang Freedom is Coming. He touched my heart, because I sensed that this was a deeply held conviction, coming out of his Christian faith. He touched my heart because it was clear that, although he lived in apartheid with no certain future for him other than the one he experience, still Christ had justified him through faith, by grace, and that he had been given the gift of true freedom, to live freedom, to breathe freedom, to sway back and forth to the music and to sing freedom. Freedom is coming, this I know. What is freedom? There s an old Arab folk tale about an eagle, that when newly hatched fell out of its nest high up in a tree. A farmer walked by, and not wanting this baby bird to die, picked it up and carried it home, where he put it inside his chicken house. The hen mothered the little eagle until it no longer thought of itself as an eagle, but as a chicken, and it grew up just like a chicken. One day the farmer noticed the eagle flapping its wings, but to no avail. It could not fly. It could only flap its wings like a chicken. The farmer thought, this will not do. I rescued it to grow up to be an eagle soaring through the sky, not to be a chicken. So he had an idea. He brought a ladder and climbed to the roof of the chicken house and tossed the eagle into the air, but the eagle fell to the ground. Then a woman came by who suggested to the farmer what he must do. He took the eagle into his hands and hiked all the way back to the mountain where he found it, climbing high into the same tree. Now the eagle was breathing the fresh mountain air 1
and sensing its natural habitat. The farmer tossed the eagle into the air, where it first began to fall, but then flapping its wings as eagles naturally do, it began to gain altitude until it soared in the sky above. Free as an eagle, as God had intended this eagle to be. From the moment when Moses stood before Pharoah and proclaimed, Let my people Go, to that day in Nazareth when Jesus preached his inaugural sermon that he had been anointed by the Holy Spirit "to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives...to let the oppressed go free," (Luke 4), we see the plan of God that human beings should be free from the tyrannies of oppression, whether it be enslavement in Egypt or occupation by Roman troops; the temptation to the pleasures of the world, or self-centeredness and greed. In creation God wills a free humanity, instilling in every human being the image of God, the image of dignity. In the cross God restores that dignity, once and for all. So there is no longer Jew or Gentile, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ. (Gal. 3:28). Paul offers some of the most powerful words when he writes in Galatians, For freedom Christ has set us free. For Martin Luther, freedom is at the heart of the Gospel. Freedom is a gift to us because of God s gift of his Son, who was in the world reconciling humankind to himself, defeating the power of the devil, the world, and our flesh. As Luther said, If this freedom Christ has achieved for us could be grasped in its certainty, then no fury or terror of the world, the Law, sin. Death, the devil, could be too great. For it would swallow them up as the ocean swallows a spark. This freedom of Christ certainly swallows up and abolishes a whole heap of evils and in their place it establishes his righteousness, peace, and life. Freedom is the gift of God, and no external power can take that away. That is what I experienced with that young South African singer, that he possessed that liberating power of God, and that no one could take it away from him. In Galatians, Paul offers the most profound observation about freedom, by mentioning the word free/ freedom twice. Christ has set us free, is one thing. For freedom Christ has set us free, is much more. Why did he need to say it twice? Why did he add those two words, For freedom? 2
It is not enough to say that we are free from the tyranny of sin and our slavery to selfcenteredness. We are now free to live as we were created to be. We are free for lives of service toward others. We are both free from and free for. We are free from sin and oppression and free to serve. For freedom Christ has set us free. In 1520 Martin Luther wrote On the Freedom of a Christian, a publication that went through 38 editions during his lifetime where he presents this amazing paradox that a Christian is Lord of all, servant to none; yet servant to all and Lord of none. Because Christ has freed me, Luther said, I will therefore give myself as a Christ to my neighbor. Imagine the freedom to live in service to one another, freedom to give of ourselves for the benefit of others, freedom to contribute fully to our civil society to promote democratic values and human rights, including women s rights, a real freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of speech. This is what Paul means when he says For freedom Christ has set us free. Today, here in the Middle East, we are experiencing a quest for freedom. The Arab awakening is nothing but a longing to live as God created us to be, free from oppression and tyranny, but also free for the good of others. The Arab Awakening was spontaneous, awakening and reaching to the heavens like the awakening of the eagle in our Arab folk tale. This is a quest for the same values, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion. You cannot suppress dignity. You cannot hold back the desire for humans to soar to our God-given human potential. You cannot imprison humans behind bars of a cage, or behind a wall. God created us for freedom, which should not be restricted or curtailed or diminished by human powers and institutions, by the threat of weapons and force, by intimidation and misrepresentation. Rather our common goal must be to strengthen the wings of our youth like eagles, to fly in freedom to the heights of human potential, even higher than the sky. This is what it means to be justified by faith. Free from the power of sin. Free to empower our neighbor. Our country called the Holy Land is also in need to be free from the destructive power of conflict, hatred, extremism, and oppression. Our country is in dire need to be free to live with the other, to accept the other, and to mutually recognize the human, political, and national rights of the other. We ask our good Lord, when will we experience that moment of freedom, of justice, peace, and reconciliation? 3
In the recent study, entitled Rising Tide of Restrictions on Religion, our world between the years 2009 and 2010 is described as an increasingly hostile place for religion, as more countries have experienced rising violence motivated by religious hatred as well as by increasing government interference with religious practice. Christians and Muslims, who comprise more than half the world s population, were harassed in the largest number of countries. Restrictions on religion rose not only in countries that have such a reputation, but also in countries you would not expect in democratic countries where the freedom of religion is valued. This shows us that there is a dire need to emphasize the importance of the freedom of religion. And it shows us that we cannot allow the excuse of freedom of speech to be used as a tool to insult other religions and their symbols. In our modern world, we continue to be faced by the tyranny of those who want to restrict and limit the religious expression of others in the name of freedom. Those extremists who take one particular religion hostage in order to promote their own selfish interests. We saw this in the filmmaker who insulted Muslims and denigrated the Prophet. We see this in the price-tag settlers who write graffiti on churches and burn mosques. We see this in Malmö, Sweden, where three teenagers attacked a synagogue. We see this among Buddhists in Myanmar, attacking Muslims and Christians alike. We see this in Tanzania, with an Islamist setting fire to a church. We see this in Nigeria, where the Boko Haram Islamist burn a Church in Koduma, and the Christians retaliate again a man on a motor-cycle, only to find out that he is a fellow Christian. Similar things are occurring in Indonesia. As the American President Abraham Lincoln said, Those who deny freedom for others, will never be free themselves. The greatest challenge for us in the 21 st century is how religions can live together in mutual respect for the benefit of all. This is the reason I call from Jerusalem, the cradle of religions and the city of coexistence for religious leaders to assume their responsibility to teach their followers the love of neighbor instead of denying their rights of conviction, to teach the acceptance of the other instead of living in enmity, incitement, and suspicion. Above all we are all called to combat extremism before it is allowed to devour us and our freedom. As we are now approaching the 500 th anniversary of the Reformation in the year 2017, we prepare to celebrate in a spirit of reconciliation and repentance. We can never be truly free unless we confess the sins of our past. Two years ago the LWF reached an agreement with the 4
Mennonites, those Anabaptists, whom our forebears anathematized and even physically persecuted. At our Assembly in Stuttgart in the summer of 2010 we were all touched, Lutherans and Mennonites alike, when the President of the LWF washed the feet of the President of the Mennonites publicly, as a sign of repentance and reconciliation. Even while we have disagreements doctrinally, we need to be reconciled in the name of Christ. For Christ has set us free. How appropriate it is to wash each other s feet as Christ began here in Jerusalem by washing his disciples feet as an example for us in Jerusalem to the world. Washing our feet and cleansing our hearts from all those burdens that weigh us down, causing us to fall head first upon the ground below. For freedom Christ has set us free. Freedom to wash each other s feet in repentance in order that we can live in the present and future together for a life with dignity and freedom. Freedom to exercise our wings like an eagle, flapping them energetically. Freedom to soar together through the heavens, as God has created us to be. Through Christ we know that freedom is coming. Freedom is coming, yes we know. For freedom Christ has set us free. May the Peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. 5