Sermon preached at The Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, Sunday June 30th 2013 The Reverend Alan

Neale, Freedom Furrows Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free. Next week we begin a program called Sermon Review or better Preacher Under Fire I confess to you, my brothers and sisters, that I am so relieved that this program begins next Sunday and not today. Before ever questions rose in your minds this morning about the Gospel, they rose first in the mind of this preacher today we read some of the so-called Hard Sayings of Jesus (not quite the gentle Jesus of childish archetype), we read of disciples as potential arsonists and mass murderers (not quite the harbingers and bringers of peace). But the program begins next week Though sorely tempted to take on these theological twisters head-on, I found myself drawn to the clarion call of Paul to be free, free indeed. This relatively new American has no embarrassment to reflect on this theme as the celebration of freedom, July 4th, draws near. July 4th, at its best, is the celebration of freedom hard won, freedom shared within community and beyond and, sadly inevitably, the need to safeguard and protect freedom. Freedom! In todays text, For freedom Christ has set us free, Paul defines the provider, the place and the purpose of freedom. The provider of freedom. Christ has set us free. Yesterday in church I talked with two visitors; after a few minutes of conversation the man told me that he is enjoying twenty years of healthy sobriety. Freedom from addiction and all its collateral damage. He spoke openly of the Lord, his higher power, who had worked in him a miracle of freedom that he could not do himself. Christ is the provider of our true, authentic freedom; a freedom that has about it the mark of eternity, the mark of the Spirit. By his dealings with all people, Christ displayed His profound and deep concern for the freedom of all those with whom He came into contact demoniacs were freed from demons, lepers from social and religious alienation, foreigners from racism all and many more set free as Jesus met them and talked with them and endowed upon them freedom from bonds that were destroying them and from attitudes that were defining them. And theres more by his birth, by his death, by His resurrection He cancelled forever the chains of guilt and even death itself. Christ the provider of freedom and The place of freedom. Christ has set us free. Doubtless Paul has in mind the individual but the individual in the place of community. Freedom entails

service, a divine paradox, and that demands community. Elisha is set free from a life that, for him, was less than free; freed from a life that, for him, would neither recognize nor utilize his gifts and then( I Kings 19:21) he became a servant to Elijah (sweet and heavenly irony, yes?). The Galatian Christians were to celebrate their freedom as would a slave celebrate his manumission from slavery and yet that freedom was to be exercised in community as they became slaves to one another. And those disciples in Luke 9 with arsonist tendencies well, they were gifted with some awful weapons of mass destruction but they were not free to use them at the peril and risk and harm of others. Individual freedoms are to be cherished but also exercised mindful of the community. Coming from England I felt no energy to drive on the side of the road long part of my practice; I willingly surrendered that freedom for the benefit of others and myself and passengers. Taxation, Gun Control, Freedom of Religious Expression must find their proper place in the context and place of community and the freedom of others. Community the place of freedom and The purpose of freedom. Christ has set us free for freedom. And here its all about prepositions. Christ has set us free from that which enslaves us but He has also set us free for life; abundant, happy, free life. The Galatian church was beginning to suffer from anger, resentment, bitterness and overweening pride and what followed was that exhausting list that Paul relates in Galatians 5:19-21. They were beginning to lose their freedom from chains but also beginning to lose their freedom for the fruit of the Spirit Galatians 5:22 love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We have been set free not just from but also for In a sense, the land of the free must also be the home of the brave brave, courageous and daring to examine itself and ask, in the memorable words of Mayor Koch, How Im doing?. As we think of freedom, we also have to be brave to ask, How Im doing? and as a church, How we doing?. Todays Gospel ends with this statement by Jesus, No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. To look back and observe that our freedom furrows are crooked, erratic threatens our task and the task of others but, the great news, we can ever begin again.

Walter Mosley in his novel Little Green writes of his unique hero, Easy Rawlins, Driving back home I was feeling almost in synch with myself I was a new man at the threshold of a different existence. The glorious magnificence of the spiritual life is that we are ever at the threshold of a different existence. Oh my! Goodness! Wow! The danger of relapse is not that it happens but that it becomes the last word; friends, by the power of the Spirit, you and I can plow this freedom furrow today not looking back but enjoying the gracious gift of beginning anew. Whatever it is that binds you from living free, ask Christ to set you for freedom. AMEN