"Real Freedom"
Sermon from May 3, 2009
The world in its present form is passing away - 1 Corinthians 7:31. Merrill Lynch is gone. Bear Stearns is gone. Lehman Brothers is gone. Washington Mutual is gone. Countrywide is gone. At least two dozen lesser banks have failed since the first of the year. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and AIG and Citi Bank are on the ropes and would be gone without a taxpayer bailout. GM and Chrysler face bankruptcy. Millions of homeowners still face foreclosure. Millions are out of work or now work for less money.

We call it the sub-prime mortgage mess. It is a complex, global, economic disaster, the worst in my lifetime. It is more than that. It is a grave personal and social disorder cauesd by the way we use freedom. Think about it for a minute. Only a few sacrificial lambs may go to jail for the mortgage mess, but no one broke any laws. Banks and borrowers did what they wanted without interfering with the liberty of others to do what they wanted. That's how we define freedom in America.

A Recurring Theme
I have made freedom a recurring theme in my preaching since September. That has caused some of you to think that I have emphasized politics in my preaching. It is closer to the truth to say that I have emphasized freedom in my preaching, and it's impossible to talk about freedom and not overlap with politics. Freedom is the great aspiration of humanity. Politics and faith both deal with it as a central issue.

Two ideas of freedom compete for the allegiance of the human family. They are competing for the soul of our nation. One idea says that "what is moral is what you feel good after, and what is immoral is what you feel bad after." (Hemmingway) The other idea says that what makes life good is accepting moral responsibilities you didn't invent, even if that is inconvenient or difficult.

Here's the surprising thing. All people usually live as though the second idea is true. Most people who actually try to live by the first idea are in jail or dead. So, why does the first idea have somuch appeal? I'd like to answer that question at two levels.

Simone Weil was a French Jew who became a Christian at the end of her short life. She said that "imaginary evil is romantic and varied," while "imaginary good is boring." (Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, 120). When Ernest Hemmingway says that "what is moral is what you feel good after, and what is immoral is what you feel bad after," it promises an escape from unwanted moral responsibilities. When Jesus says, "Whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it," it doesn't sound romantic at all, and if you've heard it often enough without doing it, it sounds boring.

So, suckered by the first idea of freedom, we ignored the teachings of parents, church, and long business practice, we gave mortgages to people who couldn't afford them or lied about our income on our mortgage applications, only to discover the truth of what Simone Weil went on to say: "Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating." There was nothing romantic about Hemmingway's suicide, and there is nothing romantic about home foreclosures. There is nothing boring about giving up your self-interest to serve the needs of another person. You'll find it intoxicating.

Real Freedom
Why do we allow ourselves to be suckered by the first idea of freedom? That takes us to the next level. Jeremiah 17:9 gives the no-frills answer: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? What's keeping you down is not an unjust social system or peer pressure; it's the disordered love that makes up what the Bible calls your heart. The Bible calls it sin. It separates us from God.

Stone walls do not a prison make
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet
Take that for an hermitage.
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.
-Richard Lovelace

One of the hard things that Christ teaches is that our minds are not innocent, and in our souls we are not free, because there is deep disorder in the center of our beings. There was a quintessential moment in Jesus' ministry that holds up a mirror in which everyone can see this bondage - John 8:32ff. To the Jews who believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves to anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word."

We like the fantasy of doing anything we want. We don't want to be hemmed in, and nothing hems us in more than God. We are not free until we are reconciled to God. The message is clear: refuse Christ, and you refuse freedom, because only Christ can set you free from sin. Only Christ can restore order to the way we use our power to love.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
Here is my plea to you. Believe in Christ and His Church. Christ alone can restore order to the ways we use our power to love. His Church is the community of those who believe in Him, and who give credibility and visibility to Christ in the world, first to each other and then to those outside the Church. Such faith, working through love, is what reconciles us to God and sets us free.

If you believe in Christ, and the liberation of Planet Self from sin has begun in you, and if you have publicly confessed your faith in Christ by Christian baptism, then the Lord's Supper is open to you. This Supper is the sign and seal of your faith in Christ. It is the sign and seal of our Christian unity across every imaginable human barrier.

If you do not believe in Christ and are still in bondage to the disordered loves in the center of your being, then repent! Turn around! Do an about face! Acknowledge the disorder in your nature and its consequences and believe in Christ.