“Freed in Christ”

Third Sunday After Pentecost

June 29, 2025

Pride flags and protest.

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Luke 9:51-62

Children’s Message:

Who knows what happens this Friday? It’s 4th of July! What does that mean?

It is the anniversary of our country’s independence. Independence means being free from someone else’s rules. In our case, we were being told what to do by Britain, and we wanted to make our own decisions. We had to fight for that freedom, but on July 4, we celebrate signing our Declaration of Independence. We celebrate being free from Britain’s rules.

Do you know what happened next? We had to make our own rules. We had to decide how to be our own country, with our own laws, and our own processes. It’s like when you grow up and move out of your parents’ house (hopefully), you’ll decide what you allow in your own home, and in your own family, with your own kids.

What do you think that freedom would look like? Can you paint your house any color you want? Can you plant any flowers you want? Can you listen to any music you want? Of course! But once you get your own home, you are responsible for paying the rent or the taxes, you’re responsible for keeping your home clean and getting your own groceries. Being free comes with some pretty important responsibilities, doesn’t it?

The Bible said that in baptism, Christ sets us free. Does that mean that we can do anything we want to anyone we want? No. But it does mean that we are free from worrying about being perfect so that we can be free to be good. Perfect and good aren’t the same thing, but we’ll have to save that conversation for another time.

Let’s pray. Dear God, thank you for setting us free to follow you. Help us show others your love that sets them free. Amen.

Message:

What does freedom look like? As we approach Independence Day, many will talk in terms of the bill of rights: the right to freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition; the right to bear arms; the right to not incriminate oneself; the right to vote; and so on. But when it comes to faith, freedom isn’t the same as rights.

Paul says, “When Christ freed us, we were meant to remain free.” This freedom is much more essential than rights. Rights can be taken away. Rights can be abused. Rights can be ignored. Our Baptism is God’s declaration that we are free from the confines of the Law in order to follow the Spirit of the Law: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the calling to which Christ has freed us. We are free in order to serve. This is what freedom looks like.

Paul reminds us that our freedom isn’t a blank check with which to do anything and everything we want. It does not place us above the Law. Instead, it changes how we view the Law and its purpose. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Paul uses the word ‘flesh’ in his letter to the Galatians. What Paul calls the Flesh is what he describes as our ego-driven impulses—our desire for self-promotion; our self-interest at the expense of others. It keeps us from loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Instead the freedom of the Spirit undoes the shackles of the systems we cling to. If there is no longer Jew or Greek; slave or free; male or female, then all the binaries, all the social constructs of hierarchy, all the ways in which we divide ourselves and each other are gone. This is what freedom looks like—and it’s for everybody.

Paul reminds us in Philippians that Christ came down and gave up all divine power to love and serve humanity. When we follow Christ, that is the example we’re given. We are called to let go of the Law that illuminated our distinctions so that we can see the face of Christ in every person we meet.

Brigitte Kahl’s commentary on Working Preacher describes this freedom and downward moving love as the ‘circulation system’ of the Body of Christ. It “de-binarizes the polarities and horizontalizes the hierarchies of the existing order.” We all find ourselves together in the messy middle—loving our neighbors as ourselves.

But this isn’t easy. It isn’t always socially acceptable. It isn’t always safe. And it isn’t always what we want to do. It’s complicated. It’s costly. It’s counter-cultural. It’s often unpopular. But it’s what following Christ looks like. It is what freedom looks like.

It’s all these things, and yet, it’s really quite simple. In 2020 leading up to July 4th, The Columbian, a newspaper in Clark County, WA, asked folks what freedom looks like to them. Dru Holley, a black man living in rural Clark County, says, “Freedom is all about having the right to be different.” He drives past a confederate flag every day, and he recognizes that until he no longer has to worry about being targeted for his difference, he won’t truly be free.

Jamie Spinelli is a homeless advocate who sees freedom as having access to the simple things required to live—food, a place to sleep, opportunity to use the restroom. Our focus “on our own individual freedoms, autonomy and quality of life has made us angry, entitled, fearful, greedy, depressed and addicted.”

Pastor Annette Nettles expresses her pride in her brothers and sisters who peacefully demonstrate that black lives matter. “Equality, justice, unity, love, and respect for all must be present…When we reach this level, we will have achieved freedom.” And Erica Erland says, “Freedom is to feel the relief and peace of not having to ask for freedoms others freely enjoy.”

But today, for me the most powerful description of freedom—and bondage—comes from the late Dr. Walter Brueggemann:

“The truth is that frightened—[bound]—people will never turn the world, because they use too much energy on protection of self. It is the vocation of the baptized, the known and named and unafraid [and free], to make the world whole.

·       The [free] are open to the neighbor, while the [bound] are defending themselves from the neighbor.

·       The [free] are generous in the community, while the [bound], in their anxiety, must keep and store and accumulate, to make themselves safe.

·       The [free] commit acts of compassion and mercy, while the [bound] do not notice those in need.

·       The [free] are committed to justice for the weak and the poor, while the [bound] see them only as threats.

·       The [free] pray in the morning, care through the day, and rejoice at night in thanks and praise, while the [bound] are endlessly restless and dissatisfied.”

That’s what freedom looks like. That’s what love for neighbor looks like. That’s who we are baptized and called to be—freed in Christ.

Pastor Tobi White

Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church

Lincoln, NE