Jay Rowland
“Freedom and Spirit”
Luke 9:51-62 & Galatians 5:1, 13-25
June 26, 2022 Pentecost 3C
Freedom and Spirit
I’m fairly sure we can all agree that freedom is a good thing. Right?
It feels odd to say “I’m fairly sure” because I’ve always thought that’s a “no-brainer”, but recent years have me feeling less certain. We Americans have always had a fierce independent streak, so whenever we talk about, think about or in any way consider freedom, we’re more likely referring to our independence more often than not.
As people of faith we live in ongoing tension between our preference for personal independence on the one hand, and the sovereignty of God—God’s will, if you like—on the other. Both of the scriptures before us today feature this inherent tension.
In the passage from Luke's gospel, conflict erupts when the Samaritan village does not welcome the messengers Jesus sent ahead to make arrangements. Those darned Samaritans. This offends not Jesus but the disciples of Jesus, namely James & John. So they ask Jesus if Jesus wants them "to command fire to come down from heaven and consume” those darned Samaritans.
Now isn’t that something?! I have to confess I’ve glossed over this part in the past. But for some reason this time, their words stopped me in my tracks today—so ugly and disturbing and so contrary to everything Jesus is saying and doing. And I suppose I’ve always glossed over it because it’s so easy to say, “oh those dumb disciples-they just don’t get it.” And just move on Yet, there it is and it is unflinchingly human–their rush to judgment. That’s And so, when Jesus rebukes them and rejects their smug proposal he reveals God’s shocking willingness to let people make their own choices.
It need not be shocking to them or to us. After all, it’s right there in the story of Adam and Eve in the Creation Account in Genesis chapter 1.
God loves us that much to give us that choice-that freedom. Jesus shows consistently during his life and even in his death that God will not force or coerce anyone into relationship. We are free to ignore, free to reject God, free to even “play God”. We are free to declare our independence from God without any divine retribution. Now that does not mean that God doesn’t care, God is not neutral about this, of course God wants us to choose God, but God is generous, more than we may realize.
Sooner or later in life, we wrestle with that tension between our free will, our independence and our dependence upon God. Most people at various times in our lives give themselves the permission and the freedom to ignore God or keep God in the background until we need God.
That doesn’t mean our faith is weak or flawed. It doesn’t make someone bad or evil. It simply means we’re human.
As I’ve struggled with this tension, I’ve told God I don’t want so much freedom. I’ve asked God nicely and not-so-nicely MANY MANY TIMES to just take over! But God refuses. God will not put my relationship with God on auto-pilot. God isn’t interested in turning me or any of us into a marionette puppet--programmed.
I’ve discovered over the years that eventually the consequences of living life my way, on my terms—all the scrapping and fighting and clawing it takes to do that … all the energy … is exhausting. Eventually I run back into God’s loving, accepting presence and jump into the arms of Jesus. Every. Single. Time.
I wish that wasn’t true, but that’s the recurring pattern or movement of my life: backing away from God; running back to God.
But to me that’s what the spiritual life is all about. It’s the process by which we learn and grow in the spirit. Our relationship with God grows best through our questionable choices, through our mistakes. God gives us the “freedom” to live in self-induced exile from God’s spacious love and kingdom because I guess that’s what it takes for us to realize, to learn and to choose God’s way over our own. Meanwhile, while we’re figuring that out for ourselves God, ever-loving, is ever faithful, ever vigilant, ever ready to welcome us back every time. Every time we exhaust ourselves and sprint back to God, God never hesitates, God never punishes, God doesn’t hold that against us … which is more than I can say about myself. I definitely have always held that against myself. But God doesn’t!
That’s where the passage from Galatians comes in. In this passage Paul discusses the problem of Self which it seems to me is our basic human-spiritual dilemma. The very freedom we seem to expect and demand: the freedom to do what we want-when we want; the freedom to have as much as we want; the freedom to follow our impulses and instincts—all this so-called “freedom” is also what often ends up enslaving us and imprisoning us.
Let’s call that the Cliff Notes summary of Paul’s theology. Paul says “what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh …” In other words, the biggest obstacle to living in communion with God on a daily basis is that constant impulse to gratify self. That’s what Paul calls “living in the flesh”. And although he didn’t really need to do so, Paul provides us with an exhaustive list of examples of living-in-the-flesh-behaviors, a Top Ten list of “no-no’s” if there ever was one (okay, there’s more than ten). And then, att the end of this list Paul barks:
“I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
I want to stop right there b/c I worry that whenever people read words like this in the Bible people “hear” that whenever we do such (bad) things, God will getcha. Somewhere along the line we are all taught or learn that God will punish us whenever we do things like what Paul lists. But that’s not what Paul actually says here. Paul says those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. By that I take Paul to mean that the consequence of our own flesh-driven choices puts us on a path apart from the kingdom of God. In other words, God doesn’t need to punish us or banish us from God’s kingdom because these behaviors and choices do that already. The consequence of those behaviors is alienation, suffering and isolation. Chasing the desires of the flesh is truly an earthly, earth-bound impulse rather than a spacious, grace-filled impulse. Our flesh-driven motivations move away from rather than toward the spacious kingdom of God, a place that has room for all of us. For our real self, not the polished version…
The spiritual dilemma is that the self cannot overcome self. Only God can do that. I’m endlessly fascinated, again, that God doesn’t inflict Gods-self upon us. God loves us unconditionally and God will indeed come to our aid and even save us from ourselves but, at least in my experience, not without our permission or invitation.
Now that’s good news and bad news. The good news is that God is faithful and God is able to save us from ourselves and by extension I hope that means the planet and all the other crises percolating all around us right now.
The not-so-good news is—again this is my experience—God doesn’t seem (to me) willing to hijack our lives. Perhaps God does that with some people. I just haven’t met anyone that’s happened to (yet). It seems to be very important to God that we ask God for help. There’s something important that happens inside of us when we ask God for help. And so asking for God’s help is a spiritual discipline. It takes work to recognize our limited capacity to save ourselves from ourselves. It takes work to identify our self-gratifying impulses. And we’re not always up to the task. It’s hard! So God will not inflict this upon us.
So how do we know if or when we’ve started moving in that direction? Paul identifies nine fruits of the spirit that start showing up more frequently in ourselves and “out there on the road” as we make our way home toward God: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There’s “no law against any of these” Paul reminds us.
Or stated more positively, these fruits of spirit-living are a natural outcome of living more deeply in communion with the Lord. When these fruits of the spirit are seen in us, this becomes contagious --blessing is contagious! … and so the kingdom of God advances … It’s a beautiful thing.
I’m not saying anything any of us didn’t already know. And I don’t mean to suggest that this easy. I say all of this because it helps ME to remember: this is a fairly SIMPLE process—it’s not easy or automatic but it is simple … basic. If it was easy we wouldn’t have communities of faith to nurture and practice the spiritual principles which produce true freedom.
The closing words from the Gospel of Luke today are a stark reminder of how easy it is to put just about anything in front of our relationship with God. Jesus finds among his followers people who hesitate to experience the freedom he offers—Yes I’ll follow you Jesus, but first I must take care of ______… I see myself in those dialogues with followers of Jesus Luke recounts—in their hesitation, in their postponement of the divine offer from Jesus. The problem staring back at us is that these people are referring to legitimate reasons for delay. This is, again, the spiritual predicament of every era. We worry that to truly follow God, in the way that makes it worthwhile, means we must abdicate some other important responsibility. This will forever be our spiritual predicament—the tension we live in as people of faith.
The GOOD NEWS again is that God is generous, patient, loving! As it turns out, God is all the fruits of the Spirit that Paul lists. And God’s invitation is open-ended … eternal … there’s no time limit, no statute of limitations, no conditions or fine print trickery. God forever offers us an alternative to the way we are living. An alternative way to life that in turn enhances our life and our health and our fulfillment which also impacts those around us in a positive way! All of this is possible even in the midst of all the dissonance and chaos and the frenzied pace of life—in the midst of illness and death, and all of the crises distracting us, the Lord is steadfast in His offer to us: an alternative to the infinite number of “choices” we put before our choice to choose the Lord. God remains forever diligent, forever willing and forever able to assist us in the difficult work of overcoming self … for that is the way home.
It is indeed elusive … but we do know when we are experiencing God’s grace. Thank God we have moments, however fleeting, moments when we feel that sense of home, that presence of God well up in us, and we experience that sense of home ... I guess that’s what it all leads up to. In God’s wisdom God has planted in our core a restlessness … a spiritual restlessness … an ill-at-ease-ness, that lasts until and unless we choose to find rest in the One who is our true home, our true alternative, the truest way, and the truest FREEDOM.
Amen.
