Imagine Freedom
Epiphany 3a, January 23, 2011 (Matthew 4:12-23 with Isaiah 9:1-4 and I Corinthians 1:10-18 bg
(Two large sheets of paper are prepared in advance)
The first has printed on it: YOU GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY!
The second has printed on it: WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?
(Hold up the first sheet) YOU GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY Years ago Bob Dylan penned these lyrics as a statement, an experience of his life. I ask this statement as a question – do you gotta serve somebody? My initial gut response is, "No I don't!" I will take care of myself. I am free! We declare this reality in our national anthem as we sing, "True north, strong and FREE!" We declare this reality in our spending habits. We will buy what we want, when we want, how we want. (and yes our spending does sometimes lead us to wontenness). Or we won't purchase anything to prove just how "free" we are.
Of course there have also been wars waged for supposed "freedom". There was that war to end all wars. This was euphemistically called the first great war. Then there was the war to free the world from Hitler's tyranny. Today there are wars for "independence", "freedom", "democracy". Certainly we are free, aren't we? Free to do to others as we "please".
Everyone seems to want to be free. Youth particularly long for freedom. Free from mom and dad's rules. Free to drive. Free from school. Won't that be great. Then we (they) will be free to make our own choices.
Most of us in attendance this morning are Canadians. By the grace of God we experience a degree of freedom. But part of that freedom also necessarily involves service: service to the world community, to be part of the United Nations, of NATO, of world relief efforts in combating AIDS and providing disaster relief to such places as Haiti, Sri Lanka, and Australia. Such service involves commitment: money, time, one's self. The flag draped caskets of our dead soldiers remind us that even this relative freedom involves service and incredible cost.
Then in terms of our spending habits, we may think that we are free, but there is also cost or at the least consequence to such compulsion. We pay interest on our lines of credit and credit cards. On the other hand if we are hoarders or spend very little, where is the freedom in that? For whom are you saving? You have to know, you can't take it with you!
In the midst of all this, our propensity, our hunger/thirst for violence continues: abroad, on our streets, and too often even in our homes. Yet, we like to claim that we are free! Well, are we? Are we free to stop hating others and ourselves? Are we free to love those who seem different than us? Are we free to love ourselves when we have not met our goals or aren't pleased with the way we look? Are we free to forgive, to experience forgiveness?
(Hold up the second statement). This brings me to my next thought. WHY ARE WE HERE? Why have you come to this place now? Why do many of you seek to be part of a worshiping community, gathered around Word and Sacrament?
There could be a variety of reasons. Whatever they may be, I want each of us to wrestle with, "Why am I here?"
Is it possible that you have a hunger for an encounter or even encounters with the living God? Sometimes we aren't even aware of such a hunger. Sometimes we are just minding our own business, literally, like Simon and Andrew or James and John in today's Gospel. But then, in the midst of a seemingly "ordinary" moment, God touches us!
I remember my friend Carson. He was in charge of the X-ray department of a mid-sized hospital. For the most part he took good care of himself. He didn't smoke. He drank very little. He engaged in some exercise. He wasn't overweight. When he was younger he had done some amateur boxing. Now in his 40's, in a loving relationship with his wife that included two daughters, he had a decent job and enjoyed life. If you had asked him he would have told you that life was great, that he was content and very free! But one day he suffered a serious heart attack. He was air evacuated to a larger center and underwent emergency heart surgery which included five bypasses. Later when he regained consciousness he said to his wife, "I should have died! There has to be more to life than what I have been experiencing. There must be a God. And I am going to seek this God out."
So it was that one day Carson showed up on a Sunday morning for worship. One of our members had invited him while they were having coffee at work. The next week he brought his wife with him. And about three months later he brought his teenage daughters to be instructed for baptism. Carson wanted, he needed an ongoing encounter with the living God who had somehow both given him life and then spared his life. As time went on and Carson grew in h is faith, he wanted to respond to this living God with the way he lived his own life.
We may be "minding our own business". We might even think/feel that our lives are full, complete. But there is always more than what we can see. Followers of Jesus have been proclaiming him as the light of the world for nearly 2000 years for many reasons. In Jesus we are given a glimpse of God and an up close look at ourselves. Sometimes when we see ourselves honestly by the light of the love and holiness of God, it is anything but easy. But such seeing is also good, because Jesus' love also has the capacity to birth change within us. Jesus is also the light of the world, because as He shines into and on our lives we begin to see others and the rest of creation differently. We are not in competition. We are not "against them!" We are brothers and sisters. We are all part of God's great dream, to be freed from the powers of death and hatred, from our instincts to quickly exclude or blame to new life. Following Jesus involves working humbly and joyfully for this "dream" in all that we do: with our families, our congregations, our larger communities, our world.
To be sure, this involves change both individually and collectively. Ah, we Lutherans, like most people are resistant to change. But we need to be delivered – beyond ourselves and what I want or think that I need – to become open to wrestling with what God wants, with God's call upon our lives here and now. This requires that certain parts within us will die. Sometimes such mini "deaths" are sudden. Sometimes these changes, involving letting go, even surrendering, are a much more gradual process.
In the late 60's and early 70's our predecessor church body, the ELCC, was wrestling (and I mean WRESTLING) with the question of women's ordination. You know, we had never done it that way before! So, in her wisdom, the church commissioned different people to undertake Bible studies on the question. One of those people was a seminary professor. For some time had been seriously opposed to women's ordination. But on the day of his presentation to the National Church Convention he stood up and told everyone that after much study and prayer, his mind had been changed. Now he was convinced that it would be good (as in of God) for our church to undertake training of women for ordination.
When parts of us die as a result of following Jesus, God births new realities among us and through us.
I cannot know exactly why you are here today. But I am thankful that you are! And I am convinced that through people gathered around the Word and Sacrament, the Creator, holy and loving God is speaking to us. Part of God's word to us is, "I LOVE YOU!" We glimpse this in Jesus, his life, suffering and cross. And part of God's Word to us in the light of God's love is, "Follow Jesus! Trust him in all the living of your lives, individually and together. Then see what will happen." Peter and Andrew, James and John could not have imagined. Nor can we! But this listening and following of Jesus can be amazingly good – leading to the freedom of new life involving service so far beyond ourselves that we ourselves couldn't have imagined!
May it be so with us, for Christ's sake! Amen.