Perfect Freedom

St. Paul’s Church in Bergen, Jersey City NJ

June 30, 2013

Year C, Proper 8: The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

2 Kings 2:1-2,6-14

Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Luke 9:51-62

Perfect Freedom

            By now, many of you have figured out that I’m a big fan of weekday worship. I don’t know, maybe some of you are getting sick of hearing me talk about it.

            There are lots of reasons for why I think weekday worship is so important. First, as I’ve mentioned before, a whole lot of money and effort go into maintaining this building. So, just to be practical and to be good stewards of what God has given us, we should use this holy, beautiful and, yes, expensive place more than just a couple of hours during on Sunday.

            But, way more important than that, weekday worship has a powerful spiritual effect on all of us, whether we’re regulars during the week or if we’re never able to come to a weekday service. As the rector of my previous parish likes to say, all of our services in some mysterious way bathe this place in prayer. And all of that praying – all of that bathing in prayer – has powerful spiritual effects on us all.

            Weekday worship also allows us to preserve, and benefit from, a rich part of our Anglican tradition – the beautiful collects, canticles and prayers found in Morning and Evening Prayer, right there near the front of the prayer book.

            Finally, weekday worship is also an important reminder – weekday worship is a powerful symbol. Weekday worship is a reminder and symbol that the Christian way of life is not something we do just for an hour or so here on Sunday. No, as we heard in today’s hard gospel lesson, much more is demanded of us if we want to follow Jesus.

            One of those beautiful collects from Morning Prayer that I mentioned came to mind when I was thinking about today’s hard gospel lesson. It’s called “A Collect for Peace,” and it starts with these words:

            “O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom.”

            “To serve you is perfect freedom.”

            To serve God is perfect freedom.

            Stop and think about that for a moment. We could – and probably should – ponder that for the rest of our lives.

            “To serve God is perfect freedom” is the truth at the heart of today’s gospel lesson.

             Luke writes, “When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

            There’s a lot packed into just that one sentence. We know that, in Jerusalem, Jesus will be “taken up” when he is nailed to the cross. Jesus will be “taken up” when is raised on third day. And, Jesus will be “taken up” forty days later when he ascends into heaven, vanishing from the disciples’ sight.

            Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Jesus made his choice. Jesus chose what Jesus chose all along. Throughout his earthly life, Jesus chose the costly way of love and sacrifice. Jesus chose to serve.

            Jesus made his choice. And, as we heard in today’s gospel lesson, Jesus insists that following him means making the same choice. Following Jesus means choosing the costly way of love and sacrifice.

            Now, let’s be honest, for most of us most of the time, we’re not so good at choosing the costly way of love and sacrifice.

            As a priest, I’m sort of a “professional Christian,” and I’ll admit that most of the time it’s hard for me to follow Jesus and I fall short all the time.

            Most of us most of the time choose to live like the rest of the world. We choose to be concerned mostly with ourselves, and the people closest to us. We choose to be concerned mostly with money or things. We choose to be concerned with what people think of us. We choose to mock or exclude or condemn people who are different from us. We choose to treat people like things for our use, convenience or pleasure. We choose to not treat people as who they really are: beloved children of God.

            It’s hard to choose to follow Jesus instead of the values of the world.

            But, Jesus asks – Jesus demands - more of us even than that.

            Jesus demands that we put following him first in our lives, over our most important responsibilities. Jesus demands that we choose following him over earning a living. Jesus demands that we choose following him over those dearest to us. Jesus demands that we choose following him even over burying our beloved dead.
            And what does choosing to follow Jesus look like?

            Choosing to follow Jesus means modeling our lives after his.

            And Jesus’ earthly life was all about serving God. Which brings us back full circle to that collect I mentioned: Jesus’ life was all about serving God. And serving God is perfect freedom.

            St. Paul lays it out very clearly for us to today’s reading from his Letter to the Galatians.

            Paul wrote this letter to a non-Jewish Christian community that he had started. But, now he’s found out that other teachers have been teaching the Galatians a different gospel – a gospel that involved following the Jewish law. Paul isn’t happy at all about this turn of events.

            So, Paul writes to the Galatians reminding them of the basics. And, for Paul, the basic thing is that Christ has set us free.

            Paul writes, “For freedom Christ has set us free.”           

            And, Paul says, we are to use that freedom not for our own pleasure or gain but through love to become slaves to one another. We are to use that freedom to fulfill what the Jewish law is all about: to love our neighbors as ourselves.

            To serve God is perfect freedom.

            Serving God is perfect freedom because that’s what we’re made for. We are made to serve God. We are made to serve God by loving God and loving one another.

            This is who we are really meant to be.

            This is who we really are.

            So, whenever we choose the world’s values we choose to be slaves – slaves to money, to our stuff, to our desires, to our prejudices.

            But, whenever we choose Jesus’ way – whenever we choose the costly way of love and service - whenever we choose to live the Christian life not just on Sunday morning but all week - whenever we choose to care not only about ourselves and the people closest to us but also the suffering people around the corner and around the world - whenever we remember what’s more important than money or things  - whenever we stop worrying what people think of us – whenever we welcome absolutely everybody - whenever we choose to treat people like the beloved children of God they and we are – whenever we choose Jesus’ way – whenever we choose the costly way of love and sacrifice – then we are truly free.

            The costly way of love and sacrifice isn’t easy. A life of service isn’t easy. It wasn’t easy for Jesus and for Paul and for faithful Christians throughout the ages. But, it’s the only way for us to be truly free.

            Today, we once again heard the story of Jesus making his choice, setting his face to go to Jerusalem and all the horror and glory that awaited him there.

            Jesus made his choice. Throughout his earthly life, Jesus chose the costly way of love and sacrifice.

            And now it’s our turn to choose.

            Do we choose the way of the world?

            Or do we choose the perfect freedom of loving and serving God and loving and serving our neighbors?