Journeying in Freedom

1 Peter 2: 13-17
St. Peter said to the faithful Christians that he wrote to: As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.
Living as we do in a free country, with the right to speak as we wish, worship where we want to, vote in every election when we reach the age of 18, attend school where we want to, hold property and land in our own names, and make decisions for our own lives. . . it’s a bit difficult for us to understand what it would be like not to be free. At times, I think, we take our freedom for granted. We are so used to being free that sometimes we fail to notice that we are actually free! People in other countries long for the freedoms that we enjoy, risking arrest in order to worship Christ, risking imprisonment in order to have more than one child, risking death if they are caught spreading the gospel message. We can only imagine how awful it would be not to have the liberties that we hold dear.
There are those times, however, when even though we are free, we live in a state of captivity. I’m not talking about iron bars, or chains, or segregated cells. I’m talking about how we allow our fears to get the best of us. Of course some fear is healthy! Fear of black widow spiders keeps you from playing with them like they are pets; a fear of buffalo on the road into Yellowstone park can keep you alive and prevent you from being gored to death by their horns; a fear of driving on icy roads might keep you at home on a dark night where you are safe and sound. Those kinds of fears are healthy, they keep us out of harms way but if our fears aren’t based in reality --if they go on too long then we can become slaves to our fears and our freedom, though it is still there, becomes useless to us because we are stuck in the midst of our own paralyzing emotions. Fear can keep us captive, barring us from true freedom: fear of what others think about us, fear of not measuring up, fear of failure, fear of exposing ourselves and being vulnerable to others, fear of losing everything that we hold dear.
But Jesus has a better way for us who believe. He said to his disciples, “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” We believe, as Christians, as disciples who believe in the saving power of Christ, that the Son has made us free! That’s what our annual Lenten journey is all about- it’s a journey toward freedom! Jesus has freed us from having to earn our way to heaven, as if we ever could have in the first place, but –you know---lots of people are still trying! He has freed us from having to get it right all the time, or even most of the time. Yet some of us get stuck living in the illusion that perfection is possible. He has freed us from some impossible measuring stick, some hypothetical standard, that constantly reminds us that we aren’t good enough. And yet, God says to us, “You are my child, I love you, you are good enough for me!” Because of Christ we know that we are holy, because he is holy; we are lovable and loving because he is; we are made right with God because of Jesus’ sacrifice and redemptive action on the cross; we are free from having to do it all ourselves! This is true freedom, friends! Freedom to live, really live, relying on nothing less than God’s grace and mercy in our lives! And this freedom “from” gives us freedom “to.” Freedom to serve, and to love, and to get out of our comfort zone and take a chance. This freedom is what makes us who we are, but it also comes with responsibility.
Martin Luther wrote a tract for the Christians of his day that mirrors what St. Peter says to the Christians that he is instructing. He said, “A Christian is the perfectly free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.” So then, you are free! You are subject to no one! As a Christian, you are set free from all of the laws that seek to bind you, to keep you captive, to make you feel guilty, and bad about yourself! Yet, at the same time, you are a slave or servant of Christ; subject to everyone! To your neighbor, to your parents, to those in authority, to every one you meet on the street- you are duty bound to serve them. How can it be both? Free and slave at the same time?
But in Christ, this liberty that we are given, this liberty that frees us from the law, from sin, death and the devil’s power, is not given to us so that we can do any old thing that we want to do, just because we want to do it! This liberty is not to be misused simply because we are made free in Christ! The reason is that to do so might cause someone else to stumble in their faith. It’s kind of like drinking alcohol in the presence of an alcoholic- it makes things hard on that person who is struggling; or eating a huge buffet in front of the poor and hungry—it causes them distress. If Christians who are at the beginning of their faith journey see us who are further along on the journey misuse our freedom, what will it do to them? We certainly don’t want to be responsible for them falling away from the faith. So in that way we are servant and slave to all, subject to everyone- even while we are perfectly free and subject to no one. That’s what Peter meant by “do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.” As ones who are free, we are to be constantly looking out for the best interests of our neighbor and putting aside our own desires—because it is our choice to do so-- it is a matter of our obedience to Christ who frees us. We are free to do just that. So, friends as we continue our Lenten journey, let us remember that we have the great pleasure of basking in the freedom of Christ, AND when necessary, we willingly give up that freedom for the sake of the other. Amen.