July 2, 1994	Dealing with the Critics	2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14

Galatians 4:1, 13-25

Luke 9:51-62

"For freedom Christ has set us free." These are the words of the apostle Paul in our Epistle lesson for today. Certainly, these are good words for us to hear, aren't they, especially on the weekend before we celebrate the Fourth of July. Fireworks are going to be going off in just about every place you can imagine for the next few nights. There will be the professionally produced community fireworks displays where people stay out after dark, getting mosquito bitten to see a blazing spectacular. And people will be buying the legal kind of fireworks – the kind that fizzle and hiss – and they'll also be going down to Ohio to bring back the illegal kind – the kind that go "bang" or fly up in the air.

It is ironic though that some people should celebrate Independence Day, as it used to be called, by using something that is illegal. Here they are thumbing their nose at the laws of a land whose birthday they are supposed to be honoring! And we might ask such persons why they are doing that. And if they give you any kind of a decent reply, they might say, "Well, it's a free country, isn't? I can do what I want to do since it doesn't hurt anyone else."

In a real way this does tie into what the Apostle Paul was saying: "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." There are three things that I would like to say about this. One: If Christ has given us freedom we must be careful so as not to fall back into legalism. Two: If Christ has given us freedom then we must use that freedom responsively. And, three: If Christ has given us freedom then we must respect the freedom and the rights of others.

I have served in a lot of churches in the past twenty three years. And it seems that in most of those churches though they all claimed the freedom that comes from Christ, they still adhered to a set of legalisms that almost seemed to negate the freedoms they claimed. Take for instance the two churches out on the Eastern Shore of Maryland Linda and I served while we were in seminary. The churches were on two small islands in the Chesapeake Bay. We would drive to those churches from Washington, D.C. Friday nights and stay there until Sunday night or Monday morning. As you can imagine, while we were in that parish we lived a pretty concentrated life. Saturdays usually consisted of getting the bulletin and sermon ready for the following Sunday. It was usually an all day affair and even a little hectic, sometimes. Then, Sunday morning would come and we would conduct two worship services. Following that there were usually people in the hospital we would have to visit. Then, by that evening we would usually pack up and go back to school in D.C.

As you can see, there was hardly any time for doing anything such as house keeping and yard work. And, in fact, it was in the area of yard work that I got in trouble, one Sunday afternoon. I remember that the people on the island were doing a bike-a-thon for the mentally retarded. You know how those things go: People get sponsors to give a certain amount of money for each mile that they ride on their bikes. The money then gets collected and sent on to support the cause. So, as you can imagine, on that particular Sunday afternoon half of the people on the island were on their bicycles going from end of the island to the other. And it was during that time that I decided that I had to mow my grass. So, as I mowed my grass, half the people on the island rode their bicycles past the parsonage and saw me mowing my grass.

Now, let me remind you that it was on a Sunday afternoon. And it was in an area south of the Mason-Dixon line – the beginning of the Bible Belt. So, as you might suspect, that evening we had a call at our door by two of the parishioners from the church on the southern most island. They came knocking on our back door and we let them in. And they said, "Rev. Donelson, we saw you mowing your grass on the Sabbath. And we feel that it is going against the 10 Commandments for you to do that. So, please take our advice and don't do it anymore."

As I stood there, I thought it was interesting that these two would have said such a thing to me, as they themselves had been among the bicyclers riding past my house that day. So, I told them that I wouldn't mow my grass on the Sabbath if they wouldn't ride their bikes on the Sabbath. For while the Old Testament forbids harvesting on the Sabbath, something which I had been doing, it also forbids traveling more than a mile on the Sabbath, something they had been doing.

Isn't it interesting how we choose which laws we will follow? We all agree that the laws regulating traffic are very important, except the one about going 55 when there's light traffic on an open road. And we all agree that public safety laws are important, except on the Fourth of July when some of us use those illegal fireworks. And we all agree that those laws in the Bible are important, except the ones we find annoying or a cramp to our style.

But, more important, and this is something that we forget, as Christians we have been set free from the Law of Moses. Trying to keep all the Laws, as important as they are, will not save us. Rather, we are saved by the grace of God. And because we are, we are freed up to live a completely different kind of life, centered not around what we shouldn't do, but upon what we can do to love others. As Christians, according to Paul, we are given the freedom to live a life full of the fruit of the Spirit. And what are these? They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If you live a life dedicated to serving God in such a way, it is impossible to do the works of the flesh, which the Apostle Paul says are obvious: "fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these." If we're living a life guided by the Spirit then doing the works of the flesh is impossible.

Remember, our Epistle lesson for today started with the words, "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery."

Some of us who are old enough may remember the slogan of the Hippies of the mid '60's. It was "free love!" It was written on the back of VW buses and on college dorm room windows. The slogan "free love" was everywhere. People who advocated free love believed in promiscuity without being concerned about the consequences. It was freedom without responsibility. And as surely as those who practiced "free love" soon realized that there was a terrible price to pay, freedom without responsibility – is also a contradiction of terms. For persons who are irresponsible with their freedoms soon lose their freedoms. It is as simple as that.

As Americans we treasure our freedoms. We treasure the Declaration of Independence signed by the founders of our country back on July 4, 1776. But there can be no independence without paying the price for excellence and vigilance. If, instead demanding excellence, we settle for mediocrity we'll get it. If, instead of exercising our right to go to church on Sunday, we do something else, we'll eventually lose that right. If, instead of voting on important issues, we stay home from the polls, we'll eventually lose that privilege, as well. If, instead of demanding access to information through a free press that we no longer read because we're more interested pursuing pastimes, we'll lose the right to a free press before we even know it's gone. With any freedom, whether they are freedoms guaranteed to us by the constitution of the United States, or freedoms gained by a deep faith in Jesus Christ, there is a price to pay. Freedoms are not free, at all.

Finally, one of the important things to remember about freedom is that if we expect our own freedoms to be respected, we must protect the freedoms and the rights of others. Our Gospel lesson for today talks about this. Jesus is walking through the region of Samaria with his disciples, on their way to Jerusalem for the Passover. And as they walk into a Samaritan village the people discriminate against them because they are Jews. And the disciples ask Jesus if they should ask God to send fire down upon them as a punishment. Jesus' reply to his disciples is a stern rebuke.

Sometimes, we are like those disciples, aren't we? We're sold on our religious ideas. We have our convictions that we hold to be self-evident. We can hardly understand how anyone can be so stupid so as not to see the validity of our well-studied opinions. Are we ever like those disciples, wishing that God might send down a punishment upon those who are so foolish, or perhaps so evil so as to disagree with us? When someone has criticized us, have we not wished that we could send down God's wrath upon them? But, what does Jesus do with such thoughts as this? It is we who are given the stern rebuke.

And perhaps that is what separates Christianity from other religions. The people of Jesus' day believed in "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But what did Jesus say to them? "If someone slaps you on one side of the face, turn the other cheek." Could that be right? What did Jesus say? He said, "Pray for those who persecute you." Could that be right? What did Jesus say? He said, "If someone asks for your coat, give him your shirt, as well." "Forgive seven times seventy." "Love your enemies."

If we were to look around the world today, we would see places that look an awful lot like Palestine did back in Jesus' day, with little enclaves of people here and there, separate groups isolated from one another, criticizing each other, hating each other, even fighting each other. It is like that in Bosnia, today. It is like that in parts of the Russian empire, today. It is still like that in Palestine, today. And how easy it could become like that in our own country, if we let it.

Does someone criticize you? Does someone differ from you? Thank God there are those in our nation who would rather fight for the right of a person to disagree than call down fire from heaven upon them! And may it always be so!

Amen.