Freedom of the Servant

This sermon was heard at the Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday June 26, 2016, the Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time.

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5:1,13-25
Luke 9:51-62

May the words of mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

The Reverend Chip Andrus is the Pastor at South Salem Presbyterian Church in South Salem, New York. I knew Chip when he was the Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Harrison, Arkansas. He’s one of those people I want to be when I grow up. If envy wasn’t a sin, I would covet his musical talent. I tell people I’m musical, but not musically talented. Chip is both.

A few years ago Marie and I went to Sunday worship at First Harrison and the sermon had to do with being a servant. The choir didn’t do an anthem that day. Rather than the full choir and organ, Chip and a small combo of guitars gathered around the font. They sang the first single released from Bob Dylan’s 1979 studio album “Slow Train Coming.” It was his first release since becoming a born again Christian. They played “Gotta Serve Somebody” and played it quite well. During the sermon, Pastor Chip quoted the song:

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

There are two things from last Sunday’s sermon that I want to say again. The first is this paraphrase of Paul from Galatians, “there was a time when the nation of Israel lived under the custody of the Law, the Torah, until the faith could be revealed. The Law acted like a guardian taking care of the nation. Then the Christ came and we are now justified by faith and now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.”

I bring this back because this leads us to the beginning of our reading from Galatians. The words found on the cover of our bulletin, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

In the days of Jesus, the Pharisees literally turned the law into a yoke of slavery. To be right with the law was to be right with the Temple Elite was to be right with the Pharisees. If you didn’t do as the Pharisees wanted, your relationship with God would be brought into question. In Jerusalem, at a time when everything revolved around the temple, if you ran afoul with the leaders you could be kicked out. Being kicked out would lead to spiritual, social, and financial ruin.

In the sacred and the secular, the Pharisees had the people in a yoke of slavery made from the law. In and of itself, the law was not bad, but when people use the Law, the word of God, to make the people slaves, that is bad.

We are no longer under the guardianship of the law, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need safeguards. Without rules people have a tendency to get off the leash and run. Folks can become overzealous. Our gospel reading from the New International Version says, “Jesus sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him.” Remember, the Jews and the Samaritans were cousins who didn’t get along. Back to the story, “[they did] not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ’Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’ But Jesus turned and rebuked them.”

Another translation, the New American Standard Bible, includes a comment by Jesus not found in earlier manuscripts. In this translation, Jesus rebukes the disciples saying, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” In that translation, not only do we know that James and John were rebuked, but how they were rebuked.

James and John were two of the most trusted disciples. They will see the transfiguration. They will accompany the Lord to Gethsemane when the time comes; and they get scolded for offering wrath when that is not the will of God. The Samaritans are the Hatfield’s to their McCoy and the nuclear option looks pretty good, but that is not the will of God.

To live in the age of grace that follows living under the law, we need to live in the right spirit, the Holy Spirit of God in Christ. To do that, I first want to bring back the other thing from last Sunday’s sermon. In the conclusion I said, “This is the good news of Jesus Christ. The God who sent his Son to show us a better way, to be the better way, became the living Torah so we can live by faith and not under the law.”

It’s not wrong to ask the question “if we don’t live under the law, then what do we live under?” You might even ask me if I am “anti-law-and-order.” Rest assured I love order contrary to the appearance of my desk at any given moment. But I heard it said that laws and rules are written for society’s dumbest people. Why is there a speed limit? So people don’t drive 145 mph through downtown OKC. Why does the NFL make football stadiums quit serving adult beverages after the third quarter? To reduce the number of drunk drivers. Why can’t you drive drunk? It’s about safety, the drinker’s and everybody else’s.

As Paul writes, the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and what the flesh wants is, “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” Paul sure knows how to make a list, doesn’t he?

When talking about Jesus as the Living Torah, the Law of God that came to be with us and to be one of us, we must remember that the Messiah only wants what is good and right for the children of God. Nothing bad can come from Jesus. I’ll say that again. Nothing bad can come from Jesus. This is the breadth of God’s love for us. The Lord who can do all things from creation to destruction, chooses love. There is no hate, no spite, no arrogance, no ignorance, no impatience, no grudges in the name of God.

In this “What Would Jesus Do?” moment, we have to remember that the answer is to live in the spirit of God. Paul has a list for what it means to live in the Spirit too, ‘love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” He ends saying, “Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Our reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians ends with an admonition that can be read as a prayer, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” He tells the Galatians that they live in the Spirit! Yes, they live in the Spirit!

Paul says freedom is in Christ. When we stand firm in Christ the burdens others place on us are gone. That doesn’t mean everything in life will automatically be peaches and cream; there are people who will try to put the yoke of the law around your neck again and again. There are Pharisees in every age who will tell you what to think and how to act and will do it in the name of God. When done to lift up what is not Godly, Paul tells to beware, “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”

Yes, people err. People goof. People make mistakes. You know the old expression, “To err is human, to blame is also human.” This is the nature of sin which we will not escape this side of glory. We can rejoice that while to err is human, to forgive divine. Living under the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we are not servants to the law or, more importantly, the Pharisees, whether ancient and modern, who would bind us with it.

Pastor Chip quoted Bob Dylan saying:

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

I love Chip as a friend, pastor, and colleague in ministry. I follow him on Facebook, but not as a prophet. I am not a servant of Chip. As for Dylan’s music, I like this song. The album got fair to good reviews and the song won a Grammy. I’m not a servant of Dylan or his music. We are servants of Christ, and as his servants we are free from the yoke of the law. We are free. Free to live by the Spirit, serving one another humbly in love, for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”