“Perfect
Freedom”
Exodus
34:29-35
2
Corinthians 3:12-18
“We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
These are the familiar words from the Declaration of
Independence ratified by the Continental Congress on
On Tuesday, we will once again adorn our homes and
yards with American flags, fire up the grill, and join together in celebrating
We all know how important our
freedom is to us. But we also know that
our freedom has a tendency to cause us Americans to become fiercely independent
people, independent not only from one another, but also from God’s divine work
in our lives, thinking that we are the creators of our own destinies, the final
arbiter in the shaping of who we are and of who we may become. Because of this, I am always mindful during
the celebration of our national freedom and independence of my freedom I have
in God through Jesus Christ, the freedom that is always at work to transform our lives into lives in and for
God.
Paul knew full well the dangers in
believing freedom in God can easily turn into freedom from God. As a Jew himself, Paul speaks about one of
the most important events in Jewish history, the coming of God upon Mt. Sinai
to give God's commandments to Moses and the people of Israel.
Through God’s
intervention, the Israelites had secured their freedom from the slavery of
Egypt, and they found themselves wandering the wilderness. But God had not abandoned them, instead God
had given them what they needed most – freedom to live in a relationship in and
for God through the giving of God’s commandments, the very means by which God’s
people were to live in perfect freedom in and for God. No longer would God’s people be enslaved to
the whims and power of an oppressive Pharoah, now God’s people would be free to
worship, praise, and serve the God who had given them the freedom they
craved.
For Paul the Jew, he looked upon the events at Sinai from a Christian
perspective, as one who had himself stood before the glory of God in Jesus
Christ on the Damascus road, as one who knew that God's work of freedom had
become perfected for him and fully realized in the person of Jesus Christ. But for Paul the Christian Jew, the problem
was not that God had given the Israelites the commandments, but that the
Israelites had turned them from commmandments of freedom in and for God, into
commandments of freedom from God’s judgment.
Paul proclaims to the Corinthians and to us that the gospel of Jesus Christ
is not a threat to our freedom, it is the source of our freedom. It's not simply the word that says you and I
are forgiven, so go do as you please, it is the word that says in Jesus Christ
we can live our lives in the perfect freedom in and for God as forgiven people. It's not simply the word that says we no
longer have to worry about God's judgement, it is the word that in Jesus Christ
we have been set free from the bondage of sin and death, so that we may live in
the freedom of being God’s saved people.
There is no doubt that the giving of God's commandments at Mt. Sinai was a
glorious moment in the lives of God’s people, and it is still glorious moment
even for us of the Christian faith. They
are just as much our commandments today and as they were and still are the
commandments of the people of Israel, but for Paul their glory does not compare
to the new glory of God in Jesus Christ.
This is the new thing God has given us in his Son – God’s own work of
divine freedom, freedom that only God can give, the freedom that is found in
the internal of the living Christ. When
we are turned to him, it is the Spirit of the Lord that changes our hearts, not
our skin, and begins to transform us from the inside, from one degree of glory
to another, until we cannot help but glow with the radiance of the divine. It's not instant transformation, mind you,
for God's work of freedom in us is always a work in progress, a moment by
moment transformation into the glory of Christ himself, as if Christ himself is
standing before us as we look into a mirror.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the promise that through the glory of the
son, God's own beloved, God's work of freedom is always being done in us;
changing us, giving us a new heart, transforming us, and making us just like
Jesus in all his glory. It is the
promise of the gospel that the more we look to him, the more we will look like
him, that the more we listen to him, the more we will sound like him, that the
more we follow him, the more we will behave like him, and that the more we feed
on him, the more we become him.
Let us come to the table to do more than just commerate and remember the
past, and expect more than just another ritualistic observance. Let us come to the table to once again join
with the Lord of life, to eat with him, to be nourished by his body and blood,
to yet again be touched by the transforming power of Jesus Christ, as God
continues his work of freedom in our lives of faith and obedience. Let us come to the table to once again look
to the day when we, ourselves, will finally and fully shine with the glory of
God. Amen.