Sermons In Time Lent & Easter

Freedom and Responsibility

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:1-18

Gospel: John 2:13-22

Today, we turn to the letter to the Corinthian Church for our consideration during this season of Lent. You will remember this letter deals with issues of the Local Church with which the Apostle Paul sought to address. You will also remember that we have chosen this letter because the issues of that Local Church are not different from the issues we have to face in the present.

The ninth chapter of 1st Corinthians is an interesting autobiographical statement from ST. Paul He is being very defensive about his preaching and his life among the Corinthians. His claim is that a worker should be worthy of his hire and deserves a satisfactory wage. The claim itself is understandable. In every age those who are working deserve adequate income for work done. More often than not, the living wage has been less than the worker thought he ought to have. The employer, by contrast, usually seeks to pay no more than is necessary. Thus , the conflict begins between labor and management which plagues us even to this day. There is usually "too much month left at the end of the money" both for the laborer and the management. Both have to work diligently to secure a good solution for a fair and just salary.

On the other hand, money is not the major concern of Paul in this passage. He had never been one who lived on the work which he did as an Apostle. In the 15th chapter of this letter, and now here, he reasserts the way in which God called him to be an Apostle. In each of the other two passages in which is call is at stake, he gives strong witness to the Gospel. Here he is doing something else. He is defending Christian Freedom.

The subject is not an isolated subject. Freedom of the Human Spirit is at the very heart of the Old Testament Covenant. The deliverance from Egypt was about freedom from bondage. in the beginning of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus quotes from Isaiah 61. It is a passage about freedom. Jesus sets out his ministry by saying he has come to give to the human spirit that freedom. The story of freedom is at the heart of our own religious and political history. The cry for freedom has sometimes sounded in unusual places and we grow wary of those who speak too freely of freedom. One the other hand, the fear of tyranny and the fear of bondage has kept our society alert to the importance of this call of the Spirit through the centuries.

We have just gone through an interesting and costly conflict. At first, we really thought the world was dealing with OIL in the country of Kuwait. Before very long, it became clear that the freedom of the Country was at issue. The dread of tyranny remains a continuing concern in our world.

The theme of freedom in Corinthians is not, however, political or related to social bondage. It is the experience of freedom in the new life in Christ Jesus.

Freedom thus expressed is a continuing challenge for Paul He wants freedom to be at the hear of his faith. Yet, he is constantly on guard against the abuse of freedom in either carelessness or license. Such abuse of freedom comes up in Romans: "Shall we sin that Grace may abound?" Paul asks, and then immediately responds, "God forbid!" The theme is repeated in Galatians: "Christ has set you free, only do not use your freedom as license."

The call to wholesome freedom is an important issue in our own time The way we often express this issue is in the relationship between freedom and responsibility. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Theologian, spoke quite eloquently of this relationship between freedom and responsibility. It was his contention that you cannot have one without the other. One way we see that relationship expressed is between parents and teenagers. For the growing youth, the issue is freedom first, and then responsibility. For the concerned parent, the issue is first responsibility and then freedom. The two go intrinsically together. You cannot have one without the other. For them to be real in the life of a person, all control must be gone, and the person must be free to live their life fully. The person must also assume full responsibility for his or her behavior and the result of that behavior.

Perhaps the task we have as human being in families and in other relationships is to untie these two, freedom and responsibility. Let them grow together into maturity. When this happens, there is no place for dependance, no putting blame on other for what we do ourselves, no rescuing of those who are in difficulty. It's a bit like trying to help a butterfly out of a cocoon. When that happens, the butterfly suffers damage beyond repair.

Paul does not give us an easy answer to this struggle of the soul. He does nave that to say which is instructive.

1. When he talks about freedom, he means just that. In Christ, he is free to do everything. When one is in Christ, "the world is your oyster." We have difficulty letting freedom be that total..

When Paul speaks in the way he does here, in Romans, and in Galatians, he is giving a very liberal understanding to freedom. It is akin to Luther's declaration to the Christian man: "Love God and Sin bravely!" Or even better, the freedom of the Christian person is to live beyond guilt.

There are man who would put a big, "BUT" here. That is not what Paul does. He is quite clear the freedom in Christ Jesus opens up all that is possible. Even to the point of asking seriously: "Shall we sin that Grace may abound?" The freedom includes that which is fulfilling and that which is destructive. He means that all things are possible in ways we have difficulty fathoming. Literally, all the old restrictions from his previous life are past. The world is wide open. His argument reinforces freedom from entanglement much more than it justifies pay or Apostleship. (For those who have difficulty with Grace expressed here, Paul also answers his own question with a very strong, "God Forbid." It is not a denial of the freedom, but a strong affirmation of the natural gratitude the redeemed have for God's Grace.)

2. Therefore, we can ask, "What does he do with that freedom?" The answer is that he assumes complete responsibility for his life. He makes very wise choices for what he will and will not do. He truly pursues the Christ like life. He makes the only decision which is complete congruent with what he has been saying. He will become as fully human as is possible. He will live the life of Love as expressed in the 13th chapter. (worthy of reading at this point). At the very hear of what Paul is saying is an important Christian truth. Every person must be free to decide what he or she will do with life to make it fully complete.

You really don't make that kind of choice unto you know the freedom of the Christian man.

We often worry about freedom as expressed in this passage, and well we should. What we need to understand is that when one does not know the freedom to be complete, that one is not free at all. Many "Acts of freedom" which violate the lives of other or even destroy our own lives are not expressions of freedom at all. They are, in fact, acts of rebellion, or "acting out behavior" that have no freedom in them at all.

The joy of freedom is in experiencing the opportunity to move toward the goals, the dreams the homes one has. These come from knowing the choices are there to complete those goals, those dreams those hopes of the human spirit.

One of the understanding we have of what it means to be "IN Christ" is we are not in some spiritual bondage when we are a Christian. We are, instead, those who believe deeply that every person in the whole world deserves to have the fulfillment of their potential. Such fulfillment will make them the most complete, most articulate, most capable persons possible. Such a capacity to choose is not dangerous. It is the opposite which is most frightening. It is good to experience as persons. It is "the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

These are they who assume control of their lives, and live responsibly not only for themselves, but also for the world around them as well. These are those who contribute to the growth of the world They have become the creative spirits that make good happen. These are they who own the freedom of the Christian person and are fully responsible for the way in which they live their lives. This is the goal we believe to be at the very heart of what it means to develop virtue, to become moral. It is to be healthy in heart, mind, and soul.

Welcome to the world of Christian freedom in Christ Jesus our Lord No matter how young or how old you may be, there is nothing you can seek nothing you can find of more value.

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