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Freedom |
Comments beforehand:
A local church flies the American flag on a pole outside their church, with the Christian flag underneath. This is undoubtedly good flag-flying etiquette, because the American flag is always to be displayed in the dominant position. But what does it say about our theology?
In our own sanctuary for the past two weeks the American flag and Christian flag have been displayed on our stage, with the American flag on the speaker’s right and the Christian flag on the left. Again, this is good flag etiquette because it puts the American flag in the dominant role. But what does it say about our theology?
I’m patriotic and I love this country. But we need to be careful what we say with our patriotism and our symbols. Do we truly put country before God, as our flag displays seem to imply?
We must realize that the church is an international organization, offering welcome, healing, forgiveness and a place in God’s family regardless of where a person comes from or what political or social issues they adhere to. And we need to do more than realize it. We need to put it into practice…
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Here is: A flower I cut this morning….and one I cut this Thursday. What’s the difference? Actually, the only difference is TIME. One looks fresh and one doesn’t, but both have been cut off from their roots and both will therefore wither. It just so happens that one is a few days further along.
Florists sell freshly-cut flowers. They don’t call them “freshly killed” although that might be more accurate, and they don’t have to, because freshly cut flowers, if you take care of them, can maintain the illusion of life for quite some time.
Today as we approach Independence Day, I’m going to talk about our freedom using some ideas I got from reading the work of the late Richard Halverson, long-time chaplain of the United States Senate. (http://preachingtoday.com/30295). You see, some people believe that freedom in America is flourishing in an unprecedented way, that we are enjoying a golden age of freedom unheard of in the history of the USA. There might be concerns about it and you can read about those in the news every day. But by and large, if you think about freedom in terms of freedom of expression, freedom of lifestyle, freedom from censorship, people seem to have more choices than ever before. Does that mean that freedom is more alive than it has ever been?
Or is it rather that we’re seeing an allusion, freedom as a freshly-cut, freshly-killed flower that has been cut from its roots?
Christianity has a long, dirty history of legalism, of fighting over minor issues, of judging people based on narrow human standards. So it is sometimes difficult to remember how central freedom is to the message of the gospel. In Galatians, a letter about freedom…
GAL 5:1 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.
GAL 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
In Romans 8:21, Paul speaks about a time in the future when “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God”, a freedom that many folks haven’t heard of! It should be a familiar concept though, because 2 Corinthians 3:17 says that “the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”.
Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:16 – “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God”. In the Greek, that says literally to live free or die hard. J
Now in spite of the abuses committed by many Christians and churches over the past 2,000 years, the freedom-message of the Gospel has thrived and has shaped our world. Jesus Christ gave dignity to every person, and Christianity along with other forces spread that dignity throughout Europe and to the US and helped give rise to ideas like democracy, freedom, and rights for individuals.
Standing on that foundation, the members of the Continental Congress wrote these famous words on July 4, 1776:
IN CONGRESS, JULY
4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the
thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to
assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which
the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.
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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Some difficult words here, so let’s break it into a few bullet-points:
The Declaration goes on to say that it’s wise to be patient and not overthrow the government every time you disagree with it, but this time things are really bad, and then it lists many grievances against the King of England.
Underlying the Declaration is the spoken assumption that the root of our freedom is God. They wouldn’t have been allowed to say that today, but they sure said it then, and in fact based their whole revolution on it.
Now I’m not saying that the fathers of the American revolution were infallible, nor that it was a Christian revolution. If we had lived back then, we’d have the same responsibility that we do today, that Christians always do – to examine the Scriptures to see that our actions square with the will of God, rather than to blindly follow those who rise up to lead. But I am saying that they got some things right in the Declaration. Freedom is a gift from God. He is the source of it and the root of it. If we cut ourselves off from the root of our freedom, it may SEEM to flourish for a time like a freshly-cut flower, but the destiny is the same as the withered one.
What would God have said to our forefathers as they declared our independence and freedom 231 years ago? Actually, we have a pretty good idea.
In Deuteronomy 8, God’s people Israel were standing on the brink of enormous freedom. Having lived for more than 400 years as slaves in Egypt, having endured the years in the wilderness, they were about to enter their own land and in just a few years they would be peacefully settled there and would begin living an era of incredible prosperity and freedom.
Here is what God said to them through Moses:
DT 8:10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.
Here’s God’s message to Israel: Do you love your freedom? Then…
BEWARE PROSPERITY!
That fits America, doesn’t it? We have eaten our fill, built our nice homes, settled in…and we have become arrogant and godless. Who needs God when you think you make your own success? Why worry about God’s protection when your wealth and military might can keep you safe? To be honest, I’ve found myself thinking at times when I’ve worried about the direction of our country and the enemies that seem to be lining up against us all over the world: “Well at least in my lifetime all will be well. Our country may be sliding downhill but even if we don’t get it corrected, things will be cool during my time. A military power like ours doesn’t just crumble overnight!” (BTW, this is exactly what King Hezekiah said when Isaiah prophesied the downfall of Israel – “At least we’ll have peace and security in my lifetime!” 2 Kings 20:19).
This is not only selfish but foolish. We all know that God could pull our security out from under us overnight, and as happens when you pull on a loose string hanging on a cloth, the whole thing could unravel and collapse in a heap in a very short time.
Theodore Roosevelt said: “The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first and love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.”
In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis has the senior demon teach his trainee: “Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it,’ while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home in earth which is just what we want. You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than the middle-aged and the old.
“The truth is that the Enemy, having oddly destined these mere animals to life in His own eternal world, has guarded them pretty effectively from the danger of feeling at home anywhere else.”
Now let me say that there is nothing wrong with making good money. I think it’s crazy that we value entertainment so much that a baseball player can make $7 million a year, but if I could get someone to pay me $7 million to play baseball, you better believe I’d take it. Moses tells the Israelites: But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. As long as we’re making our money in an honest, moral fashion, the test of faith isn’t to turn it down as it is to use it for God’s glory rather than to wallow in soul-killing luxury.
Still, if you want to stay connected to the root of your freedom, beware prosperity. Beware prosperity even if you don’t consider yourself prosperous, even if you struggle to pay for the absolute basics of life, because you live in a prosperous nation and are bombarded every day with the message of prosperity.
The traps of prosperity:
Pride: Who needs
God? I did this! I can take care of myself.
Self-idolatry: I deserve this. I have a right to be happy.
I’ve got to look out for myself.
God-replacement: Prosperity becomes the highest priority,
the last thing you’d sacrifice, after your principles, after your pride, after
your soul. Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters. You can’t serve both God
and Money.”
Tepid faith. If prosperity is god, Christianity becomes
little more than a hobby, as it was to the church Jesus spoke to in
Revelation 3:14-20:
REV 3:14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, `I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
REV 3:19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
Two quotations:
The first is a Life magazine editorial written April 11, 1949. Here is the paragraph: "Communism is not the only threat to Western civilization and perhaps not the greatest threat. The greatest threat to our civilization comes from within that civilization itself. Our euphemism for it is secularism. A much blunter word is godlessness. Our civilization, for all its churches and all its churchgoers, is predominantly a secular, godless civilization."
The second is from Abraham Lincoln, who during the height of the Civil War proclaimed April 30, 1863 to be a national day of humiliation, prayer and fasting. In his proclamation, he wrote:
And, insomuch as we know that, by His Divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People. We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God.
We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. But freedom cannot last when we cut ourselves off from the God who gives it. That’s true of our national freedom. It’s even more true of our personal freedom.
If you and I are carving out freedom apart from or in opposition to God’s will as revealed in God’s Word, how can we hope to succeed? How can we hope for anything but more slavery, to sin, to selfishness, to the demands of prosperity? It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. But let’s realize that only Christ has it. Let’s refuse to cut ourselves off from the root.
Morrison Hill Christian
Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E. Race St.
Kingston, TN 37763 (865) 376-5205
