Now, do y’all remember how I started the sermon last week? I said that, since we’re at the mid-point in July, we now have only about a month and a half to complete all the projects we planned to do in April and May. Do y’all remember me saying that?
Well, I’d like to think that this message was so powerful, was so moving, was so persuasive that it resulted in the transformation of the beds right outside these windows, but I know that’s not true. No, this was something that Andy and Mark have been working on for quite a while. Therefore, I’m sure not going to claim any credit for Andy getting the plants and Mike and Melody bringing the fabric and Jesse hauling the river stones and of course, Andy and Jasmine and Remington digging holes and hauling rocks, with Ember supervising. In fact, I’m not sure I contributed anything more than saying the same thing I’m saying now, “Good job.” Let’s just say, the landscaping is one project that can be moved to the “done” list.
And I’ll tell you, we’re moving closer to doing this same thing with the series we started about a month ago entitled Rooted in Christ: a Journey Through Colossians. Now, to this point, we’ve talked about being rooted in prayer and peace, service and faith. And this morning as we move forward through Paul’s letter, we’re going to talk about something we alluded to last week, how we can be rooted in freedom.
And I’ll tell you, in a very real sense, freedom is something I experience around quarter to five every morning. Now, in case you don’t already know, this is about the time Coco Chanel and I are taking our walk through Sligo. Fortunately, we’ve run into no bears, but last week, we did meet a skunk. Of course, we’ve been doing this kind of thing for years, but when we moved here, I made a fairly important decision. On our walks, I decided to give my little dog some freedom, and this is how I do it. Although I keep her on a leash, I let her determine the route we take. And we always go at her pace. And as we’re walking, I let her sniff as often and as long as she wants. And trust me, if she sees a dead worm on the sidewalk, we’ll be doing some rolling too. Now that’s what we do every morning. And why do I give her this a little bit of freedom? Well, for me, the answer is simple. I mean, since we don’t have a fenced-in yard and since, outside of the Fellowship Hall, there’s really no place where she can just wander around and since she lives such a short life, I hope our daily walks brings a little joy into her life. Of course, it’s not as much joy as Miss Shelley brings on Wednesday mornings, but it’s the best I can do.
And you know, that’s the kind of freedom we’re going to talk about this morning. You see, we’re going to look at the kind of freedom Paul wanted the Colossians to experience as they lived their own Christian lives, and I’m talking about the kind of freedom we can also live in ours. And to do that, we’re going to answer the same sort of questions to which I alluded when I told y’all about what Coco and I do before sunrise almost every morning. You see, we’re going to consider both the how and the why of Christian freedom.
And we’re going to start with the question, how were we set free? In other words, according to Paul, how did God free us from all that stuff that tends to bind us up and to tie us down? And how did he free us so that we might become more focused and faithful than we were before? How were we set free? And I’ll tell you, building on what he said in the passage we looked at last week, I think Paul offers two pretty clear answers.
You see, first, we’ve been set free, because we’ve died with Christ. In other words, when Jesus died on that cross, in a very real way, we died too. And through that death, we experience freedom. Just listen to what Paul wrote:
You died with Christ. Now the forces of the universe don’t have any power over you. Why do you live as if you had to obey such rules as, “Don’t handle this. Don’t taste that. Don’t touch this.”? After these things are used, they are no longer good for anything. So why be bothered with the rules that humans have made up? Obeying these rules may seem to be the smart thing to do. They appear to make you love God more and to be very humble and to have control over your body. But they don’t really have any power over our desires. [Colossians 2:20-23, CEV]
Now that’s what he said; we died with Christ. And just think about what that meant to him and can mean to us. You see, because we died with Christ, we’ve been freed from having to obey blindly all the rules and all the commands and all the laws we’ve been given. I mean, our Christian lives no longer have to be filled with a whole bunch of shoulds and oughts, given to us by others that we’re supposed to just shrug and accept without asking any questions or making any comment or experiencing any doubt, and I’m talking about all that stuff we’re told to do and all that stuff we’re told to say and all that stuff we’re told to feel. That’s gone. And instead, because we died with Christ, we are now free to question, you know, to use our brains and to question whether those commanded actions and words and feelings really make sense, especially in this world that we have right here and now. And we’re free to think, to recognize that even though some of the rules may have made good sense in another world at another time but not so much now, a whole lot more would still be the smart thing to do and to say and to feel yesterday, today and probably tomorrow. And we’re free to choose, to decide how we’re going to apply what we’ve been taught, and to do it with humility, acknowledging that, since we’re human, we’re going to make mistakes. Man, that’s a given. And so, as we question, we’re going to be willing to take in as much information as we can, and not just the stuff that confirms what we already believe. And as we think, we’re not going to rush in, throwing out the baby with the bath water. Instead, we’re going to be not only careful but also willing to go back if our conclusions prove to be wrong. And this we can do, because we’ve died with Christ.
But that’s not the only way we’ve been set free, because, again according to Paul, second, we’ve also been raised with Christ. You see, just like we died with Jesus on the cross, through the resurrection, we’ve been given the possibility of new life. And I’ll tell you, I think that’s exactly what Paul had in mind when he wrote this:
You have been raised to life with Christ. Now set your heart on what is in heaven, where Christ rules at God’s right side. Think about what is up there, not about what is here on earth. You died, which means that your life is hidden with Christ, who sits beside God. Christ gives meaning to your life, and when he appears, you will also appear with him in glory. [Colossians 3:1-4, CEV]
I’m telling you, just like the crucifixion offers us freedom, brothers and sisters, so does the resurrection. You see, because we were raised with Christ, we’re now free to look up and to look forward, to look up so that we can visualize the glory that the risen Christ enjoys at God’s right hand and we can trust that he’s taking our hopes and dreams, our fears and frustrations, our problems and pain to his father and our father and we can feel the comfort that comes from realizing that, when the Son rejoined his Father in heaven, he took our humanity with him and the hope that comes from accepting that when we share our hope and fears and problems, our dreams and frustrations and pain, man, he knows exactly how we feel, because he felt them too. And because we were raised with Christ, we are now free to see meaning in our lives. I’m telling you, regardless of what the world says and regardless of what we’re told to believe about ourselves and others, right now, we have a purpose to claim. And right now, we have a reason to be. And right now, our life has meaning, because right here and right now, we can bring glory to God through the love we show. You see, not only have we died with Christ, we’ve also been raised to life with him. And for Paul, that’s exactly how we’ve been set free, the answer to our first question.
And as to why, why were we set free? In other words, why, in his perfect freedom and love, why did God choose to free us through the crucifixion and resurrection? Why were we set free? Now that’s the question. And just like it was with the how, I think the answer to the why comes in two parts.
You see, first, I believe we were freed so that we can change, so that we can change what we do and what we say and what we feel. And I’ll tell you, I think that was the reason why, after establishing that we’ve been set free, Paul wrote this:
Don’t be controlled by your body. Kill every desire for the wrong kind of sex. Don’t be immoral or indecent or have evil thoughts. Don’t be greedy, which is the same as worshiping idols. God is angry with people who disobey him by doing these things. And this is exactly what you did, when you lived among people who behaved in this way. But now you must stop doing such things. You must quit being angry, hateful, and evil. You must no longer say insulting or cruel things about others. And stop lying to each other. You have given up your old way of life with its habits. [Colossians 3:5-9, CEV]
Now that’s what Paul wrote. And I don’t know about y’all, but it seems pretty clear to me that we weren’t set free so that we could stay exactly the way we were. Instead, God freed us so that we can change. I mean, we can change our actions. We can move away from just doing whatever we want without any regard of how it might affect others. And we can put aside those desires that we try to hide, because deep down, in our heart of hearts, we know they’re wrong. And we can change our attitudes. In other words, we can start getting a handle on the anger we might feel when we don’t get our way and on the hatred we might express when someone has the audacity not to share our opinions and assumptions and on the out-and-out evil we might display when we buy into lie that, in the sight of God, it’s alright to lie and to cheat and to steal so long as you come out on top. And we can change our relationships. In fact, we can change them in such a way that we never again believe it’s acceptable to say insulting and cruel things about the people God has led into our lives and to use others to benefit ourselves. You see, God freed us so that we can change.
Just like he also freed us so that we might become. And I’ll tell you, that just makes sense. I mean, changing our bad habits doesn’t really mean a hill of beans, man, it’s just a waste of time, unless we decide to become someone better than we were. And you know, I think that was Paul’s point when he wrote this:
Each of you is now a new person. You are becoming more and more like your Creator, and you will understand him better. It doesn’t matter if you are a Greek or a Jew, or if you are circumcised or not. You may even be a barbarian or a Scythian, and you may be a slave or a free person. Yet Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. [Colossians 3:10-11, CEV]
Now this was what Paul wrote, and I’ve to tell you, I think this is really exciting. You see, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God didn’t set us free so that we could just change. You see, he’s also enabled us to become. I mean, since we’re free, we can become a truly new person, with a new perspective and a new set of values and a new sense of purpose. And since we’re free, we can become more like God, an example that we have right here in front of us when we take seriously the life that Jesus lived and the lessons that he taught and the love that he showed. I mean, remember, it was Jesus Christ himself who said, “But I am giving you a new command. You must love each other, just as I have loved you. If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples.” [John 13:34-35, CEV] And I’ll tell you, since we’re free, we can become the kind of community that God wants us to be. I mean, we can become the kind of fellowship in which every voice is heard and every need addressed. And we can become the kind of body in which every part has a function and every member has value. And we can become the kind of community in which the old distinctions are forever gone, having been replaced by a common focus and a shared faith. You see, along with freeing us for the sake of change, we’ve been set free so that we might become. And for Paul, that’s why we’ve been set free.
Of course, I recognize that what we’ve been talking about is far more important and dramatic than anything Coco Chanel and I do as we’re wandering around Sligo at about quarter to five in the morning. You see, although I give her the freedom to choose her route and to take her time because I sincerely want her to enjoy her walks, the freedom we’ve received from God is really very different. I mean, according to Paul, we died with Christ and we were also raised with him, that’s how we were set free. And why did he do that for us? Well, based on what he wrote to the Colossians, I believe it was so that we might change and might become. Now, in my opinion, that’s what God has done. And when we claim it, I think that’s how we become rooted in freedom.
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