Pentecost 3C 2025

THE REV. E. WAYNE ROLLINS

​ You will be hearing the word “liberty” a lot this week. You’ll also be hearing a
lot about how that liberty is gained, along with phrases like “freedom isn’t free” and the
like. Most of what you will hear is not biblical, and at most only marginally Christian.
Paul speaks a lot about liberty in his letter to the Galatians. Primarily, he
counters some who came to Galatia after Paul introduced them to the way of Jesus.
These new teachers tell the Galatians that in order to be saved, they must enter into the
same covenant of Abraham and follow the law of Moses.

Paul is furious that some have adopted these teachings, despite what he taught
them. After venting some of his anger, he reiterates what he said in the beginning. He
reminds the Galatians of the source of their true freedom as well as defines what that
freedom means to them.

Many want to define freedom as the liberty to do what you want when you
want. That attitude just raises Paul’s blood pressure. He reminds them, and therefore
us that following Jesus isn’t just a “get out of jail free” card. That’s not what baptism is
about.

It’s also not about ensuring our way through the pearly gates, as if the time
between baptism and death is a libertine free-for-all. That idea isn’t new; it led many
during the first centuries of the church’s life to wait almost until their last breath to
receive baptism, because if you sinned after baptism, then it couldn’t be repeated and
you were doomed forever. I don’t know if there were any who woke up in eternity
saying “oops, misjudged that one,” but the mind wonders while it wanders.
“For freedom Christ sets us free.” Free to be free. Free for what?

Today’s Gospel doesn’t give us any warm, fuzzy answers. Jesus is moving out of
Galilee on his way to Jerusalem. His disciples try to tell some Samaritans about him,
and face rejection because of the deep enmity between Samaritans and Judeans. That
goes back to the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel during the time of the
first prophet Isaiah, some seven centuries before Jesus’ time. When we get to it, we’ll be
reminded of the shocking quality of the Good Samaritan parable. It’s like telling
extreme followers of either political party that there are good folks on the other side,
and not just those who agree with us after they’ve done something that just seems
wrong even if they support us or our side of the issue.

Christ sets us free to be in relationship with those who might be outcast and
avoided because of who they are. “Foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of
Man has nowhere to rest his head” means that, in effect, God is a wandering, homeless
being seeking refuge, which is to be found in the hearts and communities of believers.
But Jesus doesn’t accept refugee status as being free for himself. What he is free to do,
by his example and his crucifixion, is reveal to us just how we all too often treat our
homeless God.

But there’s another aspect to the freedom Jesus gives. His death on the cross and
his resurrection from the dead by God’s hand sets us free from fear of punishment,
allowing us to do the right thing for all those whom Christ died to save.
He sets us free to love.
​To love those whom our culture despises.
To love those who think themselves unlovable because others lack the Spirit of love.
To be blunt, Christ sets us free by loving the hell out of us so that we find the freedom
to stop living in and even creating hell for ourselves and others.

And when others try to sustain that same fear, that hell on earth through threats
and outright retribution, Christ ultimately sets us free to live forever in God and God
living forever in us.

And, finally, the Son of Man has somewhere to rest his head along with the foxes
and the birds. Those in whom the risen Christ lives, whom he sets free from fear of
death, are free from sin that wants to keep us enslaved, which the only thing sin can do
because sin itself is never free, in any sense of the word.
​
So how and where do we find that freedom? In the same way Christ did—by
offering freedom to any and all whom sin enslaves, despite the diligent work of some
who cannot accept true freedom and keep denying it for others. We are only free when
we find ourselves at liberty to offer and allow freedom, even if we think some don’t
deserve it. Because if they don’t know true freedom, neither do we.