Two Services Begin Sunday

Introducing our Second Service

                Beginning this Sunday, we will worship at 10am and 11am.  10am worship is our "Adult" Worship service, 11am is for "Children and Families".  The design of this service is to provide for our families to be able to worship together.  While children were always welcome at the 10am Service, let us be honest, it was not designed for children.  It was designed for kids to head out to children’s programming about 10 minutes in.

                The 10am service is one that is built upon principles of reverence and quiet, centered on the sermon, the proclamation of God’s Word.  In other words, it is rather boring for those who are not of a mind or an age to follow along.  In the summer, that service only goes 40-45 minutes already, so we are not changing anything, but rather recognizing the actual end time of that service already.

                As we are meeting in Westminster Hall to worship while the Sanctuary is undergoing clean up and restoration, the easiest entrance is through the Porch door on Rector Street.  For families arriving ahead of the 11am hour, please come in to the Sunday School Room, immediately to your right from the Porch door, or all the way down the hallway if you are coming in the doors off Market Street.  If pastor remembers, the a/c will be on, crayons and paper will be on the table, and we will turn over the space as best we can.

                For those who like to label things, calling the 10am Service the Adult Worship Service is to set it in distinction to the Children and Family Worship Service at 11am.  These are working labels, and will be changed as we intentionally consider what we do to worship our beloved God.  10am will be of a more ‘traditional’ style and 11am will be of a more ‘contemporary’ style.  One will be tighter-and longer, one will be looser-and is scheduled to be shorter.  Some people will feel discouraged or left out of one or the other because of our working titles.  Having Children and/or a Family is not mandatory for the 11am service.  Being an Adult is not mandatory for the 10am service. 

                Certain things will carry over from one service to the other.  We follow the Revised Common Lectionary for preaching, that Scripture passage will be the same for both services-although the Proclamation, the Sermon, will be appropriate to each service.  For this Sunday, the passage is Luke 12: 13-21.  When Communion is celebrated, first Sunday of the month, it will be in both services. 

                What we are saying with this second worship service is that THE most important thing we do when we give our hearts to the Lord eagerly and sincerely is that we WORSHIP our beloved God.  All the other things, our programs, our groups, our outreach, all of that is secondary to worshiping the Lord first and foremost.  To that end, the elements of the 11am Service will be open to review and to change, especially as we seek what works best in offering our hearts to the Lord.  It is, intentionally, experimental.  It also means that the 10am Service, which is based on a long tradition of liturgical usage, will be looked at to understand how and why we do things in the order in which we have them.

                And it is not because the Presbyterian Church says so.  Or, even worse, because we have ‘always done it that way’. 

Peace,
Pastor Peter

Mary and Martha Sermon of July 21, 2019

Luke 10: 38-42                                                                        July 21, 2019

            What is more important?  Serving Jesus brunch or joining in conversation with the Almighty?  Martha is on for the brunch.  Mary steps up for the conversation.  A debate ensues, seeking to draw Jesus in. So it is between two sisters in our Bible passage today.

            This is right after Jesus debate with the lawyer, establishing who our neighbor is by the telling of the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  It is not hard to imagine Jesus has gone to the home of some friends, taking time to recharge his batteries after that debate before what comes next.  Mary and Martha figure elsewhere in the gospels.  It is their brother, Lazarus, that Jesus will raise from the dead.  There is familiarity with the people in the scene.  Mary sits comfortably with Jesus, Martha is comfortable enough with Jesus to complain that she isn’t helping.  Sounds like a typical domestic scene.    

            The lesson of the story is fairly obvious, pick Jesus over making sure the snacks have been laid out.  Pick Jesus over getting dinner on the table.  Time with Jesus is better spent than time preparing for Jesus.  Are we picking on Martha?  If Jesus was coming to one of our homes after worship today, what kind of a list can we make our heads right now about what we need to get done first?

            Listen to Martha’s words again.  “Lord, do you not care that my sister Mary has left me to do all the work by myself?  Tell her then to help me.”  Martha would love nothing less than to do as Mary, but there is too much to get done first.  If she would only help…  

            We could spend some time talking about the sisters and personality types, the worker bee versus the engager, we might type Mary and Martha into current theories of who people are and how they act.  We might invent an entire story arc to explain why Mary was leaving Martha to do all the work and why Martha got so frustrated, she called out Jesus to do something about it. 

            But Jesus cuts to the heart of the matter.  He tells Martha that she is “worried and distracted by many things” when “there is need of only one thing.”  “Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her.”

            I find this snapshot of life in Jesus’ ministry to be a powerful connector to what we spoke of last week.  That was all about loving our neighbor through showing mercy.  That, in turn, was the answer of what we do to inherit eternal life, fulfilling the command to love God and love neighbor.  That, in turn, was the life lesson of how it is we fulfill the vision of our church, that we give our hearts to the Lord eagerly and sincerely. 

            We see the sisters giving their hearts to the Lord.  In Mary, we see a sincere and eager desire to learn from the Master.  In Martha, we see a sincere desire to serve, but her eagerness is dampened by looking around and seeing that she is left to do all the work.  There is no doubt that she wants to give her heart to the Lord, but Jesus diagnoses her frustration, being distracted and worried by many things.”

            I don’t know about you, but I find myself identifying with Martha in this.  Distractions and worries are the stuff of life.  To be able to put it aside in an instant and sit in joy at the feet of the Savior, how wonderful that sounds, but how completely could we actually do that?

            There was a cautionary note in the sermon last week in regards to showing mercy to our neighbor that is out of love and not from some other motivation, not from some sense of obligation or expectation.  We all have obligations and expectations in our lives.  That is what it means to be human and to be in community with other humans.  Maybe the difference can be summed up in whether, when we serve the Lord, or when we serve our neighbor, we can say to ourselves, “I want to do this” with a cheerful heart  versus “I have to do this” with a burdened heart.

            This is the moment to return to the basics of why we are Christians in the first place.  Why did Mary come to the feet of Jesus so readily to learn and to listen?  Because he brought a new truth of love and salvation from God.  Martha knows this.  At the raising of Lazarus, she will confess that she knows her brother will return at the Resurrection.  Jesus has come to put into effect the plan of love that God has established to reverse the rule of sin and of Satan on this earth. 

            Why do I want to love my neighbor?  Because I was first loved by the Lord so much that he gave his life for me on the cross.  He has freed me from the bonds of sin.  I can come to the Lord in confession and receive the blessed healing of forgiveness at any time and at any moment.  I can come to the Lord in my pain and suffering and the Lord will provide.  Our faith in Jesus is not based on a fear of failure that leads to death, thus motivation by an angry God.  Our faith in Jesus is based in love, a love that was so powerful that he offered life for life for each of us to renewed as God’s children.

            Secondly, I want to love my neighbor so they may know those same joys.  It is like the hymn, “This little light of mine, I am going to let it shine.”  A verse goes, “Hide it under a bushel?”  NO, I’m going to let it shine.”

            When we come to a time in our lives when things weigh heavily on us and living the Christian life becomes a “have to” and not a “want to”, that is the time for us to dig back into who we are as Children of God, to remember what God has done for us in Jesus, to rejoice in the gifts we have received. 

            It is why we offer the celebration of communion on a regular basis.  For this church, it is monthly, for others it is done weekly.  It is a reminder of what Jesus has done for us to refill the spiritual well of our souls.  It is a time to return when we wander away.

            Martha got caught up in the things of life, creeping up like weeds to strangle the joy of her faith.  Jesus looked into her very soul and called her out for what she needed, to be in the blessed company of the saints in light, to be with her sister at the feet of Jesus, to be refilling her well with the waters of life.

            I think sometimes we get caught up in the powerful extremes of faith, of life and death, of healing and suffering, that we lose sight of this.  It’s not all about the grand battles, the mountain tops and valley floors of life.  It is about each and every day, lived in joy and wonder or worry and distraction.  Its about all the moments, each one lived as for the Lord.  And when the stuff of life threatens, with its worries and distractions, it is about the opportunity we have to come back to be filled once more with the joy and wonder of being brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus.

Amen

Update on Church Repairs

July 18, 2019

Update to Church Repairs

Rev. Peter Hofstra

                Mold Remediation:  We are continuing with the mold control protocols in the church.  The Auditorium and the Sanctuary are separated off from the rest of the church with plastic barriers and the scrubbers continue to do their work.  This will progress into next week.  We have had a couple of rain events now to test the tarps on the roof.  As of Wednesday, they seemed to be holding well.

                Heat in the Church:  Now that the mold problem is under control, this work can begin.  Among the various issues, we had iced pipes in two locations in the Narthex this past winter.  The one was in the corner of the room, where we had it some years ago.  The other was-we now know-under the tower.

                It is now safe for the plumbing diagnostic to go ahead.  They have found where the second ice break occurred, under the bell tower and out of reach except for a long crawl beneath the sanctuary floor.  We have also uncovered damage and staining to the carpet in the Narthex.  Removing that is going to be one of the necessary steps forward to mitigating the water damage as well as allowing the leak to be repaired.  It will NOT be possible to crawl under the building to get to it.  The floor in the Narthex will have to be opened up to allow the repairs. 

                Additionally, the plumbing diagnostic has plotted out where the various heating zones are in the Sanctuary wing, the system has been pressure tested and, unfortunately, a couple of other leaks found, and a general survey of the condition and safety of the heating system is under way.  Some corrosion has been found, some of the bleeder valves are in need of replacing, but a full safety inspection and report will be issued at the conclusion of this work.

                My continued thanks to our adjuster for helping us find the right people to do this survey and preparation work for the church.

                When the diagnostic work is complete and we have confirmed that the mold control efforts have rendered the Sanctuary space safe, we are going to set a couple of times to walk interested members of the church through the space so folks can see what is being done.  These times will be set after our next meeting with the mold control folks, early next week. 

                Community Notification: Our first steps were to notify the members of the church community as to what is taking place in the church.  You are our first line of response to inquiries from friends of our community, to folks you know in the neighborhood.  A second step was to meet with Harborview and, based on what we have shared, a letter was put out to the parents to let them know that this is a safe environment for their children and that work goes forward to make it even safer.

                The worst possible outcome of what we are doing is when ‘tidbits’ or ‘juicy nuggets’ get passed along to people whose imaginations fill in the rest.  That leads very quickly to rumors overblowing what is really happening here.  It leads to rumors that the church is covering things up.  It leads to rumors that the leadership of the church-including the pastor-are using their ‘power’ to hide things or manipulate things.  None of this is taking place.

                It is the responsibility of this entire church community to be on the same page with what goes on in our church.  It is the Session, the governing board of our church, that is ultimately responsible for what happens here.  We shall be transparent with what is happening with full and proper information.  These blog posts are here to serve as the first line of information.  It is the responsibility of anyone using this blog information who does not understand something to be in contact with the church office or with me to get clarification.  If there is information that we do not have, because only Jesus is perfect, we are not, no matter how hard we try, it is the responsibility of those who know to get that information to us.

                When will we be returning to the Sanctuary?  At this time, we do not know.  We are still in a diagnostic phase.  Once we know what steps need to be taken, we will be in a position to better answer that question. 

Bridging Sermons: From the Good Samaritan to Mary and Martha

Two Sisters: Mary and Martha                                                                    Bridging Sermons

Rev. Peter Hofstra

                The sermon this past Sunday was based on Luke 10, the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  Jesus told this parable ultimately to answer one of the big questions of our faith.  “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  This was a challenge question from a lawyer.  Jesus’ gained the answer from the lawyer by asking what the law said.  It is loving God and loving neighbor.  In an attempt to justify himself, the lawyer challenges then on who qualifies as ‘neighbor’.  Thus the parable.

                But there was a piece left unanswered, headed in a different direction.  What happens if doing things in the faith out of love for neighbor, like showing mercy, becomes a weight of being an obligation.  What do we do when "I want to" becomes "I have to" or "I am supposed to"?  

                The follow up in Luke 10, our Scripture for this Sunday, gets at this very question.  After this great debate with the lawyer, Jesus goes to the home of Mary and Martha.  Mary is prepared to set everything aside to join our Lord in company and conversation.  Martha is prepared to go a little crazy trying to prepare for a drop in visit by Jesus. 

                It gets to a point of frustration with Martha that she seeks Jesus’ intervention to get Mary 'off the couch and into the kitchen' to help.  I believe it is not that Martha did not want to do as her sister did, to join Jesus in company and conversation.  Rather, she had a list of what needed to get done FIRST before that peace could be enjoyed, and Mary was not helping. 

                This Sunday, we will consider what Jesus said to Martha and how that connects to our lives in the moments when we too feel that the ‘weight of obligation to service’ overtakes the joy and love from which we are called to do the work of Christ. 

                Our text is Luke 10: 38-42 to anyone who would like to read ahead.   

The Good Samaritan: Big Picture Sermon: July 14, 2019

Luke 10: 25-37                         Neighbors: Key to Loving God                                         July 14, 2019

                                                                                                                                     Rev. Peter Hofstra

            The story of the Good Samaritan is one of the big ones we learn in Sunday School.  You know the story Jesus tells, man gets mugged, two holy people and a Samaritan, an “unclean”, come along the road and it is the “unclean” person who helps him out.  Some time back, talking about the woman at the well, we spent some time on the ugly relationship between Samaritans and Jews living in Judea. 

            But how often do we focus on the lead-in question to this parable?  A lawyer asks, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  This is nothing less than addressing our participation in salvation with Jesus as Christians.  Jesus has done his part.  He died for us, rose for us, brought us salvation and forgiveness by God’s grace, and the final gift, the gift of life eternal. 

            Life eternal is that final gift, the lawyer is asking what WE must do to receive it.

            Jesus goes back to basics, what is the law?    

He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

This is Jesus’ answer, this is how you obtain eternal life.  The lawyer is unsatisfied, so he presses, trying to find a weak point.  It is hard to argue about loving God, but what about humanity?  So Jesus, whose my neighbor?  What are the qualifications?  What is the legal definition of the word?  By extention, who can be excluded?  

The parable of the Good Samaritan is to answer this.  “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of these robbers?” 

            The response is obvious, “The one who showed him mercy.”

            So that answers that.  Those who need help, you are their neighbor.  But in his response, Jesus is not sticking to the narrow focus of the lawyer’s inquiry.  He doesn’t stay with the ‘neighbor’ part of the law, but returns to the part about loving God.  

            Because who were the first two men to come past the one beaten by robbers?  The first was a priest, one who led the people of God in worship.  The second was a Levite, same tribe as the priests, but one who worked in support of the priests and their worship leadership.  Remember, they did not just go to church like we do, there was an entire sacrificial system in place, an entire religious industry if you will run by the Levites.

            These two men are those who obey the first part, loving God with heart, soul, strength, and mind.  Yet they fail in loving neighbor.  Only the Samaritan, who doesn’t “qualify” as an orthodox lover of God, loved neighbor.  Consider the implication.  If you are not showing mercy to your neighbor, you are not demonstrating your love for God.  Your eternal life is in jeopardy. 

Anyone can say they love God.  It is proved not by the words but by the actions of loving neighbor.  This lawyer was from the leadership caste of the priests and Levites.  This story spoke directly as an indictment to him as it did abstractly about love of neighbor.   

            But there is the religious identity of another character in this story that we need to consider, not just the two servants of God and the Samaritan.  All were God-fearing men even if they did not agree on where God ought to be worshipped.  It is not the identity of the innkeeper.  I am talking about the religious identity of the man beaten by robbers.  He is the one person in the story that Jesus does NOT identify racially or religiously.  He is a man walking from Jerusalem to Jericho.  He might have been a Jew, he might have been a Samaritan, he might have been a priest, he might have been a Levite, he might have been none of the above, maybe a Gentile traveler.  Jerusalem was the capital, Jericho was a border city heading out of the Promised Land, heading out even from lands claimed by the Roman Empire. 

            He is an ‘everyman’, a generic neighbor.  Doesn’t matter who he was or what he believed.  He needed mercy and only one person showed him mercy.  I have heard it argued, in defense of the priest and Levite, that they did not help because the beaten man was ceremonially unclean and they needed to be ceremonially clean to perform their duties for God.  If that was part of the argument, I think Jesus makes it pretty clear that ceremonial cleanliness was not enough of a reason to ignore loving your neighbor.

            For me, I think it is more important for us to recognize that Jesus has commanded us to love our neighbor, to show mercy, to whomever is in need.  We don’t need to identify them as being from an approved group, white or heterosexual or American or well off, before we call them neighbor, and act accordingly.  I think that was exactly what the lawyer was looking for Jesus to say.  Here is an “approved” list of neighbors.  Forget the rest. 

            In one way, this simplifies our work as a church.  How do I give my heart eagerly and sincerely to the Lord?  Love your neighbor.  Who is that?  Anyone…everyone who needs mercy. 

            In another way, this complicates our life as a church.  It could cause some real soul searching in our current political climate.  What is our view of the displaced people along our border?  Their lives are in danger and the US response is to build walls, bureaucratically if not of steel and concrete.  There is not a lot of wiggle room in living out love of neighbor through the mercy we offer.    

            It also challenges our economic system.  We have so much, how much do we expend for people who need mercy?  How much do we keep for ourselves?  What does it really mean to love our neighbors as ourselves?  The Good Samaritan paid the man’s medical bills out of pocket…  Do we dare to give all and trust God will provide?  

            There is an inherent danger in this discussion.  We are not perfect.  Loving neighbor is NEVER meant to be some kind of divine currency to earn eternal life.  That is already ours.  Jesus did the heavy lifting, dying and rising for us.  Remember, whenever we fall down in the Christian life, we can get back on our feet, confident in the forgiveness of God, won for us by Jesus.

When we love someone, we operate out of our love, not obligation.  And here is a warning, when service, when love, feels like obligation, it is time to get on our knees and reconnect with Jesus.  We serve because we want to, not because we ‘have to’.  I think that is what Jesus was trying to get the lawyer to understand.  God sent us God’s only Son because God loves us.  Jesus gave his life for us because he loves us.  We show mercy because we love our neighbor.  It is not about earning eternal life.  That is already given.  When we give our hearts to the Lord eagerly and sincerely, we show mercy in love.  We show mercy because, in the name of love that is what neighbors do.  Amen.

Sarah is NOT quite Farewelled Yet...

July 11, 2019                                      Sarah IS with us in August

                I misspoke.  I misunderstood.  I apologize.  Certainly won’t be the last time I get something wrong. 

                Sarah IS with us at the end of August, as scheduled.  In the course of a separate discussion, I played “connect the dots” and came up with a different picture than was really on the page.  She has some Sundays off, but not ALL of them.  And because things needed to happen quickly, I moved forward without checking my sources.  This is a lesson on how NOT to do a church-wide ongoing e-newsletter and blog.

                The beautiful thing is that I am not too old to be taught things.  And, despite my best intentions, it will be nothing short of a miracle if I do not mess this up again in future. 

                Regardless, come on out Sunday to be in worship and say Hi to Sarah and all of us.

                Easiest entrance with the move to Westminster Hall is to come in the Rector Street porch entrance.

Peace,
Pastor Peter

Farewell to Sarah Gorman

July 11, 2019                                                                                       Saying Farewell

                We knew she was going to college this fall.  We knew this day was coming.  But with the movements and changes and life in the summertime, I didn’t know it was going to be so soon.  Sarah Gorman, gifted student of our own Mary Lu Farrell, will be playing for us for the last time ‘officially’ this Sunday, July 14, 2019.  I say officially, because Mary Lu retired a little while back, but she still comes when needed. 

                We have met her successor, Sebastian, who will begin a week from Sunday.  I say successor, because I have yet to meet a musician here who has given us the gift of music who could ever be replaced. 

                She doesn’t know it, but we are going to make a bit of a deal of her last ‘official’ Sunday on the 14^th during worship.  I invite you to come worship and to wish her all the best. 

                We have been blessed by her presence with us, and also by Mary Lu, who continues to stay connected to us, helping us with finding accompanists for our worship service.  We in turn have been a ‘training ground’, about to work with our third young person to ‘train them up’ in the work and joy of church music.  This works out best for us all.  We can continue to afford to have music played for us during worship and we provide the opportunity for an up and coming musician to gain experience as a church musician.

               

Mold in the Church

July 10, 2019                                                                                                 Church Safety Update

                In a series of tests being conducted in the church by our public adjuster (see the mailed letter for more details on that), mold tests were conducted in the Sanctuary and throughout the church.  It was found that the levels were so high in some parts of the building that immediate steps needed to be taken.

                The parts of the building where this happened were in the area around the Sanctuary, where we have had water leakage for an extended period of time.  Westminster Hall, the area that Harborview uses, and the church offices are at normal levels.  But with the ongoing heat and humidity of the summertime, if nothing were done, levels would rise throughout the building.  

                The Session has approved a proposal for a containment strategy that will be carried out this morning.  It will be in three parts.

1 .       The Sanctuary will be sealed off with plastic from the rest of the building so that mold cross-contamination will not occur.

2.       The roof leaks will be tarped down properly to prevent any more immediate water leakage and mold increase.  (A more permanent fix looks to be part of our insurance claim for the damage we sustained in the building this past winter)

3.       Atmospheric scrubbing machines will be put into the church building.  Creating a negative atmospheric flow, these machines will scrub the air of the mold particulates and bring down mold levels in the affected area to acceptable margins.  Thus, if someone goes into those areas of the church, they will not be affected.

The plan was to move the worship services of the church to Westminster Hall this Sunday regardless because of the ongoing testing and work we anticipated beginning in the next few weeks.  When I received the reports of the high mold levels on Friday, July 5, we moved Services over a week early.

The church is safe.  Harborview and the church offices are being protected.  This containment is the first step in remediating the problem and removing the mold from the church.  If you have any questions, please email me.  As more information becomes available, we will send it out to the congregation in this same manner.

Peace,

Pastor Peter

Four Weeks to Children and Family Worship

July 9, 2019

                In four Sundays, we introduce a second worship service on Sunday morning, our Children and Family Service.  It will begin at 11am and will last for half an hour.  Our Traditional Service will continue at 10am, but it will be shortened to 45 minutes to allow for a transition to the second service.  We begin with worship because this is where we begin when we commit our hearts eagerly and sincerely to the Lord. 

                That phrase, that we commit our hearts eagerly and sincerely to the Lord, it is our statement of purpose as the First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy.  Where that begins first is in the worship of our Lord.  But when we start talking about worship, things can get sticky very quickly.  How do we speak gently about the reality that our Traditional Service has seen a declining attendance for months. 

                We could have an extended and hearty discussion as to the various reasons why this is.  We could rapidly become annoyed with one another and point fingers and talk about the past and expectations and responsibilities.  We could have a very fruitful conversation and chart a new path forward.  We could do a lot of things.

                But committing our hearts eagerly and sincerely to the Lord, that is our first line of response to the Lord for all that the Lord has done for us.  In our Scripture for this Sunday, a lawyer asks Jesus what must be done to inherit eternal life.  Jesus asks him what the law says. 

The response:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

To me, committing our hearts eagerly and sincerely to the Lord is how we are fulfilling this call.  And that call begins with worship. 

                I believe that the measure of our commitment to our Lord, that the measure of the commitment of our hearts to the Lord, will come in the worship of the Lord. 

                Now is the time for questions, now is the time for conversation, now is the time for commitment.  We are the Lord’s Presbyterians in Perth Amboy.  Let us give our hearts to Him afresh.

Pastor Peter

Freedom in Christ: Freedom to Make the Right Choice

June 30, 2019              Freedom          Galatians 5: 1; 13-25

Rev. Peter Hofstra

            Christ makes us free.  It says so twice in the first verse, “for freedom, Christ has set us free”.  Sounds redundant, doesn’t it?  But is it? 

            With July 4 approaching, “freedom” should be ringing in our ears.  America is about to turn 243.  Freedom was the cry of 1776 and the American Revolution.  We kicked out the Brits because they were impinging on our freedoms.  These are ‘freedoms to’, freedoms to do things.  But what is freedom as an ideal?

            Freedom is a foundational concept for our church.  What is our call?  To give our hearts to the Lord eagerly and sincerely.  That assumes we are free to do so.  How can we truly be eager or sincere about anything if we are doing it under duress or threat? 

            Imagine a philosophy class considering this question, “what is freedom?”  I have to imagine because I never took a philosophy class.  It feels more like a comedy sketch.  I imagine some older gentleman in a slightly creased suit, hand in his pocket, twirling his glasses in the other hand, squinting out at the lecture hall and asking, “What is freedom?”  The answer might be some kind of academic nonsensical double talk, “Freedom is a metaphysical transcultural intersocietal neurological astrological construct….”  It might be fairer to say that we know freedom when we see it, but defining it is more challenging.

            Some would argue that freedom is a ‘state of being’.  There is truth to that.  In honor of the 4^th, consider our history.  Before the Civil War, people were in two ‘states of being’ in this country.  There were slaves and there were free.  Drill down a little bit, consider the African American community.  Pardon the old fashioned language, but there were slaves and there were “free blacks”.  To be free was to be “not a slave”.  Freedom was conditional.

            From there, I think we can understand that when Paul is telling us that Christ makes us free, it is not because Jesus is inserting us into a philosophical, metaphysical construct.  He is freeing us FROM something.  He is freeing us from sin.  That is foundational to our salvation through Jesus’ death and resurrection.    

            Using the language of our history, the bible tells us we were slaves to sin, but now we are free, through Christ.  Freedom is a condition of the work of Christ at Easter. 

            But Paul doubles the wording: In freedom, Christ made us free Paul says.  Freedom has two meanings here.  First, ‘in freedom’ means that Jesus was free from sin, ever tempted, never fell for it.  In that freedom, his sacrifice on the cross was a perfect atonement, worthy of God for our sins and we were made free from the consequences of sin.  Thus free, we can choose how we shall again enslave ourselves again.    

            That is the language that Paul gives us.  We are free to become slaves to one another, through love, to fulfill the great commandment, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  Or we are free to use the opportunity of self-indulgence.  We are free to gratify the desires of the flesh.  Which carry their own consequences.  But Paul does, in fact, warn us

If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Let me sidebar for a moment.  I have to say, I am not a big fan of Paul’s language that we have to be enslaved to one another, not a big fan of slave language at all.  Slavery has a cruel and vicious history in our experience.  Yes, slavery was different in kind under the Romans, but to make that case undercuts our own experience with slavery in our nation’s history.  Maybe more current language is that we have a life choice to make.  We are free to choose how we shall live.  More important than the language of how we express it-our life choice or enslavement-more important are the consequences of those choices. 

On this, Paul is very clear.  If we choose the flesh, if we choose self indulgence,  

the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But given the preferred choice, love of neighbor, By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

            Freedom is then a choice.  We can choose to love our neighbor, we can choose to be self-indulgent.  Jesus chose love of neighbor, chose to love us to the point of giving up his life for us.  There is no argument as to which choice Paul is calling upon us to make here, for the love of neighbor.

            But while it is easy to state things as black and white, as right and wrong, to talk about them in absolutes, life is never that cut and dried.  Because sometimes the church, seeking to love neighbor, falls down and becomes self-indulgent when they place other things as more sacred than the love of God and neighbor.

            In college, I attended a church because of their active young adult fellowship.  It was a good place for me to be at that point in my life.  And this church took seriously the application of biblical precepts to the things of everyday life. Which was a good thing.  Until it was not.

            A gentleman, recently divorced, joined the church and our active young adult group.  Married too young, divorced quickly, came to the faith afterward as he was seeking to build a new life.  God bless him.  Eventually began a relationship with one of the women in the group.  Good and fine.  Then his ex-wife came to the church.  Maybe not so bad unto itself.  She also expressed that she had come to believe.  Again, something to celebrate.  And she wanted to reconcile with her ex-husband.  He did not want to, that relationship was done.  She went to the leaders of the church to back her play, and they did.  They said he must reconcile with his ex, in the name of Christ and the sanctity of marriage, thus cutting off his new relationship.  My friends ended up leaving the church, there was schism in their families, because of this, because they would not “accept” the guidance and discipline of the church. 

            My take is that church became self-indulgent in declaring that marriage was more important than neighbor.  It was a decision made from the best of intentions.  But that church went from gentleness to strife, peace to dissension, love to quarrels. 

            This is a big and painful example of what can happen when love of neighbor is lost in the freedom that we have in Christ.

            The fact of the matter is no one in that church leadership was out to hurt anyone else.  They felt they were doing God’s will.  They were taking it seriously.  And there was a time when they probably could have enforced their will upon the members of their church.  But that was also a time when “marriage” was sacred and blessed by the church, but what happened inside the marriage-all too often abuse, even violence, that was “none of the church’s business”.

            The law of God is very clear, love God, love neighbor, everything else derives from that.  When the church decides something is more important than neighbor, even some as important as marriage, things can break down.  How about a lesser example, like daring to challenge the conclusion that so many churches make, “we have always done it this way”.  The ‘tradition’ has become its own sacred cow.  As soon as a church finds itself saying something like that, there is a danger that their freedom has shifted from love to a self-indulgent danger-even unintentionally. 

The challenge for any church looking to be faithful to the witness of Jesus Christ is how consciously and intentionally they can connect a statement like “we’ve always done it this way” to the precept that we exercise our freedom to love our neighbor.  But how?

The challenge for the church is to honestly and openly review its own behavior to see what is happening.  If the fruit of the spirit are manifest, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control then things are probably okay.  And the tradition serves the Lord’s purpose.

But if there is dissension in the church, if factions are forming, if there is anger or jealousy or strife, those behaviors are warning signals.  They should be telling us LOUD AND CLEAR that our freedom has moved from the love of neighbor into something else, something sinful, something disruptive.  The tradition has become important unto itself, and the bible calls that idolatry.  Because the consequences for that are very clear.  Those who do such things will NOT inherit the kingdom of God.

It is the mature and loving church that can look at itself with a critical eye and catch these things when they are happening.  And when they do, the solution in clear.  In Christ, we are made free.  We are free to stop what we are doing and begin again.  We are not only free to, but blessed with the opportunity to confess to God and to one another and receive the sweet healing of forgiveness.  And in those moments of renewal and forgiveness, the church grows spiritually-both inwardly and outwardly. 

            So to understand what freedom is in Christ enhances our understanding and wisdom of how freedom is the gift of God that can be the loving joy in which we give our hearts eagerly and sincerely to the Lord.

Amen.