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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Pastor Galler is at the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League Texas District Convention. This morning for our reflection on today’s Second Reading, Pastor Galler completed a sermon that was outlined by The Rev. Paul E. Shoemaker, pastor of Emanuel Lutheran Church in New Haven, Indiana. Rev. Shoemaker’s outline was published in current volume of Concordia Pulpit Resources (26:3, 31-32), to which publication Pilgrim subscribes primarily in order to supply sermons on occasions such as this, when pastor is away and no other pastor is available. The completed sermon reads as follows:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the rites of passage for teenagers is getting their driver’s license. Parents probably remember handing over the keys to their children as they went on their first trip solo in the family car. Teenagers no doubt remember the experience, too, although perhaps with different emotions. No longer dependent on Mom or Dad for transportation, for the teenagers those keys led to a newfound freedom. Even if somewhat limited, the teenagers were free to make decisions about where they were going, when they were going, and how to get there. With this newfound freedom came many choices and responsibilities. With each teenager, we parents may well have had a heartfelt conversation about the new freedom, encouraging him or her responsibly to make wise, mature, godly choices and so not abuse the freedom with poor decisions. Yet, at times we all make poor decisions, when we consider only our own desires and place ourselves at the center of our own universes. Such poor decisions enslave us to our sinful desires. But, as we heard in today’s Second Reading, in our Baptism, we are “Called to Freedom”, freedom to walk by the Spirit.
In today’s Second Reading, the Divinely-inspired St. Paul says quite plainly to the Galatians that they were—and we are—called to freedom. For five weeks we have been hearing more‑or‑less‑continuous readings from Galatians. For example, we have heard St. Paul say that there is only one Gospel that justifies us by God’s grace through Jesus Christ, and today we heard how a justified person lives. In the verses right before today’s Reading (Galatians 4:21‑31), which we do not hear in our three-year series of Readings, St. Paul contrasted Hagar’s children born to slavery with Sarah’s children born free. We Christians are children of Sarah, essentially in Baptism born free.
If, as is the case, we have been “Called to Freedom”, then we also realize that at one time we were enslaved, more specifically, enslaved to sin. We heard St. Paul say quite plainly that we should not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Earlier in his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul argued that converts to Christianity who gave in to pressure to be circumcised were submitting to a yoke of slavery. But, on a much deeper level, as the Lord Jesus Himself said, anyone who sins is a slave to sin (John 8:34). And so, at least by nature, since we all sin, we all are slaves to sin. We cannot overcome our sin in our own, by trying harder to keep God’s law more than we think that we might do. We are in too deep. We can never get ourselves out. Apart from faith in Jesus Christ, our enslavement to sin takes away both our physical life and our eternal life.
But, Christ has set us free! Jesus Christ came to earth in order to bring freedom. Jesus yoked Himself to us, becoming a true human being like us, taking on our human nature, but without sin. Jesus laced Himself under the Law, obligating Himself to meet all of its holy and perfect demands that we fail to meet, and He as the Holy Son of God met them perfectly—for us! Likewise for us, Jesus on the cross paid the price to buy our freedom from our failing to meet those demands (Matthew 28:20. So, Jesus gives us victory over death (1 Corinthians 15:57). Jesus Himself says that if we abide in His Word, we are truly His disciples, that we will know the truth, and the truth will make us free (John 8:31-32). If a Son of the house sets a slave free, the slave is truly free (John 8:36)! As we repent of our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, God forgives our sinful nature and all our sin, whatever it might be. Truly Christ has set us free, and, St. Paul says, Christ has set us free for freedom! We have been “Called to Freedom”!
With the Fourth of July coming up, and with so much talk in the news about our rights being taken away, we might get too caught up in the idea of such civil freedoms. In today’s Second Reading, St. Paul essentially says our freedom is to walk by the Spirit, not gratifying the desires of the flesh. The flesh St. Paul is talking about is our sinful nature that is totally self‑centered and cares nothing for others, and that sinful nature still clings to us, even we who believe and have been baptized. The works of the flesh are painfully evident and ugly, and St. Paul is said to list them in five groups. First St. Paul mentions sexual sins—sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality—sins that were prominent at the time St. Paul wrote, and sins that are still prominent today. Second St. Paul mentions sins against God according to the First Table of the Ten Commandments—idolatry, a sin against the First Commandment, and sorcery, a sin against the Second Commandment. Third St. Paul mentions sins against our relationships with our neighbors according to the Second Table of the Ten Commandments—enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, and envy. Fourth St. Paul mentions the public sins of drunkenness and orgies, and fifth and finally St. Paul mentions generally things like them, anything else our sinful nature might dream up. St. Paul illustrates but does not exhaust the list! Any such sin not only hurts others but also destroys us with an eternal slavery. Any such sin can damn us to hell apart from faith, but all such sins are forgiven us, as we walk by the Spirit.
Those who live and walk by the Spirit have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires and bring forth the fruits of faith. How different from those works of the flesh is walking by the Spirit! Walking by the Spirit is something common to all three of today’s Readings. In the First Reading, the prophet Elijah walked by the Spirit in the way of the Lord to the wilderness of Damascus and Elisha joined him on that way. In the Third Reading, Jesus and His disciples were walking by the Spirit in the way of the Lord to Jerusalem, and Jesus had others who made excuses instead of joining Him on that way. But, it is in the Second Reading where St. Paul lists the nine fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self‑control. “Called to Freedom” in our Baptisms, where the sinful nature of our flesh is drowned and dies and our redeemed nature of the Spirit arises, strengthened and nourished in individual Holy Absolution and the Sacrament of the Altar, we walk by the Spirit as God’s Word describes. In such ways we have a right relationship with Him, and in such ways we have right relationships with one another. We love and serve our neighbor not because we have to like a slave but because we want to as free children.
Teenagers with the newfound freedom of a driver’s licenses may make foolish, immature, ungodly choices and so abuse their freedom with poor decisions. And, parents reflect God’s love to them in forgiving them, even if there are consequences, such as losing their driving privilege for a time. Likewise with us and our Heavenly Father: there may be consequences for our sins, but those who repent and believe live every day in His forgiveness. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross sets us free from our slavery to sin. So “Called to Freedom”, we walk by the Spirit. That Spirit-led life, thanks be to God, brings us peace and joy, now and for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +