Sunday Message
July 4, 2004
Richard L Sheffield
Text: Galatians 5:1, 13-26; 1 Corinthians 13

It's the Fourth of July. It's Sunday. Sunday, the 4th of July 1880, we became the Market Street Presbyterian Church, with the dedication of our "new building," at Market and West. On Sunday the 4th of July, 1976, Dwane tells me we dedicated our new organ in this "new church."

It wasn't on July 4, 1776. It was Thursday. On that Thursday John Adams, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, wrote to his wife Abigail: "July 4th ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty."

John Adams was not a Presbyterian, he was a Congregationalist. As our cousin in the reformed tradition he understood the source of human freedom. He was joined by his Presbyterian cousins in faith, as many as 21 of them, in signing his name to a document that ends by declaring:

"We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That 0these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

So many Presbyterians signed on to those words, including John Witherspoon, the only minister to sign, that in England what we call the American Revolution, was known as the Presbyterian Rebellion.

Presbyterians, historically, theologically, politically, and personally, take freedom seriously. So seriously that some historians would count John Calvin, the father of Presbyterianism, among the founding fathers of the United States. In 1776 Calvin had been dead over 200 years (1564). Yet, "American historian George Bancroft stated, 'He that will not honor the memory, and respect the influence of Calvin, knows but little of the origin of American liberty.'" ¹ "German historian, Leopold von Ranke, wrote, 'John Calvin was the virtual founder of America.'" ² "John Adams, [who later became] the second president of the United States, wrote: 'Let not Geneva [John Calvin] be forgotten or despised. Religious liberty owes it most respect.'" ³

And written right into the beginning of our Presbyterian Constitution, as the first of what are known as "The Historic Principles of Church Order," are these words: "God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship." ⁴

We Presbyterians hold those words to be as self evident now as when they were first written in The Westminster Confession of Faith 120 years before The Declaration of Independence. We Presbyterians have a thing about freedom! Freedom that we believe is God given. That as our founding fathers declared: "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."

Because God grants it:
We have a right to live.
We have a right to live free.
We have a right to freely pursue a good and happy life.

Some have written that the War of Independence was conducted from Presbyterian pulpits! No doubt words from the lesson I read this morning, sounded loudly and clearly on many a Sunday morning: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." ⁵ I can hear many a Presbyterian preacher propounding Paul's words on Sunday, the 7th of July.

In that verse the word therefore is key to recognizing that Paul is not just pulling some eternal truth out of thin air. If you read the preceding chapters and verses you will find that the Galatian Christians were arguing among themselves, much like Presbyterians, about what it is that God requires. What is required of disciples of Jesus Christ? That's the question.

Paul's answer, to the Galatians, is that what is not required is to first become a Jew. That may not sound like a big deal to us, but to the new church, as it moved to places like Galatia, it was. My study Bible notes that, "[Some in Galatia] were declaring that in addition to having faith in Jesus Christ a Christian was obligated to keep Mosaic (Jewish) law. Paul insists, on the contrary, that a person becomes right with God only by faith in Christ and not by the performance of good works, ritual observances, and the like." ⁶ And Paul asks the Galatians, "Why on earth would you want to go back to that!" "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

Paul's letter to the Galatians is sometimes called the Magna Charta of Christian freedom ⁷ for its bell ringing fireworks and its declaration that in Jesus Christ we are free. Which ought to raise a question in your mind and mine. What does Paul mean? What does it mean – that we are free? Free from what? Free for what?

Does "free" mean anything goes? Some thought so. I don't think so. Neither did Paul. Paul wrote, a few verses later, "You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another." ⁸

We are free in Christ, but we are not free from Christ. Or as William Ralph Inge puts it: "Christianity promises to make men free; it never promises to make them independent." ⁹ At a minimum, as a friend of mine put it in a recent sermon, "My freedom ends where yours begins." ¹⁰

Many would say that freedom ends at a fence. That anything that restrains us, or constrains us from living as we please, makes us less free.

A company called "Freedom Fences" disagrees. It's a real company. Their invisible, electric fences, make it possible to let your dog run "free," within the limits set by the "Freedom Fence." Without any fence your dog is "free" to run where it will – into the neighbor's garden, or into the street. "Freedom Fence" says that's not really "free."

On the Eastside of Lima there is a horse farm. It was there long before Sam's Club and McDonald's. If you want to see "free" go see those horses. Longtime Market Street members Dr. David and Marie Steiner lived on the farm for many years. Before their deaths my family was treated on several occasions to a great meal, and a walk around to see the new foals running free.

In the 20 years we've been in Lima, that part of town has changed. The farm, which before my time was out in the country, is now in the suburbs. Where there were once corn and soybean fields you will now find a Super WalMart, Burger King, the Olive Garden, the Texas Roadhouse, Bob Evans, and whatever else they've built since last week.

To the east of the farm there is Route 117 and 4 lanes of traffic, two towards Columbus. To the north, strip malls and the five lanes of Route 309. To the west Interstate 75. And there are parking lots in every direction. The farm is like an island; almost an optical illusion. It's surrounded by white fences. Go out there sometime and watch the horses and ask yourself, Where are they truly "free?" Would they gain freedom if they were free to check out the gas pumps at Sam's, or wander over to the car wash on 309 at I-75? How free would they be at the Dollar Movie Theatre, or at K-Mart, or headed south toward Columbus on 117?

It's obvious, I think. Horses aren't free on freeways! The fences make them free. Free to be what God made them. Paul said the same of you and me. That God has fences too. They make us free. And a life without those fences, without restraint, wrote Paul, is one marked not by freedom but by "fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these." ¹¹

You may be "free" to do all that, and increasingly we are, but that won't make you free! Anymore than taking down the fences at Steiner's farm will free the horses. Paul proposes a life "fenced in" by "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control," ¹² Paul says that's the life that will free us. He proposes a life "fenced" in by love as the life to which we are called in Jesus Christ – writing to the Galatians that, "The whole law is summed up in a single commandment, (there's only one fence, but it's a high one) 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" ¹³ How? Lovingly, joyfully, peacefully, patiently, kindly, generously, faithfully, gently, and self-lessly. Your "freedom" ends, said Paul, where lack of love begins.

He goes on to say, if you are unloving of one another, "If you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another." ¹⁴ Wise words for you and me as individuals. Wise words for you and me – as Paul intended them – for the Church of Jesus Christ.

Wise words for the Church, meeting as the Church Presbyterian, for the past week in Richmond, VA. I watched much of the proceedings of our 216th General Assembly, in Richmond, on the internet. It was playing in the background on my computer as I was writing this sermon. My observations. First, unlike the church in Galatia, I don't think Paul would chastise us for "biting and devouring" one another. We Presbyterians are too genteel for that. But we are, I think, nibbling ourselves to death. We pass resolutions on everything, yet resolve nothing. We're not on the freeway, not yet – no matter what the news media says – but we are kicking hard at some fences. Some of us want to take the fences down and build walls. Others just want the fences down. I believe it's within the fences that we find our freedom in Jesus Christ. And we replace them, or remove them, at our peril at this fragile time in this Church Presbyterian.

Someone asked me last week if the proposed changes in ordination standards would pass. I said "No." I was right. By a vote of 259 to 255. Even had the vote gone the other way, our constitution would not have changed. The vote was on "guidance," not "law." And no change is now possible in our church law before 2008. Ask me and I'll explain. In the meantime there is a "fence mending" committee hard at work: "The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church." The Assembly, by the barest of margins, voted to let them do their work without the added burden of an action that would have been misinterpreted by advocates and opponents alike.

Paul, I think, would not be surprised. He would see in Richmond what he saw in Galatia and in Corinth, and in Ephesus, and in Philippi, and in Colossae. And he would say to us what he said to all of them, specifically to the church in Corinth – words not for a wedding but for a church in danger of a divorce: "Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." ¹⁵

To freedom loving Presbyterians, on this Fourth of July, Paul would write, "Freedom ends where a lack of love begins."

1. http://www.reformed.org/documents/geneva/Geneva.html
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. The Book of Order, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), G-1.0300.
5. Galatians 5:1 KJV.
6. The New Oxford Annotated Bible, 263nt.
7. Ibid.
8. Galatians 5:13 NRSV.
9. William Ralph Inge, Presbyterian Outlook, May 25, 1987.
10. William J. Murphey, "Free! Really Free?" June 27, 2004.
11. Galatians 5:19-21 NRSV.
12. Galatians 5:22-23 NRSV.
13. Galatians 5:14 NRSV.
14. Galatians 5:15 NRSV.
15. 1 Cor. 13:4-7 NRSV.