“Freedom isn’t Free”

• Scriptural Reference: Galatians 5:1; 13-25
• July 1, 2007

In 1949 the Chinese Communist government expelled all western missionaries from the country. At that time there were around 700,000 Chinese Christians. A number of western missionaries were jailed; some died, but most left the country with profound regret and grief. How could they abandon their Christian brothers and sisters? How would the work of the gospel go on in such a hostile environment? Without the basic freedoms, would the church be snuffed out?

There followed nearly 30 years of suffering. After Mao passed from the scene, the so-called “Gang of Four” began what became known as the “Cultural Revolution.” It proved to be an insane time of radical communist excess which Chinese today say was neither cultural nor revolutionary. Finally, more moderate voices prevailed, the Gang of Four was deposed, and the subsequent government decided to ease restrictions on Christianity. They proclaimed that on a given Sunday in 1975, churches could once again open their doors and invite Christians to worship openly. When the day arrived, over seventeen million Christians showed up for services.

During a time when not only were basic freedoms denied but Christians were directly persecuted, the Christian community in China experienced a 17-fold increase! How did this happen?

Many of you will remember the visit that a delegation of Chinese Christians paid to Walnut Grove in May of 2006. Those in the 11:00 service heard the president of the China Christian Council, Reverend Tsao, preach a fine sermon. The congregation at 9:00, however, heard one of the vice presidents of the council give a testimony in an interview I conducted. Reverend Ming told of how she grew up in a family of intellectuals. Her father enjoyed great success and fame composing for the Beijing Opera. Since the Gang of Four suspected all intellectuals, such as composers, they imprisoned Ming’s father and sent him to a work camp in western China where he died. Naturally, the Ming family was distraught. Since fear and anxiety were rife in the culture, the Ming’s neighbors shunned them, fearing that the government would see them as collaborators – all of their neighbors, that is, except the ones who lived next door. They befriended the Mings. They comforted them. And they prayed with them. These neighbors were Christians.

When the Mings inquired as to why these neighbors would risk everything for them, they responded, “Because our Lord risked everything for us. He commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and you have been treated unjustly. If necessary, we will die with you.” The Mings became Christians.

That’s how the Chinese Christian community went from 700,000 to 17 million in less than 30 years – and during a time when by the popular definition offered in our country, they weren’t “free.”

You may have seen the bumper sticker that says, “Freedom isn’t free.” It’s meant to remind us that thousands of military veterans across the years have died in conflicts described as “defending our country.” We need that reminder. Right now, most of us go about our daily lives with scarcely a thought for the living hell foot soldiers face at this moment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Throughout our history, the military has been faithful to do as it was ordered, even when the ones issuing the orders did so in arrogance and ignorance. That bumper sticker is good when it reminds us of what’s going on.

It is true that freedom isn’t free – but it is true in a much wider and more profound sense than military actions.

Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians and said, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

General Motors had a commercial several years ago. I don’t remember if they were advertising Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, or Chevrolets, but the tag line, with an orchestra playing background and a choir singing gloriously, stated, “It’s not just your car: it’s your freedom.” Folks, you don’t have to have been studying Greek for that to make your soul cringe. May car is my freedom? Everything I’ve read in scripture, everything I’ve been taught since I was a lad in Royal Ambassadors, every Sunday school class, the ideological heart of every sermon, revival or boring regular Sunday morning, have said CHRIST is my freedom! Was this Madison Avenue flight of marketing ploy just a harmless jingle? Or did it state a very unfortunate truth about our society?

You see, whatever gives us our freedom is precisely that to which we are enslaved.

The fact of the matter is, I had been studying Greek when I first heard that jingle. I had been translating Philippians, my favorite Pauline letter. The New International Version of the Bible translates Paul’s introduction to the Philippian letter this way: “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. . .” In Galatians 5:1, which we read earlier, the translation reads, “. . . do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” I’ll cut to the chase here. The word for slave and the word for servant are the very same word. Sometimes translators use “servant” to translate “δουζοσ” and sometimes they’ll use the word “slave.” There’s another other word for servant in Greek and that’s “δεάκονος.” That’s where we get our word “deacon.” There is a difference in how these two are used, though. A deacon is a servant who renders service voluntarily. A doulos-servant, however, is under an obligation, a responsibility. In a powerful sense, he or she has no choice.

Now go back to that statement in Galatians 5:13 – you are free, but you are free to serve. You are free to enslave yourselves, enslave yourselves to one another in love. Why? Because we have given our lives to Christ, and when you give your lives to Christ and live how he has commanded, then you serve one another. You meet one another’s needs. You are a little Christ to the people around you, like the Ming’s next door neighbors were to her and her family. That is freedom! I’ll paraphrase that idolatrous GM commercial: “He’s not just a religious figure – he’s your freedom!”

Some years ago Bob Dylan went through a Christian phase. He figured it would sell some albums, just like the non-Christian owners of the major Contemporary Christian Music labels. But Dylan is a good poet and good poets get at Truth on a regular basis and during that phase he wrote a song in which he sang (if it could be said of Dylan that he sang), “You gotta serve somebody!” He’s right. We’re all serving someone, or something. It might be the dictates of corporate advertisers. It might be the philosophy embodied in the scripts of Hollywood screen writers. It might be peer pressure. It might be the priorities of Jesus Christ. But the fact remains, you DO serve something.

Another way of saying this is that you feel responsible to some set of values. And whatever values you use to guide your response to the world around you will either build you up or tear you down. It’s a must that we examine what guides our actions in the world, what guides how we respond when things happen.

Freedom, you see, is not the absence of restrictions. Freedom is the ability to respond. We are free when we respond as Jesus would respond. We are free when we assume our responsibility. And we are free ONLY when we assume our responsibility.

Last Wednesday I was driving home from the church on 295. As I toodled along in the right lane, a red Sunbird caught up with me and began pacing me. I looked over and saw a young man lighting a cigarette with his head cocked to the right so as to wedge a cell phone against his shoulder. He had no hands on the wheel – lighting a cigarette and talking on a phone simultaneously. I decided that I wanted him to go on, so I slowed down. That’s when I saw his bumper sticker. It read: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” The research is voluminous, folks. Millions of people feel that way and while I’ve experienced different here at WGBC, to a great extent, Christians have earned that reputation.

It’s actually nothing new. Mahatma Gandhi said that he would have become a Christian had it not been for Jesus’ followers. Likewise, a Native American chief to whom a missionary had given a copy of Gospel of Matthew said that it was a wonderful book. What amazed him was that the white people weren’t any better for having had it for so long. For centuries now, non-Christians have been profoundly impressed with Jesus but disgusted with the people who claim to be his followers.

Have we used our freedom in Christ as a ticket to eternity or as a gateway to our human responsibility?

Have you ever noticed that sweet words become an irritant if they’re never followed by corresponding action?

Lawrence Kushner story . . .

He’s not just a religious figure – he’s your freedom!