Sermon for the Third Sunday After Pentecost, Year C (6-29-25)

Friends there is so much we could consider from these reading this morning. Too much really for one homily. We could very comfortably look to Elisha in the Old Testament and think about what it means for God to have other plans for us. Consider what it means to - quite literally - take on the mantel of our each of our God-given vocations regardless of whether it aligns with our own grand plans for our lives.

Or we could dissect the somewhat sharp words Jesus has for those who claim to want to follow him right away, but just after they get their affairs in order. After all, they - and we - know that this Christ-like life will be quite costly in some ways. The ends do justify the means, of course, but if we can make it just a little more comfortable, well....

But then I remembered some sage preaching wisdom I once received: the passage that scares you most? The one  you know will be the most risky? Well, that's generally where the Spirit wants you to go.  So - love him or hate him - we turn to Paul today who right on time ahead of the 4th of July holiday reminds us that Freedom Isn't Free.

Now just to stave off any unnecessary anxiety: I am neither 1) informed enough nor 2) focused enough to make any kind of responsible - or more importantly - helpful comment on our current state of geo-politics. They have forever been complex and nuanced,  if not menacing and costly to lives and livelihoods ever since geo-politics came into existence. There are no easy decisions to be made at this juncture for better - or what feels increasingly like - for worse.

Regardless, Paul compels us to consider the nature of true freedom today in a way that moves into our broader shared reality. But, like most good wisdom it's best to start where we are. From our own experience. So now I'm going to go through Paul's sins of the flesh, and if that's one of yours just be bold and raise your hand. Okay here we go: Fornication! (Kidding, kidding. But just reminder that we do practice the sacrament of confession in the Episcopal church. Just give me a call.)

But take look at this list: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing. Paul always seems to be really down on the body, and on what many would consider pleasure. Or said another way: the sexy stuff tends to be at the top of Paul's naughty list. So, it's easy to miss the broader point here.

Out of these 15 "stumbling blocks", to my read only five of them fit into that traditional - yet unoriginal - hyper-focused "sins of the flesh" category. The other two thirds, things like enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy.... those if I'm not mistaken seem to have been taken up as popular hobbies these days. And sometimes to great fanfare.

What all of these sins - these stumbling blocks on our journey toward union with God and with one another - have in common is that in some way they all feel good. At least for a moment. And they feel good at the expense of someone else: of someone else's humanity, dignity, or their own freedom. They often are an easy choice for some flesh - a body - that has lost some connection with its soul. And it only takes a split second to get there.

"But what about my freedom?! Aren't I free to do what I want, think what I want, say what I want, worship what I want. Tear down what I want? Build up what I want?" Technically, yes. We are free to do those things - at least in one understanding of freedom. The kind that centers this body, this individual experience, this desire.

But this kind of freedom fails to consider this broader body, this shared experience, these larger dreams and desires. Doing whatever you want isn't the kind of freedom Paul is talking about here. It's not the kind of enfleshment - incarnation - that Christ came to show us. If anything, it's freedom from some lonely, bitter, regretful rewards that the same vices pay back with compounding interest.

"By contrast," Paul says "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit."

As we approach another celebration of this country's very fragile identity, its complicated history, its costly birth to so many, and as we consider its future; what might it look like to see our collective flesh - the ego-centered, power-hungry corporate body - crucified alongside the only one who can set our hearts toward true freedom? Where malice yields to love, despair to joy, discontentment to peace. Where patience cools rage, kindness cures cruelty, and selfishness is overcome by generosity. Where faithfulness checks hopelessness, gentleness guards against callousness, and suicidal overconsumption is tempered by self-control.

Can you smell it? Smells like perfect freedom to me.

But indeed freedom isn't free.This freedom was won for us by God's own self. By checking our fear of death so that we might have life and have it abundantly. To be truly free of our egos and to walk into that vision of a new creation - where we study war no more. And perhaps it is in drawing from this kind of freedom that we will better learn how to ensure worldly freedom of the entire body. And in that perhaps we can - as a larger body, a nation -  re-connect with our own national soul. Bruised and wandering, feeble and hurting as it may be. And far from free these days.

Freedom isn't free. But it is a gift. And one for the taking, through Christ our Lord.

Amen