The Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden                  7/5/09

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. 

We know these words by heart.  They are the foundation of our nation and we celebrate their promise and their challenge this weekend  --- a time when we gather together as one nation, with all our differences, to celebrate our liberty and freedom.  There are fireworks and parties and patriotic songs that bring a lump to our throat or a tear to our eyes. 

            On this weekend, we will remember that despite our faults and our flaws we are, as a country, the greatest experiment of liberty and justice that this world has ever seen.

            It is true that we have not always gotten it right. At times we have failed miserably, but still we strive to make them a reality.  Men and women have fought and died to make them a reality. 

            And as Lincoln said on the battlefield of Gettysburg “from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.. . We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . and that this government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . . shall not perish from the earth. "

            We are proud to be Americans, and we hold our freedom dear.  But it is as Christians and not Americans that we have gathered this morning for we have come here to celebrate a different kind of freedom – our freedom in Christ.

            For Christ has set us free from a slavery of our own making, as we created rule upon rule for living.  Before we met Christ we were slaves to those rules – slaves trying to prove our own worth --- our own value --- slaves trying to get someone to love us, believe in us, or accept us.

            From the moment we were born we began to live by the rules.  We learned early on that if we could only figure out what was expected and deliver on it, we would be rewarded.  But if we broke the rules, if we didn’t deliver, then we would be punished.

            So as children we learned to color inside the lines, play nicely with others and say things like “yes, sir,” and “no ma’am”.  Then as we grew older we learned more rules like don’t talk in class.  Don’t chew gum.  Don’t put your elbows on the table. 

            We didn’t even escape as grown ups --- instead we had to learn a whole new set of rules --- and to prove how neurotic we are about it we made people rich by buying their rule books --- books like How To Be A Winner In A World Full Of Losers or How To Dress For Success.

            In the end, we started to believe that everything and everyone must have rules – even God.  So we set out to discover God’s “rules”. 

            The Jews of Jesus’ day were past masters at this.  They created rules for everything:  rules for how far you could walk on the Sabbath; rules for when and how you could heal the sick; rules for what kind of meat you could eat and rules for how to wash your hands.  You name it and they had a rule for it.

            But before you say how ridiculous that was, stop to think for a moment.  It wasn’t so long ago that we had rules that said you couldn’t shop on Sunday --- not even for food or medicine.  And the unwritten rules were that women wore dresses, hose and heels, hats and gloves to church while men wore suits and ties no matter how hot it was.  We have been no better than the Pharisees at laying down laws for God.

            So why do we make up these rules?  Well, it starts for a good enough reason.  We want to please God.  But then a subtle shift happens and we do it to gain God’s love.  And then, before you know it, it’s because we want to prove that we are better than the next person. 

We use the rules to judge who is in and who is out. Then we’re caught.  We forget all about God and we start to use the rules we created to judge other people, pronouncing  who is in and who is out.  So Christ came and smashed our rules --- leaving us only with the rule of love. 

            He healed people on the Sabbath.  He was a friend to sinners.  He touched the lepers.  Why He even made wine for a wedding!

            He set us free by getting rid of the need for the rules we created, and telling us instead to live our lives in love, judging only by love, and making decisions based only on love.  He set us free, and ever since we have struggled with that freedom.  Because truth be told, freedom can be hard to take.

            You see, there’s a certain security in our laws.  With the laws, with the rules, we can see who is bad and who is good.  We can identify sinners from saints, the saved from the damned. Rules make everything crystal clear.

            But love?  Love just confuses the issue.  You can’t judge someone quite so easily on the basis of love.  Things are no longer quite so black and white. 

            No wonder the scribes and the Pharisees were so scared of Christ and His teachings.  Their safe little world of good and evil, right and wrong, reward and punishment was being blown apart by this man from Galilee. 

            They didn’t want to be set free.  They liked having their lives controlled by thousands of rules. The rules kept them safe --- and freedom is anything but safe. 

            But still today Christ calls us to be free.   He calls us to set aside our rule books and our judgments and live in the freedom of love.

            Today we celebrate that freedom in a very special way as we celebrate love, freely given to us.  Together we celebrate our true liberty in Christ Jesus our Lord.