A Sermon preached in The Church of the Resurrection - Blarney on Sunday 23rd June 2013
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our
hearts be now and always acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our
redeemer. Amen
Freedom is a call on each one of our lives … we all want to
be free … we see this through the world history … nobody wants to be controlled
… we see freedom fighters, we see the human rights of freedom being enshrined
in laws. We Have, desire and enjoy freedom.
As Children are growing up we see them wanting freedom to
choose, freedom to go where they want to go, to do what they want to do. Parents
have to tread a very difficult path … allowing freedom, whilst also protecting
their kids from harm.
As humans, as Christians we have been given freedom to choose
… this is the fundamental God Given right … all of us can do what we want to
do. What we do is up to us how we use this freedom.
When our freedom is removed … we become enslaved,
imprisoned … the decisions we make, the circumstances we find ourselves can
remove that freedom from us.
In our gospel reading today we see that there is a man who
has had his freedom severely restricted by evil … his life is less than what it
could and should be. We see he is outcast, on the edge of society but we also
see Jesus’ concern for him is to be made whole, healed and sent back to
community.
This man, in Luke's account is not only confined to a life on
the outside of community but also his physical confines in terms of chains and
shackles are limiting his movement. With a few authoritative words from Jesus his
situation turns around and his life changes forever.
I recently came across this piece of street art which is in
Philadelphia … it is fascinating take on society … but for me as I look on it …
it speaks so much about our society today … shaping us into its mould and the
freedom that is possible ... The artist to my knowledge doesn’t say anything
about Christ but as I look at this the struggle inside each human being, having
being moulded by our circumstances desiring to be free and in the end finding
that freedom, where it truly is to be found- In Christ… It was for freedom that
Christ has set us free.
Huge Challenge for us this morning as we gaze upon our
readings today …
<< God spoke to Elijah … and asked him “what are you
doing here?” twice in this passage … he had ran away from his responsibilities …
he had chosen his own way … he was 100’s of miles away from where he should
have been … God met him there and brought him back … told him what he should be
doing. >>
Then in the New Testament passage we see someone shackled in
his circumstances … we aren’t told how he had ended up in this position, what
decisions he had made, what was done to him by others but we do know that evil
had gripped him … and then we we see that he is restored to wholeness.
One of the illustrations which Scripture Union uses for this
reading is that of a jigsaw puzzle … he catch a glimpse of what it could be …
but the parts come together and make up the complete picture.
Today’s Gospel reading is picture of the possibility of
freedom … which is linked to wholeness, which is linked to all the bits of the
jigsaw coming together and the possibility of a new start.
On Friday Night I had the opportunity to meet a friend of
Doug and Olwyn’s ... Greg a pastor of a Southern Baptist Church in the
USA … He was telling of an encounter with someone in Dublin… Greg was speaking
a service and told the congregation of the amazing news that those who are in
Christ have past sins forgiven, Present sins forgiven and future sins forgiven.
After the service … the guy came up to Greg and said … wow that’s a fantastic
deal …count me in! and then started telling his wife about it as well!
Folks … We have freedom … freedom to choose … with this
freedom of course comes responsibility what will we choose to do, what is God
calling us to do?, what is God’s best for us?
It may look like our lives are messed up … that there are
different parts of us all over the place … but we are called to wholeness. We
are called to enjoy life, to be complete in Christ, broken lives made new.
The jigsaw will come together, sometimes It’s easy, other
times it takes a long time … may we find our freedom in Christ. Our potential
in Christ, may we not be moulded into expectations of what others think of us,
or what the world expects us to do. but allow ourselves to be free to do what
God wants us to do. To be bold and strong for Christ.
The church is an organisation which should be declaring
freedom, which should be allowing people to be who they were created to be. We
should be equipping each other to use our God given gifts and to dream big
dreams.
I get passionate about this because I see so many people who
are moulded into the ways others see them, That may be pressure from work,
family or peer pressure from friends … people who are struggling with their
identity, or they have just given up in their struggle and are addicted to
things of this world and simply feel that they are in a mould that they cannot
break out of.
I’m sure all of us know individuals who have huge potential
but due to situations find themselves hemmed into moulds, situations where
things could be much better for them. Freedom is what we are called to speak.
The Christian Gospel, the good news we proclaim is freedom
to the captives, forgiveness to the sinner, healing to the hurting, purpose of
life to searching.
How have we been molded … for the good, but also negatively
… how do we break out of the mould of the world and be bold, be strong for the
Lord. That’s something each person will have to look at for themselves but I
get excited when talking about freedom, because freedom invariably means change,
it means action, it means prayer, it may mean pain, but we are free. We are
people of freedom.
<>
Again in the New testament passage … The guy was told to go
back home and tell …
As Christians we are called to use our freedom to bring
freedom to those we encounter … Just as Jesus did.
Our world so often views Christians as people who are so
bound up with rules and regulations but we are also people of immense freedom …
we have been set free from our sins, we know where we stand within eternity…
let us share this freedom with the world around us. And let us know this
freedom for ourselves.
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