Freedom: From and For

Freedom: From and For

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

October 7, 2018

at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia

Romans 8: 31-39

Exodus 15:21-24

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

For your eyes show the way

Your mind knows the truth

Your being is the life.

Amen.

I enjoyed last week, I enjoyed being able to paint a picture of an event that so paralleled current events, a chance to show just how truly relevant the human side of the Bible is, obviously the God side is impressive, important, and so powerful, and we will take some time with that God side today, and the power of the freedom he brings us to, but there is also that human side throughout the Bible, throughout the Bible the events, the people, the times, though long past, hold up a mirror to our own, a mirror that shows us the very real plight of being human in a fallen world, how when we are a slave to sin, what our interractions look like, what our machinations look like, how we see to use people, play politics, wield our own partial righteousness, and tear apart what we should be building up and repairing.

We live in a time with so much division, so much anger, hatred, misguided vision, I almost don’t even have the words to describe it, but it is all around us. . . and all of it seeks to suck us in, to suck us backwards, so today I want to take a look at what is at stake, and just why we should, must, and will succeed. . . all because our God is mighty, and has great faith in us, to give freedom to those who do not deserve it.

I also want to revisit the text from Romans 8 that I used last week, going into it a little more in depth, so the New Testament reading from Romans is identical from what it was last week. . . Romans 8: 31-39. . . but before we go there, I want to introduce the theme. . . I’ve mentioned it briefly, but I want to get us thinking about what God sets us free from, and to do that I also want to look at the historical record to see where God has set us free in the past. . . and perhaps show the cost, of what seems to happen when he does. . . so the Old Testament reading encapsulates one of the first times God works to set people free, perhaps the most important in all of the Old Testament. . . when God sent Moses into Egypt land saying, LET MY PEOPLE GO! It is an amazing act, and all encompassing, concrete saving act. . . what I am going to read is the very end of the Songs of Moses and Miriam. . . great celebrations of what God has done, in parting the Red Sea, in guiding them with the pillars of fire, of bending Pharaoh’s heart to liberation. . . so the end of those songs of praise that span chapters in beautiful poetic verse. . . here the last lines, and what follows: Exodus 15: 21-23

 ²¹ Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the Lord,
    for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
    he has hurled into the sea.”

²² Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desertof Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) ²⁴ So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”

I just love that. . . I wish you could get the true effect, of reading all of the Songs of Moses and Miriam, maybe I’ll give you just a little bit more. . . I mean look at how it starts. . .

15 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:

Every one is singing. . . .

“I will sing to the Lord,
    for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
    he has hurled into the sea.

² “The Lord is my strength and my defense^[a];
    he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
    my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
³ The Lord is a warrior;
    the Lord is his name.
⁴ Pharaoh’s chariots and his army
    he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Pharaoh’s officers
    are drowned in the Red Sea.^[b]
5 The deep waters have covered them;
    they sank to the depths like a stone.
⁶ Your right hand, Lord,
    was majestic in power.
Your right hand, Lord,
    shattered the enemy.

⁷ “In the greatness of your majesty
    you threw down those who opposed you.
You unleashed your burning anger;
    it consumed them like stubble.
⁸ By the blast of your nostrils
    the waters piled up.
The surging waters stood up like a wall;
    the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
⁹ The enemy boasted,
    ‘I will pursue, I will overtake them.
I will divide the spoils;
    I will gorge myself on them.
I will draw my sword
    and my hand will destroy them.’
¹⁰ But you blew with your breath,
    and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead
    in the mighty waters.

¹⁸ “The Lord reigns
    for ever and ever.”

So the whole nation is singing this song. . . and what 2-3 verses later they are grumbling about having no water. . .

What happened to their strength and defense,

What happened to the mighty arm

But most of all. . . what happened to the Lord reigneth forever. . .

A mere three verses later. . . and if you go forward only 10 verses, verse 3 of the next chapter you get

“If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

 How quickly they have forgotten what they have been freed from?. . . and it is not a far cry from that, here a few days later when they forget what they have been freed for. . . for they make unto themselves a graven image of a golden calf, and thereunto give their worship and sacrifice. . . this is what occurs when freedom is taken for granted and you forget the from and the for.

And think about the other times where God comes in and sets free

What about David and the Philistines – David and Saul

Reaction—David dancing in the street, he wants to build a home for God. . .  but then only a few pages later. . . David forsakes it all with Bathsheba

And then it reaches a head. . . the people have turned over their identy their place to a series of kigns, and it results in catastrophe, Exile

But then given the land again, new temple, but by the time of Jesus – Herod – Pharisees, we see in the Gospels often what Jesus is up against. . .

Think about what God repeatedly sets them free from --- think about what he is setting them free for

With this in our minds. . . this issue, I want to enter into Romans 8, with an eye to thinking about what God is setting us free from, and what God is setting us free for. In the resurrection of Jesus, according to Paul . . .

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us,who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns?No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^[j]

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If God is for us,who can be against us? 

³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—h

ow will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ 

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies. 

³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns?   No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 

³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^[j]

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³

⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So let’s look at history since. . . and see if we see this pattern – Freedom from and for on our minds

Persecution – Martyrs – Christtians and the Lions

Constantine – Empire becomes Christian – at least in name – what is gained what is lost?

Empire  Falls – are Christians to blame? Or is it credit? Gibbon and others blame Christianity

 Clovis – Charlemagne – Pope baptizes – Church – King – God are one

Renaissance – Separation of church and God

Reformation – acting on that separation creation of new churches

What possibilities – individual relationship, faith alone. . . from scripture. . . what does scripture show us being freed from and freed for?

America – New world, new possibilities – freed from freed for?

Old World – French revolution – Russian Revolution – Guillotine – Nazis

Freed from – Freed for

Where are we now?

Individual

Our relationships – Where we start

We are set free from sin and the world of sin --- a world of doubt, and control, and selling out to power, things that are not God. . .

We are set free for. . . Good, fullness, relationship. . . more than conquerors we are, and we never have to fear being separated from God, so we live in the fullness of ourselves, in faithful relationship to God, we are set free to love because God’s love cannot be broken, we need not grasp tightly, to protect ourselves