Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
“Freedom”: A Sermon From Pastor Bob on Reformation Sunday

“Freedom”: A Sermon From Pastor Bob on Reformation Sunday

Last updated on: October 30, 2011 at 6:23 am by John Shore

“Freedom”: A Sermon From Pastor Bob on Reformation Sunday 2011-10-30T06:23:47-08:00 John Shore

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Today is Reformation Sunday. It is not only a day when those who remember wear red. It is not only a Church Festival when we remember that historical rupture of the Christian Church when Martin Luther would nail 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church and begin the Protestant Reformation. It is a day that marks something that we take utterly for granted.

FREEDOM

A sermon by Pastor Bob

October 30, 2011

Text: John 8:31-36

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

–“If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

–Today is Reformation Sunday.

–It is not only a day when those who remember wear red.

–It is not only a Church Festival when we remember that historical rupture of the Christian Church when Martin Luther would nail 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church and begin the Protestant Reformation.

–It is a day that marks something that we take utterly for granted.

–Our freedom.

–We hear this word all the time.

–It has been in the news a lot this past year, as countries in the North Africa and the Middle East have experienced the flush of freedom in what has been called the “Arab Spring.“

–And we hear it in our own Declaration of Independence, which declares that we are a free people.

–We are free to vote, free to worship, free to travel, free to work, free to study, free to play.

–Certainly, if there is one place in the world that understands itself to be free, it is here.

–Southern California.

–So I ask you this morning: “Are you free?”

–The other day, I was thinking about this while I was watching one of those shows that pastors should probably not admit to watching: Desperate Housewives.

–I like to watch an episode of a different TV series each time I exercise, and lately I’ve been alternating between Monk and Desperate Housewives.

…Anyway, I was watching an old episode in which the husband, Carlos Solis, has just come home from prison and now has turned his life around because of a Catholic nun.

–His wife, Gabrielle, is jealous of the nun (who looks like a nun you would only find on Desperate Housewives).

–The nun and the wife end up battling each other for the husband.

–In the last episode I saw, the nun had lured the husband into helping her with a fundraiser to feed the poor in Africa and even convinced the husband to come to Africa with her.

–The trip required shots, and, in a desperate attempt to keep her husband, the wife lied to the nurse about an allergy he had to one of the shots so that he would become sick and thus unable to go to Africa.

–The husband has an allergic reaction to the shot, and the last scene shows the wife holding her husband patting his forehead with a cloth as he fights a severe fever.

–She tells him in one of those rare truthful moments that she wants him back the way he was.

–Greedy, deceiving, and self-centered.

–Just like her.

–She says that she is afraid that one day he will wake up and not want her any more.

–It is a crazy scene. It is absurd–and yet strangely true to life.

–We are free to be whatever we wish.

–We are free to be greedy.

–We are free to be unfaithful and untrue.

–We are free to put ourselves above all else.

–Yet, in the end, like this lonely, desperate wife, are we truly free?

–In our gospel reading, Jesus is talking to a group of Jews who have come to believe in him.

–They have perhaps heard Jesus speak and understood Jesus’ sincerity.

–Or they may have witnessed one of Jesus’ miracles and find themselves in reverent awe.

–Jesus speaks to them and declares: “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

–Now you would think these would be welcome words.

–After all, Jesus is claiming that these fortunate few are his own beloved disciples.

–And that they have access to the real truth of this world.

–You would think they would be excited to hear this, but they hear these words only as challenge.

–“Free!” What does Jesus mean by “free”?

–They are already free.

–They are descendents of Abraham.

–It was true that they had once been enslaved in Egypt, but through Moses God led God’s people to freedom. They were no longer slaves. They were free.

–How dare Jesus challenge their freedom.

–How dare Jesus challenge our own sense of freedom.

–Jesus makes the audacious claim that those few Jewish disciples gathered around him and that we here gathered today are caught up in something that truly enslaves us: Our sin.

–Now if you talk to people today, you will quickly discover that “sin” has both lost credibility in the eyes of modernity, and at the same time become very popular.

–For instance, we cringe when a fellow group of Christians freely calls others “sinners,” especially when they hypocritically seem unable to see the log in their own eye.

–The word “sin” seems so old-fashion, a religious relic.

–Yet the word, “sin” is ironically popular. We have a city only a state away that spends millions of dollars selling itself as “Sin City.”

–Now defining “sin” is a slippery thing, and probably what makes it the hardest thing to really grasp is that it is relational.

–Sin is about broken relationship.

–The 10 Commandments given to Moses at Mt. Sinai are 10 commandments about relationship.

–Our relationship with God, our family, and our neighbors.

–Sin intrudes into these relationships and wreaks havoc.

–We can see this vividly in the example of the desperate housewife, and if we are honest, we can see it in our own past and present relationships.

–What Jesus said two thousand years ago, and what Martin Luther declared five hundred years ago, was that our sense of freedom and our own sin are intimately bound.

–Are we free? Yes, at one level, we are free to do whatever we want.

–And at the same time, we are bound to do whatever we want.

–And the only thing that disrupts this is our relationships with others–and, most importantly, our relationship with God.

–This is what Jesus is getting at when he says that “The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.”

–It is in our relationship with God that we find real freedom.

–It is through a God who created us that we are able to love in freedom as God’s children.

–It is through a God who gave us his Son to die on a cross so that we may live in the hope and freedom of a new life now and in the resurrection to come.

–And it is through a God whose Spirit baptizes today and claims us again in Holy Communion that we are given a foretaste of real freedom.

–This morning we will baptize a little baby boy.

–He is very loved.

–He is loved by devoted parents, grandparents and an extended family of relatives, friends and at least three congregations.

–It is a lot of love for one person.

–Yet he will need it.

–He will need it as he explores this world and exercises freedoms that will likely give his parents gray hairs.

–And he will need such love as he explores his own relationship with a God who truly loves him.

–“If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

–We have many definitions of freedom these days.

–May we be blessed on this Reformation Sunday and every day of our lives to know the freedom of being in love with a God who truly loves us.

Pastor Bob is a pastor in San Diego.

Pastor Bob's Corner

Previous Post

October 29, 2011

A mi Dios le importan los corazones, no las entrepiernas

Next Post

October 31, 2011 What Jesus Left Out of The Great Commandment

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Christian Issues Christian Spirituality Dear John En Espanol Everywhere She's Not Humor Look See Pastor Bob's Corner Personal Portuguese Relationships Russian Short-short story Smith Family Chronicles Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2024 August 2022 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 February 2020 December 2019 June 2019 December 2018 May 2018 May 2017 January 2017 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Paul told the Thessalonians that those who are unwilling to work should not eat.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE

Books by This Author Books by John Shore

See All Titles »