Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, July 4^th, A+D 2021
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches, Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
True Freedom

1.  O Christ, who called the Twelve, To rise and follow You,

Forsaking old, familiar ways, For ventures bold and new:

Grant us to hear Your call, To risk security

And, bound in heart and will to You, Find perfect liberty.

   Freedom.  Liberty.  Blessing.  Christian preaching brings the Word of Christ into the current day, for the faith and sanctification of the souls the Holy Spirit has gathered.  Sunday after Sunday, God gathers sinners, so He can set them free, and bless them with perfect liberty.  This particular Sunday is the Fourth of July, when as Americans we celebrate other blessings of liberty, when we rejoice in our political freedoms.  There are similarities, and many important differences between the freedom and blessing we enjoy as citizens of the United States, and the freedom and blessing we have as citizens of God’s heavenly kingdom.  I’m proud to be an American, but Heaven is my home. 

    And yet it is certainly good to be a Christian in America.  The first amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the freedom of religion, of speech, and the freedom to assemble.  With these freedoms, we have for 233 years enjoyed a unique-in-human-history opportunity to proclaim the Gospel.  Our nation and the world are very much better for it.  At the same time, while the Church is in the world, we are not of the world.  Conflating or confusing the blessings of political liberty with the freedom Christ offers is a danger for us.  We need to understand the differences.

    For example, political freedom is a fragile thing.  It depends on the strength and will of the citizens for political freedom to endure.  The freedom Christ offers is eternal; it is stronger than death.  And yet paradoxically, Christian freedom depends on the weakness of Christ.  Our heavenly citizenship doesn’t depend on our efforts and strength, nor on our struggle to remain free from sin.  Rather, our heavenly citizenship depends entirely on the submission of Jesus to evil, once for all.  Submission is not an American value, but Christ’s submission is our life.  Clearly, we need to keep these things straight.   

    As American citizens we rightly remember and honor the countless patriots from 1775 to the present day who fought and often died for the blessings of political liberty.  And the future of liberty in the United States will depend on the efforts of citizens today, and tomorrow.  But the freedom of the Christian depends entirely on the efforts of One Man, who suffered, not to free us from bad government, but rather to free us from slavery to sin.  The mission of the Church is not to achieve earthly prosperity or better government or to win glory by beating our rival nations.  No, the Church’s mission is to announce Christ’s victory, to all nations, to friends, and to enemies when we have opportunity.  Whether we as Christians experience political freedom or not, our calling is to proclaim how Jesus won freedom from death and sin for all people, by His suffering, death and resurrection.     

    Christians honor earthly rulers, and pray for peace and prosperity. But the Church should avoid joining itself to any government.  We must never thing we can guarantee our future by forming an alliance with earthly power.  This is a form of idolatry, and has been tried too many times.   The result is always that the earthly ruler seeks to change the teaching of Christ to suit their preferences.  We rejoice in the political freedoms we enjoy.  But we remember also that it is better to be a persecuted Church, than to give up the Truth in exchange for a comfortable place in society. 

    Considering these things, we see that, on this July 4^th, our Gospel reading fits our context pretty well.  Mark tells us how Jesus is rejected in His hometown, but then turns around and appoints the 12 future Apostles to go and begin their ministry of proclaiming Christ’s kingdom.  Throughout history and in many places in the world today, individuals, peoples and of course earthly governments reject and even persecute Christ’s Church.  But the Mission of Christ goes on, in the face of rejection and tyranny.  It always will.  So we, who still benefit from religious freedom, should be as energetic as we can in exercising it, while we still have earthly freedom.     

 2.  O Christ, who taught the Twelve, The truth for ages sealed,

Whose words and works awakened faith, The ways of God revealed:

Instruct us now, we pray, By Your empow’ring Word.

True teacher, be for all who seek, Their light, their life, their Lord.

    The Gospel of Jesus Christ has specific content, and that content matters.  God has loved the world, perfectly, in Christ Jesus.  Not outside Him.  Outside of Christ the sinner stands or falls on their own merits, and we know how that turns out:  no one measures up, all are guilty, poor miserable sinners, truly enslaved.  There is no freedom from sin except in the Son, the only One who can truly set you free from sin, death and the devil. 

     Whatever earthly situation the Church lives in, the Spirit of Christ does His work of saving sinners by faith, faith that is created through the Word.  So, to be of use in the Mission of God, the first step, and the thing we must always come back to, is to be instructed well in the teaching of Christ.  The same Word which creates and sustains faith also prepares Christians to give the reason for the hope that we have. 

    It is a wonderful thing if you simply tell another person that God blesses you through His Church, and then invite that person to come and see and hear for themselves.  Please do that.  And yet, as hard as it sometimes seems, you can do more.  Or better to say the Spirit can do more through you.  Seek to grow in your knowledge of Christ and His teaching, and the Holy Spirit will at the same time be teaching and preparing to say more, to speak of Christ, with clarity and love, to a family member, a neighbor, or a stranger you meet in an airport or a campground.  None of us has to know it all, but all of us can take part.  Grow in your knowledge of Jesus and His Gospel, for your own benefit, and God will also use your growth for the benefit of others.  

 3.  O Christ, who led the Twelve, Among the desolate

And broke as bread of life for all, Your love compassionate:

Lead us along the ways, Where hope has nearly died

And help us climb the lonely hills, Where love is crucified.

    Mercy and Mission go together.  Many times, Jesus saw the physical and spiritual needs of the people, and he felt compassion deep down in his gut.  And He acted on that feeling.  So also the Church, seeing with the eyes of Christ, wants to help those in need.  Like Jesus, we are moved to help hurting people, and we seek to connect our material or emotional help with a message of grace.  To show Christian mercy is to try to help people know Jesus by sharing with them the social, material and spiritual blessings we ourselves have received from God. 

    A big part of the traditional American ideal is self-sufficiency, and that is fine, as far as it goes.  In the world and in the Church, those who are able should help themselves and others.  But Christians know they are never truly self-sufficient.  We depend on God for every good gift, and most especially for the forgiveness and reconciliation that makes us part of the Father’s family.  Showing mercy wisely, in a way that is truly helpful, instead of enabling bad behavior and habits, is tricky.  And it’s all the more tricky because our sinful nature would prefer not to get involved in the messy problems of others in the first place. 

    But Jesus got involved in our mess.  The Eternal Son got down into the worst of our sin and brokenness, in order to create the way out for us.  So we pray to God that the Spirit would help us dare to show mercy, to body and soul, even when it costs us.  And we are free to show mercy, because nothing can take away the freedom, riches and blessings we have in Jesus.   

 4.  O Christ, who sent the Twelve, On roads they’d never trod

To serve, to suffer, teach, proclaim, The nearer reign of God:

Send us on ways where faith, Transcends timidity,

Where love informs and hope sustains, Both life and ministry.

    Being a Christian, in the world, concerned for the world, but not of the world, is messy.  Like Ezekiel, we are called to speak the truth, even when we expect to be rejected.  Like Paul, we are called to confess our weakness, and endure hardships, in order that the strength of Jesus, crucified, resurrected and ascended to glory, might be revealed to others.  If we look deep inside our being, honestly looking for the strength and wisdom and perseverance to accomplish the tasks before us, we will quickly realize that the job is too much for us.  We may be tempted to despair. 

    So stop looking inside yourself to find this strength! 

    Even when we consider the American experiment in earthly liberty, we know that as important as the efforts of each citizen are, the success of the project of preserving our political liberty depends on the many, and upon the structures, values and ideas that provide the framework for America.  Each citizen depends on others; none of us can maintain our political freedoms alone. 

    In God’s project of salvation, our individual impotence is far more stark.  It is pointless for any of us to try to make our own way to God.  There are no self-made Christians.  The only thing that justifies the innocent death of the sinless Son of God is the sad fact that without Jesus taking all our sins upon Himself, without His once for all sacrifice, there is no hope for sinners.  So, because God, who is love, desires to save sinners, Christ Jesus went to the Cross, for us.  So, individually and together as church, we are called by the Spirit to stop looking inside ourselves and instead look to Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our Faith.  Repenting of self-justification, the Christian looks to Christ alone, and clings in joy to the humbling love that we find in Him. 

    And then, bound to Jesus by His bloody love for us, amazing things start to happen.  Christians rooted firmly in Christ begin to serve, proclaim, show mercy, face danger, even suffer, all because we know that in Jesus, we already have the final victory.  In Christ, we are truly and eternally free, free from fear, free to confess, free to love and serve.  Every day lived by faith in Jesus is a true and eternal Independence Day,

    in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.            

 5.  O Christ, th’apostles’ Lord, The martyrs’ strength and song,

The crucified and risen King, To whom the saints belong:

Though generations pass, Our tribute still we bring,

Our hymns a sacrifice of praise, Our lives an offering.