"Freedom From Religion"
Galatians 5: 1- 25
Question: How many Church and non-Church going folk
today feel as though they are being stymied, strangled or outcast by their own denominational
rules, regulation and dogma? Dogma
meaning a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority, {religion
in this case} as incontrovertibly true.
A modern day Parable:
A Spiritual Master walking along
a dusty road side is instructing one of his students concerning some of the rules
around being with and interacting with women.
“As a Spiritual Guide you never look directly into the eyes of a women
or physically touch her” he explains, “because it may bring to mind passions that have the power to develop sin in your life”. Just then a down pour of rain causes the ditch along the side of the road to overflow with water. Stuck on the
other side of the ditch is a women hollering for help because she is caught off
guard and unable to move. The Master
trudges through the water to the other side, picks up the women in his arms
and brings her safely to the other side.
He looked straight into her eyes with compassion and assured her everything
would be alright. Then he and student
continued along the roadside. The
student one half hour later perplexed by his Masters actions could no longer contain himself and so asked the
question: “Master you broke a cardinal rule back there, I do not understand.” “Oh yes” said the Master “I forgot to tell
you!! There are no rules when responding to a call for compassion, or to show love of
neighbor to do for others as you would have them do for you for, You see Love
never fails.”
Psalm 77 and Galatians 5: 1- 25
Folks, within Paul’s letters to the
Galatian Church you will find the charter of Christian freedom that so many of
us are seeking today. Circumcision was a
symbol of having the right background and doing everything required by the Jewish
religion. If a person were counting on
finding favor with God by being circumcised he would also have to obey the rest
of God’s laws completely and there was a whopping total of 613 of them. Paul was trying desperately to teach that
Jesus died to set them free from their religious bondage. Not to confuse that with just being able to
do any old thing that they wanted, for that would lead them to completely miss
the mark. Freedom from this kind of
slavery could only be reached by trusting in the grace of God, not by following
a corporate style set of Laws, rituals or regulations. It was then and still is today, salvation is
by God’s grace not by what we say or do.
Many of us are being held in what
appears to be some sort of bondage to a Christian Church that is more corporate
than Gospel. Mega Churches rely on slick
theatrical TV presentations to attract their followers. You must say the words, be baptized or even more
dramatic you have to be slain by the spirit to receive the gift of God’s grace
of salvation. The small rural churches
have not escaped the misconception that works saves either. Their form of
bondage is trying to maintain out dated church buildings and follow corporate style
church policies and rules that keep them from God mercy and grace wondering why
their numbers are dwindle down to bare bones.
We are in changing times
folks.
Here is
their situation in the Church then and I ask you to compare it to our reality
today within the church.
Most of the first converts and
early leaders in the church were Jewish first, then they converted to Christianity
proclaiming Jesus as their Messiah. As
Jewish Christians, they struggled with a dual identity. In other words, people carried into their new
found faith some baggage from their
original family home and their religious training. Sound familiar, are we not still there
folks?
Their Jewishness constrained them
to be strict followers of the law but these rules often contradicted the holy
freedom Christ was inviting them to celebrate. The difficulty was that this "radical compassion and Love Christ was showing us" was not bound to laws or rituals because it had no boundaries. They
struggled with the idea of how the Gentiles who were non-Jews could be acceptable
candidates for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Our Question for us here might be this: Who is it that we look down upon as
non-acceptable candidates for the Kingdom today. What minorities are being discriminated against by the so called saved and how does this fit within
the teachings of our Master?
You see
just the thought that someone is not acceptable goes completely against the
radical love and compassion we are to embrace. For it
is within this radical love and compassion that our freedom from religion can be found folks.
It is often the of baggage traditional church, its rituals,
not conforming to or being an outsider that created bickering and in-fighting among the faithful and is this not still going on in our churches today? Here
we may find another clue that keeps religious freedom from getting to them and
to us in the church today. Keeping with tradition, following the church
rules of law, its rituals, and by ignoring the newcomer, would
form clicks, not community by the narrowness of their thinking. Bickering, infighting and the upholding of
old traditions within church going folk today is very common for most religions
and does not help us to build a healthy community of faith either. In fact if we were to look real closely we
would probably find one of the major reason why newcomers tend to shy away after
a very short period of attending, especially if they see this kind of behavior within its members.
Now folks you don’t have to be a
rocket scientist to see this same struggle happening today within the
church. It is as though we haven’t
really gone very far from where the apple fell. The congregants of today struggle with
denominational identify which has its rules, rituals and dogma. We often fight and picker among ourselves
as to what rule applies where, who fits in and of course who’s out. On one hand we want the freedom to worship
and invite newcomers but what they see is a turn off because our churches seem
to be more corporate than community. Most denominations require you to become a registered member to fit in properly and leaders must be
properly educated with the proper status in order to lead. With policies that restrict the spirits
movement within the church how do we embrace the changes that are necessary to
become free to show this radical love and hospitality to the community as a
whole.
Religious freedom seekers of today
who want to follow the teachings of the Master are often being
held in bondage seemingly by what appears to be corporate denominational laws,
rules or regulations.
These letters by Paul were not just
meant for his time but resonate with all who are struggling for religious
freedom and true salvation today. It certainly seems that we have not gone far
from the early traditions as many seeking freedom from Religion seems to be stymied,
strangled or controlled by buildings, denominational rules, regulations and
church dogma. As in the parable this
morning, it appears that we too were not told or at least we didn’t listen
because there are no rules that should prevent us from responding to God's call
for justice, compassion, and love of self and neighbor. If we look closely within the Gospel and the
writings of Paul, we will see that Paul letters to the Galatians church proclaims
that the reality of their freedom and liberty could only be found
in Christ Jesus. Paul proclaims that
religious freedom can only be found when we are freed from our bondage to
Church membership laws, the rituals of the tradition and the power of corporate
sin. Being set free we can now serve this
radical hospitality of compassion and love shown to us by the birth, life,
teachings and death of our Master. So what
is Paul really saying here folks? May
I suggest that the Love of Christ and
the freedom it offers has no Religion?
In fact unconditional Love is not a religion it is a way of life and
there are no rules that caution you to rethink God’s love. Love with rules is conditional and the love
you seek, the love of God through Christ is unconditional. Human love as hard as we try to keep the
conditions out it seems to us almost impossible. God’s love on the other hand is totally and
completely free of conditions. In fact that is what true salvation is all about, you surrendering to the love of God. That is
why with God’s love in you, around you, and through you, if you truly accept it, you will be able to love your enemy, you
will love those who hurt or persecute you, and yes, even those who would kill
you. Love you see, breaks all the rules
just as it did in the parable at the first of my message.
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