Last Sunday night after all that we did with church I went home with my only intention being to vedg out in front of the television. I was tired. I didn’t want to have to do anything or think about anything. I know that may of you felt the same way. While it was a wonderful day, it was also exhausting.
I sat down and started surfing through the channels. At one point the only thing I could find to watch was "60 Minutes." One of the features they did was on a group that calls themselves the Earth Liberation Front. The Eart Liberation Front or E.L.F. is a group that has made it their mission to clean up the planet and environment of all that does it damage. On the surface it sounds like a noble effort. After all, who could ever argue with an organization that wanted to clean up the world around them and make it a better place? THat is how the E.L.F. would like for us to see them.
While cleaning up the environment may be heir goal, the ends don’t justify the means. This organization goes about achieving this so called noble through a reign of terror and destruction. They live with an attitude of burning whatever they feel is destroying the earth and the environment. A ski resort near Steamboat Springs Colorado was, as they saw it, trespassing on the wild, unsettled areas around the town. Their solution? Burn down the ski lodge and all its surrounding buildings. Plants and manufacturing facilities that produce products that the E.L.F. believes to be harmful to the environment refuse to cease production? No problem. The E.L.F. just burns it down.
Wherever there are those that produce products or do other things that don’t agree with the Earth Liberation Front and its agenda, burning and destrcution could very well follow. The membership is unknown. The F.B.I. calls them a terrorist group. I think they are probably at least close to being right. Those who support them and are sympathetic to their cause, at best see their actions as extreme but necessary to stop the damage to the planet.
This week we celebrate and commemorate the greatest day of political freedom the world has ever known. It is a day we remember our independence and even more. It is a day that we, as Americans think about freedom and what it means for us. We remember what so many have done to allow us to make decisions about where we want to worship and what we want to say and so many other things we call freedoms. It truly is a great day of celebration for our country.
I think what one of the problems for us in this country today and maybe to some degree it has always been a problem is in what some people deem to be freedom. Freedom for far too many means that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want. Freedom of speech, for them means, I can say whatever I want, both in writing and in actual speech because it is my right, my freedom. It doesn’t matter if I hurt someone else. It doesn’t matter if I destroy someone else’s property. The only thing that matters is my freedom. It is a very shortsighted attitude that many have.
The same kind of attitude is present with other things we call freedom too. We have taken, and I say we because as a society we have let it happen, freedom of religion and let it become freedom from religion. We have let it completely slip from our memories and maybe even our history books that the founding fathers were, as a group, very religious, spiritual men. God meant something to them and they intended the Constitution to reflect that line of thinking. We have allowed our society to get away from that.
It seems to me that we have taken this idea of freedom and turned it into license. Freedom means license to do whatever we want, whenever we want. The only problem with that kind of attitude is, it removes the importance of the rights of others from the equation. Thomas Jefferson, I believe it was, once said something to the effect of, your freedom stops where my nose begins. In other words, we are free to swing our arms wildly in the air, we can throw our fists around, until the point where it does harm to someone else. Their rights and freedoms are just as important as any of ours.
The Earth Liberation Front has every right by the Constitution to protest the use of Styrofoam cups because they see them as bad for the environment. They can buy advertising time on television and radio. They can buy ad space in newspapers, magazines, and billboards in an effort to get American consumers to quit buying and using styrofoam cups. They can stand outside the plant that produces these cups and demonstrate against the manufacturing of the cups. They can go to Capitol Hill and protest in an effort to get the laws changed. They can even protest, again peacefully, at any place that uses the cups. They have no right, however, to burn down the plant for manufacturing the cups or the buildings of others where the cups are used.
We talk a great deal about feedom in this country. It is an important part of our lives and our heritage. But, it is easy to forget that important though our freedoms may be, others have freedoms as well that are just as important. We cannot let our freedoms squash or dominish the freedoms of others.
Paul has something to say about freedom in this morning’s lesson. He says, "do not use your freedom for self-indulgence." Then he goes on to give us some examples of what he is talking about. Things like depravity, idolatry, quarreling and anger, drunkenness and so forth. You can read the entire list again in Galations 5 and it by no means is complete. Paul says at the end of the list, "...and things like these." He knows that the list could go on and on.
What is it that is wrong with living a lifestyle that would include the things on this list? There are actually several things. First I will give you the easy cut and dried answer. It is wrong because God said so. Have you ever been dealing with a child and this child wanted an explanation for everything you were asking? The usual question is "why?" After we have had to deal with that for a while, the less patient of us, I am one, will usually snap back something to the effect of, "because I am the parent (or teacher or whatever) and I said so." I thing that maybe God sometimes feels the same way in dealing with us.
Second, when we look at Paul’s list what we see are things that could bring pain to those around us. "Strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, and factions" are all going to bring pain to at least one side of the problem, maybe both. When these kinds of things are part of our lifestyle we step on the freedoms of others.
Third, most of the things on Pau’s list are not very good for us. As I read and reread Paul’s list and think about afew things that could go on there as well, every one of them at least has the potential for serious consequences in our own lives. At the very least we won’t be happy people and if we are not happy, we are not truly free. We are bound by our own unhappiness.
The good news of all of this is that God, through Paul gives us another list. This list, however is a good bit different. With this list we come to know how we can feel free through our own health and happiness without having to walk on the freedom of others. He calls them the fruits of the Spirit and they are an essential part of Christian living. When we have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control as a part of our lives we will be full, free, and happy and we become good examples of real freedom for those around us.
In the same "60 Minutes" program there was a rerun of a story that was the talk of the town several months ago, though I missed it the first time it was on. It was the story of Dr. Ruth J. Simmons who today becomes the first black woman to be the president of an Ivy League university. She is the president of Brown University.
It is an interesting story. She was born right here in Grapeland. When she began school she discovered the world of books. Over the years she studied hard and worked hard. WIthout question she has become a great success and has reached a pinnacle of her field. She took the gifts that God has given her and the freedoms, the real freedoms our country offers and used them to reach a point of great success. Did she do so at the expense of others? I can’t say for sure but based on what I have read and heard, I don’t think so.
As I watched "60 Minutes" last Sunday, it occured to me that I was watching two examples of what people try to pass off as freedom in our society. On the one hand is an organization that is trying to force its agenda on society through means of terror, burning, and destruction. Then on the other is someone who found the way to freedom through hard work and education to make her way to the top. I think she is closer to what America is all about. In know she is much closer to living Paul’s words in our lesson this morning.
In a few moments we will be coming tot he Lord’s Table. As we come I invite you to spend a moment here in prayer. Leave behind the things on the first list. THen pick up and take with you the things on the second list. It is only with the tings on the second list that any of us will ever find the way to true health and happiness. It isnly through this love and joy and peace that we will find real freedom.
It is this life of freedom that God calls us to. And, freedom does not mean doing whatever we want. THat would mean we are living a Godless life. Paul closes the lesson by telling us that we are to live by the Spirit and be guided by the Spirit. WItht he Spirit leading us we will always find the way to true and real freedom.
