When the Gold Medal for history and biography by the Academy of Arts and Letters was presented to Carl Sandburg, he said: "We find it momentous that Lincoln used the word 'responsibility' nearly as often as he used the word 'freedom.' The free men of the world of arts and letters can well ask themselves everyday and almost as a ritual: 'Who paid for my freedom, and at what price, and am I somehow beholden?' The question is not rhetorical. It is a burning and terrible historical question."

We gather to worship for a few moments this morning of our national Independence Day weekend. Along with gathering with families and friends it would be good for us to ask these questions and think about some who did pay the price for our freedom. We may consider those who drafted and signed our nation's Declaration of Independence. We may consider those who served their new fledgling nation to pay for that freedom, and some who paid the price with their very lives. We may think of those who fought to secure freedom for people who were in bondage. Since the early days of our nation, many people have taken responsibility to maintain this precious freedom. Some of you have shared in that responsibility as people in other generations have done.

Years before our nation was born lived a man named Saul, from Tarsus. Before he encountered Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus he was in bondage to sin. His life had been transformed by the power of God and he had become free from the terrible bondage of sin. Even though He was free, He chose to be a servant of Jesus Christ so that other people might also be set free and share the blessing of the Gospel.

Through the centuries men and women who have become free have had to learn to understand what this freedom really is.

A great preacher, A. W. Tozer wrote:
"Freedom is liberty within bounds: liberty to obey holy laws, liberty to keep the commandments of Christ, to serve mankind, to develop to the full all the latent possibilities within our redeemed natures. True Christian liberty never sets us free to indulge our lusts or to follow our fallen impulses...."

He continued,
"Unqualified freedom in any area of human life is deadly. In government it is anarchy, in domestic life free love, and in religion antimonianism. The freest cells in the body are cancer cells, but they kill the organism where they grow. A healthy society requires that its members accept a limited freedom. Each must curtail his own liberty that all may be free, and this law runs throughout all the created universe, including the kingdom of God....

The ideal Christian is one who knows he is free to do as he will and wills to be a servant. This is the path Christ took; blessed is the man who follows Him."

I believe these words are true and powerful, even though they may be unpopular with a society that focuses primarily on themselves.

Are you free in Christ? Are you choosing to be a servant to Christ who paid the price for your freedom? In Holy Communion that we share for all followers of Christ present today we remember what Jesus did so that we could be truly free.

Return