Gospel:
John 8:31–36
31Then
Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my
word, you are truly my disciples; 32and
you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." 33They answered him, "We are descendants of
Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, 'You
will be made free'?"
34Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you,
everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.
35The slave does not have a permanent place in the
household; the son has a place there forever.
36So if the Son makes you free, you will be free
indeed.
Greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ,
This morning we hear in our gospel text, “The truth will
make you free”. As we read this, did you hear this statement, and think, hmm,
so that’s where that saying comes from, Jesus said it. In my life, I have heard
this statement used in varying contexts, someone trying to argue this or that
point, or even trying to sell something, yet rarely, has the light bulb flashed
and reminded me that Jesus said this first.
And, now that we have been reminded of the origin of this
statement, some advice; if anyone says “the truth will set you free” and adds
to it, “for the low, low price only $9.99” do not buy whatever they are
selling.
So, what is the truth that sets us free? First, what is
the truth? We could simply say Jesus, which would be right, but that doesn’t
tell us a lot.
And then there’s freedom, the idea of being free, an idea
that is one of the most used, and least articulated concepts in our society.
So how about this for a description of this statement in
one word. Baptism. It is the gift of Baptism that gives us the best, the only
articulation of what Jesus is saying to us in this statement. And you can get
baptized here at Christ the King Lutheran church for the low low price of only
$9.99.
Baptism both clearly speaks the truth to us, and guides
us into the way of freedom.
The truth of Baptism, the truth that is professed in this
great gift is that God loves each and every one of us, indeed, each and every
human being that has ever been created, more than we can fathom. This truth of
this love, is of course shown to us in the death of Jesus for all of creation, and,
the truth of this love for us is an indelible mark given to us when we are
marked with this cross in our Baptism.
And the freedom this truth gives is a freedom that our
world, enslaved to sin, cannot give. For example, think of a person who has
been “set free” from their incarceration. They are not really freed from it,
but marked by it throughout their lives; be it in job applications or future
relationships, the mark of ex-con will make a person a little less free than
those who haven’t served time.
From another perspective, think of the “freedom” that
comes when we turn 18, or leave our parent’s house. When we grow up, we may be
able to live a little more by our own rules, but we aren’t free from the person
our environments like home, school, and peer groups have formed us to be. We
hopefully carry many marks of love and joy from our early years, we probably
carry some marks of expectations that push us in certain directions, and we all
carry marks of hurt and pain that have been inflicted upon us, and the painful
marks that we have left upon others.
And what is freedom from the perspective of people who
are residing in the Land of the Free? Here in this country, we have our own
history of slavery to deal with, and today, we most certainly still wrestle with a society
marked by the scourge of slavery, that has varying levels of freedom now built
into our collective DNA.
Regardless of who we are, or where we live; whether we
are the oppressors or the oppressed, we cannot make ourselves free. We are all
slaves to sin, and there is no law, no edict, no technology, or medication that
can free us from it. Ultimately, we are slaves to hurting each other, hurting
ourselves, and hurting the creation that has been given to us.
But we are Baptized. We are loved even though we are in
bondage to sin, and not because of anything we have done, but simply out of
God’s grace. In our baptism, this love sets us free, not to do whatever we
want, but to love each other. In our baptism, we are freed to set others free.
In our baptism we are able to see the person who has served time as just
another person to love. In our baptism we are freed to create a loving refuge
for the child who doesn’t find love at home. In our baptism, we are freed to
break the racist laws that lie and tell us not all people are created equally
by our creator, knowing the truth that the loving waters of baptism tell us.
And in our baptism, we are even free to love the person who made those laws
too. And, lest we forget, the poor wretch looking at us in the mirror, the one
that we are so quick to criticize, and denigrate, as the water runs into the
sink, we are free to remember that Jesus thought that this person was so
valuable that he died for them too.
We are baptized. We are freed by the truth of God’s
unending love given to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We are freed by the Holy Spirit sharing that life through the lives of
generations of disciples, with us today. We are freed to be those disciples,
those followers of Christ, who are called to share this truth, this life of
freedom, this life of unending grace, peace, justice, and love, this baptized
life, with all of creation.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Amen
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