St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday Sermon – 20th Sunday after Pentecost – October 30, 2011
“When Freedom Isn’t Free”
Text: John 8:34-36

When! When! When! That’s what I have been preaching on from the
closing chapters of the Gospel of Matthew for sermons these past four
Sundays of October. Each Sunday, each “when” has been based on Jesus’
teaching concerning the uniqueness & newness of what the kingdom of
heaven is like -- as Jesus announced it; as Jesus demonstrated it;
and as Jesus proclaimed how the kingdom of heaven comes to us, is
open to us, includes us, and is to be spread by us thru our witness
to Him as Savior & Lord.
When it comes to the kingdom of heaven, Jesus said, it’s like this;
“When bountiful crops are harvested . . Share!”
“When invitations go out . . Come!”
“When taxes are due . . Render! Sur-RENDER!”
“When the question is asked which commandment is first? Love!
Love God! Love neighbor!”
Now we come to this final Sunday of October, which many Lutheran
congregations observe as Reformation Sunday, and the “when” before us
is “When Freedom Is Not Really Freedom . . You are set free!”
Is there such a thing? When freedom is not really freedom? In a
word, Jesus says freedom is not really freedom when you are a slave
to someone or something, even if it’s yourself.
In the Gospel for this Reformation Sunday from John 8 Jesus said
to those Jews who declared they were Abraham’s off-spring and had
never been enslaved to anyone; Jesus said to them “Truly, truly, I say

to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

When is freedom not freedom? When are people free but they’re not
really free? It’s when the devil, the world and our own sinful flesh
charm us, tease us, deceive us, seduce us, possess us, consume us,
enslave us, overpower us, and we are helpless, powerless to not sin.
We often hear it said what a great thing it is to live in a free
country where people are free to do whatever they want. The problem
with that is that being free to do whatever one wants does not mean
one is free to drive 75 when the posted speed limit is only 60.
Being free to do whatever one wants does not mean walking all over
your neighbor’s flowers or ruining someone’s reputation or running
around using God’s name in vain or “bad-mouthing” public officials
or indulging yourself & your whims & fancies to the point that your
freedom turns out to be extremely self-serving and can bind you
up & turn you into a pretty self-righteous, biased, hypocritical,
judgmental person
So it was with the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, who
proudly said to Jesus that as sons of Abraham, as religious leaders

they were not slaves to anyone or anything.
Yet these were religious leaders of whom Jesus said,
They do not practice what they teach. Hypocrisy!
They put heavy burdens on others but not themselves. Legalism!
They seek and love and live for public recognition. False pride!
Titles, social status, pedigree, family background are of first
importance to them. Arrogance!
They look down their noses at others whom they label “outcasts”,
not worthy of being in the Kingdom of God. That’s being judgmental.
They establish religious laws and collect temple taxes to benefit
themselves. Greed.
They don’t practice justice, do not love mercy, do not walk humbly
with their God. They are biased, prejudiced, self-righteous.
Jesus said of these “sons of Abraham”, so proud, so pleased, so
wrapped up with themselves, Jesus said of them that they were slaves
to sin; not righteous before God but self-righteous.
When is freedom not really freedom? What does it mean to be en-
slaved to sin? It’s a pretty deep, serious, silent problem, deeper
and more serious than most people think.
The apostle Paul once put it this way, “When I want to do right,
evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner
being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law
of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my
members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me, who will save
me, who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:21-24)
(Let me run that by you again.) Eugene Peterson’s The MESSAGE puts
the problem we have with being overpowered, enslaved by sin this way:
“It happens so regularly that it’s predictable; not freedom but en-
slavement.”
This was a binding, overpowering, terrifying dilemma for Dr. Martin
Luther whose heart and mind were heavy with how he felt imprisoned,
judged, condemned by the shame and unworthiness of his sin & guilt
before God. Luther could say with St. Paul and Luther would say it
often. Is God a just and righteous God? Yes! Am I a poor, miserable sinner?

Yes! Am I a faithful son of the holy catholic church? Yes!
the power of sin? No! How can I be free when I am not free?

That’s us too, imperfect, flawed, fallen, sin-infected human
beings by nature. We’re so used to the idea that we’re free to do our
own thing but being free to do our own thing is not being free to be
who we are & what we were meant to be as God’s chosen, servant-mind-
ed people; not when the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh
have such power over us and get so deeply ingrained in us that we are
powerless to free ourselves.
When it comes to being sons & daughters of God and not slaves to
sin, it’s not that we live on the wild side or that we’re the world’s

Am I free from

worst sinners or that we like to selfishly indulge ourselves that
Jesus is talking about but for us it’s the fact that as often as we
may go to church or work hard getting things done at church, we still
get ourselves into deep ruts, bad habits that are not pleasing to
God. We get so comfortable with having things go our way that we do
not want to be bothered with or get on board with being cross-bearing
Christ-like non-conformists to the world we live in. Who can stop
that? Who can change that? Who can help us and rescue us from this

body of death, from this enslavement to sin?

And the answer is Christ, and Christ alone!
What a joy, what a blessing, what a relief, what a freedom to be
set free from not being free. This is exactly what Jesus said, “The
slave is a prisoner, who can’t come & go at will. The Son, though has
an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you
free, you are free thru & thru”.
To be truly free thru & thru, begins with Christ’s incredible work
of atonement. The apostle Paul writes:

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood,
much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:8,9)

And that is never the end of it but always a beginning again.
The on-going legacy of the Reformation is that we who are set free in
Christ give ourselves to keeping alive and living day by day the new-
ness of all that it means to be free “thru & thru”. Not just free of
doubt about our salvation! Not just free of the guilt & and shame of
it all. But keeping alive and living day by day the newness of all
that it means to be free “thru & thru” is to be free of hypocrisy;
free of having to compare ourselves to others; free of not measuring
up; free from condemning in others what we condone in ourselves; no
longer slaves to our sinful thoughts, words & deeds, but sons/ daughters
of God, fully reconciled to God our Father thru Jesus Christ.
After immersing himself in the truth of God’s Word, after
abandoning himself to the mercy of God, Luther’s second great
discovery was that while Christians are God’s children by grace
through faith in “the saving merits of Jesus Christ”, as both saints
& sinners, we are all of us God’s workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should
walk in them.
What a richness of “when’s” come to mind when you and I are
do “use our freedom in Christ as an opportunity for the flesh, but
thru love serve one another.” Here are just a few of the when’s that
show up in hymns we’re use to singing . . .
When tasks of life seem hard and strong . . (424, TLH)
When I am weak, I am strong . .
When all Thy mercies, O my God . . . (31, TLH)
When o’er my sins I sorrow . . (152, TLH)

When Christ’s appearing was made known . . . (265, AGPS)
When I survey the wondrous cross . . (425, LSB)
When in our music God is glorified . . (796, LSB)
When in the hour of deepest need . . (615, LSB)
When morning guilds the skies . . (807, LSB)
When peace, like a river . . (763, LSB)
When to our world the Savior came . . (551, LSB)
When, when, when! What a glory to be free when Christ is Lord for
you and me.
So this Reformation Sunday, to remember & rejoice in the freedom
that is really freedom in Christ, freedom to follow Christ, freedom
to live free from the power of sin for glory of Christ & His blood-
bought redemption, this Reformation Sunday I invite you to join me
now as we stand together and speak the words of the Second Article
and its meaning as Luther wrote it for us to know this great freedom
in Christ & teach our children.
Amen and Amen