Fun, Fun, Fun

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

July 3, 2016

Fun, Fun, Fun

Galatians 5:13-15

“For you were called to freedom,

brothers and sisters;

only do not use your freedom

as an opportunity for self-indulgence,

but through love become slaves to one another.

For the whole law is summed up

in a single commandment,

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

If, however, you bite and devour one another,

take care that you are not consumed by one another.”

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[Play “Fun, Fun, Fun”, by the Beach Boys]

Is there a group that captures summer

in all its glory

better than the Beach Boys?

For more than 50 years

they’ve been the very essence of summer

with their songs of surf, sand, and sun:

Catch a wave,

then cruise to the hamburger stand;

and end the day

with a double-feature at the drive-in.

The Beach Boys sang songs of joy,

songs of summer days and summer nights,

songs of fun, fun, fun,

until, of course,

Dad gets wise and

takes away the keys to the T-bird.

They are songs of sheer freedom,

the freedom we celebrate this weekend,

with picnics, cookouts,

and, of course, fireworks.

And for many a gathering,

the soundtrack will be the Beach Boys.

We will celebrate our independence tomorrow;

We will celebrate our freedom,

living here in the land that,

as we love to sing,

is the land of the free.

What is it to be free, though?

That’s the question Paul was dealing with

in our text.

A Greek philosopher named Epictetus,

writing in the early years of the second century

said, “he is free who lives as he wills,

who is subject neither to compulsion,

nor hindrance,

nor force,

whose choices are unhampered,

whose desires attain their end.”

Epictetus built on Plato’s

very simple philosophy

espoused more than 300 years before

the birth of our Lord

that freedom is the ability

to say what you think,

and do as you please.

Now to us this sounds just right

as we exercise our unalienable rights to life,

liberty

and the pursuit of happiness.

But of course,

if we are free to say and do

whatever we want,

that means we are free to say and do

dumb things,

hurtful things,

hateful things,

things harmful to ourselves and to others.

Since the days of Moses,

God has called us to community,

to live with one another,

and God has given us wisdom to guide us

to help shape our communities

as we live freely,

independently,

but also interdependently.

Our Founding Fathers understood that

we need to let go of a bit of our freedom

in order to live harmoniously

and peacefully in community.

So, I must give up my freedom

to drive as I see fit:

I cannot drive 90 miles per hour on route 234

on Sunday morning, and

I cannot ignore all those tiresome signals

that just slow me down.

For the good of the community,

I have to give up a bit of freedom

to do what I want to do

so I am neither a hazard to myself

or to others.  

We give up a bit of our freedom

in order to “form a more perfect Union”,

as the Preamble of our Constitution tells us.

Union:  united, joined,

fusion, blended – community.

God’s call to us since Moses’ time,

more than 3,000 years ago.

Paul reminds the Galatians and us in our text

that to live in freedom is to live in community,

to embrace community,

to embrace the needs of others

within the community.

Paul’s response to Plato’s definition of freedom –

say what you like,

do what you like –

is to call such living, “self indulgence.”

Paul reminds us of our calling

as followers of Jesus Christ

with our Lord’s own words,

“For the whole law is summed up

in a single commandment,

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’.”

When Jesus said those words,

he was not saying anything new;

he was reinforcing Scripture

from the book of Leviticus,

a core teaching for the community of God’s children

for more than thousand years,

as part of the Holiness Code

God gave to Moses.

(Leviticus 19:18)

That lesson and others

in that part of the book of Leviticus

are the laws and rules

that help build community:

Don’t steal;

Don’t bear a grudge;

Don’t slander;

Don’t lie;

Leave a portion of your field

unharvested for the poor.

And particularly compelling and timely,

“When an alien resides with you in your land,

you shall not oppress the alien.

The alien who resides with you

shall be to you as the citizen among you;

and you shall love the alien as yourself.”

(Leviticus 19:34ff)

Paul tells the Galatians and us,

“For freedom, Christ has set us free”,

free though not to say or do whatever we want,

but rather free to embrace more fully

the life offered us through our baptism,

the life of Christ,

a life in community,

a life building community.

If you’ve read all the way through

the Declaration of Independence,

you may well have been as struck as I

by the very last sentence,

the concluding sentence

right before the signers

boldly, bravely, and freely

affixed their signatures.

The sentence reads:

“And for the support of this Declaration,

with a firm reliance on the

protection of divine Providence,

we mutually pledge to each other

our Lives,

our Fortunes and

our sacred Honor.”

They mutually pledged

their lives,

their fortunes,

and their honor,

all the signers,

including the Presbyterian minister

John Witherspoon,

bound together,

no one free unless all were free,

independent, yet interdependent.

This is the freedom Paul writes of,

the freedom Paul wants us

to embrace and live

as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Frederick Buechner has written,

“The human family - It’s a good phrase,

reminding us that…

our lives are elaborately and inescapably linked.

…that no one is an island,

Professor Richard Hayes has written,

“Freedom in Christ manifests itself

through the formation of communities

where old barriers of nation, race,

class, gender are overcome

in communion” …in community

We are able to embrace this freedom because

as Paul had taught us,

“It is no longer I who live,

but Christ who lives in me.”

(Galatians 2:20)

“To live for ourselves

is to be at the mercy of ourselves,

where to be free is to live for Christ.”

Anger, hatred, fear, envy, jealousy -

all those human emotions

can get the better of us:

They can bind us in chains;

and when we are under their power

we are no longer free.

“Heaven knows how to put a

proper price upon its goods;

and it would be strange indeed

if so celestial an article as freedom

should not be highly rated.”

the words of Thomas Paine in 1776.

We celebrate our freedom;

we treasure our freedom;

freedom for the life we are called to live

by our Lord Jesus Christ,

a life with others, in community;

a life the Spirit helps us to live

generously,

with self control,

peacefully,

lovingly

(Galatians 6.22)

And yes, from time to time,

it is also a life of fun, fun fun.

AMEN