A Paradox of Freedom and Following Gal. 5 and Luke 9  6/27/10

People of mature faith have a capacity to embrace paradox.  This is the capacity to struggle with the tensions between two seemingly opposite concepts or realities.  Trusting in God’s presence and ultimate goodness a person of mature faith embraces sorrow and joy.  The paradox that stands above all others is the cross of Christ.  Christ embraced death on a cross and in so doing was raised to life. 

The readings from Paul’s letter to the Galatians and the Gospel for today invite us to contemplate the paradox of freedom and following.  Freedom is a gift.  Paul proclaims, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” Following is a command.  Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem and his call to follow is urgent and immediate.  He does not woo would-be followers with incentives and pie in the sky promises.  Rather, he says, it’s now or never.  Follow me now or not at all.  Let us explore the tension between the gift of freedom and command of following. 

The movie Invictus tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team to help unite their country.  Mandela’s release from prison after 26 years and his ascent to a democratically elected President of South Africa marks a radical change in the country. 

South Africa is hosting the 1995 Rugby World Cup, that being the only reason the Springboks are even competing in the tournament as its years on the sideline of the world rugby events has not made it world ranked.  The Springboks were previously considered the team of white South Africa.  For many black South Africans, the Springbok name, logo and colors all represent the dark history and racial injustice of apartheid in South Africa and thus refuse to support them  Mandela, himself denounced the Springboks when he was in prison.  A new reporter reminds Mandela of this in an interview and Mandela responds, “The situation of our country has changed and we must change too.” 

Whereas Mandela challenged the people of South Africa to change attitudes and outlook in response to the change from apartheid’s oppression to democracy’s freedom, Paul challenges us to change the way we live in relationship with God. “For freedom, Christ has set you free,” is a declaration of a changed system.  As Paul says, we longer live under a system where keeping the Law makes us right with God.  We are freed from the law through Christ’s reconciling love. 

In the letter to the Galatians, there are fundamentally two ways- life under the law and life as response to grace.  Life lived by law represents one way of relating to God and to other people.  For Paul, following law is not the basis upon which people will stand justified before God or be righteous in relations to other people.  By contrast, living in response to the unconditional grace of God is liberating.  By grace one already stands justified/righteous before God, and by the ongoing gift of the Spirit one can be righteous in relations to others. 

Paul deals with justification by works in terms of the Judean Law.  He vehemently renounces the Jewish Christians who are telling members of the Galatian community that they must fulfill Jewish laws and traditions in addition to following Christ.  This is certainly not our issue, but by suggestion and implication we are still under the law.  Paul condemns the view that any human achievement or status can be the basis for justifying oneself before God.  Ask yourself in what ways you seek to prove of justify your worth as a person before God and before other people:  Do you do it by goodness, generosity, importance, position of power, influence, wealth, achievement, or some other criterion of self-worth?  For Paul, this would be a salvation rooted in human effort or “the flesh.” 

In contrast, Paul’s vision for human life is that people will be entirely dependent on God’s grace for their identity and their justification, totally apart from Law.  People are stripped of both success and failures as they stand before God.  “For freedom, Christ has set you free!” 

Mandela does whatever he can to make the Springboks the team of all South Africa.  He needs the support of the team members and its captain, Francois Pienaar, to achieve his unrealistic goal of the Springboks winning the World Cup.  Mandela invites Pienaar to have tea with him one afternoon and talks about inspiration and how to motivate under extreme pressure.  Mandela mentions a poem that kept his spirits up while he was imprisoned and Francois says he understands, mentioning of a particular song the team sings before every match. 

The championship match is between the undefeated New Zealand team and the Springboks.  Nearly 62,000 fans have turned up at the stadium to watch.  The game stays tied throughout and goes back and forth, South Africa mostly playing catch-up.  In the end, South Africa is able to edge out New Zealand by three points as the clock runs out.  After the trophy presentation the streets of South Africa are booming with excitement.  Both white and black South Africans are cheering for the Springboks in celebration.  The national pride, at least for the moment, seems to have been somewhat restored in the eyes of themselves, much less the rest of the world. 

The inspiration to follow Christ comes to us through the Holy Spirit.  Just as Nelson Mandela invited the captain of the rugby team to have tea, engage in conversation, encourage, challenge and inspire, God’s Spirit summons us to engage in conversation, encourages, challenges and inspires us to follow Christ with conviction and determination.  God’s Spirit frees us from the burden and unending demands of the law and frees us for lives of glad and willing service.  God’s Spirit inspires us to turn away from the “works of the flesh: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.  By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control emerge in our lives and community of faith and are a blessing to others.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.”

I think it is Thomas Jefferson who said, “Creativity is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”  I appreciate Jefferson’s emphasis that creativity requires considerably more perspiration than inspiration, but when it comes to Jesus’ uncompromising and demanding call to follow him, the equation must be flipped.  Following Christ is 99% inspiration and 1% perspiration, if that. 

A person of mature faith has the capacity to embrace paradox: freedom and following, gift and command.  “For freedom Christ has set us free.”  And inspired by the Spirit we follow where Christ leads us, where the Spirit guides us.