Pity poor Kathy Scott: this is the third sermon she will hear on this text in as many days. I'm not kidding: the luck of the lectionary gives us "freedom," the week our country celebrates our independence. Coincidence? Predestination? This is a peculiarly Pauline understanding of freedom: it's freedom for, never freedom from. Paul never lets us off the hook for personal responsibility. Even when he talks about the struggle between flesh and Spirit. He always understands those lists of vices to be things for which we must accept the consequences, things we have a responsibility to opt out of. Not by brute self-control. Anyone who has ever needed a 12-Step program can tell you addicted vices are outside our control. Drinking or overeating or gambling or the bad relationships that prompt membership in Al-Anon, these addictions are not things we can get rid of by strength of character. Or more gumption. Or trying harder. Or substituting other (and maybe worse) habits. Nope. Freedom from, is always a gift from God. But that gift of freedom from is not to give us more autonomy or independence or room for more self-actualizing. This gift is not just "freedom" for the sake of being "from," it is freedom for.

God's gift of freedom comes with a condition. The condition is that we use it. This is a gift unlike some of the gifts we might give for Christmas and birthdays. You know what happens sometimes with certain older relatives. "It's too pretty to use," Grama will say, putting your gorgeous sweater or dazzling new nightie in the drawer. "I'll save it for something special. Or when I go to the hospital." And when Grama dies, she has a whole drawer full of brand new sweaters, lovingly given and saved up for some other occasion. Our freedom, given by God, is not to be stored for use later. We may have learned the value when we were kids of frugality and saving for a rainy day, but freedom only increases in value as it is used. There is no certificate of deposit for freedom, no compound interest for not using it. Freedom has got to be exercised to increase. You know, either from parenting or from being raised up yourself, that when we act as if we can do whatever we want whenever we want, there are bound to be some repercussions. The teenager who tears through the kitchen grabbing snacks, spilling milk, and leaving debris and dirty dishes everywhere is certainly free to do that, but the freedom to eat between meals is bound to be curtailed unless something isn't done to exercise that freedom more responsibly.

But Christian freedom is different from what happens in households. There is a distinctiveness to Christian freedom as the basis for how we act. When Christians act in freedom, it is not because they are coerced. What we do is not done out of legalism, keeping the rules. That's why Paul lists the unified components of the fruit of the Spirit and then sums it all up: "There is no law against such things." We are loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled, not because the Religious Police will get us if we don't. We are all of these things because, put together, they are the package that develops out of who we are when we are in tune with God's loving intentions for us. But there's more. Christian freedom is not just freedom from the religious laws of "oughta," Christian freedom means that what we do is not bound to the reactions of others. This needs a little explanation. Kids: this is not to say that you can avoid doing what your parents ask you to do because you are a Christian. What this means is that we aren't doing nice things because we need to look good. We aren't loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled, because we need the praise or even thanks of other people. We are loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled because it's part of our relationship with God. It's how we say thanks for this great gift of freedom. It's a consequence of freedom.

There are many ways that Springwater people can spend their time. We are free to choose - within economic and moral limits - what our hobbies and occupations are. But one of the ways people in this church live into Christian freedom is that they help each other. Springwater people practice being the church to each other and folks in the community. And I don't mean just coming on Sunday mornings or serving on committees Paul says that through love we become slaves to each other. This means things like the ministry of driving each other in emergencies, watching each other's kids, bringing someone a pot of soup when they are sick, offering to drive strangers to the doctor. This is an exercise of the gift of freedom, and it is exercised in such a way that it is clear that no one is keeping tally to make sure that scores are even, that no one has more help than someone else, that people are "paid back" for favors. People don't feel "beholden" to each other, simply because they received some help. When someone needs help, the grace of receiving is exercised just as readily as the grace of giving. And this is freedom too. Exercising the freedom to receive is probably the hardest thing a generous person can do, but to receive from another graciously is an exercise of the freedom we receive as a gift from God, just as surely as being generous is a response of thanks.

There is a dynamic, a movement, to freedom. It isn't the movement of "tit for tat" or "keeping up with the score." Here is another distinctive feature of Christian freedom. Our freedom, because it has movement - movement from God to us - is about serving God. Even that first liberator, Moses, when he went to appeal to Pharaoh to "let my people go," had to add the rest of God's request: "Let my people go so that they may serve me." Christian freedom is expressed in service, and that service is not so much about what is done, as it is about serving as an expression of God's original gift to us.

So, thinking about freedom as service, thinking about freedom as something we exercise and not just save up for rainy days, here are some questions for you to consider about your freedom.

Here's a political one to start off. How free are you if you do not vote? If you don't vote, you are subject to the "dictatorship" of others - people who care to vote or who have the resources to buy the votes.

Think about physical limitations. My friends in wheelchairs point out freedom of access issues to me. How free are you if the world is full of steps? And even if you can arrange most of your activities on one level, how free are you if there are steps to reach that level? Or there's a ramp, but the entry door is too narrow for your chair? Or the threshold is too high? Or the bathroom is on another floor?

Think about what motivates us. How free are you if you only do well in school because someone will praise you? How free are you if you need others to notice that you did a good job before you feel good about it? How free are you if you stop doing something you love because others make fun of it? For instance, you volunteered at the Cone, but someone said something cutting about the Four Square Church, and you didn't want to be associated with a ministry of a church that your friend dissed. Or you gave up T-ball because one of the big kids said it was for babies. How free are you if you can't take a risk without fear that you'll look ridiculous in the eyes of others?

Personal addictions. These are hard. How free are you if you keep smoking, even if you know it's killing you? How free are you if you hate how you look in the three-way mirrors, but you need the buzz the soda and chips give you so you can get done those little jobs you just hate to do. How free are you if the special treat you give yourself when you are feeling down always involves buying something? How free are you if you can't relax after work without a beer? How free are you if you are only attracted to people who are unavailable?

Friends, hear the words of the apostle Paul: "For freedom Christ has set us free." It is not God's desire that we continue in slavery of any kind. Not the slavery of religious institutionalism that Paul warned against. Not our own personal prisons. "Stand firm," he says. Not by virtue of our own willpower. Not by virtue of personal moral superiority. To not submit again to the yoke of slavery means claiming God's gift of freedom and then living as if we believe that gift has already been given. Living into freedom, choosing freedom, not in one huge revolutionary swoop, like the shot heard round the world, which set off the Revolutionary War in the American colonies. That's more drastic than most of us are willing to be. Rather that all-out war, be in conversation with God about where you are experiencing slavery in your life. Ask God for the grace to interrupt those slave behaviors earlier and earlier. It is not God's desire that you continue in slavery. For freedom Christ has set us free. We can only respond with thanks.

Redeeming God, transforming God, always creating and re-creating God: we can only praise you for your gift. We can only say thank you that you have called us to freedom. We humans find it so much easier to remain in the familiar slaveries of our own making, rather than to embrace your terrifying, startling freedom. Forgive us for not whole-heartedly living into your gift. Open our eyes to what holds us back. Give us courage to change what we can change about ourselves, trusting the Holy Spirit to be our un-erring, tender guide. In the name stronger than all human powers, the precious name of Jesus we pray.