FREEDOM ISN’T FREE

Scripture: Galatians 5:1-14

Text from John 8:31-32

…If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

INTRODUCTION

Gathered in this church today, we are Christians and we are Americans and we are fortunate to live in the land of the free. So of all the people on the face of this earth, we ought to know about freedom.

Dr. Fred Craddock, preaching at Chautauqua many years ago, said that “For some of us, freedom is a loud word and the sounds which accompany that word ‘Freedom’ are bells ringing, firecrackers popping…drum and bugle corps playing John Philip Sousa marches…and at least, at least 76 trombones…For others, freedom is a quiet word, as quiet as eight female voices humming outside City Hall all night ‘We Shall Overcome’ and as unbelievable as a breathless whisper coming through a cabin door, ‘Mr. Lincoln says we’re free!’” (From a sermon, “Freedom: An Intimate Distance,” preached by Dr. Fred B. Craddock at Chautauqua Institution, July, 1978).

Freedom is a loud word. Freedom is a quiet word. And we who live in the land of the free, we know about freedom.

We fought a Revolutionary War to secure our freedom. We wrote a Declaration of Independence to announce our freedom. And we created a Constitution to frame and to ensure our freedom: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, we the people do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America” (Preamble to the Constitution, 1787). Surely, we who live in the land of the free, we know about freedom.

Our symbols of freedom stand like shining lights in a world of darkness: the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty in New York City, and in our nation’s capital, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Viet Nam Memorial and the rows upon rows of white crosses in Arlington Cemetery.

Every time I have visited those sacred places and stood before those hallowed monuments, I have been overwhelmed by the sacrifice of all the men and women who served this country so faithfully and gave their lives for the cause of freedom.

And if we listen, ever so carefully, we can still hear their voices echoing, echoing, echoing down through our history: “Give me liberty or give me death”…”We hold these truths to be self-evident – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”…”Fourscore and seven years ago”…”Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!”

During this Memorial Day weekend, from Boston, Massachusetts to Bel Air, California, from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Miami, Florida, there will be parades and public statements made by leaders in most every city. Children, youth, adults and older citizens, especially those veterans from what Tom Brokaw called “the greatest generation” will wave their flags, place flowers at the graves of valiant and brave soldiers and recite together the Pledge of Allegiance. And with the haunting awareness of what happened here in America on September 11, we will stand at attention in silence to remember all those whom we have loved and lost a while, promising one another that they will not have died in vain.

This morning’s paper, on the front page, tells about Mike Span, a 32 year-old CIA officer who was the first casualty in Afghanistan. His father, Johnny Span, was interviewed and he said, “It’s different for me in the sense that I am going to try to remember all the other people who died.” He said that from his office in Alabama where his son grew up. He said, “I remember Mike every day, but this Memorial Day I’m going to remember not only Mike, but all of the people in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the people over there in Afghanistan now. It’s a real emotional time for us.”

And so it is, because we who live here in Atlanta, in America, in the land of the free, we know about freedom. This weekend, it is good and it is right for us to acknowledge the freedoms which we enjoy today – freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom to elect our leaders, freedom to support them and to disagree with them and with one another, freedom to live where we like, to work where we choose and to be all that we can be as citizens of this nation.

But in the midst of our brightest moments and realized dreams, we who live in the land of the free, we also know that our freedom has not come easily. We the people have had to pay a high price for it.

Did you know that of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, that all of them risked imprisonment and death for treason, that the homes of nearly one-third of them were destroyed or damaged and that the families of many of them were scattered when the British pillaged or confiscated their property and possessions? (Signers of the Declaration, National Park Service, 1973).

Did you know that among the 40 signers of the Constitution, although some of them, as one national leader quipped were “well-bred, well-read, well-fed and well-wed” (Ed Meese in speech in July of 1987 at Chautauqua Institution), did you know that many of them realized that this nation, with enormous debt and internal strife, was on the brink of disaster as they gathered during that hot summer of 1787 in Philadelphia”?

As the convention began, George Washington wrote to Thomas Jefferson, saying that “the situation of the general government…is shaken to its foundation and liable to be overturned by every blast.” And Ben Franklin, so feeble that he had to be carried out of the Constitution Hall in a sedan chair, said after the document was signed: “We have given you a republic, if you can keep it.”

You see, our freedom has not come easily. Did you know that in the Civil War, and in World War I and I and the Korean War and in Viet Nam and the Persian Gulf and now in Afghanistan, more than a million Americans have died, and even more have been wounded and taken prisoner or marked as missing, with the estimated costs in excess of $15 billion to see those conflicts through to the end?

Such enormous costs, such overwhelming statistics stagger our minds. But they help us to remember and never forget that Freedom Isn’t Free. It has cost us far more than we could ever count or calculate.

And sad to say, there are people living in this nation today who are still waiting for, hoping for, praying for the same kind of equal opportunities that so many of us have already received. The war on poverty, which we declared in the 1960’s, is far from over and we cannot, we must not rest until everyone in this land has access to the American dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

II.

And standing there between the light and the darkness, between the highest points and the lowest moments of our nation’s history, standing there between what has been and what could be, is the Savior who has the power to set all of us free. His name is Jesus Christ, and the freedom that He offers cannot be won by wars. The freedom He has promised does not separate people according to race or color or creed. The freedom that He gives is shared equally with all human beings, be they wealthy or on welfare or somewhere in between. The freedom that He brought into this world is the source of all of our freedoms, for He and He alone has the power to forgive our sins, to release us from guilt, to heal our wounds and to help us rebuild our lives.

And He, more than anyone who has ever walked the face of this earth, He knows that Freedom Isn’t Free. It cost Him his own life to give us liberty. Through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave, His spirit of freedom has been let loose in this world. He said, If the Son of God makes you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36) and His spirit of freedom shook the Roman Empire to its core. He said, You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free (John 8:32) and His spirit of freedom has exposed hypocrisy and brought tyrants to their knees.

His apostle, named Paul, wrote to the Galatians and all of us ever since, saying that for freedom, Christ has set you free. Stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1). His spirit of freedom inspired the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His spirit of freedom empowered the architects of the Constitution. His spirit of freedom encouraged Susan Anthony and sustained Barbara Jordan and empowered Martin Luther King, Jr. to stand at the foot of the Washington Monument in 1963 to declare “I have a dream that…when we allow freedom to ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”

CONCLUSION

My friends, we who live in the land of the free, we know about freedom. And as Christians, we can be confident that the spirit of our Lord and Savior is still at work in America. His spirit of freedom brought a young Scottish preacher to this country in 1928. His name was Peter Marshall, and years later, on Wednesday morning, March 19, 1947, as the newly elected Chaplain of the United States Senate, Dr. Marshall climbed the steps, stood at the podium, bowed his head and offered this prayer:

“Lord Jesus, thou who art the way, the truth and the life, hear us as we pray for the truth that shall make us free. Teach us that freedom is not only to be loved, but also to be lived. Freedom is too precious a thing to be buried in books. It cost too much to be hoarded. Make us see that our freedom is not the right to do as we please, but the opportunity to please to do what is right. So may America through thy servants…do what is right, that thy blessing can rest upon our labors and give us good conscience. Through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray…”

And to that prayer, on this Memorial Day weekend, May the 26^th, 2002, as Christians and as Americans, let us all say “Amen.”

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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