Sermon - Trinity VII 2022 - Romans 6:19-23

Feeding of the Five Thousand, Anonymous, circa 1750

St. Paul wrote in Galatians: “For freedom Christ has set us free.” And here in Romans St. Paul wrote: “Present your members as slaves to righteousness.” So which is it? Are we free or slaves? In short, Christ has freed us from our slavery of sin to be slaves of God. The freedom we have from Christ is a bit more nuanced than we Americans typically think.

As Americans a fairly significant ideal is freedom, having individual autonomy and not being subject to authoritarian tyrants. That freedom is a good ideal, it’s a part of what makes the US such a desirable place to live. We can argue over the current state of freedom in our country and how things have changed since our founding, but I think it’s still safe to say we Americans by and large value our freedoms. Afterall, the motto of Iowa is: “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.”

While these freedoms are great in terms of our citizenry, we have to be careful that we don’t import our American notion of freedom into our theology. American freedom gives us the impression that we have no masters and that each citizen shares in the governance of our nation. American freedom gives us the right to make our own decisions, as stupid and as risky as they may be. But that’s not Christian freedom.

Spiritually, it’s impossible to not have a master. We are either slaves to impurity and lawlessness, slaves of sin, or we are slaves to righteousness, slaves of God. There’s no neutral state that one can exist in; you can’t be in this limbo where you’re neither a slave of sin nor God. This isn’t a gray area of life, this is black and white, you’re either a slave to satan or a slave to God.

I know that slavery in America has a unique history compared to slavery in earlier centuries. Historically speaking, slavery wasn’t necessarily tied to race or the color of your skin, it didn’t make you subhuman. Slavery often wasn’t all that different than employment is today, except that the contract was sometimes for life and that your master provided for all of your needs. This meant that there were good slave masters who were gentle and loving, providing generously for the needs of their slaves. There were also bad slave masters, harsh and abusive. But ultimately the slave was a slave, doing the work commanded by the master.

Those who are slaves to the devil do as he commands. “You once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness… For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.” Living in sin is slavery to Satan. The only thing that you’re freed from is righteousness. And at the end of that slavery, what do you earn? Death. “The wages of sin is death.” 

Not just eternal death on the last day, that too, but you receive the deathly wages of sin daily. When we sin we earn what we deserve: death. And sins' effects on our lives are felt daily. When you sin your conscience becomes deadened, you gradually lose the ability to distinguish right from wrong. After some time the seared conscience loses all taste for what is good and craves only what is bad.

To illustrate, we see this when people become addicted to various harmful substances or activities. Their addiction blinds them to what is good and all they want is the instant gratification of their sin. They may have a good job, a beautiful family, and a nice home, but after a while their sin blinds them to all that is good until they lose it all. Drug and alcohol addictions are an easy example, but all sins work the same way, they all deaden our consciences, some are just more obvious and dangerous than others. All sins done in repetition sear the conscience, and once the conscience is deadened, that person becomes an even great slave to sin, only now with a depraved mind which loves the evil more than the good.

But as Christians we “have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” Through our slavery to sin we earn and deserve death as our wages, but as slaves of God we receive life as the fruits of righteousness. “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

We can earn death, but we can’t earn life, it can only be received as a gift! So do you get it? Being a slave to sin isn’t freedom, not really, because you have to work for your wages of death. But slavery to God is freedom because you don’t receive what you earn and deserve, you actually receive what you don’t deserve, you receive the gift of eternal life! This gift is given to you freely! Not as wages, as if you’re a lousy slave, but as a gift, as if you’re a beloved member of the family! 

And you are a member of the family! “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” With the very lifeblood of Jesus Christ you have been purchased from your slavery to sin. God didn’t stop there, He didn’t just make you slaves, remember slavery is a human example; rather, God adopted you as His own children and made you part of His family. Slaves receive wages, children receive gifts.

But if we continue with the analogy of slavery a moment longer, we see that God really is a remarkably loving master who treats His slaves so generously. Our reading from Genesis gives a glimpse into the garden of Eden and how richly God provided for Adam and Eve. “The Lord God planted a garden in Eden… Out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food… A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.”

God is He who planted the garden and provided everything Adam and Eve could ever want. The long description of the rivers maybe seems a bit boring to us who live in the midwest where it typically rains, but to people in arid Palestine the description of four rivers in Eden sounds luxurious! When it just plain doesn’t rain every so many years, the only way you will have food is through irrigation. So the reason Egypt was so rich was because of the Nile river from which they were able to irrigate their fields. So the description of the Garden of Eden with four rivers is designed to sound heavenly and highlight God’s loving providence.

Our reading from Mark today also helps us to realize that God is a good, generous, and loving Master. Before anyone else noticed that the crowds were hungry, Jesus noticed and said: “I have compassion on the crowd.” In that desolate place, with just a few loaves of bread and a few small fish, Jesus fed the people so that “they ate and were satisfied.” God would not let His people go hungry, because in compassion He fills the hungry heart.

Seeing the mercy and kindness of God and that He is a good slave Master, we’re to remember what our station in life is. “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” The great crowd gathered to listen to Jesus teach them for three whole days! The freedom we have as Christians isn’t just to be freed from sin, but it’s also to be freed to do what is good, that’s true freedom. We are slaves to righteousness, we live holy lives. Holy living is actually living! Sin leads to death daily, whereas righteousness leads to life daily!

St. Paul talks about fruits. Think of a fruit tree, when it’s diseased and infested with bugs, the tree produces poor or even no fruit, it doesn’t grow properly. But when a tree is healthy it grows and produces good fruit. So it is with the Chrsitian: when we’re diseased and infested with sins and demons, we aren’t living, we’re just barely surviving. But when we’re freed from our slavery to sin, we are free to do good works and live how God designed us to live, and that’s truly living! Through the blood of Christ we receive the gift of life eternal. We also receive the freedom to live for eternity each and every day. See that His yoke is easy and His burden is light, and that being slaves to God is a freedom and a priviledge which ends in eternal life.