Free

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish August 27, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Galatians 3:23-29.

Have you ever felt like you were trapped?

            There are a lot of things in life that can trap us.  Jobs can trap us--we can feel like we’re stuck in a bad job, a job we don’t like but one that we feel like we have no choice but to keep doing.  We can feel trapped financially--we go into debt, for whatever reason, and we get stuck in a situation where all our money is going to try to pay those debts and no matter how much we pay we just don’t seem able to get out of it.  We can feel trapped in a relationship--we know it’s not really working, but we don’t see any way to easily get out of it.  We can feel trapped by a health situation--we wish we could get better, we wish we could do the things we used to do, but we no longer can.  We can even feel trapped in things we like.  We volunteer for something, because we believe in it, but then it seems like we get stuck working on it more and more and we feel like we’re no longer in control of this thing we volunteered for.  Instead, it’s controlling us.

            That’s the thing about getting trapped, right?  When we’re trapped, we don’t have any control over anything.  Or at least, it seems like we don’t.  It feels like we have no choice but to keep doing what we’re doing.  We don’t like it, but we don’t see any way out of it.

            That’s how a lot of the people of Israel had come to feel about the law before Jesus came.  They felt like they were trapped by the law.  Back years ago, when it was just the Ten Commandments, that was something people could understand.  They could follow that.  But since then, there had come all these rules and regulations.  There had come all these explanations and technical decisions.  We’re not supposed to work on the Sabbath, we’re supposed to keep that as a holy day?  Okay.  But what do you mean by work?  Is it okay if I feed my cattle?  Is it okay if I go visit a friend?  And what constitutes keeping the day holy?  Do I have to sit and pray and meditate and read the scriptures all day?  Or can I relax a little bit and have some fun?

            And so all sorts of decisions were made, and rules were put forth.  And a lot of them got pretty technical, and eventually people got to where they could not even remember all the rules, much less follow them.

            And they felt trapped.  Because after all, the law had come from God.  It was important that they follow it, because it was what God wanted.  And a lot of them wanted to follow it.  They wanted God to be pleased with them.  They wanted God to look on them with favor.  But there was just so much law.  They could hardly even remember all of it.  They were trying so hard to do everything right, but it was just so hard to do.  They were never sure if they’d done things right, or if they’d done enough.  The law had become a burden to them.  And they felt trapped by it.

            That’s what Paul means when he says that before Jesus came, “we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.”  Faith in God was not something that was giving them joy.  It was not giving them hope for a future.  It was something that made them live in fear, looking over their shoulders, constantly afraid of making a mistake or doing something wrong.  

            If you’ve ever lived like that, you know it’s no way to live.  When we live in fear of making a mistake, what’s going to happen?  We’re going to make mistakes, right?  We’ll probably make them anyway, because none of us is perfect, but we make even more of them when we’re afraid of making them.  We overthink everything.  We second-guess everything we do.  We get afraid to take chances and we miss opportunities.  And we get depressed, and we get frustrated.  It’s a terrible thing.

            So let me ask you this:  have you ever felt trapped, and then something happened that you got out of the trap?  You got out of that bad work situation, and into a job that you liked with people you liked.  You somehow finally got your debts resolved.  You got out of that bad relationship.  Your health finally improved.  Somebody came and took some of the burden off you, so you could get back to enjoying that thing you volunteered for.  If that ever happened, how did that feel?

            It felt awesome, right?  It felt incredible.  I’ve felt it a couple of times.  I hope you have, too.  I felt it when I became a pastor and for the first time in my life had a job I really loved.  I felt it when I finally got my student loans paid off and was no longer in debt.  Feeling trapped is terrible.  But when you get out of the trap, when you get out of that bad situation, when you’re finally free from it, it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world.  There’s nothing like it.  And somehow, it makes all the time being trapped worth it.

            That’s what Paul says Jesus did for us if we accept him as the Savior.  If we have faith in Jesus, we don’t have to worry about it anymore.  We’re not under the law any more.  We have the grace and forgiveness offered through the life and death of Jesus Christ.

            In other words, we’re not trapped by the law any more.  We’re free of its burden.  We don’t have to be afraid of making mistakes.  We don’t have to worry about whether we’ve done everything right, or whether we’ve done enough.  We’re out of the trap, and we’re out of it forever.  We’re free, and our sins are forgiven, through our faith in Jesus and by God’s incredible love and grace and mercy.

            Now, that does not mean that we can just do whatever we want because, hey, God will forgive us.  Paul dealt with that in the sixth chapter of Romans.  He says, in effect, that God’s forgiveness is not a get out of jail free card.  Yes, we’re free, but we’re not free to sin.  What we’re free from is worry.  We don’t have to worry about whether we’ve done every little thing right, whether we’ve taken care of every last detail in accordance with the precise specifications of the law.  We’re free to serve God as best we can.  We’re free to love God and to follow God.  And when we do, when we do that to the best of our ability, we can be confident that God will see what we’ve done, and that God will bless what we’ve done.  God will not hold it against us if we did not do everything perfectly.  God is not going to judge whether we’ve dotted every i and crossed every t.  God is going to judge what’s in our hearts.

           Here’s an example of what I mean.  When I was in seminary, I had to go to Kansas City to take this one class.  The class lasted a week.  I got to know some people there, including a guy who was a musician for a huge church in the Kansas City area.  He said that, in that church, everything about the worship service had to be absolutely perfect every week, or someone was going to get fired.

            Can you imagine being part of a church like that?  Can you imagine the pressure you’d be under?  Can you imagine how little joy there would be in a church like that?  Talk about feeling trapped.  Where’s the forgiveness in that?  Where’s the grace in that?  I would never want to be part of a church that had that attitude.  Not that they’d ever hire me anyway, but even if they did, who’d want to be part of that? 

I don’t even know if God would want to be part of a church like that.  Because God does not expect perfection from us.  God knows we’re not capable of perfection.  God just asks us to do the best we can.  Do the best we can to serve God, to love God, to show love to others, to go and make disciples.  Do the best we can to do the things Jesus told us to do, and trust God to take it from there.

How we do that will be different for each of us, because God made us all different.  And there’s freedom in that, too.  I don’t have to serve God in the same way that you do.  You don’t have to serve God in the same way I do.  I don’t even have to serve God in the same way that other pastors do.  None of us has to feel trapped into fitting into a certain mold.  We’re all free to use the gifts and talents God has given us in whatever way we can, as long as we use them in God’s service.  That’s an awesome kind of freedom. 

God does not want us to be trapped.  God does not want us to feel pressure to be perfect.  God does not want us to feel like we have to fit a certain mold.  Jesus came to set us free from all of that.

If we accept Jesus as the Savior, we are free.  We are free to love God and to serve God in the best way we can.  If we do our best, we can trust God to use it.  God will bless what we do.  And God will bless us.