John 8: 31-36

³¹To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

 ³³They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants^[b] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

 ³⁴Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Next Saturday is July 4^th, Independence Day. I can’t wait. I love the fireworks. I love the parades and the fairs and I really love the fried dough. But I can’t have a relationship with it anymore. I must love it from a distance. Those who can eat it tell me it is just as good as it ever was.

          When I was a kid, I used to go to this 4^th of July celebration in Westport, Massachussetts. There would be a little country fair and then around 11:00 there would be a great fireworks display. It would have been at that fair that I first met fried dough. From the very first time I saw her, I was in love. The perfume she wore sent me reeling. But alas, a long term relationship with fried dough was not meant to be.

          As wonderful as fried dough is, Independence day is not about fried dough, It is about freedom and specifically, it is about freedom from tyranny, freedom from oppression. It is about the freedom to be able to choose. It is about freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly. It is about rights to a fair trial and due process. It is about maintaining freedom, rights, and ultimately the value of every individual. It is about sustaining and protecting this complicated, wonderful thing we call democracy.

          A pre school teacher was talking to her class about the fourth of July. She said, “On the fourth of July we celebrate the signing of the declaration of independence. It’s because of this document that we are all free.” A little boy in the back quickly blurted out, “I’m not free, I’m four.”

          Freedom is a very valuable commodity. Look how much we have paid for it. We struggled to gain our freedom with a war. We held onto it only thirty years later with the war of 1812. We expanded freedom and consolidated it with a civil war. We participated in two major world wars to protect it. We struggled within ourselves in the battle for civil rights to give freedom to all those within our borders and even today, as a nation we struggle with what American freedom means in terms of the rest of the world. All our courts are designed to protect and enforce our freedom. All our laws are designed to protect and preserve the freedoms guaranteed to every citizen of the United States.

          We keep a large army, navy, and air corps well equipped with the latest technology and weapons with the specific purpose of protecting our freedom and our citizens. Our government is so designed that those armed forces could never be used against the citizenry of this country to enforce a dictatorship or tyranny of any kind.

          We live in the greatest country in the world.

          Yet there are those who take this country and our freedoms for granted. In the presidential election of 2008, only 61% of those eligible to vote, actually got out there and voted. You know what, that’s a shame. Out of an eligible population of 212 million people, only 131 million voted. Think about it, that’s 81 million people who did not exercise one of the greatest privileges and rights we have as citizens of a democracy: the right to participate in a fair election to choose those who will represent us in government. Close to 40% of the population of the United States did not participate in one of the most important presidential elections of our time. The figures get worse as the elections get closer to home. Only half of eligible Massachussetts voters, exercised their right to vote. And when it comes to town and local elections, if 20 % of the voters show up, it’s considered a great turn out.

Two friends are discussing politics on Election Day, each trying to no avail to convince the other to switch sides.

Finally, one says to the other: "Look, it's clear that we are unalterably opposed on every political issue. Our votes will surely cancel out. Why not save ourselves some time and both agree to not vote today?''

The other agrees enthusiastically and they part.

Shortly after that, a friend of the first one who had heard the conversation says, "That was a sporting offer you made.''

"Not really,'' says the second. "This is the third time today I've done it."

          Jesus talks about freedom in today’s scripture. It is a different kind of freedom than that which we celebrate on the July 4^th holiday but it is perhaps more important. There are freedoms on the outside and there are freedoms on the inside.

        South Carolina governor Mark Sanford was missing for a week. As it turned out he turned his back on his family, his job, and his faith to have an affair. What do you think. . .will he ever be free?

        You could run through a whole litany of people whose exercise of their right to do whatever they wanted, put them in the deepest, darkest prison they could ever imagine: the prison of their own heart.

        John Newton wrote one of the songs we have sung today, “Amazing Grace”. Newton was the captain of a slave ship when he saw the light of Christ but he continued transport sslaves for several more years after his conversion. Newton referred to it as “disagreeable service” but did not outright condemn the slave trade until much later in his life. Later he wrote, “I should have quit that work much sooner. I never had a scruple about the slave trade. I did it ignorantly.” Like so many of us, the sin of his life was not immediately evident to him. It is important to note that he was to go on and work with William Wilburforce to abolish the slave trade in England and that he was tortured by the part he had played. What do you think, . . was Newton ever really free?

          There are all kinds of extreme examples of people who find it difficult to simply walk away from the sin in their lives. I would dare to say that we have all had moments or even seasons in our lives that leave us with acts we wish we could forget and leave behind. David put it well in the 51^st Psalm when he wrote, “I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me.” They hang like a millstone around our necks or even worse, they wait for us in the closet at the top of the stairs, hidden from public view but tapping on the door everytime we walk by, reminding us of their presence. We do not have to be great and infamous sinners to be weighed down by the burden of sin. We only need to be realistic about ourselves and take an honest reckoning of our lives to know that there are moments we would give anything if we could just go back and do it differently than what we actually did.

          Many people have confided in me over the years the regrets they carry over choices they have made. They have heard the excuse   that we are only human and that they shouldn’t be so hard on themselves but that is not enough to soothe their damaged souls. They might have spent years in therapy or self help groups but still that does not take away the burden they bear.

          That is not how God wants us to live. Freedom, real freedom is an enduring theme in scripture. From Genesis to Revelation, God’s word rings with the promise of freedom and liberation. God promises redemption. God provides a way for us to really deal with the burden of who we are. He makes us family. Jesus clarifies that for us in verse 34 and 35. A slave, a servant, someone who is not family, they don’t stay and live in the house. They might be treated well, they might even get a little inheritance money if they are good servants and the master is generous, but they are not family. They don’t get to stay in the house.

          You can’t be denied if you are real family. You can be dysfunctional, you can argue, you can even not be talking to each other but you can’t be denied. Family is family.

          Our father is God, our brother is Jesus, and we are all in this together. Jesus tells us, in your pew bibles to continue in his word and in the translations that was read to abide in his word. The greek word here can actually be translated to live with. By living with God’s word, the truth of God’s family will be opened up to us. You want to get to know somebody, try living with them for awhile. Ever take a vacation with close friends? You find out a lot about how people live by living with them. Little quirks they have, the level of their emotional stability, How often they actually bathe. That’s how you really get to know God’s word: you live with it.

          And the truth you will find out, is that you are family. You are children of a loving God. You have a brother who loves you so much that he died to break the chains of your sin. You’re part of the family, God knows what you’re like. God knows what you have in your closet and he wants to clean the closet out for you. Whatever you have in there is starting to stink anyway. But he won’t open that door without your permission. God is like that.

          Every Sunday when you come here to Silver Lake, it is like signing your own Declaration of Independence. You are proclaiming that you will not be subject to tyranny and oppression. You will not be in bondage to sin. We will not be in bondage to sin. We are free children of God. We are brothers and sisters with Christ. And we are all sons and daughters of a loving God in whose house we shall abide forever.