Symbols of Freedom

Luke 4:14-22; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

I, like many of you I am sure, have been noticing the new trend this year of selling fireworks out of the big tents set up in parking lots – everywhere! I didn’t know it was legal to sell or buy fireworks in NY but that’s another whole conversation.  What these tents did remind me of is, that I have often thought it was ironic that we celebrate the 4^th of July with fireworks.  Why ironic?  Well, I wasn’t around but I do remember a bit of history and our independence from British rule involved a long terrible war.  There were cannons fired and gunshots that filled the air with large thunderous explosions and smoke.  Over 10 thousand people were killed to gain this independence.  Since then, we have been a part of other wars that have been just as devastating.   I have never been in the midst of a war but the scenes I have seen in pictures and newsreels are horrifying!  Yet on the 4^th of July we choose to celebrate all this with explosions, loud booms and fireworks that create smoke and debris. I think of the men and women who have seen war first hand and have seen the horrors of those scenes.  How do our veterans who are suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) feel as they hear the cracks and bangs of the fireworks?  I knew a man who had served in the Persian Gulf War and his wife told to me he would wake up to the sound of a thunderstorm panicked and mentally back in the middle of the war zone.  Fireworks are a symbol of freedom but at a terrible cost.

I am sure you probably know the story of America’s national anthem but let me refresh your mind… “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key was actually written in the midst of the War of 1812.  After witnessing the attack of Fort McHenry the night before, he was inspired at daybreak by the sight of a lone U.S. flag still flying over the Fort. This is reflected in the words of the anthem,

“And the rocket’s red glare,

the bombs bursting in air, gave proof

through the night that our flag was still there.”

Bombs, explosions, rockets, and smoke all identified as images of war, are now the way we celebrate our freedom.

We might say the same is true of the three crosses that are displayed on the front of our church, the one that is set on the very highest point of our church building, and the one that hangs in the front of our sanctuary.  The cross was actually an instrument of torture and death and yet we use it as a symbol of our freedom.  Why? Because it reminds us of Jesus Christ who came as the prophet Isaiah said, “to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free…”

In  our reading from 1 Corinthians 1,  Paul writes about the message of the cross being foolishness to those who are perishing, to those who do not know or refuse to believe what happened on Good Friday and Easter morning.  There are those who only see death when they look at the cross but for those who are saved, those who know the sacrifice of Jesus, and His victory over death, the cross is beautiful and a symbol of freedom.

Do you see the irony of these symbols?  Symbols of death have become symbols of Freedom!  Our country gained its freedom at the cost of many lives.  As followers of Christ we gained freedom at the cost of one life.

This weekend we celebrate our country’s freedom with fireworks that symbolize the fight for our freedoms but I want us to remember also the cross which is the symbol of the freedom we have through our faith in Jesus Christ.  As wonderful as the freedoms we enjoy in our country are, the freedom Jesus offers is even more amazing and is for all eternity.

Our American freedom offers us the choice to be here this morning.  It gives us the freedom to speak our mind and to live our lives unafraid of persecution or of being arrested at any moment for just choosing to wear a cross or fly our flag.

What if, like the front of our bulletin shows, we celebrate not just our earthly freedom but also our heavenly freedom?  We can celebrate freedom by giving thanks to God.

What if we chose to live with these symbols of earthly and heavenly freedom at the center of our daily lives?  As Americans we are free to choose, so let’s choose Jesus.  Let’s choose to live a life of freedom – freedom to serve others out of love and kindness instead of serving ourselves.

I just recently found an amazing story that truly demonstrates this choice to serve others.  It is a story of a Viet Nam Vet. In it he recounts how as a 19 year old kid, he was critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley on November 14, 1965. Their unit was outnumbered 8 to 1. The enemy fire was so intense, that his Infantry Commander ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.  This young man was thousands of miles away from his family and at that moment he knew he’d never see them again.

Over the machine gun noise, he faintly heard the sound of a helicopter. He looked up to see an un-armed Huey, but it didn’t seem real, because there were no Medi-Vac markings are on it. Inside was Ed Freeman. He wasn’t Medi-Vac. It wasn’t his job. But he flew Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.

He came anyway. He dropped it in and sat there in the machine gun fire, as they loaded 2 or 3 soldiers on board. Then he flew out through the gunfire, to the doctors and nurses. And he kept coming back, 13 more times and took 30 soldiers who would never have gotten out without him.

Congressional Medal of Honor Ed Freeman, died March 25th, 2009 at the age of 80, in Boise, ID. He exemplifies someone who went back to help set others free and bring them home.  Ed Freeman was free to fly to a safer place, a place where his life would not be in danger, but he chose not to serve himself but to serve others first.

We, too, have one who came back not to serve himself but to serve us. Jesus. He wants to bring us home. He is the one who chose to give His life for us so we don’t have to bear the weight of our burdens, so we don’t have to be ensnared, bound, imprisoned, or slaves to whatever it is that is holding us. He came to save us, so we can be Free.

Today we made the chose to be here and as we worship the Lord we are remembering our freedoms.  In a moment we are going to be celebrating Holy Communion – the free gift of Jesus to all who believe and want to be free of their sins.  The elements of the Communion are also symbols – but not simply symbols.  The bread and the cup are the reminders to us that as we come to the Table, as Jesus commanded us to, we are in communion with Him and with all who follow Him.  The broken bread and cup of the new covenant remind us of the greatest sacrifice ever made.  Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross to free us from sin.

As we take the bread and dip it into the cup the body and the blood of Christ come together and He is present with us.

Let us remember, on this weekend of celebration, that we have freedom because others fought for us and we have the ultimate freedom because The Son of God  – Jesus Christ fought and won the battle against evil so that we can know the Truth and be set Free for all eternity.