This Week’s Sermon
~ May 25, 2025 ~ (Combined)
“The Cost of Freedom”
Psalm 111, Galatians 5:1-15 May 25, 2025
This is Memorial Day weekend. And it is this time of year, more than any other, that we remember that freedom is never free. There’s always a cost.
I think that’s even more true of Memorial day than it is the Fourth of July. I used a similar sermon title last Fourth of July about the cost of freedom. But the more I thought about it this week, the more I realized that Independence Day is more of a celebration. It’s the time we declared our independence. And yes, that was a bold thing to do at the time! It was a courageous thing! And it almost didn’t work! There was a long and often desperate war to follow! Not to mention, another war a decade or so later, in the year 1812!
There was a definite cost to declaring our independence almost 250 years ago. But Memorial Day is a solemn day. It’s a day we honor all those, in all wars, who gave the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our freedom. Memorial Day is the time we remember all those who we just honored in song, those “Who more than self, their country loved, and mercy more than life.” Their legacy reminds us that Freedom is never free.
And freedom is never total freedom, either. Is it? Sometimes there’s a misunderstanding about that. Too many a rebellious teenager has blurted out to their parents, “I can’t wait till I’m free to do whatever I want.” Do any of you remember hearing that? Do any of you remember saying it to your parents? That isn’t what freedom means, is it? In this country, you’re free to chart your own course. You’re free to pursue “life, liberty, and happiness.” But you’re never free “to do whatever you want.”
“Freedom of speech” doesn’t mean you’re free to say anything you want, either. You’re not free to yell “fire” in a crowded movie house. We’ve already determined that. However, and I may have told you this before, I have yelled “movie” in a crowded firehouse! (The firemen loved it, too!)
So, this is the weekend we remember that Freedom always comes at a cost. We know that as Americans. On Memorial Day, we remember those who paid that cost with their lives. We remember the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines – ones we knew and ones we didn’t. We remember them as ordinary people who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could live in freedom, and preserve that freedom.
But, as followers of Christ, we know that on a deeper level, don’t we? Because Jesus also laid down his life – so that we might be free. Paul wrote, ‘For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.’ Jesus set us free, not from a political enemy, but from the powers of sin and death. His was the greatest cost for the greatest freedom. And like those we honor this weekend, his sacrifice calls for a response – not just of gratitude, but of our lives lived in freedom, courage, and love.”
Look again at the last part of that sentence, “Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.” Perhaps our first reaction to that might be, “Who would do that?” What free person would submit again to the yoke of slavery?
I think the first answer to that question is that it’s too easy for us to forget. That’s why we talk about it so much. That’s why we remind ourselves, in so many different ways, what Jesus has done for us. Otherwise, we may just find ourselves submitting again to the yoke of slavery.
Paul tries to answer that question, as well. In the next paragraph he warns them against going back and submitting again to the old Law. And, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that they shouldn’t follow the law! The law is still the law – even for us today! We still follow the Ten Commandments all these years later. But for Paul, a pharisee who was bound to the law his entire life, he now saw faith, hope, and love as even more paramount. And now he could see that those things were at the center of the Law, anyway! That’s the “spirit of the law” Jesus talked about. As I’ve said before, I wonder if Paul was there when Jesus said those things!
Paul wrote these words because in those days, there were those who were trying to convince these Galatians to return to a reliance on that law, as opposed to grace. That’s the yoke of slavery he was warning them about. That can happen to us, too, can’t it? Sometimes we go back to thinking that, if we just do things right, that’s good enough. That whole “following Jesus, loving others, being the light of the world and the salt of the earth,” we don’t have to worry about those things. As long as we’re good enough, right?
If we step away from grace like that – Grace being the very thing that gave us our freedom in Christ – that’s a form of submitting again to the yoke of slavery. It’s a matter of slipping back into a faith of simply “doing what’s right.” Or what we think is right! Because we’re the final arbiters of that, aren’t we? (That’s a whole other sermon right there!) And “submitting again to that yoke” is slipping back into a faith where we concentrate on “knowing the right things,” rather than “knowing God.”
When we do that, when we slip back into that former faith, the faith before Grace, we often do it gradually, unknowingly – even with good intentions. After all, we’re just trying to be better people, right? But slowly, we trade freedom for performance. Grace for effort. Relationship for rule-following. Paul is pleading with the Galatians – as one who once knew what it was like to be bound to the Law – to hold on to the true freedom they’ve been given.
“For freedom, Christ has set us free.” That’s such a powerful statement! Freedom isn’t just a “side benefit” of the Gospel. It’s the very purpose of the Gospel. Christ didn’t die just to make us better people. He died to make us free people. Free from sin. Free from shame. Free from the crushing burden of having to earn our worth.
On Memorial Day, we are reminded of those who gave their lives so we could enjoy freedom in this country – freedom to worship, freedom to speak, freedom to live without tyranny. And so, we honor their sacrifice.
But as followers of Jesus, we are also called to remember a deeper freedom, an eternal freedom. We are called to remember that the freedom we have in Christ came through the greatest sacrifice of all. The Son of God laid down His life – not for a nation, but for the world. He did so – not just for a time, but for eternity. And he did so, for us!
Jesus paid the cost of our freedom with His blood. And because of that, we don’t have to live in fear. We don’t have to go back to law. We don’t have to earn our place at God’s table. We already have it, through grace. That’s the message Paul is fighting to preserve in these Galatians—and it’s the message we’re still called to live out today.
So on this Memorial Day Sunday, let’s remember the cost of freedom – for our country, yes, but also for our souls. Let us honor the sacrifices of those who died to protect our nation’s freedom. And let us worship the one who died to secure our eternal freedom.
Prayer
Eternal God, you gave your only Son for our freedom. Help us to know the true freedom we have when we follow him, and when we learn from his example of love and service and sacrifice. Give us the strength and the vision we need to live as his holy and chosen people, now and always. For we pray in his eternal name, Amen.