“The Word at the Heart of the Holiday”
July 5, 2026
Galatians 5:1, 13-14
“The Word at the Heart of the Holiday”
Woodland Christian Church
David A Shirey
The late Peter Gomes, who pastored The Memorial Church at Harvard, told of being in London one summer. He was traveling back to the airport by taxi when he passed a park and heard a brass band playing "The Star-Spangled Banner." The first thought that came to his mind was what a strange sound to hear in London. Then he realized what day it was and said with some excitement to the cab driver: "Why, it's the Fourth of July!" Whereupon the driver replied with disinterest, "That's right, mate: yesterday was the third and tomorrow's the fifth."[1]
Jennie and I just got back from across the pond. Ireland and Scotland. I sent a sermon title and scripture to Christy Jo long distance, but when I realized this would be the Fourth of July weekend (Friday was the third and today’s the fifth) I changed my plans and texted, “I’ll do something about ‘The Word at the Heart of the Holiday.’” That word is freedom.
Freedom and its synonym liberty are at the heart of this holiday:
We have national treasures named the Liberty Bell and the Statue of Liberty.
The Pledge of Allegiance includes the phrase "liberty and justice for all."
The Constitution includes “The Bill of Rights” with its 1st Amendment provisions for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly.
We sing "My Country, ‘tis of Thee, sweet land of liberty”
We must confess, however, the cruel irony in our nation's history. Namely, in the course of some people's seeking, finding, and establishing freedom, other's freedoms were taken away. Thomas Jefferson declared as a “self-evident truth” that “all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” But what about women who for a century and a half were denied the right to vote? And what about dark-skinned men and women whose “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” were stolen from them by chattel slavery. “America the Beautiful” sings of "a thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness," but that thoroughfare displaced Native Americans and constrained their freedom to reservations.
It’s a cruel irony God has seen before: a population prizing freedom, then denying freedom to others. God liberated the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land, whereupon the Hebrew people declared holy war (in God’s Name) upon the original inhabitants of the land of Canaan. Centuries later, their descendants, the Palestinians, are captive in their homeland. It is one of the tragic ironies of history repeated umpteen times – an oppressed people rise up to taste freedom only to turn around and oppress others, limiting their freedom or taking it away altogether.
Which raises a question. Namely, what is freedom for? The Declaration of Independence declared our freedom from King George III, but what is our freedom for? God created us to be free. In the beginning, God created humankind and said, "You may eat freely of any tree in the garden except that one" (Genesis 2:16,17). Theologians call it free will. We’re free to choose how to live life. But are there proper and improper uses of our God-given freedom? What is freedom for?
One answer is: What do you mean what are we free for? Freedom means freedom! I remember a phrase I used in my early adolescence that I understood to be my birthright as a citizen of the United States of America. When my parents had the audacity to take issue with a choice I had made with my own free will I would respond indignantly, "Hey, it's a free country, isn't it?" The operative understanding of freedom in that phrase is we’re free to do anything we darn well please.
Don’t tell me what I can or can’t do with my body, what I can or can’t watch on television or at the movies or read at the library or on the internet. This is America, “the land of the free.”
I don't want government regulating my business. Free enterprise!
And don't even think about tampering with my religion. I’m free to believe whatever I want and practice my religion however I want…so help me God!
Our larger church family, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is a child of the American Revolution. Freedom is in our DNA. We're part of what’s called “the free church tradition.” That means we’re congregationally governed: no government, no ecclesiastical governing body (Diocese, Synod, or Presbytery), no body period (neither President, Pope, nor Presiding Bishop) can tell us what to believe or how to live out our faith. Oh, they can tell us, but Disciples won’t listen. As one of our past General Ministers (Dick Hamm) said, “Leading Disciples is like herding cats. You can tell ‘em whatever you want but they’re going to go their own way.”
In sum: it's my faith, my life, my money, my business, my body and I'm free to do whatever I want with what is mine. It's a free country, isn't it?
Well… When as a 15-year-old I spoke truth to power and told my dad, “It's a free country!” King Keith III would send me to my room. He'd take my freedom away. The communist! How unAmerican is that? Didn’t he know I was a free man in a free country? But now that I’m older I understand freedom from whatever does not mean freedom for whatever. Paul warns the Galatians we can lose our freedom if we misuse it. Galatians has been called “The Magna Carta of Christian Liberty.” It’s all about the proper use of our God-given freedom, what our freedom’s for. Writes Paul, "For freedom Christ has set us free, but don't let your freedom lead you right back into a yoke of slavery. You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only don't use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence…” Evidently in Galatia there were people who thought theirs was a freedom for doing as they pleased (“self-indulgence”). So they did whatever they wanted and they ended up “slaves” to their own uninhibited desires. It’s true: if we abuse our freedom, we’ll lose our freedom. Think about it.
Are we free to make whatever decisions we so choose with no regard for their consequences? Sure, but as a result we may end up entangled in a sorry mess of our own making we can’t get ourselves out of. My grandmother used to say, “You made your bed, now lie in it.”
Are we free to ingest whatever substance we darn well please? Well, yes, but the end result could be an addiction that renders us slaves to our habit, no longer free.
Are we free to spend our money on whatever we want whenever we want it? Yes, but bills do come due and mounting debt comes with a ball and chain that is an onerous weight to drag around.
Are we free to say, print, publish or post anything we want without regard for its basis in fact or reality? Someone said, “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” But that someone was Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propagandist. Lies lead to a burdensome bondage.
Theologians as well as psychologists say that if someone chooses to make bad choices over and over and over again and are unrepentant, in time they lose the ability to make good choices.
Paul is right. If we abuse our freedom, we’ll lose it. "For freedom Christ has set us free, but don't let your freedom lead you right back into a yoke of slavery.”
So what are we free for? Says Paul, "Don't use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves - servants - to one another. For the whole law is summed up in one commandment: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Herein lies the paradox of the Christian life: we're free to do as we please, but the best use of our freedom is to limit our choices to those things that please God and bless others. If we self-limit our freedom to loving God and neighbor, we’ll never lose our freedom and others will never lose theirs. St. Augustine was asked once to summarize Christian ethics. How are we to rightly exercise our free will? Said the wise old saint, "Love. Then do as you please."
Last Sunday, Jennie and I were in Belfast, Northern Ireland, worshipping at Old First Church. Presbyterian. Founded 1644. The city’s oldest place of worship. After worship, we walked 200 feet to a statue of Frederick Douglass, born enslaved but who became an abolitionist, orator, writer and, I would add, an exemplary patriot. He journeyed to Ireland in 1845-46, invited by the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society, gave 11 lectures in Belfast, and received a warm welcome. One of his most brilliant speeches was delivered 174 years ago today, July 5, 1852, in Rochester, NY, at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. It had three parts:
In the first part, he affirmed the Fourth of July as an opportunity to celebrate the values enshrined in the founding documents of this country. He called the constitution “a glorious liberty document.”
But then in a rhetorical turn that pierces with a truth that can’t be ignored, he asked, “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?” He said, “The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.”
He then closed by imploring his listeners to embrace what I call a proper patriotism – celebrating this nation’s founding values, confessing the gap between aspiration and actuality, theory and practice, and committing to close that gap by seeking “liberty and justice for all.” Celebrating. Confessing. Committing - all three constitute a proper patriotism.
Celebrating: “A glorious liberty document”
Confessing: “America! America! God mend thy every flaw.”
Committing: “We the people … in order to form a more perfect union”
As that sassy, salty columnist from Texas, the late Molly Ivins wrote, “It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America.”
It’s Independence Day weekend. We’re free from the tyranny of King George III. What is our freedom for? Says Paul, “Don't use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves/servants of one another.”
We’re free to do what pleases God and blesses others.
In this country, we're free to do that.
God has created us free to do just that.
[1] (Gomes, "The Purpose of Freedom" in Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living (New York: Morrow and Company, 1998), p. 109.
