True Freedom

Sunday, October 30, 2022
Pastor Deb Kielsmeier

John 8:31-36

Happy Reformation Sunday everyone!

Today we look back to remember and celebrate the great Re-formation of the Christian Church. And we give thanks for and those who boldly went before us to proclaim the good news that It is by grace that we have been saved through faith. It is not by our works, but it is a gift of God through Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God.

We don’t only look back however, for the Spirit is still on the move today, renewing and reforming our…. both as individuals and as the church.

Today’s scripture speaks about truth and our freedom in Christ. Themes at the heart of the Reformation. Martin Luther’s own spiritual journey brought him into a place of deep freedom as he encountered truth – both the truth of the Gospel and the one who claimed to be the truth – Jesus Christ. And that living truth not only transformed his life, but all of history.

In our passage for today Jesus is talking to people who had already expressed belief in him. He tells them:

If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

I have a question for you.

Last week. Jason talked about Fred Rogers – Mister Rogers – the children’s television host.

I would like a show of hands.

How many of you know about Fred Rogers?

Okay, a lot of us.

You may know his song – It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood – or that he taught children that they are special – valued – and loved – just the way they are.

Some of you may have seen the movie about him starring Tom Hanks or watched his TV show. I still remember my children being so engaged by him that they would answer his questions out loud and talk to him on the T.V.

But now, here is another question. How many of you know Mr. Rogers? In other words, you have personally met him, talked with him, or shared some experience?

There is a difference between knowing about someone – and knowing someone personally.

We may know a fair amount about Jesus. We may know when and where he was born, what he taught, and the miracles he performed.

But knowing Jesus personally? That is a different kind of knowing.

One of the amazing things about our faith, is that we proclaim that Jesus is still alive. He died, but death could not hold him. He is still here we can meet him. Walk with him, talk with him, and know him personally

One caveat.

In body, Jesus is with the Father. We can’t physically see Jesus in the flesh. BUT we can come to know him through the power of the Holy Spirit.

How do we do that?

Well, if you wanted to meet and get to know someone, what would you do? You would spend time with them, right? You would visit them or go for coffee or maybe work on a project together.

Why? Because spending time with them, talking and listening, is how we get to know someone better.

This is exactly how we come to know Jesus.

Jesus says in today’s passage that If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples,

That word translated “continue” here is Meno in the Greek. Meno.

It means to continue, to remain, to abide, to stay, to dwell.

Dwelling in Jesus’ word, involves listening to Jesus, reflecting on what he says to you and holding fast to his teaching.

When we dwell with Jesus and his message, we are true disciples. Disciples are not like today’s students who sit in a few lectures each week to learn from a teacher.

No. Disciples lived with their rabbi. They lived and ate with him, walked, and talked with him, listened to him, imitated him, followed him everywhere – that they might become like him. It was personal, deep, and experiential. They KNEW their rabbi. And so too, we can know Jesus as we abide with him

If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

The phrase You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free is often chiseled in stone above the entrance of university buildings. Often in Latin.

But by itself, taken out of its context – it is something of a philosophical platitude that completely misses Jesus’ point.

In this Gospel, “truth” is not some philosophical ideal or the opposite of falsehood; it is Jesus.

Jesus said, I am the Truth. It is me. A person.

Jesus is not insisting that they subscribe to a new doctrine or confession. This isn’t about head knowledge so much as relational knowledge. Knowing the truth is knowing Jesus in a deeply personal way as we live with him and remain connected to him and his word.

…and this truth will make you free.”

Well – When Jesus says this, he totally offends his hearers.

“We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”

As Americans I think we would have a similar reaction.

After all, we live in the “land of the free and home of the brave.”

We love our freedoms and strive to be independent and self-sufficient.

Of course, we are free!

But are we?

We may think freedom is about personal liberties – being able to do whatever we want, whenever we want and with whomever we want.

But when we insist on going our own way – we end up in bondage to sin.

You may think you are free. But we all end up serving something. It may be your ego, your finances, your career, your reputation… it may be the approval of others, a certain identity, or a dream. But in the words of Bob Dylan’s song: You gotta serve somebody.

Listen to these lyrics:

You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, You might like to dance

You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You might be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Yes indeed, you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

Friends, you can live for yourself.

And you can place your hope and trust in something other than God.

But you will not be free.

Why?

Because only the son of God brings true freedom.

Freedom from enslavement to sin.

Freedom to truly live.

Freedom to abide forever in the father’s house.

This freedom is our salvation.

Here is an interesting fact. Martin Luther was born Martin Luder. L-U-D-E-R.

Not a bad name. But he changed his last name from “Luder” to “Luther” because it sounded like the Greek word for freedom eleutheria.

El – loo- ther- ee-ah. El – loo – ther -ee- ah.

Say that with me, will you? El – loo – ther -ee- ah.

Freedom.

Elutheria in the New Testament is used synonymously with salvation. It is true freedom. Freedom from the bondage of sin. Freedom to be and do all that God has created you to be. Freedom to follow the one who gives life and gives it abundantly. Freedom to dwell in the father’s house, now and forever.

For if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Amen.

Let us pray:

Lord God – we cannot free ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. Only your Son can set us truly free. Forgive our wayward hearts.

Come and dwell with and in us, reforming and renewing us each day as we walk with you.

In Jesus Name, we pray. Amen.

Past Sermons

Sermons

Mutually Encouraged by Faith

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Pastor Megan Torgerson

Romans 1:1-17

The book of Romans is a letter. An actual letter. Like, a letter written by hand and then sent to someone else for them to read. Paul, the author of this letter, wrote a lot of letters. Paul was an apostle, that is, someone who is sent – in this case, he is one who is sent to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to the furthest reaches of the known world. He’s really, really good at it.

At the time that Paul writes this letter to the church in Rome, he’s been doing this work for probably twenty years and is at the peak of his career. He’s developed a great pattern in his work: visit a place, get to know the people, continually share his faith with them, help gather a community of believers from all walks of life, and stay with them while they learn how to be followers of Jesus. Then Paul leaves – after all, he’s got other places to visit and more people to teach. He is an apostle – he is sent. But he doesn’t leave the church abandoned. He writes letters back to these churches, especially when he hears about crises or conflicts. Sometimes they need comfort, sometimes challenge, sometimes critique, but always he writes as one they know and love. They welcome his input.

The letter to the Romans is not like that. Paul has never been to Rome. There is already a Christian church there, one brought over likely from Jerusalem very early in the faith. And the church in Rome has recently seen conflict. A few years before the writing of this letter, the Roman emperor expelled all the Jews from Rome. Because Christianity was effectively a form of Judaism at the time, Christians were also exiled. After the emperor died and the Jewish Christians returned, they found a church that had continued to grow and develop – this time with Gentile Christians.

It’s hard for us to understand how shocking and despicable this would have been. Two weeks ago I preached on Acts 10, and how Peter’s vision of God calling all animals clean and good to eat flew in the face of millennia of culture, history, and society for Jewish Christians. Jesus himself was Jewish and kept these laws – surely if anyone else wanted to be Christian, they could likewise follow these rules. Peter’s vision and the general movement of the church revealed otherwise.

That didn’t mean it made things easy. It is hard to let go of tradition and expectation and legislation as the Spirit moves us to new places. I hear people struggle when someone sits in their pew or wears sweatpants to church. Let’s be honest: those are enormously trivial things. If still we grind our teeth at the thought of these worthless infractions how much more might faithful people be driven to despair by moving on from the purity laws ordained by God?

This is the faith community to which Paul writes. He writes to a church redefining and fighting. It is a church that feels a deep rift, a painful split, one that goes deep into matters of identity and righteousness, one that threatens to dissolve into name-calling and condemning and finger-pointing and disgrace to the very name of God in whose name they mean to gather – and if we’re honest, we know how that feels. Those fears are not unfamiliar.

So how does Paul start his letter? He has no standing in that church in Rome. They don’t even know who he is – and if they do, it’s possible that they might still remember him as he was in his youth, an aggressive persecutor of the early faith. What can he say that would possibly invite them to listen to him, to hear the word he will share, to receive the message that he hopes will join them together in the work of the gospel?

He keeps it simple: he tells them the truth. He tells them who he is, and it is fully wrapped up in who Jesus is. His self-introduction is the story of the gospel. Nothing he can say about himself means more than who he is in Jesus Christ.

He tells them he wants to come see them, that he wants to be with them, that he hopes he can share some spiritual gift – but even more than that, so that they might mutually encourage each other in faith. He doesn’t want to come to them because he’s better than them, because he can fix them so they can get things right, because they’re obviously sinful mess-ups who just haven’t been taught the truth. No, he wants to join them for mutual encouragement in faith. He wants to walk with them. He hopes he has something to offer them in his teaching and leadership, but just the same, he knows he will grow by being with them as well.

What if that’s how it’s supposed to be? What if we’re supposed to talk about what we believe and why, not because we’ve got it right and we want to establish our superior knowledge, but because we know that God works through our mutual encouragement in faith? What if we were not ashamed of the gospel, not afraid of getting it wrong, not worried that someone would think we were weird for talking about what we believe and why and then asking others the same? What if we trusted that the power of God was at work in this mutual encouragement? What if we were not so proud and short-sighted as to think that the way we see God is the only way God works in the world? What if we actually believed that God is at work in the world, that God has already been working long before we showed up, that we arrive as much to learn as to teach?

Ah, but I know the argument against it: we’re supposed to keep polite conversation, right? What don’t you talk about at the dinner table? Religion and politics, right? Look where it’s gotten us. It’s gotten us to a place where we can no longer have civil discourse, where we are more likely to condemn than to seek to understand, where we claim a Christian can only look one way, live one place, vote one direction, take one moral position. It’s gotten us built up and walled off and fighting against our own beloved members of the family of God.

So don’t do it. Take Paul’s example. Tell people who you are. Tell them where you’re from. Tell them what you believe. And then invite them to do the same. Make your story of faith as natural a part of your introduction as where you work and where you live and who’s in your family. And when someone’s story is different, listen to it. Hear it. See God at work in it. Be amazed. Allow for the mutual encouragement of faith, because this is how the gospel is shared.

No matter where you go from here, no matter where you find yourself, no matter what comes next for you – you can do this. You are called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel which is the power of God for salvation for everyone who has faith – no matter what. Thanks be to God. Amen.

True Freedom

Sunday, October 30, 2022
Pastor Deb Kielsmeier

John 8:31-36

Past Sermons

Belonging Begins with . . . Showing Up for Each Other

Belonging Begins with . . . Intentional Hospitality

A Word for Worriers and Workaholics

Sermons

Mutually Encouraged by Faith

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Pastor Megan Torgerson

Romans 1:1-17

Past Sermons

Belonging Begins with . . . Showing Up for Each Other

Belonging Begins with . . . Intentional Hospitality

A Word for Worriers and Workaholics

About Augustana

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Contact Us

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True Freedom

Sunday, October 30, 2022 Pastor Deb Kielsmeier

John 8:31-36

Past Sermons

Sermons

Mutually Encouraged by Faith

Sunday, May 19, 2019 Pastor Megan Torgerson

Romans 1:1-17

Past Sermons

About Augustana

Quick Links

Contact Us

Worship Hours

Sunday, October 30, 2022
Pastor Deb Kielsmeier

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Pastor Megan Torgerson