We live in a free nation. In recent years there has been a great deal of emphasis on that term freedom, and concerns about the freedom that we have given up in the fight against terrorism. What is true freedom? What does it mean?

I suspect that most people would define freedom as being something like the ability to do whatever I want, whatever I feel like doing. Freedom is often thought of as being able to follow the whim of the moment, without anyone stopping me or challenging me or asking me to think about the consequences of my actions. But is that really freedom? You see under those circumstances we still tie ourselves to a set of norms, norms that are often defined by our group of friends. For example, the norm for some people is to act as outrageously as possible, but is that really freedom if you have to act outrageously even when you would rather not?

Another example, in our Middle School and Senior High there are a few restrictions on what the youth can wear, but for the most part they are free to wear what they want, but at the same time they are looked down up and even ostracized by their peers if they don't dress "the way that they're supposed to". Is that really free? What is it that freedom is all about?

When we talk about freedom we can talk about being freed from something. I am now freed from something that has bound me or constricted me or in some way prevented me from doing something that I would like to do. That's how we typically think of freedom, forgetting that responsibility and accountability are always a part of freedom, and that when we only think of being freed from certain things we tend to forget that we are still responsible and accountable for our choices.

There's another way of thinking of freedom though, it's a way that Jesus talked about often. You see, we can also be freed for certain things. Jesus talks about that kind of freedom in our text from Matthew, where he essentially says that we must choose. We have a choice that confronts us, and we have the freedom to choose, who shall we follow. The choice that we make is an important one, and it has many consequences for our lives. That choice will shape us and follow us, and most certainly it will have a great deal of effect on us.

If we choose to follow God, then that is where our allegiance will lie. First and foremost we will ask what is it that God wants for me and from me? What is it that God wants me to do? Our efforts will be shaped by our commitment to live as God wants us to live, to follow the example of Christ even when it seems impossibly difficult.

On the other hand, we can choose to serve wealth or power or fame, or any of a variety of other false gods, and that will be where our allegiance lies.

The choice that we make is important. It will effect and shape our lives and how we feel about ourselves. There is a world of difference between the choices, because this choice profoundly effects what we will get out of life and how we will live. The choice is ours, we have the freedom to choose, and we also have the freedom to change our mind and make a different choice when we find out that we have chosen wrong, but we have a choice which we are freed to make and to follow. In that choice we are freed to become what we choose to be.

Paul talks about the choice in his letter to the Galatians. You see, before Jesus came the Jewish people were told that they didn't really have a choice. They were to follow the law. Now we know that often they exercised a sense of choice anyway. There were many times when they chose to follow other gods, other priorities, and they turned their backs on the one true God. But time after time they were told that they weren't free to choose, that they were obligated to follow the law, and it was certainly true that the law was designed to do all of their thinking for them. They didn't need to understand it, or to know why they were doing something a certain way or at a certain time. They just needed to do it.

But then, with the coming of Christ they were freed to believe - or not to believe. Christ brought us the possibility of choosing the path of faith and faithfulness - not because we have no other option, but because that is how we choose to live. As Paul says so powerfully, "So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free men, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus."

There is no difference - in other words whatever physical differences there might be are not significant, for on a spiritual level, we are one, we discover our oneness, we discover our nature, we discover who we really are in the choice to follow Christ. When we choose faith, when we choose to believe and to follow, then we are freed to become and to be the person that God created us to be. Then all of the love, all of the desire to serve God, all of that deep sense of wanting to fulfill a purpose with our lives and to become what we are really meant to become is freed. We are able to know ourselves and to live in a new way, a way that was hidden from us, a way that we did not know until we were freed by our faith.

Frederick Buechner talks in some of his writings about living from within out, not from without in. As he says, "Amid all the craziness we get caught up in, it's important to live from the inside out, rather than from the outside in." Too often we look at freedom backwards. We think that freedom means that we don't have to worry about what's going on inside, that we can do whatever we want out here (point to chest). When we do that, we're living backwards. For what's going on in here (point to chest) should shape the way that we live out here (point around the sanctuary).

We need to be in touch with ourselves, to know who we are. Part of that task is to identify our thoughts and feelings. Part of that task is to honestly see our talents and abilities. Part of that task is to know our weaknesses and our shortcomings. We could all probably add some other pieces that are also part of this task, but one of the most important pieces is the one that is so often neglected. Knowing who we are begins with our very beginnings. In other words, to know who we are, we need to know that we were created by God, that we belong to God, and it is that sense of belonging that gives shape and meaning to everything else about ourselves and everything else in our lives. In other words, we need to in touch with our innermost spirits, that essence of who we really are.

If we lose touch with our relationship with God, then we have also lost touch with ourselves, because we cannot truly know ourselves apart from God. We cannot know who we really are, until we know ourselves to be God's children.

True freedom comes when we know ourselves in relationship to God, when we claim and nurture that relationship, and then are freed by our experiences of God's love to live and grow and be all that God wants us to be. The other choices that people make do not bring freedom, rather they bring slavery to a different master, bondage to a way of life that doesn't really know love and that doesn't have meaning and purpose. We find ourselves tied to a path of emptiness.

True freedom comes not in running from God, but rather to God. For it is then that God frees us for life - to live and love as serve as we are meant to be. This week and in all the weeks to come, let us live in the freedom that only God can give - the freedom to live and love as God's children, for that is who we really are.

Amen.