Pastor Edgar Mayer;
For more sermons and other writings check out pastors homepage: http://www.lca.org.au/pastors/edgarmayer
Find
Your Freedom
Erich Fromm an eminent thinker of a few years ago he wrote a book called The Fear Of Freedom and
in it he shares what is truly baffling to him. Over the last few centuries
Western culture experienced great advancements towards individual freedom. Crop
failures which meant famine and starvation in the past are no more at
least in the Western world. Weve tamed
nature and now with better farming practises and storage facilities, there is
freedom to focus on more than just food on the table.
Once upon a
time the Church governed many a peoples lives and was a moral force but now it
is only one voice among many. We are free to ignore the Church. Then, political
democracy liberated us from the absolute power of kings and emperors. With all
of that so Fromm argues you would expect us to be free. The dominion of nature, the Church and the State have been
broken. Fromm writes: World War I [original: The Word War] was
regarded by many as the final struggle and its conclusion the ultimate victory
for freedom (Erich Fromm: The Fear Of Freedom, London & New York:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1942, p2).
However, then Fascism came, the Nazi
state, the dark years of oppression in the name of Communism
Fromm writes: When Fascism came into power, most people were
unprepared, both theoretically and practically. They were unable to believe
that man could exhibit such propensities for evil, such lust for power, such
disregard for the rights of the weak, or such yearning for submission
(p6).
These words were written fifty years
ago. Do they still apply today or have we finally become free? How are we going
in our everyday lives? Are we free? We certainly have a lot more life-style
choices but then we could ask whether the consumer paradise of modern
When Bruce Springsteen sings in the song
Bobby Jean about two teenagers wearing their own style
of clothes and being into the same kind of distinctive music, how free in fact
were their choices? Bruce Springsteen sings about them: We were the
wildest. We were the wildest things the world has ever seen but we market and sell to sub-cultures.
I dont want to pursue this but a
detailed study of the question whether we are in fact free could be interesting
and then there are other symptoms which are disturbing. A few weeks ago the
Weekend Australian featured an article on addiction. Listen to some surprising
insights: In this age of
affluence, it seems were all addicted to something and curing us is big
business
Its no longer a problem of the underclass; there is now abundant
evidence that a high standard of living is no protection at all against the
siren songs of substance abuse, and may even be a risk factor
[addicts] seem
to be everywhere. And no wonder, when almost everything we touch is a
potentially toxic substance. Work. Sex.
Exercise. Even water
In an age of affluence, having
too much of a good thing is pretty much what we do. And thats both our privilege and curse
Roughly 1.5 million
Australians have tried ice. Of those, an estimated 40 per cent are regular
users [ addicts]
Consta Georgoussis, who teaches
meditation
says. Among
the very wealthy, emptiness spiritual emptiness is so much more apparent.
And thats because every sense is satisfied except the inner sense.
Anna
Emmons is also convinced it is harder sometimes for the wealthier to find
meaning.
For Georgoussis, addiction in the age of affluence is a spiritual
issue
Its about wanting to be loved, says Emmons. Its about wanting to
fit in, wanting to have meaning, wanting to have purpose, wanting to feel
connected, wanting to have a sense of achievement. Those are the common issues
for everybody.
(AB FAB REHAB by Susan Maushart,
Why are we not free? Why is there in Erich Fromms words such yearning for
submission and reflecting on modern
May I present to you that according to
the Christian faith the core problem is that we no longer seem to know who we are. Erich Fromm in his book simply assumes that humans are
not under any spiritual power or God. He simply assumes that modern people are
the masters of their own destiny but I wonder whether he is not a little
starry-eyed when he writes full of optimism:
man, the more he gains freedom
the more he becomes an
individual, has no choice but to unite himself with the world in the
spontaneity of love and productive work
(p18). Spontaneity of love
and productive work where is that
coming from? Independent from God and failing this ideal so many times is
that truth or wishful thinking?
The Bible says Genesis 1:1 &
1:26-27 & 2:7: In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth
God said: Let us make man in
our image, in our likeness
So God created man in his own image, in the image
of God he created him; male and female he created them
the Lord formed the
man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life, and the human person became a living being.
You and I we are not simply born dropped into this world from out of nowhere to work out our own destiny. God made us.
God created us planned us, designed us, formed
us for a purpose. Let me go on a tangine
here and ask: When is a flower the most free? I know that flowers are not
conscious beings but the analogy may help nevertheless. When is a flower the
most free? I would say - when there is good soil, adequate sun-shine, water and
space which allow the flower to grow and blossom according to the design of its
creator. We wouldnt think of bemoaning the fact that the flower is not free to
be a kangaroo and not free to be a grass-hopper and not free to be an eagle.
The flower was made to be a flower and there is glory when the flower comes
into her own blooming and coming into bud showing beautiful colours teasing the nose with exquisite
scents
To put any other expectation on
the flower would actually burden the plant to be what it was never meant to be.
This is the same with us. We need to
know who we are that we are the creations of God carrying his design for
our lives. What is that design? I think that it has to do with what has become
perverted in godless cultures. Erich Fromm to repeat an earlier quote wondered
about peoples yearning for submission and then we had a look at the submission to addiction which in another
previous quote was identified as a spiritual issue. For many in affluent
From a Christian perspective this perverted
yearning for submission can only be satisfied and liberated once we realize
that we were indeed created for submission to God. This is worship! He is God
and we are his creations. We submit to him. We do his will. And then we also
flower and bloom.
And by the way before anyone misunderstands this is not the submission required in fascism. If you are here today
and you are not a Christian, I am sure that you couldnt say that God bullied
you into worship or intimidated you to surrender your life to him. Thats not
God. God is intensely interested in a love relationship where we recognize his
goodness towards us the loving hands of our creator and reciprocate with glad devotion to him.
Only even the very first humans spoiled Gods good design.
God placed them in a garden and said Genesis 2:16-17 I read from the Bible: You are free to eat from any tree in the
garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
for when you eat of it you will surely die.
Was God curbing the freedom of our human
ancestors? Was he a mean despot? No the first human couple could eat from any
tree in the garden. God had said: You
are free to eat from any tree in the garden
and God had made I quote again the Bible Genesis 2:9:
all kinds of trees
trees that were pleasing
to the eye and good for food
These
people were not lacking anything but then this twisted human tendency that
says enough is never enough showed
itself and to cut a long story short the first human creations of God disobeyed
him, broke the relationship of trust, denied the goodness of this perfect
garden for them and they ate the fruit of the forbidden tree.
They were in for a surprise. Instead of
gaining more freedom access even to
the forbidden tree there came enslavement to sin, that is: enslavement to what they had done against God because that one deed was
to define their future lives and our lives. Sin can do that sometimes. One lie. One night of adultery. One act of rage.
Something in the relationship with God was broken. Now they feared him. They
tried to hide from him, conceal the truth from him, blaming each other before
God and even blaming God. This one sin caused a mess of gigantic proportions
because even now you and I all of us suffer the consequences of the first humans expulsion from the garden
and the ongoing presence of sin and its power in our lives. [Maybe insert
examples of envy, adultery ...]
However, the God who made us did not
give up on us and to stay with our
theme of freedom God who was under no
compulsion to do so, he curbed his own freedom in order to restore ours. I read
from the Bible Phillipians 2:5-11: ... Christ Jesus: Who being in
very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in
human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient to death even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to
the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father.
God the Son Jesus Christ made
himself nothing. He humbled himself and became obedient to death so that we
would regain the purposes of our design, that is: worship God. (Be in
submission to him.) In the words of this
reading: God exalted him to the highest place
that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
There is more to say about what it means
that Jesus Christ made himself nothing and what his deed means for undoing the
first deed of sin but first we recall an earlier quote from the Bible which
said: So God created man in his
own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
This is again about the purposes of our
design and what kind of freedom we are meant to live and what is said about us
is mind-blowing. Far from restricting us and keeping us down in the mud as
insignificant worms, God designed us to be in his image so that when we worship
him we relate to each other like to like: holy to holy, love to love, glory to
glory, being involved in the same work of the kingdom of God. What freedom we
have to be like that!
This is not meant to be long message and
therefore I close with drawing further attention to Jesus. When the first
humans sinned against God, we lost our freedom the once perfect relationship which we had with our
God. And that may still be your
situation right now as you sit in this church. You dont know God and you are
unsure about the Bible and church and everything but nevertheless the other
truths out there do not seem to satisfy you either.
Thats where Jesus comes in. Without him
no one would ever regain their freedom because the power of sin perverts so
much even of our minds that no one by their own power can cut through and find
their own way back to God.
A sacrifice was needed to atone for our
sin. Jesus was needed and he was the sacrifice suffering a total lack of
freedom for us suffering the punishment of sin our
sin in his own body for us. He became nothing and he died on a cross
for us so that we could be forgiven,
set free from sin and then worship once more the exalted Jesus Christ to the
glory of God the Father come into freedom.
How do you become free? Put your faith
in the sacrifice of Jesus and bow your knee to him. Within all of us by design there
is indeed a yearning for submission and the only perversion-free submission is to submit to the one that
made himself nothing for us our wonderful God who did that on the cross. This morning I encourage you: Consider
whether you are the creation of God and whether you are meant and designed to
worship him. Find your freedom. Amen.