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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues.

Freedom or precise rules?

For freedom Christ has set us free (Galatians 5:1) but freedom from what?

 

Context

World-wide the news is dominated by renewed conflict between the USA and Iran and the floods in Nepal. Domestically we have the first appearances in Parliament of our new Prime Minister.

Although the British weather has now reverted to type, none of us can ignore the successive heatwaves over the summer or the temperature records which have been broken. No one weather event should be invoked to argue that climate change is happening or that it is caused by human activity; but much of what we are now witnessing matches the predictions which were being made 30 years ago (as I became Head of Environment at the then Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food).

At the Greenbelt Festival last Sunday I watched the National Emergency Briefing film. It is presented by Chris Packham and I strongly recommend that you find a screening in your local area and go and watch it. It is full of facts around climate change from military and health experts as well as those with more obvious expertise. Given my background some of the facts were familiar to me but others were not.

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

The Exodus story is about how the children of Israel escaped from slavery in Egypt. What are the things which enslave us? Collectively are we in slavery to fossil fuels? What instructions might God now be giving us in our responsibility to care for creation? In what for many is now the Season of Creation, are these issues foremost in our minds? More controversially, are we (in the West at least) enslaved by an economic system which privileges freedom of choice above all else?

Freedom is widely thought to be an important value and objective. But as a concept freedom is more controversial than one might expect. Elon Musk has criticised what he claims is a lack of free speech in the UK but he seems not to have noticed that the USA where he now lives is 64th in the World Press Freedom Index, well below the UK in 18th place.

The gospel is supposed to set us free (Galatians 5:1). But many people around the world live in societies where it is difficult, even illegal, to express some thoughts. Is freedom always and everywhere the most desirable thing? And what is the most important freedom - freedom from hunger, for example, or freedom from slavery, or freedom of thought and speech, or freedom of religion? The Universal Declaration on Human Rights is a useful starting point for thinking about such issues.

The instructions in the Exodus and Matthew passages are remarkably precise. In the case of the Exodus passage we seem to be reading something like a liturgical text, especially as it ends with instructions about an annual festival of remembrance. Some commentators see Jesus’ detailed instructions in the Matthew passage as reflecting issues in the churches for which the author is writing. If the passage is based on specific teaching from Jesus, I find that intriguing, given that so much of Jesus’ teaching is more enigmatic. The story we call the Good Samaritan - and many of the other stories (parables) he told  - are designed to make us think rather than offering precise answers like those in this gospel passage. Why might that be? And are precise rules compatible with freedom of thought and action?

 

Questions for discussion

• Which of the freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights do you most value? And which (if any) would you be content to discard?
• In what circumstances do we need precise rules and when is more general guidance (like ‘love your neighbour’ or ‘feed the hungry’) more helpful?
• What are the things which enslave us and from which we need to be liberated? As individuals, perhaps social media? As a society, perhaps fossil fuels?

Dudley Coates is a local preacher in the Salisbury Methodist Circuit and a former Vice President of the Methodist Conference.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

If football is your thing, you’re bound to know that the transfer window SLAMMED shut this week. Note that it didn’t just finish. It didn’t just close. It SLAMMED shut.

One of modern football’s rules when describing the end of the period when clubs can sell players to each other is that you must use the most dramatic language possible. Indeed, that is their marketing approach to pretty much every aspect of the football season. Every weekend has a “season-defining crunch” and a goal that “will be talked about for the ages” and players who will “never be forgotten”. It sounds great, but these “era-defining” matches disappear from memory in no time - sometimes as quickly as the next weekend.

This week's passage focuses on something that is worth remembering - God’s people being freed from slavery. It begins the night before with the people receiving a set of very specific instructions to follow as they get ready for God’s rescue. These instructions are there to prepare them for the journey to freedom whilst also giving them rituals for future generations to re-enact and remember how their ancestors were rescued by God.

It can be easy to forget who God is and all He has done for us. And yet, if we can find ways to remember who God is - through things like communion, worship and reading our Bibles - that remembering can anchor us through life’s storms and get ready to journey on with God.

Chris Neilands is the co-founder of Play it by Ear drama company, based in Belfast.

 

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