May 14, 2006

Pr. Marit Rong, guest preacher from Bergen, Norway

Mindekirken May 14 2006

Christian freedom
Today the flagpole stands bare
Among Eidsvoll’s budding trees.

But such an hour as this
We know what freedom is.

A song looms out over the country,
Having victory as its language,
Though whispered through closed lips
Submitted to the yoke of the foreigners.

An assurance was born within us;

Freedom and life is one,
So simple, so essential
As the breath of humans."
"However, freedom can never be locked up
In a prison of joy.

Grass stain covers the water,
When the river is quiet."

The cry for freedom reads like this according to Nordahl Grieg’s famous poems "17.mai 1940" and "Wergelandsfanen". Those poems meant a lot to the Norwegian people who lived during the German’s occupation of Norway. The poems gave them hope; the people looked forward for a different future. These poems deal with political freedom. However, I will claim that this can be interpreted as the gospel. The way from the outside political meaning to a more profound spiritual meaning is not long. As humans we never live isolated as only spiritual beings. We live our lives and our faith in the middle of our society and surroundings. To have a good life implies to live in freedom, in justice, in love and in faith, and to care for each other. Both the Bible readings of today and 17^th of May as the national day catch these aspects.

This is how Paul’s letter to the Galatians has been named. The Magna Charta, from 1215 AD, was the first official document of freedom in western history: The king of England had to grant his people a number of civil rights that he for future times would not violate. He was obliged to respect the inhabitants of his country as free persons. No other book in the Bible emphasizes freedom more than the letter to the Galatians. "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Freedom is a fundamental need of humans. Because of this freedom is the most common value to establish the constitution in countries that are based on democracy. Freedom is our patent of nobility.

As Christian beings we are allowed to live as God’s free children. By following Jesus – the way, the truth and the life – we can live as freed people. To us humans, however, freedom is often synonymous with getting away from responsibility, demands, commitments, and dependence. This is a kind of freedom that is only able to bind us to ourselves. For Jesus, the truth is the most important thing. And the truth of the human being is that we are slaves of sin, both the sin we know of, and of all the unknown evil that is rooted within us. None of us go free. We receive the freedom from God when we base our lives on the Truth. The truth is that we need Jesus’ salvation. The cross in the key is more than a symbol. It opens the door to the fundamental freedom. Jesus says: "If you continue in my words, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." Jesus puts a new meaning into the words of freedom and truth. The freeing truth is not foremost a political or personal truth, but the truth of and from Jesus. We do not carry the truth, it is the opposite way, the Truth carries us.

Political freedom and Christian freedom are not juxtapositions, they supplement each other. We often say: The order of the elements is unimportant. This is not the case in this setting. A political freedom will always follow and be derived from Christian freedom. We say: The bird is free. And that is true because the bird can caper freely in the air in a way that is impossible for us. However, the bird is abandoned to its element, the air. We describe a person that in some areas lives in a very free and unrestricted way by saying that he or she is "As a fish in water." But the freedom of the fish is linked to the water. In the same way, the freedom of the Christian, the freedom of faith, is to blossom in a specific environment: the love. As believers we will not be free if we go away from God’s love.

Free to love. Free to serve. Free to live for one another. Faith – working through love – free to practice loving activities to set our neighbors free and to better the conditions of humans living everywhere in the world, in our neighborhoods, and in our daily lives.

Today we celebrate the 17^th of May. The feast and the celebration will not be correct if we do not care for those who do not live in freedom. We must never look only to ourselves. Nevertheless, we will have the Christian freedom even though we do not have the political freedom. However, the Christian freedom challenges us to fight for all kinds of human freedom. It challenges us to live among the suppressed, the ones who suffer, and to being solitary with them. This is the way to carry out the unity of the church as well as Christian freedom. In this way the cross in the flag becomes meaningful. Today we will use the key of gratitude to thank God and to shout our hurrahs for our freedom; both our Christian freedom, and our political freedom.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716