“The New Responsibility”
We are responsible for using our freedom wisely
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Text: Ephesians 5:6-21
No two words have a greater cachet or are more emotive in the realm of politics and governance and law and theology than the words “freedom” and “responsibility.” Indeed, you seem to see a pendulum that swings between these two poles like Scylla and Charybdis, torn between freedom and responsibility. Human life, if in all honesty it be stated, exists somewhere in between the extremes of absolute freedom and complete responsibility.
You find this, for example, in the realm of economics, where certain schools of thought stress freedom: the likes of Adam Smith or more recently Michael Novak, while others stress responsibility and obligation, like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles. The pendulum swings between the two poles: freedom and responsibility.
In the realm of law and jurisprudence there's a movement between the freedom of the deconstructionists and the responsibility of the formalists, as one stresses the importance of rights and the other the necessity of obligations.
Even in theology we find that the same swing takes place between freedom and responsibility, between those who are the libertines, (anti-nomians) who believe that because of Christ we are now free from all constraints, that the law has little or no hold on us, and those who are tied strictly to the moral principles and codes of the Bible - those who stress responsibility.
A few weeks ago I preached a sermon on freedom and how important it is in the eyes of the apostle Paul that we are free in Christ. “It is for freedom,” says Paul, “that we have been set free.” Freedom is an essential ingredient in the Christian faith and life through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But if we were only to reside with freedom, if freedom were to be the only side of the coin, then our coin would be incomplete. For the other side of the coin is responsibility. It's not another coin, as if somehow it is opposed to freedom, but rather the same coin, that because of the freedom in Christ we have responsibility and because we are called to be responsible we can do so because we are free in Christ. Two sides of the same coin: freedom and responsibility.
There's a wonderful phrase in the movie Gladiator, when Marcus Aurelius is upon his horse trying to get the Roman soldiers whipped up into a frenzy against the barbaric German horde they are about to encounter: “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” In other words, there is an inherent obligation and responsibility to living. How we live has an effect not only now but also through time immemorial. The time we are given in this life, this one moment in time that we call life carries with it not only the freedom to be a child of God in Christ, but also a commensurate responsibility for how we live our life, for it echoes in eternity.
In our passage from the Book of Ephesians this morning you can see the same theme emerging. It's as if the Apostle Paul is standing before those early Christians and, like Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator, is saying to the Ephesians, “As you live now, it will echo in eternity.” He uses other words. He says, “See to it that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as the wise.” Now, that word “circumspectly” can be translated in many different ways from the Greek akribos. It can mean not only circumspectly but respectfully, closely, carefully or diligently, but I like Moffat's translation: responsibly.
“See that you walk responsibly; not as fools but as the wise.” There's a responsibility for the way we live our lives. But responsibility and being responsible also has a pejorative meaning.
I read a story about a man named Paisley. Paisley had been promoted up a level in his office. Two weeks after his promotion his new boss phoned his former boss and in an irritated tone said: “I thought you told me that Paisley was responsible.”
The former boss responded: “Well, of course I did. Whenever the computers went down and needed to be reprogrammed, whenever we lost money in the till, whenever my ulcer flared up, Paisley was responsible.”
That's the pejorative sense of the word “responsible,” but that's not what Paul means. He means it in more of a moral sense, a sense of true accountability to Christ and a higher power. He's talking about a new responsibility that all Christians carry upon themselves - a mantle that they cannot reject or avoid. As you look at what he says you can see that it has a great bearing upon our lives as well, for though this was written for the Ephesians at a time very different from our own the sentiment of responsibility still carries with it the same weight and power for modern people.
The first thing that Paul says about living responsibly is that we must redeem our time. It sounds like a very strange and old-fashioned phrase, but within the context of the Greek world it made eminent sense. You see, the Greek world often saw personal freedom manifest in living to excess.
In other words, the Greeks were philosophically free and as such, their highest good was the good of pleasure. Many of the people in the world of the early Christian Ephesians were living in a debauched society, a society that was promiscuous, a society that was licentious. In fact there is a Greek word to describe a gathering of people who hold this view that I don't think that I can ever use again in the same way, and when I have to attend one I will always do so with a degree of reserve. The word is “symposium.” How many of you have every been to a symposium?
Well, a “symposium ” in Greek is sumposion: A drinking party. Therefore we will not have any more symposia here at Eaton Memorial, for fear that there may be misunderstanding in the population!
In the ancient world people would spend their time in symposia, which were the gathering of the elite. This was the gathering place of the philosophers and the thinkers - the wise. But Paul thought they were fools, because he understood that time we have in the world is finite. The time that we are given by God must be used wisely, responsibly, diligently.
You can see all the way through the Pauline epistles he warns people. He says, “The time is near, the time is short, Christ might come again at anytime. Our days are few.” The numbering of our days: this is the theme that runs its way through the whole Pauline corpus. Paul believed that life is so precious that it must be used wisely, diligently and responsibly and herein lies a message for all of us: The days that we have been given should be used creatively. They should be used for the purposes of God. The days that we have been given, as few as they are, should be lived to the full, but not just to maximize freedom and pleasure but to live up to the responsibility of living for God and making sure that our lives are lived to the maximum.
In 1997, not long after Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a car accident in Paris, Geoffrey Hoffman, a designer and manufacturer of some of the most powerful limousines in the world, was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune. He builds limousines on spec for people who need bomb-proof or bullet-proof vehicles for security. Many of them cost half a million dollars or more. When he was interviewed about how important his work was, especially in light of the princess' accident, he made a very interesting observation: (I paraphrase)
It confounds me that people will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on these magnificent limousines, have them loaded with every safety feature imaginable but when it comes time to select the chauffeur they don't look at their degree of responsibility. They often choose them because they're friendly or nice. They do not choose them because they are experienced and wise and responsible but because they are nice people to have around. How strange it is that people will put their priorities in their machinery but not in the people who guide them.
And in the case of Diana, who was probably killed by someone who had drunk too much, you can see that his words are true. So it is with the lives we lead. So often we fill our lives with the things that we think are important. Things that we can exercise our pleasure with, things that we think are grand and beautiful but we do not select the driver - the source, the power to make those days fully complete and safe.
Paul is saying to those new Christians in Ephesus that the person who should be driving their limousine is Christ. That they should be filling their days not just with idle things but with the power of the Spirit, for with the power of the Spirit our days are lived responsibly for God.
My friends, choose each day that you have, each moment that you have been given, use it responsibly for they are few but with God they are full. Paul goes on: “Not only must we redeem our time, we must also restate our faith.” He gives a clarion call to the Christians about the responsibility of worship: “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.” Now, that does not mean that every time you greet one of your fellow church members on the subway you say, “Good morning, and start repeating Psalm 23 or singing, Guide me, O thou Great Jehovah to them.” That's not what he means, not the silliness and the absurdity of getting carried away in some kind of religious ritual. He's talking about worship. He's saying that when you gather together you should do these things. Make the time that you have together precious.
My friends, I want to applaud you this morning. I want to congratulate you because you have taken the time from busy lives with many obligations and I'm sure many other pleasures that are before you and made the effort to come into the house of the Lord, or if you are at home you have switched on your radio and taken time out of a busy life to worship. You have the freedom to do it but you have taken the responsibility of carrying it out and it's important.
If there is one thing that's really concerning me at the moment in the state of the church, particularly here in North America, it's that while we have the maximum degree of freedom to be able to worship, we often lack the responsibility of taking it and doing it. It takes time. It takes effort on a cold morning to come and gather with one another. But Paul knew it was important. It was important then and it is important now and it's going to be as important in 50 years' time, that Christians do not go through their lives alone, that they go through it with one another in the bond of fellowship, singing the hymns and the songs and praying the prayers that tell God that we are with Him, that remind us that God is with us and that commit us to one another. There's nothing quite like being able to stand and sing together to share our faith.
Think about it for a moment. When we bury people and celebrate their lives at funerals, what is more comforting than being able to rise and sing: Guide me, O thou Great Jehovah or Immortal Invisible, God Only Wise together? It is comforting to be able to sing to our God at a moment of great need. How much more beautiful can it be then to baptize a child who comes into the world with its life ahead of him and to be able to sing the Gaelic blessing to it that the Lord may bless it and keep it. What could be more powerful to a couple who decide to commit themselves to one another in matrimony than to be able to stand up and sing, Love Divine All Loves Excelling to remember the source of love in the first place? It is powerful to be able to stand up with one another and to sing. Worship gives us this privilege and Paul knew it.
Last Sunday I was moved to tears when in a church in the United States of America, the whole congregation, led by me and the choir director, stood up and sang O Canada. It would have made even Don Cherry's heart go pitter-patt. It was a wonderful moment, a glorious moment. There is something about standing and singing together. Paul knew it. Worship is important. It is not an isolated thing to come into the presence of God, it is a communal activity and it is one that changes our lives. Keep worshipping, my friends, keep taking the time and use your days responsibly, for the reward is to be in the presence of God with others.
There is also one last element: Not only do we restate our faith when we worship together, but we also in many ways reclaim our purpose. Paul uses a very strange expression that seems very outdated: “Submit yourselves to one another.” Submission is a foreign idea. I like the CEV translation, “Take care of one another.” But submission recognizes and taking care recognizes that we are equals before God. When we come into the presence of Christ there is now no distinction among us. There is the recognition that every one of us by virtue of our faith in Christ, has a common bond and a common fellowship.
Paul knew that the pattern for the way we are to care for one another is founded in Christ, who did not claim equality with God as something to be grasped but humbled Himself, taking the form of a servant. As Christ serves and loves us, so must we serve and love one another.
When I look at the state of our brothers and sisters throughout the world, when I think that there are many who are persecuted for their faith, many living under tyranny and oppression who don't have the freedom to worship God, and then I look at the great freedoms that we have and the great opportunities that we have to serve, when I look at the work that our Mission and Service Fund does in the United Church of Canada and the way it helps brothers and sisters who are in need, I realize the importance of the collectivity of the faith, of the bond and the fellowship of one another, bound to Christ, responsible for one another.
You may read on and say, “Oh, my goodness, this sounds like a strange passage: ” “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives...” But read it carefully, for all the way through Paul has this sense of a mutual recognition of the responsibility that we all have for one another under Christ. Taking that responsibility is a sign of our faithfulness and our discipleship, and is what makes the church such a powerful force in the world.
On my flight to Florida on Friday I was sitting, as I normally do, on the aisle. Someone with my girth feels more comfortable on the aisle. The problem was that after a few minutes in the air one of the flight attendants came to me and asked me if I would be willing to move. Sitting on my right was a father and his delightful daughter. We were sitting right next to an emergency exit and the little girl wasn't allowed to stay there, so they asked if we would switch seats. As I was put next to the door the attendant asked me: “Have you read the safety information booklet in the back of the seat in front of you?” Now, who really has read those things? Honestly!
So I said: “I've read a bit of it. Why?”
She said: “Well, I need you to read all of it, because in the event of a crash you are to open the door, and you are responsible for making sure that everyone exits the plane safely. Will you take that responsibility?”
I said: “What will you give me if I do?”
She said: “I will give you an extra bun with your lunch, how's that?”
I said: “You have a deal.” And I feverishly began to read the instructions as she muttered something rude about me on her way down the aisle.
All the way to Fort Lauderdale I only had one thing on my mind: “Dear Lord, please do not let us crash because I will never get these people out safely.” Big responsibility to be near the door to make sure others are safe! Big responsibility to live the Christian faith, to live the Christian life and to care for one another! Big responsibility to use the days and the time that you have been given circumspectly and wisely! Big responsibility to gather with others in the worship of God and sing the hymns of glory! Big responsibility because we have been given the freedom and by having the freedom the responsibility makes it all complete. For what we do in life echoes in eternity. May we be responsible in Christ. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.