God Frees Us from Slavery to the World, and Adopts Us as His Free Children

Sermon preached at St. Mark’s Honey Brook, PA

by The Rev. Thomas C. Pumphrey, July 20, 2008

The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 11, year A): Romans 8:12-25

Romans 8:12-25 (NRSV) So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Today’s reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans is typical of Paul’s writing. Paul writes in very complex sentences, and mixes and overlaps several themes. In today’s reading, he writes about slavery, adoption, inheritance, struggles, glory and hope—all in just a handful of verses. So, perhaps a story might help illustrate some of what Paul is trying to say here.

Here’s a story—a parable, if you will. Once upon a time there was a slave who toiled in labor for his master. His situation was desperate, and he didn’t have any hope of being freed. Then along came another man who joined him as a fellow-slave. This new man said that he had a father in a distant country who wanted to free the slave, and that he, the son, had come to free him. This sounded absurd—how could one slave free another slave?

The slavemaster heard rumor about this kind of talk, and he abused the son and beat him and took him away to torture him. So the first slave began to lose hope again. Then, the son returned. But this time, he returned as a free man—healed from his torture. The son went to the slavemaster and paid the price to purchase the slave. The slave said to the son: “so now you are my new master?” “Yes,” the son replied, “but you are free if you want to be.”

When the slavemaster heard this, he pursued the freedman, to take him back. So the son said to the freedman “Not only have I paid the price to free you from slavery, but I have better news. My father, who sent me to you, has adopted you as his son—now you have an inheritance with me as his adopted child.”

The slavemaster challenged this. “How can this be??” The son replied by introducing him to another who had come with the son. “Here is a witness to the adoption papers. He will bear witness that this is now a child of my father. He will come with me on a journey to claim our inheritance.”

So the son and the witness and the freedman went on their journey. The journey was difficult, but each day, the path became easier and easier. The slavemaster kept calling back for the freedman, but each time, the son and the witness declared “he is free—he is a child of my father.” And the freedman’s life was blessed each day as he lived into his father’s inheritance.

For those of you familiar with the Christian story, you will find some of these themes familiar. This story, and its images and themes, are what Paul is trying to convey to the Christians in Rome and to us. God frees us from slavery to the world, and adopts us as his free children.

Paul is writing to a church made up of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians struggling to get along and chart a course in the Christian life together. Paul shows the Romans what they have in common—their common need for the forgiveness of Jesus, and their common inheritance that Jesus brings. Paul uses images central to Jewish history—the exodus story, where God freed the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt and brought them to the promised land of their inheritance. Paul writes about slavery to sin. You might remember my sermon from a couple of weeks ago, developing what it looks like to be enslaved to sin—spiritually bound by our mistakes or circumstances or skewed priorities. Paul, in that argument, was leading up to the section of Romans you heard last week and this week, and that will continue next week in chapter eight.

Paul uses this Exodus theme to describe freedom from slavery to sin, but you might remember that the journey from Egypt took a long time and included some struggle. Paul wants to bring hope and joy to the Romans as they walk that same journey toward the inheritance of Jesus Christ—living in the power of the Holy Spirit and in hope of the fullness of joy. Paul says that God frees us from slavery, adopts us as his free children, and makes us heirs of the promise. We live in hope, and we live in the Spirit, growing closer to our full inheritance of joy.

That’s a lot of theological language. What does that look like in our day to day lives? Two weeks ago, I spoke about spiritual slavery, using addiction as a strong example. But perhaps there are other typical examples. The news lately seems to show how much of America is enslaved to their mortgages! Paul writes about debts to the flesh, but we have real financial debts to our homes and our credit cards and student loans… we are slaves to our work or our bills or our debts. We might feel enslaved to the medical system—laboring in the system in order to gain back our health.

We might feel trapped by slavery to our lousy bosses or our dishonest customers or our unfair colleagues. We might feel trapped in unhealthy relationships—slaves to our families or neighbors or other adversaries.

We might feel like slaves to our dead-end circumstances—circumstances that seem beyond our control. We might struggle to hope and become slaves to depression.

This is the spiritual slavery from which God frees us. We are freed—redeemed. “Redeemed” sounds like a churchy word, but its original meaning meant a payment for release from slavery. We are freed, redeemed from that slavery and adopted and brought into loving relationship with God the Father, and made heirs to his promises of joy.

So what does the good news look like in our lives frustrated by that sense of slavery? Becoming a Christian might make some dramatic changes, but not everything is instantly changed. Paul knows that this is true for the Romans as well. He wants to show them how, as we await for the fullness of God’s promise, our lives still experience some of the joy that we hope for. We claim some of that inheritance each day as we journey toward the fullness of our freedom. In this journey, we discover God at work in our lives—sort of like the way that Jacob discovered God in this morning’s Old Testament lesson. Jacob struggled with the fruit of his cheating his brother, and the divisions in his family. In the midst of this struggle, God comes to Jacob to assure him of his promise. Jacob rises up and says “Surely the Lord was in this place and I—I did not know it!”

We do not have to accept the terms of the old slavemaster of this world. We must walk the challenging journey toward our Father, and labor as part of that journey. But we do not have to return to slavery, and each day in that journey, we discover more of our freedom in Christ.

This is the journey that leads to new life and freedom. This is the journey that recasts our material and financial well-being through God’s eyes and reframes our priorities. This takes time and patience to retool a budget or restructure debt or move to a new house or change cars. But this challenging journey leads to the fullness of our freedom in Christ.

This is the journey that recasts our adversaries through God’s eyes and reframes adversaries as fellow-slaves in need of freedom. This takes time and patience to retool a friendship, or restructure a relationship, to press tenaciously for justice, to bring grace and mercy to build a new relationship. But this challenging journey leads to the fullness of our freedom in Christ.

This is the journey that recasts our circumstances through God’s eyes, and reframes these dead-end situations as fields in which God’s seeds of grace have been planted, giving us a new perspective from seeing only a field of weeds to seeing God’s wheat growing strong amidst the weeds—to seeing God’s hand at work in all our circumstances. This takes time and patience to retool our vision for what God can do when we watch faithfully for his power at work in our lives. This takes time and patience to restructure our response from depression to hope. But this challenging journey leads to the fullness of our freedom in Christ.

This journey changes our world and how we see God at work in it. God frees us from slavery to the world, and adopts us as his free children. Despite the struggles of the journey, day by day, we see God’s powerful hand at work recreating our lives, bringing us into the full inheritance of joy!

Embrace God’s invitation to find that freedom, to claim that inheritance, and to celebrate that joy!