Freed—From and For

Freedom flows through all the readings this day. Moses reminds the people of Israel they have the freedom to choose between life and prosperity or death and adversity. Ironically, this freedom to choose life comes through the freedom to choose obedience to the commands of God. In other words, Moses tells the people, they are free to choose bondage to God and life or bondage to sin and death. Either way, they will be bound to something.

In the second reading, Paul reminds Philemon that he—Paul—is not free but is a “prisoner of Christ Jesus.” This is Paul’s linguistic wordplay to help convince Philemon to free his slave Onesimus. Paul reminds Philemon that he has the freedom to hold on to his slave Onesimus and the freedom to grant Onesimus freedom as his brother in Christ.

In the gospel, Jesus speaks a challenging word, which resonates in ways that might make modern people a tad uncomfortable. You might phrase it: Do you own your stuff or does your stuff own you? Jesus seems to suggest that our stuff, our possessions, could make it difficult to follow faithfully. It is easy to dismiss this suggestion with a wave of the hand, “Oh, that certainly is not me”—until you start to consider just how much stuff is stored up in our homes and attics and garages (some of the latter with no room for cars).

In Christ, freedom comes from letting go. Freedom comes through giving away and trusting Jesus. In Christ, we are free people. Free to choose life, free to choose faithfulness, and free to open our arms wide and receive the free grace of God. This is the God who chooses to never stop loving us.