Galatians 5: 13-26

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become enslaved to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

Sermon Text

250 years of America. That’s a prominent anniversary if ever there was one. Two and one half centuries have passed and in that time, we as a nation have seen highs and lows, ebbs and flows, in our prosperity as well as our morality. We are a nation, but more than that we are an ongoing conversation. In 1776, as the Continental Congress came together to finalize the Declaration of Independence, they enshrined a set of principles that all people would, ideally and progressively, gain access to. Of these principles, none were more clearly stated that the belief in a God given right to, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” If the Law and the Prophets hang upon the love of God and neighbor, then the American experiment hangs upon the fulfillment and practice of these three ideals.

I am here to tell you, as both a student of history and of religion, that we have never succeeded as a nation in living up to either set of ideals. At the outset we established a democracy that evaluated a person’s access to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” as being dependent upon other features of their life. Voting rights are the easiest to track, as only white men with property were free to vote for a majority of our history, with people of color and women only having the right for less than half of our existence. Yet, beyond these rights, many other have been taken, or hidden, or denied. The “Indian Savage,” that was denied their homeland, systematically eliminated, and cast aside suffered too. Each generation bore a new opportunity to do what was right, and in denial of the goodness they could have done, took up a sin to bear at the same time.

The seeming contradiction of our quest for liberty was not lost on the people who walked the streets of Boston and Philadelphia long ago. Methodist ministers were some of the most vocal in bringing our great contradiction to mind. “How can you fight for liberty?” They asked, “While keeping the poor in poverty and slaves in chains?” Even Thomas Jefferson, writer of the Declaration and lifelong slave holder, knew in his heart that the sins of his age would not be forgotten, “Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?.. Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever… The almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest…”[1]

We are not in the era of slavery, and so we can do little to change what marks it has made upon our nation. We are not in the era of Indian removal, though we are obligated to tell the story of the Trail of Tears. We are born into the era we now live, with all the opportunity and pitfalls it affords. Will we see the ways that God calls us to liberty? Will we reject the sins of convenience that we are prone to enjoy at the expense of others? This is the choice we have to make today.

Scripture only speaks of liberty a scant few times. In a world where you had an emperor who controlled everything, our world of democracy and essential rights would seem completely alien. Yet, when we are told about liberty in scripture, it is always given a major caveat. “You are free,” the scripture says, “so that you may do good.” We are freed from the expectations of the law, from the burden of working out our own salvation, from the weight of our sins… Yet, none of this freedom is a warrant to do whatever we want.

How different would the history, not only of this nation, but of the world be if people did not take their liberty and use it to the detriment of their neighbor? How many atrocities could be prevented? I know that when I think of the things that make me proud of my country, it is not the excesses of any person I commend, but the willingness to serve and sacrifice for the good of our neighbors and even of strangers.

Think of those stories out of history that you most value. In my own life, I find the most patriotic I feel is when I remember the way people in my own life have lived out the ideals of our nation. My great grandfather worked hard as an engineer in the Army, protecting infrastructure at the risk of his own life and limb. When he returned home, he continued his work on the railroad, raising a family and learning to sew to help keep them clothed. He was always living for his neighbors and serving the people around him. My grandfather, similarly served in Viet Nam, a tenure that eventually cost him his life many years later due to his exposure to Agent Orange. He suffered, he died, and he did it for the good of the people he loved.

Domestically, I think of those I know who work in advocacy. Who spend their time and money to make sure that the people in the state legislature and in Congress vote for the good of their constituents. A fellow minister friend of mine, Rev. Dr. Starlette Thomas, who is working without ceasing to promote a future without racial separations. All those people I know who serve food in soup kitchens, box up food at food pantries, and do what they can to meet the needs of the people around them. These are the principles that America thrives off of, and that secure “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” as a real and present possibility in their life.

If we want to be a nation that lasts another 250 years, we need to prioritize this kind of good work and communal attitude. We also, it must be said, need to do something to fix our politicking. We cannot develop as a country if every four years the new administration undoes everything the last one did. We cannot see our nation thrive if every administration works to put more and more money and power into the hands of the rich. We cannot support our current form of government where our politicians are looking to produce sound bites to get reelected, and win symbolic cultural battles, rather than working for the good of their people.

In his encyclical Magnifica Humanitis, first American Pope, Leo XIV, asks us to see the danger that comes from our current political landscape. “When politics abandon a long-term perspective,” he says, “and reduces itself to short-term calculations or sterile polarizations, then the language of the common good loses credibility… social inequalities and divisions grow.”[2] It is not a popular or common thing to care for your neighbor, to love the stranger, to be American in practice and not just in a vague cultural aesthetic. The America I believe in, that I endorse, that I strive to be part of, is one that welcomes strangers, cares for its neighbors, and actively works to ensure all the good things of life for every person that walks on its storied streets.

Our generation will hold a good deal of evil within it that historians will be shocked by. Some of it is obvious, some of it only history will be able to speak to. Yet, if we have any hope of history remembering us well, telling our stories with the bittersweet smile that only history affords, then we must commit to service and love and denial of self. You have been given liberty, by God as an innate right, and by the government through acknowledgement of the same. Do not let anyone take that from you or from anyone else. The second liberty is denied to one person, it is in peril for all others.

250 years, what an achievement. What wonders we have achieved, and what horrors we have tolerated… We cannot change the past, for good or for ill, but we have a hand in establishing the next chapter of our history together. Love, live, serve, give. This alone will make us into the nation we all wish to be part of. – Amen.

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[1] Thomas Jefferson. Notes on the State of Virginia. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: H.C. Carey and Lilea. 1825) 221-223

[2] Pope Leo XIV. Magnifica Humanitis 2.63 2026