Philip Potter - "Christ Liberates for Community and Scripture" (October 10, 1976) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

(solemn church organ music)

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(church hymn)

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Let us join in the responsive prayer

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of confession and intercession.

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Lord, you made the world and everything in it.

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You created the human race of one stock and gave us

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the earth for our possession.

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Break down the walls that separate us

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and unite us in a single body.

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Lord, we have been divisive in our thinking,

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in our speech, in our actions.

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We have classified and imprisoned one another.

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We have fenced each other out by hatred and prejudice.

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Break down the walls that separate us

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and unite us in a single body.

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Lord, you mean us to be a single people ruled by peace,

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living in freedom, freed from injustice,

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truly human, women and men,

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responsible and responsive in the life we lead,

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the love we share, the relationships we create.

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Break down the walls that separate us

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and unite us in a single body.

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Lord, we shall need ever new insights into the truth.

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Awareness of your will for all humanity.

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Courage to do what is right even when it is not allowed.

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Persistence in undermining unjust structures,

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until they crumble into dust.

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Grace to exercise a ministry of reconciliation.

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Break down the walls that separate us

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and unite us in a single body.

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Lord, share out among us the tongues of your spirit,

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that we may each burn with compassion for all who hunger

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for freedom and humanness.

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That we may be doers of the word.

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And so speak with credibility

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about the wonderful things you have done.

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Lord direct us in ways we do not yet discern

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and equip a us for the service of reconciliation

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and liberation in your world.

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Now let each person in silence and sincerity,

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add a private prayer of penitent for the walls

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we have erected against our neighbors.

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And the opportunities for reconciliation,

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liberation and unity, which we have let slip by.

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It is written that whoever hated a brother or a sister

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is in darkness still, but he who love it,

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the neighbor walks in the light

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and gives no occasion for stumbling.

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Whosoever shows forth the love of Jesus Christ

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finds fellowship with him and with the creator of us all.

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Amen.

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(church hymn)

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The scripture lesson for this morning

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is from the letter to the Galatians,

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the fifth chapter, the first 15 verses.

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"For freedom, Christ has set us free.

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Stand fast therefore,

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and do not submit again to a yolk of slavery.

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Now I Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision,

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Christ will be of no advantage to you.

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I testify again to every man who receives circumcision,

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that he is bound to keep the whole law.

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You are severed from Christ

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you who would be justified by the law.

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You have fallen away from grace.

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For through the spirit, by faith,

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we wait for the hope of righteousness.

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For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision

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nor uncircumcision is of any avail,

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but faith working through love.

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You were running well,

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who hindered you from obeying the truth?

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This persuasion is not from him who called you.

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A little yeast leavens the whole lump.

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I have confidence in the Lord

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that you will take no other view than mine.

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And he who is troubling you will are his judgment,

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whoever he is.

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But if I brethren still preach circumcision,

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why am I still persecuted?

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In that case, the stumbling block of the cross

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has been removed.

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I wish those who unsettle you would mutilate themselves.

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For you were called to freedom, brethren.

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Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity

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for the flesh, but through love, be servants of one another.

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For the whole law is fulfilled in one word.

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You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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But if you bite and devour one another,

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take heed that you are not consumed by one another."

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May God open our minds and our hearts and our lives

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to this reading from holy scripture, amen.

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(church hymn)

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With one voice, let us affirm what we believe.

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We believe in God who has created and is creating,

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who has come in the truly human Jesus

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to reconcile and make new

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who works in us and others by the spirit.

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We trust God who calls us to be the church

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to celebrate life and its fullness,

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to love and serve others,

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to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus,

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crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.

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In life, in death.

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In life beyond death, God is with us.

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We are not alone.

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Thanks be to God.

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The Lord be with you.

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And with your spirit.

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Let us pray.

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Oh God, you are our refuge and our strength.

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We ask you mercifully now to hear us as we pray.

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Here are words of thanksgiving, oh God.

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For your strength, which helps us bear our burdens,

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face our responsibilities

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and stand the tensions of our lives.

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For your of guidance, which helps us make right decisions.

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Find a way which is right and just

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and see clearly when the darkness comes and the way is dim.

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For your goodness and mercy, Which cleanse us from our sin,

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help us in our temptation

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and offer us hope in the midst of struggle.

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For grace and love ever real,

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and without end, we give you thanks.

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We pray oh, loving God for your holy church.

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The church which you have given

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and to which you have called each of us.

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Cleanse, oh God, the church of all bitterness,

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all division, all coldness and all unfaithfulness

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Defend your church, oh Lord

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from persecution and attack from without,

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from heresy within.

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From the enmity of its enemies and the failures

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of its believers.

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Give, oh God, to your church that is to us

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courage as we speak, strong will as we serve,

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sensitive spirits as we care.

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May we and all those who claim the name of Christ,

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let nothing come between us and our true service to love

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and obey in the name of Jesus, the Christ.

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We ask now, oh God, for peace.

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Peace in troubled, waring lands.

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Peace where the young must fight,

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where the old must suffer

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and the children must live in fear.

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And oh God, give to each of us peace within ourselves.

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That our spirits may grow calm and our hearts be comforted.

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Give to us peace with each other

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that we may live in Goodwill and harmony with those nearby

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and those neighbors far away.

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Give to us peace with you, oh God.

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That the certainty that you love us may take our fears away.

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May we know that your love forgives us,

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your grace upholds us and your promise sustains us.

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Especially, oh Lord,

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we would ask that you would comfort the sick and the dying.

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Draw near with your presence

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to those whom we have committed to your care

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and strengthen us For the glorious living of these days.

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Yes, oh God, our refuge and our strength.

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Hear us mercifully as we pray.

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Our father who art in heaven, hallow be thy name

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thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it was.

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Give us to stay our daily bread

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and forgive us our trespasses

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as we forgive those who trespass against us.

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And lead us not into temptation,

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Deliver us from evil.

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As a kingdom and the power and the glory.

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Forever, amen.

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May I say welcome to each of you this morning?

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This is a moment and a service

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that we have looked forward to for a long, long time.

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And in the name of Christ, I welcome you

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and pray God's blessing upon you.

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As you have come

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and as we have this time to worship God

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and to have fellowship with one another.

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May your having come be a blessing

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not only while you are here, but may it provide strength

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and assurance for you as you part.

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It is our distinct and honored privilege

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to welcome to Duke University, to Duke Chapel,

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to this service And to the pulpit here,

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The Reverend Dr. Philip Potter,

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the general secretary of the World Council of Churches.

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Surely it is indeed fitting

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that he who leads the World Council of Churches.

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An ecumenical body consisting

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of some 280 Christian fellowships,

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should come and proclaim God's word to us

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who gather regularly in one of the true ecumenical

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houses of worship.

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As we gather from many Christian persuasions to worship God

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and be blessed by the spirit of Christ.

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Dr. Potter, as you come, we welcome you.

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As you preach, we hear you gladly and receptively.

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And as you part from us, we send our blessing with you

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as you go to minister in the name

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and in the spirit of Christ,

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we welcome you at this moment.

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In the name of the Father and of the Son

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and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

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First of all, I would like to say how joyful it is

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for me to be here with you this morning.

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I believe it's two years ago

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when you were going to celebrate

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the 50th anniversary of this chapel.

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And I was invited did to come to be the preacher.

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But I was not able to do that at the time.

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And so when I knew I was coming to Washington

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to attend a special meeting, I offered my services

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to Dr. Young to be amongst you this morning.

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And indeed, it is a privilege to preach it

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at this great university.

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And in this noble pile, it used to be said

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about the chapel of another university

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in the United States, where I once preached

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that it was a million-dollar protest against materialism.

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And this chapel is far more impressive protest

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than the other one.

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As regards the theme of the sermon,

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I would like to make two preliminary remarks.

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The theme is Christ liberates for community,

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But in the cable I sent,

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there was the phrase and scripture added.

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Because the scripture passage was following that

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and I'm afraid and scripture got added to the theme.

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It was a mistake, but a good mistake

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because Christ does liberate us

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to hear and follow his word in a new and creative way.

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And I remind you of the Pilgrim fathers

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who are coming to this country in search of freedom,

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said the Lord has more light and truth

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to come out of his holy bird.

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The second preliminary comment I'd like to make

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is that it is a very daring thing to preach

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on this theme, Christ liberates for community

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in this chapel.

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Because liberation is very closely linked

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with the divinity school of this university since the 1960s.

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And it is very famous for its liberation theology.

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But my purpose is to put this concern in its world,

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its ecumenical perspective.

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Liberation is a powerful phenomenon

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all over the world today.

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It is sought by many Who are oppressed in any way,

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And it is feared by the few who oppress

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or share consciously or unconsciously

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in systems of oppression.

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And we know that the world

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is full of various liberation movements.

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If you take political movements,

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we have several all over the world today.

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We have liberation movements against economic oppression.

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For example, in Latin America and the Caribbean,

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we have racial political movements.

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Those that are seeking to free themselves

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from the shackles of racial discrimination and domination.

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Particularly in Southern Africa,

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among the aborigines in Australia,

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the Maoris in New Zealand,

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the Indians in North America and South America.

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They are the ethnic and regional liberation movements.

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In Switzerland, in the Jura,

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there is a pretty strong and or sometimes violent

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liberation group there.

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In Belgium, we have a conflict

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between the Walloons the Flemish.

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In the United Kingdom,

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you have the English calling themselves patriots

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and they call the Scotts and the Welch nationalists.

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We have the Women's Liberation Movement.

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Sexism.

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The struggle against sexism.

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Discrimination against women in society,

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and also in the church.

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All these movements are protests

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against enslaving systems, structures and so on.

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And even within the church itself,

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there are movements to break away

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from the enslaving traditions of the church.

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Once its movement is the charismatic movement.

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There's also cry for community.

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The recognition that we cannot do it alone

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in today's world.

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Politically, you have NATO,

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you have the European Economic Community,

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you have also on the other side, the Warsaw Pact,

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you have Comecon,

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which corresponds to the European Economic Community

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in the socialist states.

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You have the British Commonwealth,

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you have the French community,

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you have the non-aligned states and the United Nations

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in its various organizations.

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And even within the churches during these last 40, 50 years,

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the churches have been coming together

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in the ecumenical movement.

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And especially, in the World Council of Churches.

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I have just myself come from a meeting in Holland

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this very week in which the joint working group

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between the World Council of Churches

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and the Roman Catholic Church.

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We have been meeting to assess where we are

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as we struggle for the unity of Christ people.

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As we seek to make a common witness in the world.

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And as we collaborate in many different ways to manifest

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that our unity in Christ is for the sake

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of the unity of humankind.

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And so we are learning to be the church for others.

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In our last assembly theme, the World Council of Churches,

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whilst precisely Jesus Christ frees and unites.

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And the prayer of confession and intercession

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you had this morning is taken

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from the "Assembly Worship" book.

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With that refrain, break down the walls

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that separate us and unite us in a single body.

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You heard in the reading this morning,

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what Paul is saying to the Galatians about the liberation

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that Christ brings.

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A liberation for community.

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The letter to the Galatians

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deals with this issue of libration and community.

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It has been called the great manifesto of Christian liberty

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and the new English Bible, entitles it "Faith and Freedom."

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What was Paul trying to say to the Galatians

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and how do we hear it today?

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First of all, let us quickly look at the context

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in which Paul is speaking.

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The Galatians were the fruit

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of the first missionary journey of Paul with Barnabas.

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Read it in Acts chapter 13 to chapter 16.

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The Roman province

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was his in that area since 25 B.C.

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the Romans had defeated the Galati

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as they were called in 189 B.C.

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And the Galati were what we call the kilt,

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the gold, that period.

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They had migrated from Western Europe

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in the third century before Christ.

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And they had reached as far as Asia minor, near Turkey.

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The capital, Ancyra is now Ankara, the capital of Turkey.

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They first defeated the native Phrygians

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and the Greek colonists.

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Then the Romans settle the Jews in the country

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and that country was rich in commerce and agriculture.

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Many Galatians were God-fearers.

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Attending Jewish synagogues and trying to follow

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Jewish moral practices, but they refused to be circumcised.

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They did not want to lose their ethnic tribal identity.

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Now Paul came to the south of that country.

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The Jews refused the gospel, the Galati accepted.

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Paul left, then Jewish Christians moved in

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demanding that unless these Galatians were circumcised,

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they could not be Christian.

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And great confusion was caused.

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And that's the reason why this letter was written.

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The nature of the gospel and of the Christian community

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was at stake.

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And what Paul is saying to us

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is that it is Christ who liberates us.

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And when he's speaking, he's not speaking in the abstract.

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He draws attention to the enslaving powers

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in the lives of the people who lived in Galatia.

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First of all, as you read in this scripture,

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there was the issue of circumcision.

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It was a Jewish requirement.

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If you were to be a member of the covenant people of God,

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you must be circumcised.

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And so for the Jewish Christians,

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as Christ was a Jew, to become a Christian

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meant to go through circumcision

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and virtually to become a Jew.

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The issue was so serious

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that the first Council of the Church

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was held in Jerusalem to settle the matter.

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And what was involved is not something very far away.

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It's something that's very much with us today.

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It was the issue of whether people becoming Christians

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had to become Jews.

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Being forced to be like the others.

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It was the issue of culture and identity.

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When we hear the voice of Christ,

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with what voice do we reply?

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Do we reply with a voice of some other culture?

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Some other confession?

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Or do we reply with a voice of our own culture,

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to the voice of Christ?

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That was one of the major issues

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facing the church of that time.

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And it is an issue which for us today, for example,

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in the countries, from which I come

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like the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, Latin America,

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the question for us is, are we imported Christians?

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Do we have to become Americans

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or Europeans in order to be Christian?

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Must we not find our own way of expressing our own faith?

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Was Christ crucified for us to become Jews

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or Europeans or Americans or to become truly ourselves?

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That was the issue that was being faced then.

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And it was also the issue of the unity and the universality

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of the church.

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Was it going to be a uniform church or was it going to be

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a church with its multicolored variety of voices

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and of expressions of what Christ meant for us?

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Now, Paul dealt with this matter very brutally.

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There was no mistake in his mind that those people

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who were seeking to impose their own way of life,

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their own styles on others,

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the Christ would be of no advantage whatever

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to those who followed that way,

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that they would in fact, be severed from Christ.

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They would be deluded of any reality,

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any power, any substance.

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That in the verses 11 and 12, he asked the question,

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If circumcision is important,

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why then was he, Paul, himself, a Jew

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being persecuted by his fellow Jews?

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He had given his life to witness

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to the freedom of the gospel.

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And the cross was no longer a stumbling block

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when they did not accept that freedom.

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What Paul is saying to them is that when Christ

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has taken hold of us by his deed of giving himself for us,

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we become truly ourselves.

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The key verse in the whole of this letter

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is in chapter two verse 20.

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When he says, "I have been crucified with Christ.

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It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

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And the life I now live in the flesh,

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I live by faith in the son of God who loved me

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and gave himself for me."

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So we get the paradox that he, who gave himself for us

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to whom by faith, we commit ourselves.

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He crucifies in us.

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All that in our cultures,

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prevented us from being ourselves.

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And yet he frees us to be truly ourselves

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and not to follow any particular fashion

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or culture or custom.

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So Christ liberates us from being somebody else

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or some of the group to be truly ourselves.

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And he also says at the end of that letter

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in chapter six verse 16.

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"For neither circumcision counts for anything

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nor uncircumcision but a new creation.

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In Christ, we are liberated to be new persons

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and new persons to understand the fresh, our own cultures.

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And not to be enslaved by any other culture.

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To learn from them,

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but not to feel that our whole existence depends

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on a particular culture or way of life."

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A second thing that Paul brings before us

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of the work of Christ liberation is that he liberates us

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from the law and law represented custom, the way of life,

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what (indistinct) describes as the conventional wisdom.

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And such law is of course, divisive.

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And that was the situation in Galatian.

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A very divisive, divided community.

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In chapter three, verse 28, he says it in a positive way.

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When he says, "There's neither Jew nor Gentile.

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There is neither slave nor free.

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There is neither male nor female."

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But what he's also drawing to our attention

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is that's exactly the problem that existed at that time.

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That empire, that particular province

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was divided between Jew and Gentile

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in a racial conflict between them.

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For the Jew, it was the matter of circumcision.

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For the Gentile,

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it was a matter of being the free citizens of the empire.

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A racial division.

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Slave and free.

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The Greeks had institutionalized slavery.

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There were the social and economic problems

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brought about by that fact of slavery.

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Indeed, a contemporary writer of Saint Paul

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talked about the Roman empire as being bound

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to break up and be destroyed.

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Because he said, "There is no associated enthusiasm of all.

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That empire divided between slave and free

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and what they call the Greeks

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and the barbarians had no associated enthusiasm of all.

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And was bound to fail."

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Said that writer.

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And there was the division between male and female.

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Sexism, which has existed for so long in history.

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And in the Greco-Roman world, a woman was raised.

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A thing, a property of the husband.

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It was under such circumstances that Paul says,

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"For as many of you who are baptized

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in the death of Jesus Christ have put on Christ.

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And when we have a new life in Christ,

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we are liberated from our racial divisions.

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From our social and economic divisions

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and from our sexist divisions."

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Again, Paul raises another form of slavery

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to which people were prone at the time.

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He uses it in a number of phrases

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in chapter four, verse three.

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He says, "When we were children, immature,

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we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe."

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And later on in that same chapter four

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and verses eight to 10, he says, "You did not know God.

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You were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods.

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But now that you've come to know God

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or rather to be known by God,

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how can you turn back again to the weakened beggarly,

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elemental spirits whose slaves you want to be once more.

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You observe laws and months, and seasons and years."

59:29

These elemental spirits were called stoicheia,

59:35

the powers of the world, the seven stars.

59:40

Who, which govern society.

59:45

The Celtic people, the Galatians

59:48

had assimilated this from the Phrygians,

59:51

the native Phrygians.

59:54

In our time of course, we believe in horoscope.

59:56

I know there are a lot of people who can't begin their day

1:00:02

unless they've opened the paper to see

1:00:08

the horoscope for that day.

1:00:10

There is a very interesting thing

1:00:13

when you go into a bookshop these days to see how many books

1:00:14

there are on black magic.

1:00:18

The whole demonic sense of our society.

1:00:22

The hidden hand, the faceless men, women who run our world.

1:00:27

There's monetary crisis

1:00:33

about which we do not understand how it works.

1:00:35

How the speculators suddenly come and change

1:00:39

the whole face of things.

1:00:42

We describe them as they and them.

1:00:45

We are not responsible.

1:00:49

We can't change things.

1:00:52

When I worked in Haiti over 20 years ago,

1:00:54

I remember living among the peasants.

1:00:59

90% of whom were (indistinct) who 150 years

1:01:01

had lived through grinding poverty and all the rest of it.

1:01:05

And they used to have two phrases.

1:01:09

(speaking in foreign language)

1:01:12

God is good.

1:01:14

And (speaking in foreign language)

1:01:16

Not able to do with anything.

1:01:17

A sense that faith to is too strong for them.

1:01:20

They couldn't handle it.

1:01:26

This vicious circle of our existence,

1:01:28

which we cannot change.

1:01:31

What Gilbert Murray described in that first century,

1:01:33

Christian century, as a failure of nerve,

1:01:37

which existed in the Roman empire of that time.

1:01:40

And David Riesman in his book, "Individualism Reconsidered"

1:01:44

has brought attention to the fact

1:01:50

that in American society, we do have that failure of nerve.

1:01:52

That sense that we've got to follow the system.

1:01:56

We cannot break it.

1:02:01

It's too strong for us.

1:02:02

And what David Riesman is saying to us

1:02:04

is that we need to learn the nerve of failure.

1:02:07

The nerve of failure to go against the stream,

1:02:11

to break the pattern of enslaving custom.

1:02:15

And Paul again says to us in chapter four.

1:02:22

That when the fullness of time came,

1:02:29

the great Kairos, the moment in history,

1:02:32

God sent his son born of a woman,

1:02:36

born under this various system

1:02:40

and slaving system that he might redeem us.

1:02:43

He might liberate us from it

1:02:47

so that we may receive adoption of sons.

1:02:50

And because we are sons,

1:02:56

we have his spirit in us in which we can cry, Abba father.

1:02:58

So that the universe becomes no longer hostile, but a home.

1:03:05

And God becomes our father.

1:03:11

And we can manage.

1:03:15

We can tackle the issues before us.

1:03:17

Those are some of the things for which Christ liberates us,

1:03:23

but Saint Paul mentions one other.

1:03:28

And that is that he liberates us from license

1:03:32

from living according to the flesh.

1:03:37

She says, in our passage in verse 13,

1:03:42

"You were called to freedom, brethren.

1:03:49

Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity

1:03:52

for the flesh.

1:03:56

Living according to the flesh."

1:03:59

And he goes on to say that living according to the flesh

1:04:04

means that we do the works of the flesh.

1:04:08

And you notice he gives a whole catalog of those works

1:04:12

in chapter five and verse 19 to 21,

1:04:16

where he speaks of,

1:04:19

"The works of the flesh, immorality, impurity,

1:04:21

licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife,

1:04:25

jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension,

1:04:30

party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing."

1:04:34

Quite a catalog,

1:04:38

but a catalog which described very well

1:04:39

the Celtic people of that time.

1:04:42

When he says to them,

1:04:45

"If you go on fighting one, another tooth and nail,

1:04:46

all you can expect is mutual destruction."

1:04:50

'Cause you know, the Galatians were rather famous

1:04:55

and Caesar has written about them.

1:04:58

Julius Caesar.

1:05:01

He describes them as people who are impelled by the desire

1:05:03

for change and had an excessive devotion

1:05:08

to external observances.

1:05:12

They were warlike, restless, excitable, curious nomad.

1:05:15

They were moving from one thing to another.

1:05:20

Rather curious when we think of the Irish conflict today.

1:05:24

But behind this sense of license, of doing what we will,

1:05:29

because that catalog is a catalog of destruction.

1:05:36

It's not a catalog of building up the life of society,

1:05:41

but of destroying it.

1:05:44

It is the catalog of the mentality

1:05:46

of the survival of the fittest

1:05:49

or of what the (indistinct) described

1:05:51

of each man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.

1:05:54

George McCloud of Scotland has very well said

1:06:00

that the phrase ought to be,

1:06:03

"Each man for himself and the devil take the lot."

1:06:06

But when Paul Speaks of Christ's liberating us,

1:06:12

he liberates us not for ourselves, but for others,

1:06:20

He says in this same passage that those who belong

1:06:31

to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh

1:06:36

with his passions and desires.

1:06:39

And that if you are led by the spirit,

1:06:43

you are not Under the flesh.

1:06:48

And so the fruit of the spirit becomes that which builds up

1:06:53

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

1:06:58

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

1:07:03

These are the things that enable us

1:07:09

through the crucified Lord to be free,

1:07:13

to be liberated, to be truly ourselves.

1:07:17

And therefore for others.

1:07:20

Paul says that we are called to freedom.

1:07:24

And that we must stand fast

1:07:28

in the freedom that we have received.

1:07:31

The liberation that we have received.

1:07:34

Liberation is a vocation.

1:07:38

It is not a thing in itself.

1:07:42

As Martin Buber said,

1:07:47

"To become free of a bond is destiny.

1:07:49

One carries that like a cross, not like a cockade.

1:07:52

Life lived in freedom is personal responsibility

1:07:58

or it is a prophetic fast.

1:08:03

Liberation is a call

1:08:09

to which we must respond daily with ourselves."

1:08:13

Paul says, "Keep on standing fast,

1:08:19

taking your stand on the freedom, the liberation

1:08:22

which Christ has brought you."

1:08:28

It is said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

1:08:30

I would want to put it in another way.

1:08:36

The way that Paul puts it here.

1:08:38

The price of liberation is to continue working

1:08:41

for the liberation of the whole person

1:08:46

and of the whole community.

1:08:48

So Paul is speaking of liberation

1:08:52

that Christ brings from various things.

1:08:57

But also very positively for various things.

1:09:00

He says in our text that

1:09:06

"We were called to freedom, brethren.

1:09:09

Through love, be servant one of another.

1:09:15

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word,

1:09:19

you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

1:09:23

And earlier he says, "In Christ, Jesus,

1:09:29

neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any it,

1:09:32

but faith working energizing through love."

1:09:37

How then do we become liberated for community?

1:09:45

Karl Jaspers, the German philosopher,

1:09:52

as he reflected on the whole Nazi experience

1:09:57

and what that experience meant for the German people.

1:10:02

He made this comment, "No one is free

1:10:06

who does not work for the freedom of others."

1:10:11

No one is free who does not work for the freedom of others.

1:10:16

And that is exactly what Paul says in this.

1:10:23

He tells us that "We must bear one another's burdens."

1:10:29

Those burdens that are too heavy to carry.

1:10:34

The burdens that are expressed

1:10:38

for example, in hunger around the world.

1:10:40

The burdens that are expressed in an unjust

1:10:43

world economic order,

1:10:47

which makes for the benefit of the few,

1:10:49

at the expense of the vast majority."

1:10:55

How do we bear one another's burdens in today's world?

1:10:59

How do we share the liberation

1:11:03

that we have received in Christ

1:11:06

we have worked out in our society with other people?

1:11:09

And secondly, he says,

1:11:13

curiously enough that "Each one must bear his own load."

1:11:15

It's not the same word as bearing one another's burden.

1:11:21

The word used there for bearing your own load

1:11:26

means your own tackle.

1:11:30

It's what the soldier carried on his back,

1:11:32

his knapsack, or what the workman used his tools.

1:11:35

In other words, we are truly liberated for others

1:11:39

when we make the best use

1:11:45

of the gifts and the skills that God has given us.

1:11:48

Not for our own sake, but for the sake of others.

1:11:51

And again, he says in this letter

1:11:57

that "We must never go grow wary in well doing.

1:12:00

As long as we have opportunity, let us do good to all."

1:12:06

And again, he speaks of the fruit of the spirit

1:12:13

with those basic words, love joy, peace.

1:12:17

And again, he says to us, "In all things,

1:12:25

we must keep on crying out with joy and with agony,

1:12:28

Abba, Father."

1:12:33

In our prayer and in our worship,

1:12:36

when we call God by that intimate name, Father,

1:12:39

we can never patronize anyone.

1:12:45

Everyone becomes a sister and a brother.

1:12:50

The more we mean to others, the more we are ourselves.

1:12:54

Christ therefore liberates us from our separateness,

1:13:02

our apartheid against God and each other

1:13:06

in order that we may become truly ourselves

1:13:11

made in the image of the free God

1:13:14

who spoke and acted in Christ.

1:13:18

And speaks and acts through his Holy Spirit.

1:13:22

Thus, liberated by him,

1:13:26

we can speak boldly and with courage

1:13:28

with one another and act with and for one another in love.

1:13:31

That is our task.

1:13:39

As Christians, as churches, as councils of churches,

1:13:40

like the World Council of Churches, to that task.

1:13:45

Let us commit ourselves in Christ

1:13:50

who constantly liberates us for a community in love.

1:13:53

Amen.

1:14:00

Let us pray

1:14:02

Lord God, our Father,

1:14:09

who in your freedom, gave yourself freely in Christ, Jesus.

1:14:12

Who in his freedom took upon us upon himself, our life.

1:14:22

And went through the agony of being abandoned.

1:14:32

We thanked you, oh Father that in Christ,

1:14:44

we become new persons.

1:14:50

We become liberated.

1:14:55

That we may relate ourselves in love

1:14:58

with others in truth, in joy,

1:15:03

in freedom, in love.

1:15:10

So accept the words of our mouth,

1:15:17

my mouth and the meditation of our hearts.

1:15:21

Oh God, our strength in our redeemer, through Christ,

1:15:25

our liberating Lord, amen.

1:15:32

(church hymn)

1:15:38

Oh, loving and blessed God,

1:25:15

help us in this moment as we give these gifts

1:25:19

to give back to you the life we .

1:25:24

Offering ourselves to you, body, soul and spirit.

1:25:28

That in your service,

1:25:33

we may find our freedom and our peace

1:25:35

and our life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.

1:25:41

(church hymn)

1:25:51

Philip Potter - "Christ Liberates for Community and Scripture" (October 10, 1976)

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