The Gospel and freedom

Father, sometimes we don't know how to explain your word to ourselves, and sometimes we don't

know how to explain your word to others.

We acknowledge before you, Father, that there's a big part of us that is still worried about

getting too close to you, that if we get too close to you, that in some ways you might

make us too weird or too bound, that there's a part of us, Father, that fears you, not in

a biblical sense, but in a fallen way.

And we also understand, Father, that that is a great fear here in this country of Canada

and around the world.

So we ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would bring your word home to us, and that as your

word is brought home to us, that your word will bring healing to our affections and healing

to our mind and healing to our will and healing to our emotions, Father, so that we will be

disciples of Jesus who are gripped by the gospel, living free for your glory.

And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So I don't know how much of Ken's Bible text that you remember.

It had a fair thing to say about freedom.

It's going to be Galatians 5.

We're going to look at it in a moment.

In fact, we're going to read the main verse, Galatians 5.

We're going to read it several times because it's a really important verse.

But here's the thing.

I don't know.

Some of you might have been listening to my prayer.

Some of you were checked out.

That's fine.

But here's the thing.

I don't know how many of you have become Christians as adults or even in your late

teens.

But I think for most Canadians, if you knew in most offices where workplaces or neighborhoods,

if they found out that a 30-year-old or a 25-year-old or an 18-year-old was thinking of becoming a Christian,

they'd wonder why on earth you were doing it.

Because we as Canadians value freedom and being free.

And for most Canadians, to move towards Christianity is to move away from freedom, not towards freedom.

So people might wonder.

They might say, well, you know, it's sort of one thing if you're sort of, I'm going to move this over here.

It's sort of one thing if you're brought up in the church.

You know, you don't know any better.

But gosh, you know, if you've just known what it's like just to live and to be free,

why on earth would anybody, knowing that, willingly move away from freedom towards the Christian faith or towards Jesus?

It's a, I think it's just a very, very common assumption.

Moving towards any type of religion, maybe in our country, actually in an ironic way,

especially Christianity, is a move away from freedom.

To move away from religion, especially Christianity, is a move towards freedom.

I think it's a very common view.

And so, you know, basically, who wants this?

And so we have a very, very fundamental problem.

And, you know, if we're honest ourselves, for many of us, there still is a bit of a lingering thing about that,

that if we get too close to Jesus, too close to God,

that won't be like that hymn that would have this sort of type of assurance and peace,

but that it will make us weird and make our lives far more bent and small and limited and bent out of shape.

So turn to the Bible, and we'll see why I'm saying this,

because, you know, there's this Galatians chapter 5, verse 1,

Galatians 5:1

and there's this wonderful, wonderful, wonderful text.

And it sounds very nice when we're all here together,

and I don't know how if we're all, you know, we're all here together,

and for those of us who are Christians, we can sort of say it's nice and it's good,

but there's lots of problems with it.

In fact, here's the text, Galatians 5, verse 1.

Galatians 5:1

For freedom, Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

And that word for that begins it, in this particular case,

it's not following along in the argument.

It's explaining the purpose for what Christ has died for us,

is that Jesus died for us.

Why did he die?

He died for freedom.

He died for our freedom.

For freedom, your freedom and mine, when we put our trust in Jesus Christ,

has set us free.

Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

And this is a great, great verse.

In some ways, it's what the whole book of Galatians is all about.

And if you think about it for a second,

if you took this verse and took out Christ,

most Canadians would like it.

For freedom, we have been set free.

Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

You could say that in the Women's Study Department at Ottawa U.

You could say it in the gender studies.

You could say it in the military.

You could say it in an old folks' home,

in your neighborhood.

And people would say, that's a great, that's true.

For freedom, I am free.

Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

I agree with that 100%.

You know, maybe 98% of Canadians would say that.

But you put the word Christ in it, and it's problematic.

For freedom, Christ has set us free.

I mean, that's how we would read it.

For freedom, Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

This isn't just a Canadian problem.

It's a human problem.

I've been a Christian for a long time now.

I was raised in a Christian home.

But for me, as I was, and I became a Christian in grade 12,

for me, going through my high school years,

I found Christianity and whole church life

extremely, extremely unattractive.

The opposite of what I wanted to be involved in.

And, you know, it's funny,

because for me growing up,

it seemed as if in the world,

like outside of the church,

I could listen to any type of music I wanted.

But in the church that I grew up in,

you could only listen to certain types of music.

And I didn't like that type of music.

Like I would never have willingly bought a record.

I'm old.

He bought records back then.

45.

Some of us remember what a 45 was.

I would never willingly have bought any of that music.

And I had to, you had to dress a certain way.

In the world, you could dress all sorts of different ways.

But in the church, you had to dress certain ways.

And I didn't like dressing that way.

And I could go on and on and on.

And so it seemed to me as if in the world,

there was freedom.

But there wasn't freedom if I got involved in a church

and got involved in the Christian faith.

And so part of my whole conversion

was getting over that particular idea

and seeing that, in fact,

a verse like Galatians 5, verse 1 is true.

Galatians 5:1

For freedom, Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, therefore,

and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

So what do we do?

Like, like in our own lives,

and if we were trying to explain this

to a lot of people in our culture,

like, like what do we do?

I mean, on one level, there's not much we can do.

Second Corinthians says very wise,

wisely that the God of this age has blinded us.

So we don't see the light of the glory of the gospel.

And for many of us, in fact,

really what we just need to do is pray for our friends

and our families and our co-workers

and our loved ones that God's,

through his Holy Spirit,

would move and work in their hearts.

Like every conversion is a bit of a miracle.

Not a bit of a miracle, a complete miracle.

And often we come to faith

through the most odd and unlikely ways.

I mean, just in my own case,

because this is now in the time

when the counterculture,

when there were hippies and all of that.

I mean, there's certain old,

there's new hippies and old hippies now,

but when it was still a sort of a new and fresh thing.

For me, the turning point in my life

was seeing a man with big beard and big long hair

halfway down his back,

opening a Bible and telling people about Jesus.

And it just completely blew the categories that I had.

that maybe I could be a Christian

and not have to necessarily follow into a certain culture.

Although the actual moment when I gave my life to Christ,

it was just really me finally

giving in to this pressure.

I now know that it was the pressure of Jesus

knocking on the door of my heart,

asking to come in.

And I finally just gave in to that

and opened the door of my heart

because Jesus was knocking to come in

and I let him come in.

But if we're trying to understand this

and what goes on in our hearts

and what's going on in our culture,

like how do we understand texts like this?

Why is it that probably just about every Canadian

would willingly say they agree with,

for freedom we have been set free,

stand firm therefore and do not submit again

to a yoke of slavery.

But by just merely putting the word Christ in there,

it becomes a text that fundamentally

we at times don't agree with

and most of our neighbors would never agree with.

In fact, they would see it as the complete opposite.

So what's going on there?

How can we sort of deal with that?

First of all, we want to say this,

that desiring freedom is a good thing.

Desiring freedom is a good thing.

I mean, that's in a sense what the text is telling us here.

For freedom Christ has set us free.

Stand firm therefore and do not submit again

to a yoke of slavery.

We have problems thinking that Christ will set us free,

but the fact that Canadians generally value freedom,

that's a good thing.

We should applaud it.

In fact, it's a sign that they were,

for Christians, just take a step back for a second

and we take a step back from the pressure of the world

and we just look at it and we realize

the fact that human beings desire to be free

is a sign that the Bible's true,

that the Bible's account of human beings is true.

On Netflix, I'm watching this very interesting,

quirky television series called Fargo.

I know it's been out for a while.

Some of you maybe have watched it a long time ago.

It's very quirky, very odd, understated humor,

but there's a spectacular scene in it.

There's no spoiler in this.

There's a spectacular scene in it

when this one guy who's a hit man

is driving this other fellow

that he's supposed to be protecting

and he says to him,

he said, you know, there are no saints

in the animal world.

There are no saints in the animal world.

In the animal world,

all there is is breakfast and lunch.

Isn't that a great line?

In the animal world,

all there is is breakfast and lunch.

No saints.

And that's true.

The fact that human beings desire to be free

and have a sense that freedom

is something they should experience

is a sign that we're not merely part of the animal world.

That atheism and secularism and materialism

and their account of how human beings came to be

and what makes human beings,

when they bring in freedom,

they're bringing in something

which contradicts their assumptions.

It's not something that flows from us,

but for us as Christians

who understand that God made human beings,

that we are designed,

that we're made in his image,

we understand that because we are made in his image

and God designed us to be free,

that when human beings desire freedom,

they're desiring something true

and something that goes against

how they tend to talk about

how things came to be

and how the world works.

that they're blessedly,

wonderfully inconsistent

because God, in fact,

has designed us to be free.

And the other things,

the other thing that we have to acknowledge

is that

that Christians

often don't model being very free.

that in our own lives,

it might be that people look at us

and don't say,

there's somebody who's really free.

Churches can be very oppressive places.

Churches can be very, very, very, very demanding

on people's time.

Churches can spend a lot of time

trying to make people feel guilty.

Churches can come up with lots of rules

and it can be,

we can even be thinking

that we're getting rid of the bad old rules

to have a better way of being,

but the new ways of being

are often just as,

I mean, like today,

you know, a lot of times

churches want to get away

from the old rules

around sex, let's say,

and want to have a new way of being

which is far more hip

and far more culturally acceptable

to be hip.

But they're just different rules

that you can't keep.

Like, I can't grow a hipster beard.

I mean, I know I'm closer

to hip replacement than hip,

but even if I wanted to try to fake it,

I just can't grow the right beard.

And you know what?

I have to be more centered

and I have to live a more simple life

and all of these types of things.

And we don't put it as,

you have to, you have to, you have to.

It's put it as a wonderful thing.

We're going to be centered.

We're going to be spiritual.

We're going to be simple.

As if all of us,

we're all like living in Walden Pond.

But I don't live in Walden Pond.

I live in Ottawa.

Like, have you seen rush hour traffic?

Have you had to line up

for OC Transpo buses

and they don't come for 40 minutes

and then six of them come in a row?

I mean, have you lived in Ottawa?

Like, we might think

that we're improving it,

but we're not actually improving it.

They're just different rules.

And so we Christians often don't live

as if we're very, very free.

We're not immune to the problems

that beset just everybody.

But here's the,

let's listen to the text again.

For freedom, Christ has set us free.

For freedom, Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, therefore,

and do not submit again

to a yoke of slavery.

For freedom, Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, therefore,

and do not submit again

to a yoke of slavery.

If you could put up the first point.

One of the reasons that I think

part of us in our flesh

and Canadians in general

have a hard time believing

that coming close to Christ

and trusting him as our Savior and Lord

is actually a step towards freedom

is because we have

a completely false understanding.

Not completely false.

We have,

within our sense of freedom,

we've brought in something

which is not truly

going to lead us to freedom.

To try and live as a God

is to live as a slave

who does not know that he

or she,

if you're a she

and you're making these

as your notes,

is a slave.

To try and live as a God

is to live as a slave

who does not know

that he is a slave.

The fact is

that while we as Canadians

desire freedom,

that's not actually

all of the story

because for many of us

we sense this problem

between something else

which we also value

which is love.

like many,

many marriages

come to an end

because one person

desires more freedom

and they can't have

their freedom

and still be in the love

relationship

that is marriage.

One of the reasons

that people

don't want to commit

to marriage

is they have this sense

that if they actually

fall in love with somebody

and commit to them,

it's going to hinder

their freedom.

that we have this

basic sense

that somehow or another

there's our freedom

which we want,

there's love that we want,

but if we really

give ourselves into love,

it's going to impinge

on our freedom

and if we really

give ourselves to freedom,

it's going to impinge

or hurt

or cause to suffer

our ability

to love people.

like the more

we just want to be

like ourselves,

it ends up often

meaning that the more

we do things

that cause problems

in friendships

and problems

in our relationships

and yet if we

want to try to

actually commit

to the friendship

or the relationship,

it ends up meaning

that we can't just

do what we want

or say what we want

or, you know,

change the way

that we want

and so we get hesitant

about going into it.

At the heart

of most Canadians'

understandings

and our understandings

of what it means

to be free

is this idea

that we can do

what we want,

that we can do

what we want

whenever we want

and the fact

of the matter

is that in the real world

it just doesn't work.

It just doesn't work.

The other thing

that we have,

like when I,

one of the things

about becoming

a Christian

that was problematic

for me

is that I wanted

to be able

to do things

that the Bible

said were wrong

and I didn't

want to submit

to what the Bible

said was wrong

because I wanted

to be able

to behave sexually

in a very,

very different way

than the Bible

said I was going

to have to behave.

And I grew up

in a Christian home

and I knew

that there would

be ties on my money

but the fact

of the matter

is I didn't like

giving my money away

and the fact

of the matter

is I always

wanted more money.

I mean,

I'm just a teenager.

You always want

more money.

I now know

now old

teenage years

were a long,

long,

long,

long,

long time ago

but most Canadians

still want

more money.

In fact,

what happens

for us as Canadians

that we understand

that to become free

what we end up doing

is we end up

giving ourselves

to some pursuit

that will make us free.

That we have something

that we think

that if we just

orient our lives

around some pursuit

or some several pursuits

that those,

as we attain that,

will be more free,

will be more complete,

will be more whole.

And our lives

will be more satisfactory

so that we trust

certain things

and give ourselves

to certain things

to give us meaning,

to give us a type of hope,

to give us a type of structure,

to be something

that will deliver us

from the different things

that we think

are bad things

that we want

to deliver us from.

It's all part of a desire

to be more whole.

And so,

you know,

we give ourselves

maybe to,

you know,

to making more money

or we give ourselves

to being able

to have more power

or we give ourselves

to relationships

because we don't want

to be alone

or we give ourselves

to being in situations

where people need us

because if they need us

and are dependent upon us,

we have some type

of self-worth.

But all of these things

that we give us ourselves to

and we think

in the eyes of the culture

that if we give ourselves

to these things,

it will make us

somehow more free

and more complete,

but they can't possibly

do that

because every single

one of them

will come to an end.

Every single one of them

will come to an end.

We give ourselves

for our kids

because if we have kids,

it will give our lives

meaning

and then the kids

get old

and then they move away

and then they hardly call

or our children die.

I've been a minister

a long time.

I mean,

it's hard

when I've had to do

a funeral for children

and for teenagers.

I think the biggest funeral

I ever did

was for a guy,

this was back

when Ontario

still had grade 13

and a very,

very,

very popular student

in the high school,

he was on

a March break

spring fling

and he started

to act a bit disoriented

and his friends

and the teachers

just thought

he was drunk.

But it was

a medical problem

and he collapsed

and he died.

And

it was devastating

for the parents,

devastating

for the high school kids.

It's the biggest funeral

that I ever did,

I think.

I think the entire

graduating class

came to the funeral

and many of their parents.

But we give ourselves

to things

that will fail.

Why?

Because they come

to an end.

And even if for some reason

you have kids

who all just,

you're able to have kids

and they all live

right by you

and you're able

to make lots of money

and you die

with lots of money,

the fact of the matter

is,

is that one millisecond

after you die,

you lose it all

because you can't be

poorer than dead,

as Flannery O'Connor

so famously said.

the poorest person

that lives in Ottawa

and Bill Gates

have the exact

same net worth

and the exact

same amount

of power

one millisecond

after they die.

So if in fact

they fail,

if in fact

they come to an end,

why is it

that we think

that by giving ourselves

to these things

that they will make us

more free?

Or take another

particular problem,

many people don't

give themselves

for those things,

but even if you do

give themselves

for those things,

those things,

they're completely

and utterly impersonal.

Money is impersonal.

Power is at the end

of the day

just something

that you have

in an org chart

or the ability

to boss people around

but it's still

in a sense

something impersonal.

People also

give themselves

to ideas

or to ideologies

or they give themselves

to a political party

or they give themselves

to a nation

or they become

consumed

with issues

around race

or issues

around gender

or issues

around sex

and they give

that we give

ourselves

to these types

of things

but these things

are all ultimately

impersonal things.

Well, we think

these things

are going to give us

freedom

but just think

about it for a second.

If you're in a relationship

with another person

and the relationship

becomes more

and more impersonal,

we always see

that as a bad thing.

So if it's a bad thing

to become more impersonal,

why is it that we think

that if we give ourselves

to impersonal things,

it will make us

more free?

If we find out

that somebody's

working in some

faceless office

and some faceless bureaucracy

and they're just

some cubicle rat,

some cubicle minion,

putting things

from one file

to another

and just living

and working

in this impersonal thing

and going back

to an impersonal apartment

and we see all of that

and we say

their entire life

is impersonal,

it's not very good

but the fact of the matter

is that money

is impersonal,

power is impersonal,

the nation is impersonal,

the institution

is impersonal,

ideology is impersonal,

why is it that we think

that if we give ourselves,

when we see somebody

who's trapped

in something impersonal,

we see it as something

which is not good

and yet the things

that we think

will bring us freedom

are in fact impersonal

and why is it

that we don't realize

that that's what we're doing?

Why is it that we

don't realize

that we're giving ourselves

to things

that will just fail

or that even

if they don't fail,

if we're successful

in giving ourselves

to them,

they're impersonal,

they're less than us,

why is it that

we don't recognize that?

Why is it that

we will choose

everything other than God?

And we do.

For freedom,

Christ has set us free.

Stand firm therefore

and do not submit again

to a yoke of slavery.

To try and live

as a God

is to live as a slave

who does not know

that he is a slave.

What the Bible describes

in Genesis chapter 3,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

you see,

the Bible describes

why this is the case.

I don't think,

in fact,

I know there is no other book,

there is no other

religion or teaching

that more perfectly

captures human experience

and makes it plain.

God made us for himself.

He makes us as creatures

in his image

and he makes us free.

He makes us

to walk in the garden

with him,

naked and unashamed,

knowing him

and being known by him.

and he makes us

to walk in the garden

with others,

knowing them

and being known by them,

loving them

and being loved by them,

being naked

and unashamed.

And where there is

no conflict

between knowing God

and knowing another person,

that we can be

completely and utterly

transparent

and enjoy

walking with God

in the cool of the day,

in a place of beauty,

given a role

to tend the garden,

to be creative

and innovative

and to explore

this entire created order

that God has made us

to live in

and that is how God

designed human beings

to be.

And then human beings

in Adam and Eve,

we decide

that that is not enough.

That we want

to be like God.

We want

to be like God.

And the terrible

irony is,

if you go back

and look at the story,

is that

Adam says,

I want to be like God.

And Eve says,

I want to be like God.

And maybe it's not revealed

in the Bible

and their consciousness

this was something

that we would be like God.

But if you know anything

about mythologies

that have many gods,

what happens

in every single mythology

that has more than one God?

They fight.

Every mythology

that has more than one God,

they fight.

And Adam

wants to be like God.

And Eve wants

to be like God.

And the terrible

tragedy is

that when they

turn their back

on God

and desire

and try to now

be as if they are God

by willfully

doing what God

has said

they should not do

and turning their back

on that blessing,

that what in fact

happens to human beings

is that now

Adam cannot

be naked

in front of Eve

without shame.

and Adam

cannot be naked

in front of God

without shame.

And now Adam

hides from God

even when God

is not condemning him

but God only wants

to walk in the garden

with him

in the cool of the day

and Adam

can no longer

do that.

He

loathes

being naked

and he is ashamed

and he can no longer

even have a conversation

with his wife

and his wife

can no longer

have a conversation

with their husband

without passing

the buck

and putting on

blame

and distance

and trying to put

the other one down

so that they will be

a little bit higher

and that

ancient

break

in human nature

with all of the

complexities

of what it means

continues to this day.

The book of Romans

puts it so wonderfully

seeking to be wise

they became fools

and exchanged

the glory of God

for the glory

of created

for created things

that we would not

bow to God

to serve him

in heaven

and yet the way

that God

designed us

is that as we

bow to God

we grow bigger.

As we bow

to God

naked

and unashamed

we become

more full of life

and more whole.

So instead

seeking to be wise

we bow

to the nation

something that

will pass away.

We bow

to race

we bow

to sex

we bow

to power

we bow

to money

we bow

to things

that are

often far

beneath us

and then

we wonder

why we have

become

so much

smaller

and so

cramped

and so

bent out

of shape.

Seeking

to be wise

we have

become

fools.

And in the

midst of such

a world

God sends

his son

to do

what we

cannot do

ourselves.

God

could you

put up

the next

point

please?

I am

free

as a

creature

not

as a

God

and to

the extent

that I

continue

to pursue

a project

of being

like a

God

to that

extent

I will

never be

free.

you know

one of the

things

that's very

common now

when people

talk about

marriage

or whatever

an equivalent

to marriage

is that

people are

looking for

their soul

mates.

Louise is

not my

soul mate

and I

am not

her soul

mate

and to

say that

in many

Canadian

contexts

it would

be

you

just

insulted

your

wife

to

say that

she is

not my

soul

mate.

Here's

the problem

with

soul

mate.

The

whole

language

and

desire

for a

soul

mate

is all

part of

the

God

project.

That

what we

desire

is that

we desire

to pursue

the

blossoming

of

ourselves

the

blossoming

of our

careers

the

blossoming

of our

freedom

the

blossoming

of our

wholeness

and we

seek to

have the

blossoming

of all

of these

things

on our

terms

at our

rate of

change

in our

particular

way.

And so

what we're

looking for

is we're

looking for

a soul

mate.

We're

looking for

someone

who also

will

blossom

in the

same

ways

at the

same

time

at the

same

rate.

And so

we look

for one

exactly

like that.

And basically

what it is

is I'm

desiring

my God

project

to continue

but I

think and

I hope

that I can

find someone

else who

will share

my God

project

with me

and we

want to be

nice and

we want to

be kind

and we

want to

be

Canadian

so we

hope that

they have

their God

project and

I have

my God

project and

the both

of us will

have our

God projects

at the

same time

but it

never

works.

Every

marriage comes

face to face

with the fact

that you have

married a

sinner.

When I

married Louise

I married

a sinner.

when she

married George

she married

a sinner.

And we

need

successful

marriages

aren't ones

where the

two people

can pursue

their God

projects

together

as soul

mates.

but

successful

marriages

are ones

and marriages

that have

lasted a long

time and

look good

they might

not wear

their scars

in public

but underneath

their clothing

there are

lots of

scars

because

true

successful

marriages

work in

dealing with

the fact

that you

are both

sinners

through

acts of

forgiveness

and service

and love.

acts

of just

unadulterated

forgiveness

and of

turning the

other cheek

and of

patience

and of

serving the

other despite

their sin

and despite

the fact

that I

myself am

a sinner

as well.

So

if I

desire to

continue

my God

project

I will

never be

free.

I am

free as

a creature

but not

as a

God.

Next

point.

I

cannot be

free as

a creature

until I

am

reconciled

and restored

to my

creator

who made

me to

be free.

You

see

if in

fact

God's

plan and

design for

me was

to walk

in the

garden

with him

in the

cool of

the day

naked

and

unashamed

and

not do

that just

by myself

as a

lonely

man

but to

do that

with

others

naked

and

unashamed

knowing

and being

known

loving

and being

loved

then until

that

fundamental

wound

is dealt

with and I

am reconciled

and restored

to my

creator

who made

me to be

free

I cannot

be free.

Next

point

please

Jesus

Christ

died

a

slave's

death

so that

we who

would

otherwise

live

and die

as

slaves

can

live

free

today

and into

eternity.

This

fundamental

text that

we spent

so long

on

for freedom

Christ

has set

us

free

stand

firm

therefore

and do

not

submit

again

to a

yoke

of

slavery

this

text

in the

word

set

us

free

in the

original

language

it's a

particular

text

that says

that something

has happened

in the

past

that is

a final

and its

effect

continues

into the

day.

That

Jesus

dies

a

slave's

death

so that

we who

would

otherwise

live

and die

as slaves

can live

free

today

and into

eternity

when we

put our

faith

and our

trust

in him.

I had

the honor

to be

able to

speak

on

Parliament

Hill

on

Friday

at

lunch

to

people

who

work

as

staff

workers

in the

Senate

and

for

the

MPs

Parliament

Hill

Christian

Fellowship

and I

gave an

earlier

version

of this

talk

to

them

and

one

of

the

things

I

said

to

them

is

that

they

all

know

how

the

world

works

in

some

ways

if

you

work

on

Parliament

Hill

you

live

in a

bubble

separate

from

the

world

but

in

other

ways

you

actually

know

how

the

world

works

in a

very

powerful

way

I

gave

them

this

example

I

don't

think

anybody

would

have

disagreed

with

it

that

in

the

way

it

works

is

that

if

the

MP

screws

up

if

at

all

possible

it

is

an

underling

who

falls

on

the

sword

if

Andrew

Scheer

or

Justin

Trudeau

they

do

something

or

allow

something

to

happen

that

shouldn't

have

happened

the

very

very

first

thing

that

will

go

through

most

people's

minds

is

how

low

in the

hierarchy

in the

office

can we

go

to

find

someone

who

will

fall

on

their

sword

and

take

the

responsibility

of it

because

in the

real

world

it's

the

minions

who

die

for

the

masters

that's

how

the

world

works

the

little

guys

die

the

little

gals

die

for

the

powerful

in

fact

if

you

think

about

it

this

is

really

partially

the

entire

a

huge

part

of the

entire

system

of what

we

know

of

as

Islam

who

find

it

completely

and

utterly

incomprehensible

that

Jesus

could

die

on

the

cross

why

because

it's

the

weak

who

die

for

the

strong

it's

the

small

who

die

for

the

big

it's

it's

the

ones

down

here

who

die

but

the

more

power

you

have

you

don't

die

for

the

weak

if

we

were

to

read

that

Andrew

Scheer

or

Justin

Trudeau

that

the

young

girl

or

guy

who

files

the

mail

and

is

the

lowest

in

the

office

that

they

made

a

mistake

for

which

they

should

be

fired

and

we

were

to

hear

that

Justin

Trudeau

would

take

the

blame

and

be

fired

instead

we

would

not

believe

it

the

same

Bible

the

same

gospel

that

reveals

that

we

are

slaves

reveals

that

we

are

slaves

in

the

context

of

the

powerful

dying

for

the

weak

of

the

master

dying

for

the

lowly

one

for

the

prime

minister

dying

for

the

one

who

works

in

the

mail

room

and

that's

why

there

is

no

contradiction

between

a text

like this

for

freedom

Christ

to

set

us

free

stand

firm

therefore

and

do

not

submit

again

to

a

yoke

of

slavery

there

is

no

contradiction

between

this

text

and

what

Jesus

says

when

he

says

come

to

me

all

who

labor

and

are

heavy

laden

and

I

will

give

you

rest

take

my

yoke

upon

you

and

learn

from

me

for

I

am

gentle

and

lowly

of

heart

and

you

will

find

rest

for

your

souls

for

my

yoke

is

easy

and

my

burden

is

light

why

is

there

no

contradiction

between

for

freedom

Christ

has

set

us

free

stand

firm

therefore