YOU ARE A PNEUMATIKON

By Dr. Eric C. Stumpf, Senior Pastor

St. Paul�s Ev. Lutheran Church � Munster, IN

25 October 2009 + Reformation Sunday & Stewardship +

Galatians 5:16-18 INI

      The theme of Reformation, along with grace, faith, and scripture, is also freedom, i.e., the Gospel has freed us from the tyranny of sin and death.  Also this Sunday is the theme of our Stewardship sermon, which is also freedom.  We are free to respond to God's good gifts, salvation, and love to us in Christ.

      If you will recall two Sundays ago we established grace as the foundation of our Stewardship.  Last Sunday Pastor Stock preached on offerings and sacrifices and their meaning in Stewardship.  Today, freedom is lived out as a spirit led person , the special word we used in the title, Pneumatikon, means a spirit lead person.

      However, the idea of freedom must be carefully understood or it will become, instead of a blessing, a problem.

      If you go to Washington, DC, and look at the top of the Capital Building, you will see a 19 foot, 4.5 ton statue called "The Statue of Freedom" or " The Freedom Lady."  It is a statue in the classic style, a woman depicting freedom, holding a shield of stars and stripes in one hand and a sword in the other.

      In 1855 the building was being built when the committee engaged an American studying in Rome to make the statue.  He sent plans to Washington which were taken to the Secretary of War, a Mississippian, plantation owner, and slave holder, named Jefferson Davis.  While he like the statue he did not like the cap, a symbol of freedom from slavery.  He ordered that a helmet be placed on the head.  Many thought Jeff Davis was troubled by his conscience about slavery.  When the statue was completed it was placed in six crates and loaded on a ship for the trip to America.  Along the way the ship sprang a leak.  The Captain ordered all the heavy cargo thrown overboard to lighten the ship.  When the crew began to hoist the crates carrying the statue to be thrown overboard, the Captain commanded, �No! Never! We'll flounder before we throw Freedom away.  The ship limped into Bermuda, was repaired, and continued to New York.  By now the Civil War broke out and delays were made for the placing of "The Statue of Freedom" on the dome.

      In December 1863, the darkest days of the Civil War, Lincoln ordered the statue to be placed on the new Capital dome.  The celebration of the event included a 35 cannon salute, and cannon fire from the 12 Federal forts surrounding and protecting Washington.  Freedom is ours because one man refused to throw freedom away.

      I like that story because it reminds me of another person who did not throw freedom away.  It wasn't Patrick Henry or Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther, but Jesus Christ.  The only way we could be free from the tyranny of sin in our life and eternal damnation was through the person Jesus Christ, who paid the full and ultimate price so we could be free.

Grace

      God created us and has every right to tell us, for our own good, the right way to live. Llove him with all our heart, mind, and soul, and our neighbor as ourselves.  However, we fail.  When we look into the mirror of the law, we find we have sinned.  We stand condemned.  But in repentance and faith in the gracious gift of God through Christ our sins are forgiven.  We are restored as forgiven children of God.

      Recently we showed the "Luther" movie that came out a few years ago.  We saw how people lived under the harsh rules and regulations that were man-made laws of the Church.  People lived in terror of their sin, but with no hope.  Even the selling of forgiveness rang hollow in people's minds, they could not depend on any forgiveness at all.  Luther's efforts to bring the Gospel out of the man-made shadows set people free from sin, death, and eternal destruction.

Hard to be Freed

      The problem for some people about freedom is the extremes they will go.  Some don�t want it, some will misuse it.  Norman Ulrich, and ex-POW during WWII, told me the story of his WWII experience.  Towards the end of the war the prisoners in his camp knew Germany's surrender was close.  That's all they could talk about.  What they were going to eat, how it would feel to have new clothes, how wonderful it would be to walk' freely and go home.  One day the guards melted away, but the men still did not venture outside the barbwire. The next day U.S. troops came to liberate them.  The gates were thrown open, the men were free.  Some, however, were reluctant to leave the hated camp because they had become so accustomed to it that they actually feared freedom.  The Gospel frees us from sin, but some still hang on to it, even if it destroys them.

      Some go the opposite direction, they misuse freedom.  The Luther film showed how some misused this freedom declaring they were free from all laws.  So if their neighbor had something they wanted, they would steal, they would harm their neighbor in order to take it, they rebelled against all authority.  Since the church did not demand and harshly punish, they chose to practice their freedom by not worshipping, not giving offering to further the Kingdom of God, break into monasteries to steal.  It is the grace of God in people that will lead them correctly to use the freedom the Gospel brings.

The Pneumatikon and Stewardship

      Left to ourselves our sinful nature is not prone to share what we have to honor God and help our neighbor.  Laws might be enacted to confront gross greed such as the efforts made to curb excessive salaries and bonuses to executives that received our tax money to save their corporations, salaries that would make a sport's superstar envious.  But we suspect they will soon find a way around the law.

      Only the spirit led Christian, the Pneumatikon, can see the real goal is not the hoarding of wealth for self, but the honoring of God and helping our neighbor.  Members of St. Paul's have many times opened their hearts to honor God and help the neighbor through building facilities to support the ministry of the Gospel, helping three children in India with medical procedures, including a heart operation.  We have helped our neighbors during the flood last year and most recently families in great crisis, like the Bergfors.  Indeed we praise God for the Holy Spirit that moves people to have the right priorities and show that in their stewardship support. 

      Freedom won by Christ for us is a great gift, a gift to be used wisely as we are lead by the Holy Spirit to honor God and love our neighbor.

SDG