Fairfax Presbyterian Church
Henry Brinton
Live Free!
June 17 , 2007
Galatians 1:11-24
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Live Free. Or Die Hard.
That’s the name of the new Bruce Willis movie, hitting theaters later this month. Maybe I can get my son to take me to it, as a Father’s Day present.
Willis will return as wisecracking police officer John McLane in the fourth Die Hard movie, a series that was launched in 1988 and has made more than $700 million over the course of three films. Although you might think that Willis is way past his prime in the action hero department, Sylvester Stallone recently returned to the ring as Rocky Balboa, and Harrison Ford is picking up his whip again as Indiana Jones.
Compared to these guys, 51-year-old Bruce Willis has a lot more action left in him!
In this new movie, Willis will attempt to stop a techno-terrorist who is determined to shut down the nation’s computer systems on the Fourth of July. The threat is much bigger than anything seen in the earlier movies — back then, Willis fought heavily-armed thieves in a Los Angeles skyscraper, battled terrorists in a snowed-in airport, and faced a mad bomber in New York City. This time, a criminal plot is put in place to take down the entire computer structure that supports the economy of the United States — and the world. The villain will be high-tech in this new Die Hard flick, but Willis will offer a low-tech response. In other words, he’ll use his fists.
The Bruce Willis character “will be doing what he does best,” says the director of the movie — “being a huge pain” to the bad guys.
You might think of the apostle Paul as the Bruce Willis of the New Testament. He follows a “die hard” approach to life, and takes his knocks as a lone hero standing up to the forces of evil. He gets beat up and bloodied, flogged and imprisoned — but he never gives up. “Three times I was beaten with rods,” he tells the Corinthians. “Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. [I faced] danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters” (2 Corinthians 11:25-26).
He’s determined to live free. Or die hard.
Like the Bruce Willis action hero, the apostle Paul has some skeletons in his closet. The first Die Hard movie begins with Willis fighting with his estranged wife over the details of their separation. In a similar way, today’s passage from Galatians starts with Paul admitting that his own personal past is anything but perfect. “I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it,” he admits, as he looks back (Galatians 1:13). “I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors” (v. 14). In his zeal, Paul breathed threats against the members of the Christian church, and set off for the city of Damascus to capture any Christians who might be there.
But on that trip, God reveals his son Jesus to Paul, and calls him to proclaim Christ among the non-Jews of the world, the Gentiles (v. 16). This conversion launches Paul’s career as a Christian action hero, and he spreads the gospel on a number of missionary adventures. “I did not confer with any human being,” he tells the Galatians, “nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus” (vv. 16-17).
Paul seems determined to play the Bruce Willis role: One man against the world.
After three years, he goes to Jerusalem to visit Peter and James, the brother of Jesus. But then he ventures into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, where he is unknown except by his reputation. The Christians there heard it said, “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of him (vv. 18-24).
Paul is always a bit of a mystery man, just like Bruce Willis in the Die Hard movies. “Who are you?” asks the villain in the first installment. “Just another American who saw too many movies as a child? Another orphan of a bankrupt culture who thinks he's John Wayne? Rambo? Marshall Dillon?”
“Was always kinda’ partial to Roy Rogers actually,” replies Bruce Willis. “I really dig those sequined shirts.”
“Do you really think you have a chance against us, Mister Cowboy?” asks the villain.
“Yippee-ki-yay,” Willis says, in a mocking response..
Paul delivers a message that is as surprising as anything in a Die Hard movie. He says that he cannot be made right with God through works of the law — only faith in Christ will do that. He says that he is now dead to the law, and alive to God through his relationship with Jesus. “I have been crucified with Christ,” he writes to the Galatians; “and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (2:15-20).
Paul is insisting that he has already died — he has been crucified with Christ. But after losing his old life, he has been given a new one. Christ now lives in him, and Paul finds himself living by faith in the Son of God, the one who loved him and gave himself for him.
Paul has died hard — and now he lives free.
Dead to the law.
Crucified with Christ.
Living by faith.
Alive to God.
A whole new life.
Yippee-ki-yay!
But what does it mean for us to live a dead-to-the-law, alive-to-God, crucified-with-Christ, living-by-faith kind of Christian life today? This is a stretch for me, because I’m more comfortable with clear rules and regulations, guidebooks and checklists — and maybe you are, too. But Paul is challenging us to join him on the unpredictable adventure of Christian living, one in which we put faith in Christ above any works of the law. You’ve been crucified with Christ, insists Paul, and Christ is living in you.
So live! Live free!
To live a life of Christian freedom is to discover that Jesus Christ is at work inside you. There is a fascinating footnote to Paul’s conversion story that is often missed when we read the first chapter of Galatians. According to our English translation of the Bible, Paul says in verse 16 that God was pleased “to reveal his Son to me,” a line that makes us think of Paul’s encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus.
But that’s not really what he says. In the original Greek of the letter, Paul says that God was pleased “to reveal his Son in me.” Not to me … in me.
Ooo. That’s interesting.
Paul is saying that God was pleased to reveal his Son in and through Paul himself. God has decided to use the apostle Paul to present the Risen Christ to the world. Now this might sound like a bold and even arrogant claim — “Step aside, God is using me to carry Christ to the world!” — but it certainly fits with the overall thrust of Paul’s mission. A chapter later, he says, “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (2:20). He urges the Corinthians to imitate him as he imitates Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). And he talks about all of us “being transformed into the same image” — the image of God (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Don’t think of Christian life as adherence to a bunch of rules and regulations, says Paul. Think of it as a life of presenting Christ to the world. Within that life of carrying Jesus to others, there is tremendous freedom.
For some of you, presenting Christ will mean telling a friend about where you have felt the presence of Jesus here at Fairfax Presbyterian.
For others, it will mean joining our Encounter worship team, and leading a praise song in a next week’s service of worship. You can join the rehearsal Wednesday night at 7:00.
For others, it will mean chaperoning the youth group on this month’s mission trip to Philadelphia.
For others, counseling a homeless woman at the Lamb Center.
For others, joining the Midlife Men on a Mission on their trip to Honduras.
For others, participating in a spiritual growth group such as Companions in Christ.
For others, welcoming a new family into our congregation.
The list goes on and on, because there are countless ways to carry Jesus to others. It pleases God to reveal his Son in you, so now you can live free — and present Jesus to others in a wide, wild and wonderful variety of ways!
When we move into this life of freedom, we realize that we are no longer in charge. We discover that our choices are now shaped by the presence of Christ, and we are being guided by Jesus into new forms of service. Christian freedom is not permission to do anything we want — instead, it is freedom to do what Jesus wants. We have been freed from captivity to sin so that we can be free to serve the Lord who loves us and gave his life for us.
Jesus died hard, so that we can live free. Yippee-ki-yay! Amen.
Sources:
Breznican, Anthony. “’Die Hard’ series coming back to life.” USA TODAY. August 3, 2006. http://www.usatoday.com.
Hays, Richard B. “Letter to the Galatians.” The New Interpreter’s Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000. 215.