The Spirit Leads us to Freedom

Year B: Holy Trinity

It is the Spirit who causes us to be one in the Body of Christ. We have all received the same Spirit, enlivening us and causing us to be in Christ, in the Father, in the Spirit.

We are in God and God is in us, and the unifying force is the Spirit. To live in the Spirit is the fulfillment of every law and commandment, the sum of every duty to each other, and the joy of oneness with everything that is.¹ —Thomas Keating

Year B, Holy Trinity, May 26, 2024

First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8

Psalm: Psalm 29

Second Reading: Romans 8:12-17

Gospel: John 3:1-17

Sermon - The Spirit Leads us to Freedom

Our livestream messed up on Sunday, so I do not have a recording for you.

So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:12–17

I want you to pay attention to a few lines from the above text and ask, “Does this line up with my experience in life so far? Is this the message I picked up on in church?”

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…

Were you taught that the Spirit leads you? Was your identity as a child of God affirmed again and again? Was your dedication to the Way of Christ motivated more by fear and bondage than by life and freedom? Were you told to approach God much like a child approaches their father: “Abba! Father!” Were you told that your identity as a child of God was confined because of the Spirit who dwells within you and that the Spirit’s presence in your life means that God and Christ dwell with you too?

I’m sure some of this is true for you, such as being called a child of God. But much of it is foreign to me. I was taught that the Holy Spirit only dwells in us through the Bible. This is called the “word only” view in Church of Christ circles. This means that our experience of the Holy Spirit’s work and presence is largely dependent upon how well or accurately we read and interpret sacred text. I was schooled in all the arguments, and I can still recall most, if not all, of them today.

Much of my faithfulness to God was rooted in fear as well. I was afraid of hell, much like I was afraid of getting caught up in something bad and receiving a spanking (or a whooping) from my parents. We sang a song that said, “If I don’t get to heaven, it will be nobody’s, nobody’s, nobody’s, no-no-no-nobody’s fault but mine…”

The implication was that you better work your butt off to get there! That included not using euphemisms like “butt.”

I have a feeling that many of you feel the same way, even if you were allowed to say butt.

This passage from Paul challenges how many people were taught to think about God, the Spirit, and Jesus. For example, whenever we talk about the Trinity, we often spend our time talking about who difficult God is to understand. How can 1+1+1=1? But here, the Trinity is not a doctrine to be understood as much as it is a relationship to be experienced. Through the Spirit we are in communion with God in Christ.

This shift from comprehension to experience is just one of the ways that the Spirit leads us away from fear and slavery and into our adopted identities as children of God. Through the Spirit, we learn what has been true all along, as we discussed in last week’s message on Pentecost.

If our identity as children of God is dependent upon our ability to understand and explain the doctrine of the Trinity, we will understandably feel as if we are in bondage to fear, for who could do that? But if our identity as God’s children is confirmed by the Spirit of God, then we can trust that it is rooted in relationship and love—much like the healthy bond between a parent and child.

In Jesus’s teaching in the gospel accounts, we run across this shift multiple times. Here are three:

The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” John 4:21

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.” Luke 17:20–21

From these three passages, we can see the shift from flesh to Spirit.

1. Children of God are born of the Spirit, not of flesh. One’s race, role in society (such as a leader of one’s people), or level of education do not determine where and through whom the Spirit can move.

2. Worship has less to do with sacred locations and more to do with a humble heart. The true worshipper approaches God in Spirit and in Truth (that is, the Holy Spirit and Jesus —John 14:6).

3. The kingdom of God has no return address. No nation or people group can exclusively claim God’s kingdom. Instead, the kingdom of God is within and among people like you and me.

Do you see how these three teachings emphasize the mystery of God and the work of the Spirit while downplaying the way of the flesh. Those who depend upon being a member of a certain race, having a particular level of education, worshipping in the right place, or being members of a special nation are often filled with a spirit of fear.

Do we have it right? How are our people better? If I could just do this or that…

So much pain has been caused in our world by those who emphasize these sorts of things. Wars have been fought over people worshipping on this mountain or that. People have hurt members of other races to promote their own. Yes, the spirit of fear has compelled us to do all sorts of awful things. And we call that the Spirit of God!

Any religious or political system that instills feelings of fear or slavery is not led by the Spirit of God.

Where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty.

Second Reading: We are Not “In the Flesh”

In Romans 8, Paul says something that is both puzzling and quite troubling for those of us with flesh and bone: “…and those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). If we read this literally, it would have Paul saying that anyone still living in their fleshly bodies cannot please God, but what Paul says next gives us a clue as to what Paul means: “But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Romans 8:9).

Instead of talking about a fleshly body versus a spiritual body, Paul has in mind how one lives their life. Is one’s life dominated by fleshly desires and needs or is one’s life directed by the Spirit of God?

For Paul, to “set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). That is, as long as we are living to please ourselves, we will never be pleasing to God. Selfish desires, jealousy, and pride will consume us. But if we die to the flesh, and instead seek to love God with all of our hearts and love our neighbors as ourselves, we will experience life on a new level.

We will have life and peace instead of death and insecurity.

When we are led by the Holy Spirit, we have the privilege of adopting the title “child of God.” This produces within us a kind of freedom that surpasses every other so-called freedom. As children of God, we are free to be truly human and be imagers of God. But as long as we are deceived by the “liberty” offered by the flesh, we will live without the peace which passes understanding.

Thanks so much for keeping up with this blog. If you have any suggestions, recommendations, or critiques, you can always comment here or reach out through my website: https://danielr.net.

1. Keating, Thomas. The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience. New York: Continuum, 2008. Print.