Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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This is Paul writing to Timothy, his young friend, an aging missionary writing some last-minute advice to his heir-apparent. (This is a retiring minister leaving a note on his desk for the new man -- just a few modest suggestions.) Paul can sense his own doom. He is a prisoner, bound in chains as he writes. I'm moved by his words, in Chapter 2: "Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David -- that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal." And then Paul pauses, and smiles to himself, and writes that next glorious sentence: "But the Word of God is not chained." Moffatt translates it, "There is no prison for the Word of God."

There is No Way to Chain Up the Word of God

Remember Jesus Christ, divine and human ("risen from the dead, a descendant of David"). That's the memory that redeems. That is the heart of my gospel, Paul says. And then, if you remember Jesus right, he continues, when they chain you up it won't matter, because there's no way to chain up the Word of God. Paul had the bona fides to speak on this subject. He had been in prison on several occasions before, had been chained before, and beaten, and dragged before judges, and all the rest. And he had witnessed the power of the word of God in such circumstances, power to convert the other prisoners, even to convert the guards and jailers. (When the Nazis imprisoned the Danish Bishop Berggrav, they had to change his guards every two days, because, if they didn't, he would convert them.) Paul had watched the church of Christ grow, in spite of all such persecution. He, himself, was about to be executed in Nero's purge, and Peter too, and that really wouldn't matter, because you cannot kill the word of God. There is no stopping it.

God's Word Can Set us Free

We are imprisoned in so many ways. Chained. "Man is born free," says Rousseau, "and yet we find him everywhere in chains." So apt today. The Word of God goes on. It is not imprisoned because we are. The church continues to grow. But God's Word also has the power to set us free, personally, if we will let it. Mary and I actually saw, in Rome, the huge chains with which Paul was supposed to have been chained -- if those are the ones, their weight alone would have made him stumble and fall. And yet, I see Paul, at that very moment, chained and in prison, as the freest man on the face of the earth. His guards, the magistrates who tried him, the crowds that mocked, the scholars who were too good to listen -- all of them were imprisoned, in jails of their own making, but Paul was truly free. He was travelling with the Word of God. And so can we.

God Alone Can Forgive Us

Some people are imprisoned by guilt. That is common knowledge. But when religious people speak of guilt, they don't mean pathological guilt, the kind of guilt which has no basis in fact. (Like that sad middle-aged woman who said to me, with tears, "I've always felt guilty about, and somehow to blame for, my parents' divorce, which happened when I was seven!") That kind of imagined guilt can be very serious, but it's for the psychologists to exorcise. And that kind of guilt is where all our attention has gone, since Sigmund Freud, so much so that we have almost come to believe that all guilt is imaginary. Which is not so. The more interesting challenge, in fact, is to deal with honest guilt, real guilt. To help people with their own unforgiven sin. And that is where faith comes in. Must come in. Things done which cannot be undone. Things said that cannot be taken back. Harm to someone who is dead. Deeds which, to confess would only cause more hurt. Honest guilt. God alone can forgive such things. But if we don't let him do so, we live our lives in chains. Remember Jesus, divine and human; travel with the Word of God, for which there is no prison. Let him forgive you. He is waiting, hopefully, like the father on the road, to do just that.

We Can Let Go of Our Anger

On the other end of the scale are those imprisoned not by guilt but by anger. Anger too can be imagined, exaggerated, trumped up. But there surely is such a thing as real anger -- the sins of others which we have not forgiven, cannot forgive, which eat us up inside. How many people stagger and fall under the heavy chains of anger? Constantly recalling old slights. Going over and over events that happened long ago. "He said this." "I should have said that." Ruining the present. Destroying families. Poisoning marriages. Always hurting themselves most, and not able to see it. We can stay imprisoned like that, in anger, if we choose, or we can buy into the Word of God, which says we will never be free until we let go of our anger. Just put it down, and walk away. We have an example. That's what God did for us.

God Can Free Us from Rigid Thinking

Another set of chains is our rigid thinking. Just when I'm sure I'm right, just when I think I know God's word on this subject or that, something happens that brings me up short. Every time. You remember Peter's vivid dream, back in the earliest days of the Christianity. God holds out before him an enormous sheet, suspended by its four corners, with all the creatures of the earth -- including pigs -- on it, and says, "Stand up, Peter, help yourself." And Peter is horrified, in his dream, and gives the only answer a faithful Jewish man could possible have given: "No thank you. I don't eat things that are unclean." He was right, by every star he followed. He was holy, by all the old standards. He was giving the answer his father would have given, and his father before him. If we can ever be rigid about something, it is about unclean food. But God says to Peter, "Don't call what I have made 'unclean'." Times are changing. It's time to let gentiles into the church, Peter, the unclean ones go baptize Cornelius and his family. It's time to open up our minds. New wine has been pressed out in Jesus Christ, and we need new wineskins to contain it. We cannot be old and brittle in our thoughts. That just chains us up. Especially important for us old folks. We have to be open to the new word of God every day.

God Gives us the Courage to Innovate

Fear, of course, is another set of chains, and a fairly common one. Today we celebrate anniversary Sunday. A hundred and twelve ago our congregation was established, and this little chapel was built. We remember those who built it, and praise them, but don't you know there must have been others. There must have been some who were against it, who were afraid of the expense, who said there were plenty of other churches near enough, who thought it would just be another building to keep after, who would just as soon have gone on worshipping in someone's front room. Sure there were. There are always some who are imprisoned in fear, in rigid thinking. Remember Jesus, divine and human. The word of God is not fettered. Don't be afraid, little children, it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Don't be afraid at work when the time comes to say, or do, the right thing. Don't be afraid at school to defend your own high standards. Don't be afraid to speak the unpopular word. Don't be afraid to teach your children Christian values. Don't be intimidated by others. Don't live your life in the chains of fear.

We Await the Unchained Word of God

Were we children of darkness, then we might be chained. Were we of those who knew not Jesus, then we might, indeed, be imprisoned by fear and greed and guilt, and rigid thinking, and addiction, and anger, and all those other jailers, for these things do, indeed, imprison the human spirit. But we are children of the resurrection. For us there is new life every day. We can die, but there is no prison for the word of God.
 

The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
He that keepeth Israel will not slumber;
Behold, he that keepeth Israel will neither slumber no sleep.

Stand free in Christ Jesus, my brothers and sisters, and don't be afraid. Travel light, but travel with the word of God. Be not imprisoned, neither by your enemies, nor by your own devices. For God needs us to be available when he calls. Listen and watch for the unchained Word of God to move in your life in your life.