WHEN FREEDOM ISN'T - MEMORIAL DAY MEDITATION



Galatians 5:13-26

"For you were called the freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.  For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Freedom!  The word is on everyone's lips.  Home of the free!  Trouble is, for too many of us freedom means you can do anything you darn well please.  Paul is telling the Galatians, and us, we've got it all wrong.  And then shockingly he tells us freedom means becoming slaves! 

That didn't sit well in ancient Galatia, and it sure doesn't fly today!  Anyway, we say.  Yeah.  Freedom.  The law will take care of bad guys who overstep the bounds.  Paul is saying the law isn't what one can or should rely on.  verse 18: But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.   

Huh???  Of course Paul means the law of Torah, which was spelled out in great detail, and known by the Jews of his time.  What to eat and not eat.  What to wear, etc. Even circumcism!  However, Paul's words are a great teaching for us today.  Those many centuries ago Paul spelled out the evils of the day, which still speak loudly and clearly to our society today.  Fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels dissensions, factions. Sound familiar? 

He goes on. verse 22. "By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control."  Paul has told us here what it is to be led by and to live by the Spirit- to be truly human joining ourselves to God's will for us. 

Now, on this Memorial Day we honor our Service men and women. In defending our Freedom they have had to do horrific things they never would have done in private life.  I'm thinking now of the many who are today returning from battle to depression, anxiety and stress disorder, suicide.  We are not as people, as a society, doing enough to help these wounded warriors.  As Christians we have faith in God's abiding Spirit, in God's prevenient Grace.  God alone reads the very wounded hearts of those returning from the horror of war.  Paul has lived both sides of persecutor and persecuted.  Paul the cruel persecutor has come to Christ.  He knows and affirms to the Galatians and to us today the abiding love of God.  We can do no less but pass on the Spirit this Memorial Day!  Let us honor those who have given their lives for our Freedom.  Let us do whatever it takes to support the men and women returning from battle, and their families.  Let us demonstrate in our support our faith that a greater Freedom than we ever imagined is offered to all in Christ Jesus.   

OLDE ENGLISH MAY DAY

 Archive pictures of Olde English May Day in the 1900s at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana. 

For thus it chanced one morn when all the court,
Green-suited, but with plumes that mocked the may,
Had been, their wont, a-maying and returned,
That Modred still in green, all ear and eye,
Climbed to the high top of the garden-wall
To spy some secret scandal if he might

--Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King, Guinevere  1859



Traditional British May Day rites and celebrations include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen and celebrations involving a Maypole. Much of this tradition derive from the pagan Anglo-Saxon and customs held during  (the Old English name for the month of May meaning Month of Three Milkings) along with many Celtic traditions such as Beltane celebrations. May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries. May Day is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with village fetes and community gatherings.

At Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where I did my undergrad work in the 60s, Olde English May Day was celebrated in glorious style once every four years.  Everyone in the college was given a role to play.  Hundreds of costumes were distributed for The Green Man who led the parade, gypsies, artists, jesters, musicians, Queen and her Court- all dressed in period costumes.  There were some 1500 participants in all. The year is was held when I was there the white gossamer dress was hanging on a hall mate's door in the morning, signaling that she had been chosen Queen of the May.  The entire hall was in an uproar as the news travelled.

The initial parade that wound its way around the campus was led by The Green Man. Animals joined too.  Domestic geese who gave the Goose Girls fits as they refused to stay in line!  Horses, sheep, goats on tether, and quite a few dogs brought by townspeople added to the festivities and fun. The May Pole Dance was held soon after attended by the Queen and her Court and all other participants gathered around to watch as May Pole dancers held their bright strips of fabric and danced a circle to weave them over and under to a thick rainbow braid on the pole.  The day was filled with more dancing, music of antique instruments and singing- choir and madrigal. The play Pyramus and Thisby was performed in the afternoon, followed by a Medieval banquet. The revelry lasted until dawn. It is a memory to last a lifetime.

Sadly, to me at least, the practice was mostly abandoned in 2008.