Text: Galatians 5: 1, 13-25

One of the earliest memories I have of the American flag is counting stars. We didn’t count the stars one by one. But it was something of a childhood sport to check out flags, to see if the flag had 48 or 50 stars.  It took years for organizations to replace 48 star flags with 50.  Today is the 50th anniversary of unveiling a 50 star flag.[1]  Hawaii was admitted into the union a year before, with Alaska becoming a state in 1958.  For one year, our nation flew a 49 star flag but there weren’t very many of them sold because there was anticipation that Hawaii would gain statehood.

While debate about Alaska and Hawaii was going on, more than 1,500 designs for flags were submitted to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. One submitted in 1958 by a 17 year old Robert G. Heft was a school project.  He originally received a B- for the project. After discussing the grade with his teacher, it was agreed that if the flag was accepted by Congress, the grade would be reconsidered. Heft's flag was chosen and adopted by presidential proclamation after Alaska and before Hawaii was admitted into the union in 1959.[2] It is why so few 49 star flags were sold.

Today then is 50 years of 50 stars. For years, there has been conversation about adding Puerto Rico as the 51st state.  We vacationed in Puerto Rico last New Year’s. The debate was going on in the newspaper. Many don’t want statehood; some want it passionately and they have created a design for a 51-star flag.  It’s cool looking with a circle of stars. But for those of us who’ve always known nine rows of stars staggered horizontally and eleven rows of stars staggered vertically, it would take some getting used to because we are stuck on 50.

We are that way as humans. Certain numbers are important to us. We get stuck on numbers.  We like numbers that are even and divisible by five. We think 13 is unlucky to the point of not having 13th floors in buildings and hotels. Many East Asian cultures are suspicious in a similar manner about the number four. The lucky number is seven and that idea comes from from the Bible. The Bible is filled with numerology and understanding what the numbers mean is important to understanding scripture.

 The first and most important number is 1.  Much of the Old Testament is oriented to helping God’s people understand that there is only one God, unique and undivided.  The book says “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4).  The oneness of God is the basis for the first half of the Ten Commandments. We are to have no other God than the one true God.

Even as ONE is an important number so is number three. The One True God manifests Himself to us in three different forms, God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit, Three in One.  God in Three Persons we sing in the traditional hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy”.  At the north campus, we’ve been singing Chris Tomlin’s “Praise the Father, Praise the Son”. Even though the word Trinity isn’t found in the New Testament, 3 is very much a divine number. Abraham is visited by three mysterious men at the oaks of Mamre and he comes to realize that it is the Lord that has visited him. Moses instructs Aaron to offer a blessing that is three-fold.  “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).  Testimonials require three witnesses which is why Peter, James and John climb the mountain with Jesus when he was transfigured. And of course, Jesus is resurrected on the third day.  Three is big in scripture as are the numbers 40, 12 and 7.

You know that it rained 40 days and nights when Noah was on the ark. You know that Moses and the people of Israel wandered for 40 years and Jesus was tempted for 40 days. There are many forties as there are many twelves. The last sermon series on Elijah used lots of twelves. When Elijah calls down fire from heaven, he pours 12 jars of water onto his BBQ.  Elisha was plowing his field with 12 oxen. These twelve represent the 12 tribes of Israel which is the exact same number of disciples that Jesus chose to be in his inner circle.

The most important number in the New Testament though is seven.  You could say that early Christians were stuck on seven. There are 88 different uses of seven; many of them in the book of Revelation describing the end time. There are seven spirits (1:3), seven lamp stands (1:12) seven stars…not fifty, seven seals (6:1), seven angels with seven trumpets (8:6) on and on in the Book of Revelation.  Jesus feeds four thousand and how much is leftover-- seven baskets full.  The Lord’s Prayer has seven petitions.  In the Book of Acts, when the church starts growing too fast and the apostles can’t keep up, they appoint seven deacons to assist them.  Paul speaks of seven gifts, seven afflictions, and seven virtues. Early Christians used numbers as theological tools, of reminding themselves of who they are suppose to be,[3] something like the way we use the American flag. As a symbol of our nation, we see the flag and it represents who we are as a country.

On this 50th anniversary of 50 stars, who are we?  Does the flag really remind us of who we are supposed to be?  Are we really free or are we stuck at 50?

The apostle Paul might answer more definitively than most Americans this weekend. In 50 AD, he wrote a letter to the churches in Galatia.  Galatia is a region in what is now central Turkey. Most of the churches in this area have disappeared but the Galatian churches were in places like Antioch Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.  The book of Galatians has been called the “charter of Christian liberty” and it defines Paul’s understanding of freedom. He begins the fifth chapter of this letter stating “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5: 1a). Then Paul defines what that means.  “For you were called to 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.’” (Galatians 5: 13-14).

It is occasionally said that some of the most famous words are in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence. Written 234 years ago by Thomas Jefferson, you might have memorized them in grade school. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

“All men are created equal.”  Equality ultimately means that you aren’t better than the person sitting next to you and he or she should be treated with the same rights and benefits that you want yourself. That sounds like Paul’s description of freedom, to become slaves to one another and love your neighbor as yourself.

Sadly, fifty years ago when our nation placed the fiftieth star on our flag, our nation was struggling with “all men are created equal.” Segregation was enforced in many parts of our country. Black men and women were treated as second-class citizens.  Four black college students took seats at the segregated lunch counter at Woolworth's in Greensboro, N.C. They were refused service and sat peacefully until the store closed. They returned the next day, along with about 25 other students, and their requests were again denied. The Greensboro Four inspired student sit-ins throughout the Deep South attempting to integrate parks, swimming pools, theaters, libraries, and other public facilities. It was followed by a decade-long struggle to offer basic, equal rights, to treat our neighbor like we’d want to be treated. The year we put the 50th star on the flag we were stuck.  Are we still stuck? Do we love our neighbors as ourselves? How are we doing with equality?

While we’ve improved as a nation, we’ve a long way to go. You need only look at the Valley Swim Club which booted refused 65 mostly minority day campers from their pool supposedly because of overcrowding. Two other day camp groups, which weren’t minority children, were allowed to stay. Whether racism or classism, the effect was the same; they were stuck in an equality issue.

Arizona’s tough new illegal immigration law SB 1070 has created a firestorm of publicity about constitutionality of such a law even though the majority of American embrace tougher immigrants laws. The bigger question, “What do illegal immigrants look like?” When we begin making judgments based upon appearances we take a step back and get stuck in an equality question.  When we look at our neighbor differently, whether the couple from El Salvador or the single mom on welfare or the questionable financier appearing to live on his investors’ money, when we judge by appearance, we perceive categories or a caricature, not a brother or sister created in God’s image.  Our Constitution forbids the government from differentiating between anyone in the United States on the basis of appearance. And scripture says that when you treat someone differently, “you bite and devour one another.”  While we’ve made dramatic improvements, we still have challenges. We are the ones who need to lead our nation toward greater acceptance of equality, to reach out to each other with love and compassion and understanding, accepting each other as the Lord accepts each one of us.   As Paul said, “do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.” (Galatians 5:13b).  

The Declaration of Independence describes life as an unalienable right, but as Christians we know that God gave us life so in grateful response, we give our lives back to God.  Jesus illustrates this point when asked in Luke 20 on whether or not to pay taxes.  He asks for a coin and then says, “Show me a denarius. Whose head and whose title does it bear?" They said, "The emperor's."

He said to them, "Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's” (Luke 20: 24-25).  On one level, it’s a simple separation of church and state answer which would make the signers of the Declaration of Independence happy.  Jesus is saying, “Give to the state the things that belong to the state, including our fair share of taxes and other obligations of citizenship.” But on a deeper level, Jesus is saying that the emperor’s money is hardly worthy of consideration. It’s as though he’s stating, “The denarius belongs to the emperor, so give it to him.” What really matters is that we give ourselves completely to God — heart, mind and spirit.

Paul would say that we give ourselves to God when we give ourselves to others.  When we put aside conceit and competition and care for those around us, whatever their need, we give ourselves to God.  It can be a ministry of helping those who are hungry through the food shelters. It can be a prayer ministry offering support to those who are in need. It can be taking a mission trip or supporting youth as they travel.  All of these and more are ways to give yourself to God. We aren’t our own; we are the Lord’s. God has given us life so we can give it back to God.

The Declaration of Independence describes liberty as an unalienable right. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were anxious to escape from the tyranny of the king of Great Britain, but Paul would say that there is another bondage that is greater than any king, tyrant or despot. It is human sinfulness and he offers a list which probably includes in one way or another, everyone who is here. “…fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.”  Did I name your sin? It’s all inclusive.  In fact, the list isn’t meant to be read as descriptive as it is inclusive. Paul is saying when we give into sin, the sins of the flesh, the sins of excessive behavior, we become enslaved to it. He is remembering what Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8: 34). The problem with sin, whatever your sin, is it traps you into repeated behavior.  We’ve discovered that whether it is gambling or alcohol abuse or cheating, each time you sin, the next time is easier. It becomes addictive behavior and before you know it, you are trapped, a slave to the behavior. But Jesus added, “know the truth and truth will make you free.” (John 8: 32). Jesus is the truth, he is the “way, the truth and the life.” It is why liberty, freedom ultimately comes in Christ. Or as Paul put it, “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5: 1a).

The Declaration of Independence describes the pursuit of happiness as an unalienable right.  As Christians, we know that happiness isn’t an isolated and individual experience. Instead, it comes from being part of a community. Advancing our own happiness at the expense of others does not fit this equation because we are all connected, all integrated.

Those of you who know me know I tend to keep things forever. On Father’s Day, my kids took my phone away from me and gave me an iPhone. They were embarrassed that my phone was so old. It wasn’t a bag phone but it was close.   It’s not the new iPhone, but I was delighted that my upgrade to a 21st century phone seamlessly integrated with my desktop. Everything worked together which created happiness.

Seamless integration is a hot catch phrase in today’s IT world.  Software and hardware companies spend loads of money working to make sure that their new technologies will work together, to have “seamless integration.” They’ve discovered that the consumer is only happy when everything works together.

It’s not just an information technology concept. It is biblical concept that is essential for happiness, an extension of that old T-shirt that said, “If Mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy.”  Everything works together.  As a people, the pursuit of happiness is a community pursuit. When we work for the good of all — honoring everyone, loving the Christian community, respecting earthly authorities — the entire community advances and greater happiness is shared.  Peter puts it this way: “As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:16-17).

So on the 4th of July 234 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and 50 years after the 50th stars, we hold these truths to be self-evident.  We must commit ourselves to equality, to a life of service to God, to the freedom that comes in Christ and to pursuing happiness in community. Otherwise, we’ll find ourselves increasingly as a segregated, self-serving, sin-saturated and self-centered society. There is nothing free in that.

“For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5: 1a). That’s the word for today. Own it. Claim it. Make it yours. It’s the only way to keep from being stuck at 50.