Freedom is the defining value of American culture. The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, and the Revolutionary War was fought against England for the sake of freedom. The bloodiest and costliest war in our nation's history, the Civil War, was fought largely for the sake of the freedom of slaves. Our modern society has seen a proliferation of "rights" and, if you violate one of them, you will probably get sued. This is the land where you dare not violate anyone's "First Amendment Rights!" Everyone is free to speak their mind as they wish.

Even one of the most divisive debates in our society today, the debate over abortion, has been defined and cast in terms of personal freedom. It used to be that those who claimed to be "pro-life" and those who were "pro-choice" defined the debate. The "pro-life" movement in recent years has decided to describe itself differently. It has sought to speak more directly to the American obsession with personal freedom and personal choice. Those on the "pro-life" side have now decided that it is better to describe their position in a way that is more in synch with the reigning American orthodoxy of personal freedom. They now say that they are in favor of freedom of "choice," too. Only they say that they "choose life" instead of death.

One of the most important books in sociology and culture in the last generation, Robert Bellah's Habits of the Heart, also describes American culture in a similar way. Bellah and his fellow authors show that the single most important and defining value of American society and culture is "individualism." The most important things in life are those that contribute to one's individual freedom, self-expression, and success.

Evelyn Whitehead, in her book, The Divorce Culture, shows how this American obsession with personal freedom has transformed our culture's perception of divorce. It used to be that divorce was associated with a sense of shame, guilt, and failure. Divorce was seen as something to be avoided, if at all possible. Today the social situation has changed. Divorce is no longer something to ashamed of or even avoided. Rather, divorce can be one more positive step in the development of one's personal character and freedom. It can be a liberating act of self-expression. Or as Whitehead calls it, we are now in the age of "creative divorce."

That is what happens in a society whose defining value has become personal freedom.

Let me tell you the story of John, your typical American teenager, who has just graduated from high school. It is a story about John's discovery of the true nature of freedom.

Since John had just graduated from high school and was planning to attend college in the fall, his parents decided that it was time for John to do some growing up. He had to get ready for living more independently at college. So, they decided that it was time to end all of his curfews. They weren't going to be with him at college in the fall to tuck him in at night. Both he and they had better start getting used to it. From now on he could stay out as late as he wanted any night of the week. No more curfews!

John was thrilled. At last freedom! At last he could stay out with his friends as late as he wanted without always having to make curfew.

Of course, the first night of his newfound freedom, John decided to stay out late. Normally he had to be in by 11 p.m. on a weeknight, but this night he was going to enjoy his freedom. The clock passed midnight. It soon became 1 a.m. and still no John. His parents were concerned. They weren't going to go to bed until he came home. At 2 a.m., he stumbled in. They stared at each other. No words were spoken. After all, they had given him this new freedom. No reference to the previous night was made at the breakfast table either, as John rushed off to be at his new summer job at 8 a.m.

If John's parents thought things were going to change, they were sorely mistaken. The next night, John stayed out even later — 2 a.m. became 3 a.m. His parents still kept their vigil, unable to sleep. Finally at 4 a.m. the door rattled. The lock opened and in walked John. Bleary eyed, they stared at John. He smiled nervously. But again, no words were spoken here or at the breakfast table the next morning. After all, this freedom thing had been their idea. He was just expressing himself.

By the third night they had hoped that John had enough of his new freedom. But he didn't. 2 a.m. became 4 a.m. became 6 a.m. The sun was even beginning to come up over the horizon and still no John. They were worried. But at 6:30 a.m., the door rattled and in walked John. What a night it must have been. John's eyes were red. He was exhausted. He was so tired he could hardly stand. So were his parents. And he had to be at work in a little over one hour. But again, any comment about John's late hours went unspoken.

That brought the fourth night. But this night, things were different. When John got home from work, he was so tired that he showered, ate, and immediately went to bed. So did his parents, thankfully. For the rest of the summer John was home every work night and in bed by 11 p.m. Even on the weekends, when he stayed out a little later, he always made sure he called his parents and told them when he was coming home.

Yes, John had learned an important lesson about freedom. There is no such thing as absolute freedom. Our culture's promotion of absolute freedom and self-expression is a lie. There are always consequences. There are always limits. There are always responsibilities. The piper must always be paid.

Saint Paul makes a similar point in today's reading. Paul, too, insists that there is no such thing as unfettered freedom. We are all enslaved to someone or something. We are all owned by someone or something. We all obey a master. Paul says that we all serve either sin or righteousness. We are owned by either God or our sinfulness. In next week's reading from Romans, Paul laments that he simply is unable to escape his bondage to sin. "The good that I want to do, I do not do. And the evil that I do not want to do, that is what I do."

Paul assumes an understanding of sin that contradicts our cultural optimism and its conviction that we are free to choose our own individual destiny. Even many pious and church going Christians are uncomfortable with Paul's radical understanding of sin. Our culture assumes (along with many Christians) that sin is essentially a "choice." We should not be surprised given our society's commitment to individualism and personal freedom. It assumes that humans inhabit some sort of morally neutral place. We are sitting on a fence and have a choice as to which side of the fence we will come down on. One side is sin and the other is righteousness. We are at a crossroads. We have a choice as to which road to take. We can go down the road to sin or we can go down the road to God. This point of view assumes that sin is breaking the rules or commandments. Sin is making bad choices. Sin is doing "naughty" things.

To that point of view Paul would shout a resounding "No!" "Naughty" actions, breaking the rules, making bad choices are only the symptoms, only the consequences, only the fruits of a condition that is far worse. For Paul, sin is bondage. We are trapped. We are owned. There is no mythical, moral neutrality. We are always broken, out-of-bounds, fractured, from the first moment we come into this world.

Paul's claim shouldn't come as a total surprise. Even though the cultural orthodoxy of our day promotes the pursuit of personal freedom, there are minority voices that sound a different opinion, an opinion we don't like to hear. The minority voices remind us that we can never be totally free. We have always been determined and shaped by forces and limits beyond our influence. We have been determined by our genes, by our social class, by our race, by our education, by the family in which we grew up, and even as Freud reminds us ... by our toilet training!

This understanding of sin as bondage and not just as bad choices is what I have always tried to teach when I introduce people to the Ten Commandments ... and especially Luther's interpretation of them in his catechism. Over the years, in teaching confirmation classes to young people, I have discovered how difficult it is to teach this understanding of sin. For example, I always teach that the most important use of the commandments is the "mirror." Like a mirror, the commandments show us what we really look like — that we are sinners, always sinners, and always in need of God's forgiveness in Jesus Christ. These young people, just like their parents, always want to minimize the demands of the commandments in order to blunt their criticism and turn them into some friendly moral instruction.

Luther makes a similar point in his explanation of the First Commandment in his Large Catechism. There he reminds us of our bondage, of our slavery, of our inescapable compulsion to always "have a god." It is the very nature of human life to have a god, to have someone or something that gives our lives meaning and purpose, someone or something that we love and are terrified of losing. We have no choice to live our lives any other way. We are "incurably theolatrous." It is foolish to think that anyone could be an agnostic or atheist and still be a human being. We "have to" have a god. And our gods enslave us. Our gods demand that we worship them and appease them. Whether that god is money or our job or our family or our body, we are never free of its demands. There is no other way to be a human being.

Whoever said we were free?

The church has traditionally described this bondage and slavery as "original sin." From the moment of our conception, we are shaped by this "inherited sin" just as we are shaped by our genes. There is no choice in the matter. We are owned.

Paul also speaks of another kind of ownership. We can also be owned, enslaved, and obedient to another kind of master. We can be slaves of sin ... or slaves of righteousness, slaves of God. How can this be? One master must drive out the other.

That is precisely what happens when the gospel of God's love in Jesus Christ is proclaimed and we are moved by the power of that message to trust it.

One of the most popular Bible study curriculums of the last generation that has been used in many Christian churches is the Serendipity series, originally created by Lyman Coleman. I remember first seeing the material 25 years ago on my internship. I remember when I first heard that word, "Serendipity." I had never heard that word before. What did it mean? I soon discovered that "serendipity" meant "surprise," something totally unexpected or unanticipated. There could be no better word to describe the surprising and unexpected way God, through Christ, sets us free from our bondage to sin than serendipity.

      Over my years in the ministry, I have developed a particular children's sermon that helps children (and the adults whom I always want to overhear the message) understand and experience the utter surprise, the complete serendipity, of God's action in Jesus Christ.

I invite the children to come forward to play a little game. Children love to play games. We play a question and answer game. I have a bag of candy. Everyone who answers the question correctly gets a piece of candy.

First question: What is two plus two? A child answers: Four! Correct! You win a piece of candy. How about five plus five? A child answers: 10! Correct! You win a piece of candy. What day of the year is Christmas? A child answers: December 25! Correct! You win a piece of candy. What year did Columbus discover America? A child answers: 1776! Correct! You win a piece of candy. What was the name of Jesus' mother? A child answers: Brittany! Correct! You win a piece of candy.

Then one of the children stops me. "But Pastor, those aren't the right answers and you still gave pieces of candy!"

"You're right! I like giving candy away, and I want everyone to be a winner!" And then I empty the bag of candy on the floor and invite them all to take a piece.

This is a strange game. It is not what they expected. This is not the way games are usually played. In a game, there are always winners and losers, but here there are only winners! Here you don't get what you deserve! What a serendipity!

Creating that kind of surprise, helping hearers to experience the surprise of God's undeserved grace in Jesus Christ is what the gospel is all about. The story of Jesus of Nazareth, his death and resurrection, proclaims a glorious message to all of us who are trapped and enslaved to sin. Because of what God did in Jesus Christ and continues to do every time his story is proclaimed, we are free! Our slavery to original sin is broken. God forgives us our sin and breaks the hold of those fears, anxieties, and false gods on our souls.

There is a great irony that comes with being set free in Jesus Christ. We are still enslaved! We are still owned. Now, instead of being enslaved to sin, we are enslaved to righteousness. Instead of being owned by sin and evil, we are owned by God. And being owned by God actually means freedom. We find ourselves serving righteousness. We find ourselves wanting to do what is right and just and moral not because we "have to" but because we "want to."

Several years ago, I had a friend come over to my house to upgrade my computer. He said he would just bring over the software I wanted and download it. I asked him how much that would cost me. He hesitated and then said that he could copy it and get it for me for nothing. It wasn't exactly legal, but everyone does it. Then he hesitated again and said, "But I supposed that since you are a pastor, you're not supposed to do things that way. You can't do that, can you?"

Before he went any further, I stopped him and said, "No, you've got it wrong. I want to pay for that software. I want to do what is right. I wouldn't want it to be any other way. You see, as a Christian (and not just as a pastor) this is the way I get to live. I am free to serve Jesus and the guy who sells that software and justly expects to make a profit."

Martin Luther describes it well in the opening words of his famous 1523 treatise "On the Freedom of the Christian." He says, "I am perfectly free, subject to no one. At the same time I am a slave, subject to everyone."

People, this kind of freedom is yours. You are free in Jesus Christ. You no longer need to be enslaved to your old selfish wants and desires. You are free to be slaves of Jesus Christ and servants of your neighbors. What a blessed freedom it is!

Could there ever be anything more American than that? Amen.