13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 8), Year C

​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
 
So often when we think of independence we frame it as freedom from, and rightly so: Freedom from coercion of all sorts, freedom from living according to someone else’s definition of who we are or how we are being called to live among and with the whole of creation. Indeed, we are all too mindful of the ways in which the church has been among those institutions that have used the language of do and don’t, right and wrong to harm.
 
The Galatians text captures the other side of this equation: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The freedom we have is a freedom for life in community that is rich and varied and blessed. Elisha is so compelled by Elijah’s life that he can imagine no greater gift than a double portion of that spirit. Jesus grasps the power of such a spirit that he sets his face toward a way of self-giving that turns the world upside down. You see it in evidence here: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Freedom not from but for—for love, for connection, for life. No matter the season. No matter the facts on the ground.
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14 and Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20 † 1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21 and Psalm 16 † Galatians 5:1, 13-25 † Luke 9:51-62
 
About the Art: Swanson, John August. Elijah, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56543 [retrieved June 11, 2025]. Original source: Estate of John August Swanson, https://www.johnaugustswanson.com/.

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