Our pastor at First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C., Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell, invited me to preach on the last Sunday of June. Of the four Lectionary passages for the day, I selected Galatians 5:1, 13-14 as the scripture text for the sermon.

Part of my rationale was that I had preached on that passage numerous times before, including three sermons that are featured in Chapter 9 of my book, Spelunking Scripture: The Letters of Paul. In fact, I incorporated parts of two of those sermons in the message I shared at FBC/DC on June 26, 2022.

The sermon was titled “Freedom and Responsibility,” and I used two modern day illustrations: face masks and gun violence. I commented that the face mask has become a symbol of the ideological struggle between freedom and responsibility. The rise of Covid cases due to the latest Omicron subvariant is evidence that face masks still have a role to play in reducing the transmission of the disease.

And yet, face masks are increasingly absent in many public venues. Under the banner of freedom, and with the reduction of face mask mandates, many people ignore their responsibility to wear a face mask. I know, I know, I’m tired of wearing a face mask too. We had to resume wearing face masks at FBC two Sundays ago because multiple people tested positive who were in church the week before, including Pastor Julie.

Another illustration of the tension between freedom and responsibility is the absurd prevalence of daily gun violence in American society. I commented that more people are killed by guns than die in traffic accidents in the United States. Ours is one of the most violent countries in the world when it comes to shootings.

In the month before the sermon there were mass shootings in Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX, and the week before the sermon there was a mass shooting during out outdoor music festival in D.C., just 10 blocks from the church. Then the week after the sermon there was a mass shooting at the 4th of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois. And virtually every day, the evening news on television opens with reports of more shootings.

I noted in the sermon that the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution provides the freedom to bear arms, but with that freedom comes the responsibility to practice gun safety. Part of the problem is the number of people who do not practice gun safety, and the number of guns that are available. There are more guns than people in the U.S. Of course, guns are necessary for law enforcement and the military. But according to one survey, American civilians own more than 393 million firearms. That number has only increased during the pandemic.

In my book, Preaching for the Long Haul: A Case Study on Long-term Pastoral Ministry, I recount one Sunday some years ago when my sermon noted the strong link between handguns and murder and suicide (Chapter 6, pp. 104-105). After the sermon two deacons confronted me at the back of the sanctuary. One deacon was in law enforcement and the other was in the military. “Both took issue with my advocacy for greater gun control. One of the deacons said that if I preached on that again, he was leaving the church.”

In the most recent sermon at FBC/DC, I concluded with the story of another shooting at a church in Orange County, California. In that case a massacre was averted because a medical doctor who was trained in the martial arts confronted the gunman. At the cost of his own life, the doctor saved the other congregants from getting killed. The physician, Dr. John Cheng, was a graduate of my alma mater, Baylor University, and a dedicated Christian. Many of his classmates and fraternity brothers said it did not surprise them at all that he gave his life to save others.

In his letter to the Galatians Paul wrote that we have great freedom in Christ. But he cautioned us not to misuse our freedom to indulge our selfish impulses. As I said in the sermon at FBC/DC, the greatest freedom is to love.