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He would say this to me because I had a habit of thinking that life would be so much better, if I could just change a few things around to improve the way the world works. You know, not big changes… a nip or tuck here, a slight twist or turn there… more sunshine and less rain, and so on.

This memory comes back to me this week because today we are celebrating three important events in our life together… and it would be easy to miss out on their true meaning for us by wishing them to be different than they are.

Today is the 4th of July… Independence Day. And with our nation we celebrate the gift of freedom and democracy. Today we celebrate and lift up the philosophical concept of individual freedom and national identity. Today we celebrate what our ancestors called a "self-evident truth"… the idea that every person is equal and endowed by our Creator with rights that cannot be easily abridged or denied.

Today we also celebrate God's gift of two new members for this congregation of His people. Once again we are blessed to have people come to us saying that they have heard the voice of God calling them to come help us serve the Lord. And once more we have the opportunity to become family to persons who before now have been strangers.

Today we gather to worship and to share once more in the sacrament of Communion. We are gathered by the Holy Spirit and invited to partake once again of the heavenly meal offered to us to give us strength for the journey ahead. Once more we are invited to come forward and present ourselves as living sacrifices to the One who gave his mortal life so that we might know life eternal.

Today we gather to celebrate three things… freedom, family, and hope for the future. But we need to be careful how we define those things so they don't become burdens instead of gifts. We need to be careful about how we think about these things and about how we put those thoughts into action. Because, as Moses once warned his people, blessings used improperly can become curses. Or, as granddaddy used to say…

"Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it."

The people that Moses led into the desert are experiencing for the first time these three things before us today. After 400 years of slavery, this generation is tasting the sweetness of freedom, finding its identity once more as the family of God, and beginning to realize that there may be a future after all. After 400 years of slavery and 40 years wandering in the desert, they stand expectantly waiting for the dawn of a new age… they stand hopefully, looking intently into the future, trying to grasp the reality of what can be. After 400 years of doing what others have commanded and 40 years of following (to some extent) the orders of Moses, this immature people of God think they are ready to build a brave, new world.

They are excited. They believe that they are ready. They think that they are free… and they are… but free to be what? Free to do what? How will they be the family of God? What kind of family will they be? What hopes and dreams will come to fruition? Which ones will be dashed? And who decides?

Moses stands before them that day as they prepare to enter a land where he is not welcome… and he gives them this advice.

"Freedom is a gift," says Moses, "a gift to cherish and use wisely. Freedom will open up new possibilities for your life together… but the possibilities that become reality must be in tune with the will of God, or freedom will become slavery once more."

The ideas of freedom, and family, and the future hope to which Moses points are all heavily weighted towards responsibility and not toward rights. If their life together is to be faithful and meaningful, then they will be free…

To act upon what they have seen and experienced of God in their midst…
To be obedient to the demands God is placing upon them…
To live in covenant relationship with God and others…

Or, put another way, Moses claims that... "true freedom does not allow us to ignore the demands of God, or to act contrary to God's revelation, or to live outside covenant relationship with God and others. True freedom does not give us the "right" to ignore our responsibilities while we pander to our pleasures. True freedom does not give us the "right" to promise to live faithfully and then do whatever we want. True freedom does not allow us to demand of others what we are not willing to pay, or to expect things of others that which we are not willing to do ourselves."

Moses leaves his people with these words… "be careful to do the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all that you do."

This is not an early version of the "health wealth gospel", or… a "name it, claim it" faith. The Hebrew word translated as "prosper" here more rightly should read… "act wisely, or consider carefully, or give attention to". Moses is not saying, "do good and God will make sure you have all the best the world has to offer." Rather, he is warning them that freedom, and family, and futures full of hope come not by accident, but by faithful and sacrificial living.

The disciples of Jesus learned this lesson slowly, but surely. Like all the rest of us they wanted life to be different. They were tired of wars and rumors of wars. They were tired of occupying armies. They were tired of crooked leaders… political and religious. They were tired of an economy that broke the backs of their families. And they wanted more.

Jesus certainly offered more. He offered miracles. He offered new definitions of God. He offered new ideas of how to live with others. He offered hope in a land that hungered for a new harvest of this hard to find commodity. And they wanted in on the ground floor of his program… they wanted to be his right hand men. They wanted the freedom he offered, because no one else was offering a better product.

Somebody should have warned them… "Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it."

Because Jesus gave them the freedom they wanted… but not the freedom they expected. He gave them a new understanding of family, and a new way of hoping for the future… and none of this looked like the family or future they had in mind.

"Go," said Jesus, "be free and tell others what the freedom of God looks like. Don't encumber yourself with things… travel light. Don't look for the best hotels or the finest breakfast bars. Stay where you are invited and don't keep looking for upgrades. If your message, my message, isn't well received… don't spend time worrying about it, go elsewhere leaving the dust of that place behind you."

And so they went. And they learned that true freedom meant that…

Others were more important than self…
Getting more "Things" no longer fit into their understanding of success…
The world looked different, and didn't have power over them any longer…

So they went. And they preached. And they healed (they were therapeutic says the Greek). And they broke bread. And they prayed. And they worshipped. They learned that true freedom means being responsible, being accountable, being dependable. True freedom wasn't about them at all… but about God, and the people of God, and God's intentions for us together.

We come here today from different places… literally and figuratively. But it doesn't matter. How we got here is unimportant, what is important is how we live into the future together.

Will we learn that freedom calls us to service, or will we still demand that freedom is about our rights?

Will we learn that family is first about loving others, so we can learn to receive love?

And will we learn that our best hope for the future is to follow God, or will we stay chained to our visions of what might be?

Somebody recently asked me how we can go about changing others so that our future together might look more promising. The answer to that is we can't. We can only allow the Spirit to change us and the way we love others… the way we relate to others.

"Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it."

As we receive new members into our family and as we come forward to recommit ourselves to freedom in Jesus Christ… let us honestly ask God to shape us, and to mold us, and to use us according to His will and His purposes.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Amen.