Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 25 June 2023.
(Source)
• First Reading: Genesis 21: 8-21 (Hagar and Ishmael sent away – God’s compassion for them)
• Epistle: Romans 6: 1-11 (Consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus)
• Gospel: Matthew 10: 24-39 (I acknowledge those who acknowledge Me – and disown those who disown Me)
I often wonder how it is that when television news programmes are representing the views of the general public, there is always one for and one against whatever is under discussion. Perfect balance. Unless, that is, they are discussing religious matters when there seems to be a very fixed agenda.
How do they obtain such balance? How many people did they have to interview in order to obtain their balance? Was there a quota of men and women, white and other ethnicities? Tall and short, thin and well, rotund?
Somehow the balance always seems to be just right, with nobody expressing views outside the accepted norms.
This cannot have been planned or contrived in advance, surely?
And then there is the story in the bible when having chosen the direct line of Abraham, through Isaac, and Ishmael was born outside this plan and promise, God still heard the cries and saw the tears of Hagar, who was just about to give up hope.
Yes, God had seen and heard and was moved. Even by the pleas of ones who did not fit into His plan – they also would be met and provided for. They also could find a place in His purposes, even if this was not the Great Promise made to Abraham.
But then Jesus says something very similar. Yes, the details of our lives do matter. They matter to Him even when we try to say that it is all happenstance and randomness.
But it isn’t. Even the birds of the air are known and provided for. Even they have a value in the street markets – and they do not build monuments or write poetry, design laws or fight battles.
But they are also known, and known by name.
Even the hairs on our heads are counted. And yes, the details of our lives really do matter in the sight of God, even when we suppose that God is asleep or has gone on holiday or is watching the sports channel.
But Jesus goes a lot further than that. His disciples matter to Him, intimately and personally. They will never be greater than Him, but if they come to be like Him, that will be enough.
He had led the way, and He has defined the path. The disciples have from Him the model and pattern of life, the way to live within the law of Israel without becoming narrow or legalistic.
And His life and being are very challenging. People form opinions about Him. They certainly have plenty of opinions about the church, perhaps more as an organization and a career structure.
But Jesus Himself is also divisive. Will we accept Him as the Son of God – and our Redeemer? Will we receive Him as He comes to us or is there an agenda in our lives to which we expect Him to conform? Is he Lord, but subject to our conditions?
Will we accept His agenda or do we demand that He conform to ours?
Now the questions become more pressing. Jesus really is divisive. We are either for Him or against Him; we are either in Christ or outside of Him. Is He Lord – or something more accommodating?
And opinions on this will vary intensely, even, and possibly especially within families and the closest of relations. Not only that but what happens when we speak out and bring Him into our conversations? When we expose ourselves to hostile questioning and ridicule, the object of cheap jokes and when the voice of Jesus is suppressed in favour of an established organizational view?
Paul says that we are not drifters on the earth but are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus.
When we fail morally and spiritually, and we definitely do, we are not bound by the principles of sin and rebellion: the moral and spiritual darkness and alienation in which the world as a whole abides and which for many, is content to abide.
If we are His, then we are also growing into Him. He is leading us on a path of discipleship so that we may become like Him. If being joined with Him in His death and resurrection are the starting point then we are also on a path in which the self and its demands and conveniences are gradually set aside and allowed to die.
This is a long and demanding road, but the Lord wants only the best for us, even if it means encountering loss and denial, the setting aside of personal goals so that His goals may reign.
If this were easy, then there would be no point in discussing it. But we look at it because it is not easy.
So yes, there are areas of life where we know that we come short. There are things that we had hoped for that in the event were not for us – and we learn to yield them to the Lord’s will.
But this is not lying down and acquiescing in the work of discipleship. It is about embracing the cross that Jesus has given us to carry.
But then in comparison with His, it really is trivial.
