Romans 6.1b-11; Matthew 10.24-39
These words from Jesus in the gospel reading are the second part of the charge that Jesus is giving to the twelve disciples. He is commissioning them to go out in pairs to the Jews living in the surrounding towns, to preach that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand and to heal the sick and drive out demons. Word and action are linked together. He has just warned them that they will be bought before governors and kings in order to tell them the good news of Jesus and will be persecuted but they are not to be afraid when they are arrested- easier said than done - because God the Father will be looking out for them, protecting them for they are highly valuable to him. In all of these trials they are to hold fast to Jesus, and indeed are to love Jesus more than anyone else - more than parents, husbands or wives. Their primary relationship must be with Jesus, trusting him in everything to the extent that they will be so caught up with Jesus and his call on their life that they will lose their own desires and instead be living out the fullness of life that Jesus offers, obediently following him, just as he was obedient to his Father.
“Those who find their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
This seems such a paradox, yet the more we trust Jesus, the more we obediently follow him, the more we fulfil the purposes that God has for us the more alive we become.
So how good are you at losing your life for Jesus? I do not know about you, but I fluctuate in this. There are special days when I get glimpses of this, when I know I have walked closely to Jesus, I have been his light, helped someone draw closer to him and that most effectively happens when I go about my every day life. Take Friday morning for example. On a simple walk around Longden village with our dog, I had four different conversations in which people spoke of troubles and challenges in their lives and it was a privilege to then pray for each of these situations when I got home, and yesterday I heard that one of those prayers was answered. God was in those conversations, meeting the needs of others.
God knows everything that goes on in our lives and he delights to use us to be his light to chase away the darkness that people struggle with. But not every day is like this. Some days are full of admin and routine tasks. I have learnt that it does not mean that that day was wasted, although it can feel like that. Those days act as a foil to the special days, to keep me rooted in daily living. Without them the temptation would be to constantly be looking for and living on spiritual highs, and the danger of that is that the high would be dominant rather than loving people. We are called to love Jesus so that we can then love others. Everything is to be rooted in our love for and worship of Jesus. Everything we do or say should flow from that loving relationship.
Sadly sin interrupts this, it blocks our relationship with the Father but it does not have to. In the passage we heard from Romans, Paul is clearly stating that our old self has been crucified with Jesus. Just as he was buried in the tomb and then rose again in his resurrection body, so our old self is buried and we are made new by Christ. God the Father raised Jesus from death and so we are likewise raised by God from our previous sinful life. This happens at our baptism, at our point of conversion - of accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour- it happens on a daily basis when we commit ourselves afresh to Christ, yielding ourselves to his will and purposes. So Paul in our reading today, encourages us to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Sin no longer has us in its grip.
So my friends if there are recurring sins you struggle with, turn to Jesus talk to him about them, ask for his help, his release.
Sometimes however we sin without recognising it.
Last Christmas, I was given a book of prayers written by children and Hatty wrote this:
Dear God,
My grandma got angry at me because I broke her pot. I didn’t know we weren’t allowed to play with the pot. She didn’t tell us not to.
Can you tell her it wasn’t my fault?
Thank you very much.
Hatty.
You can hear the hurt in this child’s prayer, the confusion, the sense of injustice and there are many people in the world who feel like this. Pray for them, and pray for yourself that you may know what is right and what is wrong, what is life giving and what is life taking. We need to know the difference for Satan wants to blind us.
To finish on a personal note, I can remember as a child doing something wrong and knowing I was to be punished, but it was the sense that I had disappointed someone who loved me, that was more powerful in changing me, than the actual punishment. Do you feel the same way about Jesus? Our love for Jesus should be so strong that we want to always live in that love and choose to not do or say anything that would harm or break that relationship… I pray this for each of us today.
Amen.