I love my life

 

A Sermon preached on 3 September 2023 (Pentecost XIV) at St. Augustine’s, WI

Exodus 3:1-15, Romans 12:9-21, Matthew 16:21-28

One of singer Robbie Williams’ many, many songs is called “Love my life.” He describes it as a “song about hope and spreading positivity instead of negativity."  The refrain is:

I love my life
I am powerful
I am beautiful
I am free

I love my life
I am wonderful
I am magical
I am me
I love my life

It sounds like a complete contradiction to what Jesus tells his disciples today: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?” (Matthew 16:25-26) Rather than loving life, it sounds as if Jesus wants his disciples and followers to be willing to give it away, to be willing to lose their life. So, is Jesus spreading negativity, rather than Robbie’s positivity? I think not. Just that Jesus has a somewhat different idea of what a life worth living looks like.

For one thing, while Robbie Williams’ song at least sounds very self-centred, full of lots of “I am’s,” concluding with “I am me,” the life Jesus offers is definitely not egocentric. Jesus specifically says: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves,” (16:24) or as I found in another translation (New Living Translation) “you must give up your own way.” I think that is closer to what Jesus means. It is not about denying or devaluing who we are – after all we are made in the image of God and we all have with God’s Spirit within us – but about what path we choose to follow, which way we walk.

Are we just looking for our own pleasure, gratification, and satisfaction? Which can be very short lived and ephemeral, and far too often comes at the expense of someone else’s happiness. Is it all about me? Or do we follow Jesus’ path, to a loving God, and to a life really worth living and loving? His way leads to a life that is not just lived for ourselves, to a life that can include sacrifice and even suffering.

As we heard, Peter struggled with this too, moving so to speak from hero – having last week correctly identified Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (16:16) – to zero when he refuses to accept what Jesus says lies ahead for him: his suffering, death, and resurrection. Instead of being the rock on which the church is built, Peter is suddenly a stone to stumble over!

Peter’s image of the Messiah was wrong. Jesus was not going to march on Jerusalem and conquer, Jesus was going to Jerusalem to take up his cross, to give himself up for a greater goal and a lasting victory, and one in which everyone can share. Peter, despite his confession, still saw life as something finite and Jesus as mortal. He feared for Jesus’ life and did not fully understand that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross would conquer death.

What does the life that Jesus is calling us to live look like? What is the cross we should take up when we follow him? To live a Christian life is to focus on the “we” and not on the “I.” Mutuality, sharing, caring not just for oneself, but for the other, is a key motif in Paul’s vision of a Christian life in today’s reading from Romans. Among other things, Paul commends mutual affection, outdoing one another by honouring the other, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, being patient in suffering, persevering in prayer (especially for others), contributing to the needs of God’s people, showing hospitality, sharing in one another’s joys and sorrows, loving not only one’s friends, but also enemies, even those who persecute you, and never seeking revenge. If some of this list sounds familiar, it is. Paul is quoting and paraphrasing much of Jesus’s teaching from what we call the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 5). And this is quite rare. On the whole Paul tends to write more about the meaning and implications of who Jesus was and what he did for us, especially on the cross.

To live a Christian life is to live a life of love. Just think of Jesus’ commandments, both in the Synoptic Gospels (e.g. Mark 12:29-31) to love God and your neighbour as yourself, and in John’s Gospel (13:34) to “love one another as I loved you.” And In 1 John 4:16 we read that “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”

The Greek of the New Testament has several different words for love, each with a different focus and meaning. Four of them are included in today’s reading from Romans, even if the English translation rather hides them. We begin with agape in: “Let love be genuine,” (Romans 12:9) this is the unconditional, sometimes sacrificial love that Jesus models. Next we find philia in the phrase: “love one another.” (12:10) This is best described as friendship love. It is closely followed by storge, translated here as: “mutual affection,” which is the type of love most often experienced within a family. And finally, Paul also includes xenia (12:12), the love of the stranger, translated here as hospitality. All of them are part and parcel of Christian life.

And so is the one form of love Paul that does not mention, eros, which while often translated as sensual or romantic love, also stands for our desire for a closer union and participation in the divine. Eros is the love of God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength, it is the basis of our worship and devotion, and the love that is expressed in what Jesus calls “losing our lives for his sake.” (Matthew 16:25)

We can and should love life. To lose our lives for Jesus’ sake is not to hate it, but to transform them into lasting lives, truly worth living and loving. A life focused only on self is not only not of God, but simply not rewarding, and not fulfilling. We soon notice how hollow it can be. Joy cannot be bought or coerced.

We can and should love life. To paraphrase Mr. Williams’ list of the reasons why we love about our lives: We are powerful - together and with God’s help; we are beautifully made - by God; we are free - of sin and death through the sacrifice of God’s Son; we are wonderful - and wondering in our awe for God’s Creation; we are magical - in our ability to love and to transform the world through live. We love our life - in Christ and that – to quote the last line of Robbie’s song – is where I want to be!

Amen.  

Become what we believe

 

A Sermon preached on 27 August 2023 (Pentecost XIII) at St. Augustine’s, WI  and St. Christoph, MZ

Exodus 1:8-2:10, Romans 12:1-8, Matthew 16:13-20

Matthew Henry was a famous 18^th century Bible commentator. He begins his commentary on chapter 12 of Paul’s Letter to the Romans with the words: “The apostle, having at large cleared and confirmed the prime fundamental doctrines of Christianity, comes in the next place to press the principal duties.” Or in other words, in chapter 12 Paul moves from laying the theological foundations to building upon them with guidance for right behaviour, with his recommendations for how we turn our faith into action. This is just like our Baptismal Covenant where we begin by first affirming our beliefs in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit before we covenant to actions and behaviour that result from those beliefs.

So, what does Paul want us to do? The opening verses call on the Romans to present themselves, their “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1) So, the first element of right behaviour is worship – and you can all put a tick in that box! You might recognise the phrase, a living sacrifice. In one of our Eucharistic Prayers (D) we pray to God to “Grant that all who share this bread and cup may become one body and one spirit, a living sacrifice in Christ, to the praise of your Name.” In the other prayers we also talk about “offering our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to you, O Lord of all.” We respond to the unique sacrifice of God’s son, to the giving of his body and blood, with our own sacrifice, by giving ourselves. Our self-offering is the appropriate worship response to God’s divine gratuity. That is why in our tradition the Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving is our principal act of worship as it puts giving and self-giving at the centre. It makes our offering holy and is an expression of our willingness to be changed and transformed.

What does God do with our offering? Gives it right back again to be put to use in accordance with the revealed will of God, for what is good, acceptable and perfect. The proper use of a living sacrifice is in sacrificial living! To live for God is also to live for others. Paul is writing to a community and while faith has a personal component, because whether and when we turn to God is our own personal choice, the proper context for practicing that faith is in community. That’s another box you can check off! When Paul exhorts his readers: “Not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think,” (12:3) he is not putting them down. The purpose of this call to humility is I think first to remind us that we are not in competition with one another, we are not comparing the measure of our faith, which is something that God assigned anyway. Instead, our faith in God acts as our common denominator, rather than wealth, position, education, status, ethnicity, or upbringing.

As a fellowship of transformed – or better still transforming - believers, we share a perspective and goals that they are best achieved together. Paul uses the image of the body to describe this: “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” (12:4-5) This is one of two passages (the other one is 1 Corinthians 12) in which Paul uses the body as a metaphor for Christian community. What we have in common is our shared identity in Christ. Thankfully that does not make us all the same. Just as our picnic afterwards would be very boring if we all brought the same salad and dessert (I must admit that I haven’t checked, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the case), so our community would be equally boring if we were identical clones! Instead in a Christian community everyone puts their different ideas and talents to work for the common good, and for our mutual benefit, and for God’s mission in the world. Difference and diversity make us stronger and more effective.

Paul concludes this portion of chapter 12 with a list of some of the “gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” (12:6) If we look at them more closely, we see that they are ministries that build up, sustain, and grow community. Like Paul, we as a church also recognise and value these gifts and those who have been given them.  In the past we have had a ministry fair at this service, as an opportunity to see what ministries are on offer, and where support is needed to help you decide where you are best suited to serve God in this church. We believe that everyone has a role, not just the ones Paul lists, though they are important and relevant for us too and none of them require ordination!

Prophecy, for example, includes inspired prayer and preaching. This is something I am glad to share with a wonderfully talented group of faithful people. Ministry – in Greek diakonia – is about service and includes among others the ministry of hospitality. We will focus on teaching, faith development, a little later in the service when we celebrate the Sunday school graduation and give thanks for our teachers and youth leaders. And while on the theme of formation, you have each received an adult formation survey that we would like you to fill in, so we know where your needs are. Perhaps you also have an idea about something you want to offer as a class or course!

To exhort is to encourage and persuade – strongly. It is about helping others be their own very best. We don’t have a team of exhorters, perhaps we should, but even without I see this as a ministry of mutual support and encouragement. We do need givers; you will hear more about that next month when our stewardship campaign starts and right now, we need some generous givers towards our roof repair!  But our church is built on the principle of self-support, that everyone gives as they are able.  

The leader is literally “the one set before.” In our church polity you choose your own leaders, you set people before you for a time. And the image of the body, stronger and more effective in diversity, applies especially to our leadership body, the Vestry, which needs to reflect the diversity of the community. Last, and certainly, not least Paul names the compassionate, those who do acts of kindness and help others both in and outside the church. If any of these roles interest you, and you don’t know who to talk to – come to me. I will point you in the right direction.

Even if I jokingly talked about ticking boxes, that is not what this is about. Everything Paul recommends, our self-giving, our community, our serving God, one another, and the world assists in our transformation. It is about becoming what we believe.

Amen.