Challenges !
A heckler once shouted to a Christian : ‘Christianity hasn’t done much good. It’s been around for 2000 years, and look at the state we’re in.’ Thinking quickly the Christian replied, ‘Well soap has been in the world longer than that, and look at the dirt on your face.’
In a world where sound bites seem to be particularly important, we are reminded in this evening’s gospel reading (Matthew 7:13-27) that they are not enough as Jesus offers us a series of challenges about how we respond to him, and how we live as Christians – the first is the reminder that the Christian life will be like walking through the narrow gate, when the wide gate, the gate we’re told that leads to destruction, is right alongside and much easier to get through.
For us as Christians life won’t always be easy – just as it wasn’t for Jesus. At this time of year we have enjoyed the celebration of his birth, we have enjoyed the thoughts of peace and joy that he came to bring, but he came to bring that message to a troubled world. He would be forced to make decisions which even his closest followers wouldn’t understand at times.
Today Christianity is in many ways counter cultural – it calls us to be concerned primarily with other people, not with ourselves, it calls us to care for others in a way that is way above anything that we must do, and it calls us to stand up for what is right, regardless of the cost or the issue. Those things are sadly counter to much of what our culture today suggests, a culture that encourages us to look after ourselves and those closest to us, and only as a kind of after thought to think of others, perhaps after some television appeal like Children in Need, or as a Christmas gesture of goodwill.
In his new year address, the Archbishop of Canterbury reminded us of the need to care and to look at the needs of others, as he talked about the current economic crisis, and asked us to consider the importance placed on material wealth, and to 'turn outwards' and appreciate the treasure that is our 'fellow human beings'.
The Christian faith over the centuries has seen many acts of bravery done in its name – there are the obvious examples of people such as the early followers of Jesus who chose the narrow gate risking persecution, in more recent times there have been people who have used the gospel message to stand up against child labour, slavery, apartheid, poverty, in fact all kinds of injustices…
Choosing the narrow gate is not the easy choice, but it is our only choice as we seek to share a message that is often going to be difficult and occasionally even unpopular.
And this is what Matthew goes on to write about in the gospel as he talks about the words of Jesus about the tree bearing good fruit or bad fruit. He writes, ‘you will know them by their fruits’. This morning Helen spoke about the need to be seen to be doing good things, because then people will hopefully see something of Jesus through us.
What are the fruits of our labours ? What are we really doing to make the world a better place ? We are challenged to ask ourselves these questions because again Matthew quotes Jesus offering us these challenges.
If people could ever suggest that the Bible is outdated, a book written centuries and centuries ago with no relevance for today, this series of passages stops us straight away, because we can recognise today the challenges that are being offered – how hard it is to make the right choice, and to tell people about that choice – that is the narrow gate, and how hard it is to do the right thing all of the time, that is being the tree that bears good fruit, and now Jesus talks about the need to avoid self deception.
It’s easy to justify to ourselves and even to people around us how much we’re doing for good, but what are we really doing ? We must never be deceived into believing that our Church attendance or our prayers are good enough, or that the occasional charity giving is ok, or even that we are doing our bit for sharing the gospel – hopefully we are doing these things, but they may still not be enough.
In front of us every day there are opportunities for us to do so much good and Jesus calls on us to take every one of these opportunities. He calls on us to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to care for the sick, visit the prisoners and so on, and he calls on us to do these things in every way. But even if we are doing all these things, there is more !
He calls us to share his gospel in a way that is relevant, and that is interesting, and I think that means looking outside the Church to see where people are and what people respond to. I knew a wonderful Christian man who really was passionate about sharing the gospel with people. He was doing a good job of it, but where it fell down was that he believed he was the only one who was doing it right – he had deceived himself into believing that he knew all the answers, and he stopped working with his local Church or with any Church, and eventually the flame and the passion died away.
There are so many ways we can deceive ourselves into believing that we are doing the work of Jesus, and that is why we must continually ask ourselves the most difficult questions…
And that is how Jesus sums up this section as he tells his listeners about the wise man who built his house upon the rock, while the foolish man was building his house upon the sand. As we all know, when the rains came and the winds blew, it was the house of the wise man that stood firm.
The wise man had built his house upon the rock, and it is the rock that is Jesus upon which we must build our lives. It’s easy to judge ourselves by human standards and believe we’ve done enough, but he must be our only benchmark in life – he is the one who we are called to follow, and it is his standards and his ideals and his vision that we are called to follow. AMEN
In a world where sound bites seem to be particularly important, we are reminded in this evening’s gospel reading (Matthew 7:13-27) that they are not enough as Jesus offers us a series of challenges about how we respond to him, and how we live as Christians – the first is the reminder that the Christian life will be like walking through the narrow gate, when the wide gate, the gate we’re told that leads to destruction, is right alongside and much easier to get through.
For us as Christians life won’t always be easy – just as it wasn’t for Jesus. At this time of year we have enjoyed the celebration of his birth, we have enjoyed the thoughts of peace and joy that he came to bring, but he came to bring that message to a troubled world. He would be forced to make decisions which even his closest followers wouldn’t understand at times.
Today Christianity is in many ways counter cultural – it calls us to be concerned primarily with other people, not with ourselves, it calls us to care for others in a way that is way above anything that we must do, and it calls us to stand up for what is right, regardless of the cost or the issue. Those things are sadly counter to much of what our culture today suggests, a culture that encourages us to look after ourselves and those closest to us, and only as a kind of after thought to think of others, perhaps after some television appeal like Children in Need, or as a Christmas gesture of goodwill.
In his new year address, the Archbishop of Canterbury reminded us of the need to care and to look at the needs of others, as he talked about the current economic crisis, and asked us to consider the importance placed on material wealth, and to 'turn outwards' and appreciate the treasure that is our 'fellow human beings'.
The Christian faith over the centuries has seen many acts of bravery done in its name – there are the obvious examples of people such as the early followers of Jesus who chose the narrow gate risking persecution, in more recent times there have been people who have used the gospel message to stand up against child labour, slavery, apartheid, poverty, in fact all kinds of injustices…
Choosing the narrow gate is not the easy choice, but it is our only choice as we seek to share a message that is often going to be difficult and occasionally even unpopular.
And this is what Matthew goes on to write about in the gospel as he talks about the words of Jesus about the tree bearing good fruit or bad fruit. He writes, ‘you will know them by their fruits’. This morning Helen spoke about the need to be seen to be doing good things, because then people will hopefully see something of Jesus through us.
What are the fruits of our labours ? What are we really doing to make the world a better place ? We are challenged to ask ourselves these questions because again Matthew quotes Jesus offering us these challenges.
If people could ever suggest that the Bible is outdated, a book written centuries and centuries ago with no relevance for today, this series of passages stops us straight away, because we can recognise today the challenges that are being offered – how hard it is to make the right choice, and to tell people about that choice – that is the narrow gate, and how hard it is to do the right thing all of the time, that is being the tree that bears good fruit, and now Jesus talks about the need to avoid self deception.
It’s easy to justify to ourselves and even to people around us how much we’re doing for good, but what are we really doing ? We must never be deceived into believing that our Church attendance or our prayers are good enough, or that the occasional charity giving is ok, or even that we are doing our bit for sharing the gospel – hopefully we are doing these things, but they may still not be enough.
In front of us every day there are opportunities for us to do so much good and Jesus calls on us to take every one of these opportunities. He calls on us to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to care for the sick, visit the prisoners and so on, and he calls on us to do these things in every way. But even if we are doing all these things, there is more !
He calls us to share his gospel in a way that is relevant, and that is interesting, and I think that means looking outside the Church to see where people are and what people respond to. I knew a wonderful Christian man who really was passionate about sharing the gospel with people. He was doing a good job of it, but where it fell down was that he believed he was the only one who was doing it right – he had deceived himself into believing that he knew all the answers, and he stopped working with his local Church or with any Church, and eventually the flame and the passion died away.
There are so many ways we can deceive ourselves into believing that we are doing the work of Jesus, and that is why we must continually ask ourselves the most difficult questions…
And that is how Jesus sums up this section as he tells his listeners about the wise man who built his house upon the rock, while the foolish man was building his house upon the sand. As we all know, when the rains came and the winds blew, it was the house of the wise man that stood firm.
The wise man had built his house upon the rock, and it is the rock that is Jesus upon which we must build our lives. It’s easy to judge ourselves by human standards and believe we’ve done enough, but he must be our only benchmark in life – he is the one who we are called to follow, and it is his standards and his ideals and his vision that we are called to follow. AMEN
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