from Helen
I have recently discovered a real like of football. Now to be honest a real like might seem strange as I have admitted to having a team that I support. I have said that I don’t really like watching football but then I find that due to my family I know a lot about football. I recently went to a live international match of Wales women against Bosnia women this has grown into a group of us from work following the wales women to the extent that we have already planned a trip to the final world cup qualifying game. It turns out I really like football. The problem is I have probably always had a soft spot for football but now I have admitted it I can remember all the matches that I have watched and enjoyed.
One match was watching Liverpool at Anfield when a member of the opposing team did something wrong. This something wrong caused me to jump and shout, “He can’t do that, he can’t do that.” This was a fair judgment I thought but just in case I sat back down and checked with Ian that I was right. Ian said I was and this of course led to me jumping again and shouting this time, “See, he can’t do that, see he can’t do that.” I have to admit Liverpool lost that match but I discovered that at football I have the right to make a judgment.
I was thinking of all of this when I looked at our epistle reading (2 Cor. 5:6-17) for this morning. In that reading the people were reminded that Jesus is the one who judges and then Paul who wrote this epistle explained to the people that he hoped they noticed that he was working for God, that he and those working with him were well known to their consciences.
Paul wanted the people to know that it was the way that he and they lived as followers of Jesus that was most important, and so in the epistle we heard about the right way to live. We heard about the difference God makes in our lives and it is all found in the way that now we are changed people as we follow Jesus so we have to live lives like Jesus. Lives where we don’t judge others or see ourselves as better believers.
The Corinthian believers were told that their lives had changed and this meant that life was no longer about them and what they thought they knew, that it was no longer just about what they could see but about what they believed. These words are for us as well. How do we live our lives as followers and believers ?Do we see ourselves as better believers than one another ? Do we judge ?
The way we are to live is to walk by faith not by sight as we heard in the epistle reading. We are to live lives that are so changed by God that we are willing to take risks for Him.
There is a well known story of a tightrope walker in America, who would dotightrope acts at ridiculously scary heights. He would add to his routine by walking the tightrope blindfolded and then he would go across the tightrope, blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow. An American promoter read about this in the papers and wrote a letter to the tightrope walker, saying, “ I don't believe you can do it, but I'm willing to make you an offer. For a very substantial sum of money, besides all your transportation fees, I would like to challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls." The tightrope artist agreed, as he walked across the tightrope he did it blindfolded and everyone, of course, cheered.
He then shouted out to the Promoter, “ now do you believe I can do it?" "Well of course I do. I just saw you do it." "No," said the Tightrope walker, "do you really believe I can do it?" "Well of course I do, you just did it." ""Good," replied the Tightrope walker, "then you get in the wheel barrow."
That tightrope walker had the faith in himself to walk the tightrope. In the epistle reading we heard that we are to let God change us and our lives so much that we walk by faith and not by sight.
This seems a really odd thing to say but what it means is that all we do we do for God and we have faith that even when things are falling down all around us we can trust that somehow God is there.
When we see awful things around us we know we walk by faith, God gives us the strength to carry on. I was talking to someone recently who was having a difficult time. He said that he had been told when under stress to take a day at a time but at the moment an hour at a time was tough enough.
I like to think that in the middle of all our tough times God is with us giving theenergy and strength to put our foot forward hour by hour to walk by faith.
Walking by faith does mean of course that we are trying to be more and more like God. To leave the judging to Him and to be pushed onwards by His love. A love which makes us want to love others even when it is hard, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense. To forgive each other, to help and accept one another and in all of it to know that we have been changed.
After all as we heard at the end of the epistle reading we are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come. This means we are to rejoice that we are new that we are to live as people for whom life has changed. We walk by faith knowing that we love not judge and all because we are brand new and we can keep going to God and asking Him to help us to be more like Him day by day.
May we walk by faith not by sight, and may we be transformed daily into a new creation. AMEN
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