What Are Your Priorities (Matt.16.21-28)
It’s a tough one this week isn’t it? Well at least I found it tough. When writing the sermon for this week I was hoping for one of those lovely Gospel passages. You know. The ones like, consider the Sparrows, see how your heavenly father feeds them, and you are worth more than them. Nice. Or perhaps the return of the prodigal son. Great. Love your neighbour as yourself, fantastic! But no, we’re here, with this bit of Matthew, during a pandemic, telling us about self-denial, how life is sometimes hard, and Jesus having a go at Peter. Great.
You see when trying to write this I found myself getting
deeply distracted. When there’s something you really aught to be doing, yet
your brain finds other things to do. I found myself wandering aimlessly around
the house, from one room to another at one point…
So I picked myself up, went back to my desk and tried again.
Then I found myself cleaning the sink. Again, got cross with
myself, picked myself up and went back to my desk, and tried again.
Re arranging the cups in the cupboard, ooh now that’s a good
one. Tidying my desk, I didn’t quite get to the stage of counting the paper
clips. I’m sure many of us have been there.
It occurs to me that perhaps this displacement activity is a
part of what our Bible reading today is talking about. I think this passage is
about a couple of things:
Distractions.
The cost of discipleship.
Complacency.
Wandering around the house aimlessly when you should be
writing a sermon is an example. We distract ourselves by filling our lives with
noise and activity. Or perhaps our pursuits, our careers or our family, our
hobbies.
I’m not for a moment suggesting that we need to abandon all
the things we love doing, in order to follow God, far from it. In fact I
believe the things that give us energy, give us life are Godly, provided they
don’t harm ourselves or others.
There comes a point though doesn’t there, when these things
can take over, where we need to put them on the back burner. To borrow a phrase
from the Spice Girls “so tell me what you want, what you really, really want”
is often the mantra of our society.
There is a destructive vein of individuality that runs
through our country. A sense that it is people’s God given right to do what
they want, when they want and that provided it doesn’t break the law, it’s
fine.
But that’s not the Christian way, that’s not our way.
The law, is not morality. It has been legal to own slaves,
it has been legal to pay women less than men, it has been legal to fire people
because you don’t like their skin colour, sexuality or ethnicity.
For Christians individuality, what we want, caring only
about ourselves and the things we like can only go so far. Fundamentally
Christians believe that we are accountable to God, and to each other. That we
are not made to be separate, but made to be community, in all the joy and
ugliness that can bring.
We are often driven by what we want, we are encouraged to do
so rather than what God wants us to do, and that my friends is called Sin.
The reason Jesus has a go at Peter is because he’s doing
what most of us do, he’s trying to assert his will on God’s activity, to impose
his view, and his distractions onto Jesus’ actions.
I wonder how many of us have heard people use their faith as
an excuse to do truly wicked things to one another.
Peter understandably doesn’t want his friend Jesus to die
and tells him that. I imagine it a bit like when you have a confrontation with
a dear friend.
Jesus responds that following him isn’t always about getting
what we want. Living in the distractions. It’s not about our will, but God’s. That
we have a choice, to join in or not.
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves,
take up their cross and follow me.”[1]
That’s hard. It’s hard putting aside what we want, what we
really, really want.
This is The Cost of Discipleship. As Christians we
have a calling to follow Jesus. Following him and trusting Him doesn’t mean
that we always get what we want.
Sometimes experience, puts into perspective the things that
really matter. The death of a friend or partner, a life changing illness,
perhaps a eureka moment. All of us despite being Christian have suffered in our
lives in some way.
For those of you who might be suffering now, I say to you
God’s in it. God loves you, and knows what pain is like, as he died on a cross.
Your suffering matters, and what I’m not saying is that life is easy, and we
should just get on with it.
“For those who want to save their life will lose
it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 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?”
Jesus challenges us to review our priorities. To
focus on the things that really matter.
Not the money we have in our bank accounts, not
how good our tennis serve is, not how attractive we are, not how much we’ve
achieved in our lives. None of these things save us, they might make us feel
more comfortable, but they can’t and don’t truly save or fulfil us.
So many people loose their lives to all sorts of
things. A few people in the world have so much money that they could end many
of the problems in the world, without using all of it up. Yet they choose not
to. What a sad, selfish existence that is.
We can be consumed as we are encouraged to do
with ourselves, what we want, what’s good for us, but there is another way.
The
Kingdom of God is mercy and grace,
the captives are freed, the sinners
find place,
the outcast are welcome God’s banquet to share,
and hope is awakened instead of
despair.
Words from
our final hymn, may they become our prayer.
These things don’t matter, and we need to let
them go. Enjoy the things we enjoy, but our priority should be God’s way.
By focussing on Him. On the way of the cross that
should inspire us into extraordinary things. To repent, that means to turn away,
from the sin of doing exactly what we want.
The times we are living in are hard. God
understands and advocates for us, but in the end the pointless pursuit of
individual wealth does nothing for us.
Some questions to end with:
Where do you think God is most present in your
life?
What distracts you from God?
What way do you take up the cross and follow Him?
How can you set your mind on divine things?
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