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Last week, I ended with the line from that Sunday's Gospel "the harvest is
plentiful, but the harvesters are few."
Then I said that we are all called to go out and do the work God has given us to do. And that if you are afraid to move forward, don't be. Because the Lord has promised to be with you. And that is reinforced in our Gospel and our Old Testament reading this morning.
There is another reason we are called to go out. That we are called to do all in our power to serve God in the world. And that is because we are not called to stay in our old ways of sin and death. We are called to move forward. We are called to be new creations in the world, not to remain in the old ways of sin and death.
We see that in Paul's words in Romans this morning. "Should we continue in Sin so that grace may abound? By no means!"
Paul is speaking to the Romans, some who would have said, "well, I've been doing this thing which is a sin, but that's okay because Jesus has got me covered with His Grace."
In response to this idea, Paul says "No! That's not the case at all." Because we are united with Christ Jesus, and so we die to sin, to our old self, to our past and move forward to be closer to God in Christ Jesus. To be servants of God, not of sin and death. To be in communion with God. And to truly be in communion with Him, we are called to follow His ways, and not our own ways that may come into conflict with God's.
Yes we have forgiveness of our sins. And that doesn't change. But Jesus Himself calls us to repentance in Matthew 4:17. We are called to turn around. We are called to leave behind our past wanderings away from God and to move forward in our new lives as we become closer to Him.
We are called to no longer be comfortable with our old selves. Our old ways. And we are called to be remade, reborn, renewed in Jesus Christ our Lord.
That is the reason behind some of the more uncomfortable bits in what we hear in the Gospel today. That Jesus has come not bring peace, but a sword. And he goes on to speak of a man being brought against his father. Or a woman her mother. Or other members our families against each other.
Then I said that we are all called to go out and do the work God has given us to do. And that if you are afraid to move forward, don't be. Because the Lord has promised to be with you. And that is reinforced in our Gospel and our Old Testament reading this morning.
There is another reason we are called to go out. That we are called to do all in our power to serve God in the world. And that is because we are not called to stay in our old ways of sin and death. We are called to move forward. We are called to be new creations in the world, not to remain in the old ways of sin and death.
We see that in Paul's words in Romans this morning. "Should we continue in Sin so that grace may abound? By no means!"
Paul is speaking to the Romans, some who would have said, "well, I've been doing this thing which is a sin, but that's okay because Jesus has got me covered with His Grace."
In response to this idea, Paul says "No! That's not the case at all." Because we are united with Christ Jesus, and so we die to sin, to our old self, to our past and move forward to be closer to God in Christ Jesus. To be servants of God, not of sin and death. To be in communion with God. And to truly be in communion with Him, we are called to follow His ways, and not our own ways that may come into conflict with God's.
Yes we have forgiveness of our sins. And that doesn't change. But Jesus Himself calls us to repentance in Matthew 4:17. We are called to turn around. We are called to leave behind our past wanderings away from God and to move forward in our new lives as we become closer to Him.
We are called to no longer be comfortable with our old selves. Our old ways. And we are called to be remade, reborn, renewed in Jesus Christ our Lord.
That is the reason behind some of the more uncomfortable bits in what we hear in the Gospel today. That Jesus has come not bring peace, but a sword. And he goes on to speak of a man being brought against his father. Or a woman her mother. Or other members our families against each other.
This isn't to say that we all should be fighting in our families. Because we shouldn't. My family, as may be the case with some of you, is the reason I am a follower of Christ Jesus. They are the ones that helped lead me to Him. They are the ones that helped me grow in the faith.
But I know others who have not had this same experience. A minister I know grew up in a family of atheists. Her joining the church, let alone becoming a minister, was a point of contention with her family. It still is at times with her siblings. But she hasn't placated her family at all. Her first allegiance is to Jesus Christ. To serving God.
It is hard for all of us to go against our families or friends. What Jesus is saying to us is not to seek to fight them, but instead for us not to get complacent. He has come to shake us out of our old ways. Our past. Our sins and faults. And so when those in our lives try to separate us from Jesus Christ, we don't chose them. We chose Jesus.
Jesus isn't calling us to stay as we are. He's calling us to follow Him. To become reborn. Renewed. Resurrected with Him. We are called to put the past behind. We are called, as Paul says, to be free of sin and death and to have new life through Christ Jesus.
This isn't to say that we won't still struggle. We will. Because we still live in a world of sin. But as Paul says in Philippians 3:12 we "press on to make it [our] own." We are called not to be complacent. We are called not to continue to live in our own ways. We are called to move forward to be God's servants in the world. And when we fall back into sin, we are called to get up once again and to continue to move forward. To continue to leave our past sins behind. We are called to move forward and follow Jesus.
And we are called to have a fire in our very bones as Jeremiah says this morning. We are called to have a zeal so powerful, it has devoured us completely, as the Psalm says. We are called to have a great passion as we follow our Lord and our God.
We are called not to follow our faith as a simple duty we fulfill once a month or
As you leave here today, I hope you go out with that passion. I hope you are able to move away from those sins and fears in your past and fully embrace our Lord Jesus Christ in your lives. And I hope that as you embrace Him, you will be renewed and restored, and in turn that you will help renew and restore all those around you.