Fish or get out of the boat
Our two passages before us today couldn’t be more different. One is a story of Peter, once more, getting it wrong. Paul’s letter to the Romans is almost a laundry list of living for Jesus. I propose they are more related than we think. Matthew paints a bold background of what it means to follow Jesus.
Jesus was headed to Jerusalem to die but Peter thought that was
a horrible idea and told Jesus so. I’m pleased to hear Jesus does not give in
to Peter but called him to account, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a
hindrance” v23. This is because Jesus’ call is for us to follow Him to
death—Yes, eternal life. But death nonetheless because that is the very meaning
of ‘taking up a cross’.
Four hundred years before Christ the Persians came upon the
Greek city-state and came to a pass called Thermopylae. Here 300 Spartans faced
off against Xerxes. Observers went forward in the pass and found the Greeks “brushing
their long hair and doing calisthenics and other such things (McGuiggan)” which
Xerxes was told, was in preparation for their death. Herodias reports that
Xerxes sought out Demaratus, a former Spartan king, in camp with him who said,
“O, king. Hear then now also: these men have come to fight with us for the passage, and this is it that they are preparing to do; for they have a custom which is as follows: whenever they are about to put their lives in peril, they attend to the arrangement of their hair (Herodias 7.209)".
These 300 went on this mission aware that they were not going
to survive. They walked away from their families and sons knowing they’d never
see them again. They left the homes and lives they’d made never to see them
again. And these were pagans.
This is the call of God on our lives. This is the command of
Christ and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, it is our commission to bear up,
trudge forward, in the bold attempt to be like our Lord—Jesus.
Ever-present Sin
What keeps us from doing this is the fact that we are sinners.
Sin is part of our DNA at birth and we affirm our desire to sin daily as we
commit acts of sin and refuse to do acts of love. Theologically they are sins
of commission and sins of omission.
Our sin impedes our willingness to follow Christ not Christ’s
command to pick up the cross and follow. In the world most people, a huge
majority never think about sin at all. Doing what is wrong brings ‘shame’ upon
their family. Misbehavior is labeled as non-patriotic, giving in to bad influences,
or denying the political will of those in power. This is true of many here in
the U.S. as well, as fewer and fewer people have any religious knowledge
We who use that sin often deal with it by denial, pointing
fingers at others or the world around us, or comparing our sin to other’s sin.
What is different is that we should be aware of the pain our sin causes our
Lord. I the Bible, Moses is sheltered by God’s hand as YHWH walks by and
although alive, his face glowed, so as to scare the rest of the Israelites.
Isaiah is facedown before the throne of YHWH and says, “Woe is me! For I am
lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6:5. And
Elijah seeking God is confronted with the creator in a whispering small voice.
Hearing this 1 Kings 19:13 says, “When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face
in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.”
When we area confronted with that life-changing moment instead
of humbling ourselves and admitting our situation we are like those who try to
grab their carryon baggage while the plane is on fire around them. That
happened when a British Airways plane caught fire on the ground in Las Vegas.
Photos showed people coming from the smoke “holding purses, flip-flop sandals,
rolling bags and shoulder bags (Gold).” Weiss, an aircraft safety person summed
it up well saying, “We put more value in possessions than common sense and the
reality of what happens (ibid).”
Ever-present God
Being a sinner is a fact but the gospel, literally ‘good
news’ is that God present as well and, in His presence, He offers us a chance
to live as His people. Confession is our admission that God is correct—about
us, our world, our future, our past, and everything else. God is right and
correct and we are not. Thus, when Moses is sheltered by God’s hand as He passes,
and an angel brings a coal to touch Isaiah’s lips we see God’s provision for
sinfulness. How much greater is that seen in Jesus, carrying His cross through
the streets of Jerusalem to the hill, outside the gates where He is executed.
Along with confession we often hear the word ‘repentance’. The
most common definition is to literally ‘turn around and go the way you were
going’. In today’s language, you might use, ‘recalculating’. It becomes real,
life-changing and world-shaking when we live the life Paul describes in our
Romans 12 passage. Repentance has an inherent danger in becoming a source of
pride and therefore ‘works.’ We run a risk when we make ‘changing our life’ all
about us changing our life when we didn’t have the power to turn
to Christ in the first place.
Romans 12:9-21gives us a laundry list of what a life that
confesses one’s sin and Christ’s Lordship looks like. I believe “Let love be
genuine” v.9 is the general command of Paul to the Roman church. It fits
with Jesus’ greatest commandment. What follows is a list of what genuine love
looks like. I came up with 19 positive actions in the ESV. Let me give you my
top three failures—"be
patient in tribulation” v. 12. “never avenge yourself” v. 19. And my favorite, “live in harmony” v.16. Do I have the others down? Not at all. But these three are ones
that seem to float to the top of the scum pond of my life.
Let me offer some
general thoughts on living with an ever-present God. First, admit you are a
screw-up and that God loves you still. Part of this is recognizing that our sin
is what killed Jesus. Our sin is what is shown in the scars from the thorns
shoved down on His head and in the torn flesh of His back.
Second, be reminded,
by coming to Christ, and admitting there is little you can do and even want to do
to change. Apart from the Power of the Holy Spirit. You might take stock of
your life and see what leads you to fall into sin but, except in very small,
rare situations we will never overcome sin by our own willingness.
Third is that we are
to rely on God’s love because it is His love, demonstrated on the cross by
God’s Son, Jesus, who dwells in our hearts as the Holy Spirit who destroys the
outcome of sin for eternity. Sometimes we think that all we need to know is
“Jesus loves me, this I know…” but Christ’s love involves carrying a cross
toward death. His love doesn’t comfort us like a warm fuzzy blanket. It’s an
AED, a defibrillator, an epi shot, or Narcan designed to keep us alive, bring
us back from the dead, and give us a life worth living. May we discover His
power to grab hold our cross and follow after our Lord, lets pray.
Works Cited
Gold, Ashley. "The Fury Over 'Hand Luggage' Plane
Evacuees." BBC News. 2015. Web. 28 Aug. 2020.
Herodotus. Herodotus, Histories. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2013. Print.
McGuiggan, Jim. God of the Towel. New York: Howard Books,
2014. Print.
Works Consulted
Benedict. Great Christian Thinkers. Minneapolis, MN:
Fortress Press, 2011. Print.
Gold, Ashley. "The Fury Over 'Hand Luggage' Plane
Evacuees." BBC News. 2015. Web. 28 Aug. 2020.
Herodotus. Herodotus, Histories. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2013. Print.
Heuertz, Christopher L. Simple Spirituality: Learning to See
God In A Broken World. IVP, 2009. Print.
Hoffman, Michael. Emperor's Club. Universal Pictures, 2002.
film.
Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. New York: Walker & Co.,
1987. Print.
McGuiggan, Jim. God of the Towel. New York: Howard Books,
2014. Print.
Vassallo, Wanda. "Little Boy Just Wants to Go
Home." Preaching Today. Web. 28 Aug. 2020.
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