The Gospel of Our Lod Jesus Christ According to Matthew

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius^[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” ( Mt 20:1-16 )

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I had a friend who worked for an airline that was bought by another larger airline. He kept his job, for which he was thankful, but he lost the seniority he had built up with his original airline, and moved to the back of the line in the new airline. 

He lost all the perks that he had built up over his years of service.

And the fault didn’t lie with the company. 

It was a union policy.

In other words, union brothers at one airline refused to let their union brothers from the other airline be integrated into the seniority system, but insisted they be tacked on at the end.

I read of one example where a man who had been flying planes for thirty years was behind his own son in seniority after the merger.

Where is the equality, the fair treatment, the brotherliness in that?

I have no doubt, though, human nature being what it is, that  if it had been the other way around, the same thing would have happened.

The thought seems to be that  it’s good that I have the perks that come with seniority, but I don’t want you too have them too.  My  enjoyment of  my perks would be spoiled if you were to get them too.

It’s like you get to a certain level of salary in your job and you feel good about it, then you find out that someone else, who doesn’t seem to have worked as hard, or as long as you gets the same.

You have the same raise as before. You have reached the same level as before. But it just doesn’t seem that good anymore, does it?

Gore Vidal famously said, ‘It isn’t enough to succeed, others have to fail.”

It’s true, isn’t it?

Just imagine you have run in a race as hard and as fast as you can, and you break the record for that distance, then you find that all the other runners ran through the finishing tape, just as you did.

The all broke the record together.

That would  kind of spoil it wouldn’t it? 

Now I don’t wish to boast, or seem more righteous than anyone else, but I don’t fit that pattern. 

As a long time minister, I have many perks in my job.

That’s right.

I can come into the church whenever I want, and ring the bell.

I can come in and read from the big bible, anytime I want. I can – and don’t tell Marilyn – come into the church and play the organ anytime I want.

And if a new minister comes in, I don’t mind sharing my perks with him or her.

Even if they don’t have all the years that I have served.

The worker who was chosen first in the parable we heard today, said, “ I have worked all day, and got the pay I was promised, but when I find out that you have only worked one hour and got the same pay, then my pay which I thought was fair, doesn’t seem fair any more.” 

There was no unemployment insurance in those days. There was plenty of unemployment, of course, because a lot of people had been moved off their land when they couldn’t pay the taxes the Romans demanded. 

No unemployment insurance!

If you didn’t work, you didn’t eat.

If there was no work then there was no food.

Men would stand around in that hot sun, waiting for an employer to come along and choose them for a day’s labour.  If they were chosen at the beginning of the day, then their families would eat.

If they were chosen halfway through the day, then they would eat, but not so well. 

If they waited in that burning sun all day long and were not chosen, then their families would starve. 

This employer came early and took the men he thought he would need, but there was too much work for them. So he came back at noon, and then later, at three o’clock, and again at about five in the afternoon and took more workers each time. 

That was normal.

What was different was that when it  came time to pay his labourers, this man paid each of them – the ones who had worked all day, the ones who had worked only half a day, and even the men who had worked for one hour only – he paid them all a full day’s pay.

The ones who had been there the full day, and who had been paid what they had been promised, didn’t like the way this employer worked. They grumbled that the late-comers had been treated as well as those who had laboured all day. 

Does that sound like the airline union member with seniority?   The worker with twenty years experience?   Does it sound like long-time faithful workers seeing new people coming in and being treated as well as they?   And not liking it!!

It doesn’t seem fair, does it?

And we don’t like it.

Now I must say it is not like that in this church.

You may only have been a member of this church for a month and you will be just as privileged to provide for the coffee hour as someone who has been here for ten years.

And I have seen people here for the first time, helping to put away the chairs and tables after coffee hour is over.

And no one complained.

All joking aside, Jesus is saying that’s  how the kingdom of Heaven is – everyone accepted fully, and welcomed, whenever they find Him. and you know,  I am glad that’s how it is.

I am glad that when I finally came to know my Saviour,  I was accepted, forgiven and loved, as much as those who had come to know him years earlier.

I never felt that I was second class.

You know, some people die after a full life, and have had the chance to serve Him for years.  Others, die young, and consequently don’t have the same number of years to serve God.  But He loves us all the same.

The problem with us human beings is that we may have forgotten how to be grateful for his grace.   We are too busy comparing what others are getting.

The men who were chosen to work first thing in the morning had the satisfaction of knowing that they had work. They would be paid. Their families would be fed.

Those hired halfway through the day, would have experienced relief that at least they would earn something.  But imagine how those who had to wait until mid-afternoon, or just one hour before the end of the day – imagine how they felt at not being chosen.

Imagine how their hearts must have fallen each time they were passed over?

The ones who were chosen first had a lot to be thankful for, over and above their pay and  knowing what it was like not to find work, they should have been glad to see others doing alright.   

A truly grateful person can never resent another.

We might overlook the goodness that God has sent to us. We might take for granted the lovely way he has looked after us.  Sometimes, it takes seeing another’s loss to bring it home to us.

There was a couple who had lost their son in the war. They made a sizeable contribution to their church, in his memory. When the announcement about the donation was made, a woman whispered to her husband, “Let’s give the same amount for our boy. “

Her husband said, “What are you talking about? Our son wasn’t killed.”

“That’s just the point,” she said, “Let’s give it as an expression of our gratitude to God for sparing our son.”

Let’s be grateful for what God has done for us,

Let’s do our best to help others find His love and Grace – just as we have.

The story that Jesus told to illustrate the kingdom of God,  is a great story, isn’t it?   It guarantees all of us a welcome into the kingdom, however early, or however late we arrive.

And it behooves us all to point the way for others.  And to rejoice with them when they find it. 

No matter how late in the day.

AMEN.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew,

Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.  When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made.

So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’
And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.  But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’      Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.
When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place.

Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’
 And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.

So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18:21-35 )

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The narrative  that preceded this week’s Old Testament lesson told us  of the cries of the Israelites when they were trapped between the sea and the Egyptian army. How they blamed Moses, and God and wished they had never left Egypt.

This week we read how God took pity on them, causing strong winds to blow on the waters of the sea and the waters to separate so they could cross safely.

The story of the Hebrews in the wilderness is one of deliverance, rebelliousness, forgiveness, drifting away from God, being welcomed back, sinning, forgiveness – just like the lives of many of us, don’t you think.

I used to think the Hebrews were an ungrateful lot. I used to think they were whiners in the bad times and arrogant so and so’s  when things went well.

Then I realised that the story of their struggle is an allegory of the struggle of each of us as we live our lives.

We too whine and blame God when things go wrong, and yet when things go well, we tend to take the credit ourselves.

We drift away from Him, and when we wander back, beaten down, remorseful, sorry about what we have done, He welcomes us back.

And isn’t it good to come back?  Isn’t it good when we know we are forgiven, and loved and wanted?

The Christian knows that, but what about those who don’t wander back?  What happens to them?

The story is told  in Spain of a father and his teenage son whose relationship had become strained.  So the son ran away  from home. 

The father, broken-hearted,  began to search for the rebellious boy.  Finally, in Madrid, in a last desperate attempt to find him, the father took an ad in the newspaper.

The ad read: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon. All is forgiven. I love you.   Your father.”

The next day 800 Paco’s showed up outside the newspaper office.

Seeking forgiveness and love from their fathers.

And there were 799 fathers somewhere, too arrogant, or too unforgiving, or too lost themselves, to make the effort to be reconciled with their children.

I don’t know why children and parents fall out.  There seems to be a  different reason in every case.

But one lesson that we parents have to learn is something that Paul tells us in this week’s epistle. 

He is talking to people who have ‘fallen out’ over some religious ritual.

“Hey,”  he says, “ Some abstain from eating meat to glorify God, while others eat it  for the same reason.  Why should one treat the other as if he were a sinner?”

If you act one way to glorify God, and she acts another way to glorify God, then that’s fine.  Both are glorifying God.

He is saying in effect,  “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”    Don’t be too quick to judge each other. As God is not  quick to judge us.  

Jesus tells the story of one man who had done wrong against his boss, and was forgiven.

He was happy to have been let off. He had panicked and groveled, and cried for forgiveness and his boss had relented and forgiven him.

But what lesson did he learn?

He must have learned the wrong lesson. He may have thought, “Oh, he forgave me because I am such a good worker. He forgave me because I am valuable to him. Because I am special. Or, I am such a good persuader.”

That must have been the lesson he learned  – wrong! – because when he was in the position of  deciding whether or not he should  forgive someone,  he  had them  thrown into prison.   But he hadn’t been forgiven because of any personal virtue. He was forgiven because his boss took pity on him.

If he had figured that out, then he might have been a bit more forgiving of the man who offended him.

It’s hard to know how he couldn’t see it.  Everything was out in the open, wasn’t it?    Most often,  our sins are committed in secret.

It is so easy to secretly destroy a reputation by passing on something and saying that  you were only repeating what someone else told you.

It is so easy to lie about your circumstances when someone has asked you for help.   “ I am sorry. I am tapped right out.”  No-one really knows.  

There are, of course,  many ways we can sin in private,  away from the eyes of others, and still present a face of virtue to the world.  No-one need know.

And aren’t we glad, because we have all done something that we don’t want anyone else to know about?

There was a movie called, “We Know What You Did Last Summer.”

The idea  must have come from a real incident which happened fifty or so years ago, when  two girls sent an anonymous letter to a man, saying simply, “ We know what you did.” 

They weren’t aware of anything wrong that this man had done. It was just a silly joke

But the man committed suicide.

I wonder how any of us would feel  if  we thought our worst sins were public knowledge?

One welcome result might be that people would stop criticising others.  We can only criticize when we appear to be virtuous.    

That poor man  would not have killed himself if he had known that our sins don’t need to be there, even in the secrecy of our heart.  We are told that  because of what Jesus did,  then our sins can not only be forgiven, but they will be forgotten

Forgotten!

That comes about when we are once again in a loving relationship with God.

And if we are in a loving relationship with God then we won’t want to judge others.

In fact we will be forgiving and forgetting the sins of others as ours have been forgiven and forgotten.

Because we will want to be back in a loving relationship with them too.

It sounds so simple, doesn’t it?

I forgive you,  you forgive them, they forgive others, and so on.

Imagine if the sins of the Croatians against the Serbs, and the sins of the Serbs against the Croatians, and  the sins of the Albanians against the Serbs, and the sins of the Serbs against the Albanians had been forgiven – years ago – the tragedies of Bosnia and Kosovo would have been avoided.

Imagine if the sins of the Israelis against the Palestinians and the sins of the Palestinians against the Israelis, and the Catholic Irish against the Protestant Irish and the Protestant Irish against the Catholics, and so on had been forgiven. 

Instead, it has been like the famous feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys, hasn’t it?

That feud lasted for decades. Somewhere in the mountains of the southern United States.  It went something like  – ‘You killed my brother because my cousin killed your uncle, so I am going to kill you, and you will try to kill me, and if you do my father will kill you,’ and so on.

Whole peoples have been behaving that way haven’t they?    But in  broken relationships between nations, just as between individuals, someone has got to be the one who says, “Stop. It’s  enough.”

That’s what God did, didn’t he. He said, “ Enough is enough. This has got to stop!”   

And he stepped in Himself, in the person of Jesus to show us how love and forgiveness work.

And  love and forgiveness do work!

If given the chance.

Here is a lovely poem by George Roemisch published years ago, titled ‘Forgiveness.’

Forgiveness is the windblown bud which blooms in placid beauty at Verdun.

Forgiveness is the tiny slate-gray sparrow which has built its nest of twigs and string among the shards of glass on the wall of shame.

Forgiveness is the child who laughs in merry ecstasy beneath the toothed fence that closes in  D

a Nang .

Forgiveness is the fragrance of the violet which still clings fast to the heel of the shoe that crushed it.

Forgiveness is the broken dream which hides itself within the corner of the mind oft called forgetfulness, so it will not bring pain to the dreamer.

Forgiveness is the reed which stands up straight and green when nature’s mighty rampage halts, full spent.

Forgiveness is a God who will not leave us after all we’ve done.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A Reading from Romans

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. (Rom. 13:8-14;)
 

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Let love be your only debt. That lovely advice from the Romans reading is something that should be included in every wedding service, and reiterated by every marriage counselor.

The writer is saying that if we love others then we have done all that is expected of us.

But then he admonishes us not to behave badly.   Which is a bit puzzling. Right after giving us the ultimate advice – do everything out of love  basically – we are now being told what we must or must not do – and reminded about the law – which we were told we would fulfill just by loving others.

Can that be because Paul knows that loving others, and consequently acting properly is not easy to do?

Could it be that wanting to love others, wanting to act properly is something that doesn’t come  – a change that doesn’t take place  – like lightning, but rather is an evolving thing?

We evolve into being good examples of  Jesus-followers – Christians.

I  have read about people being changed overnight, and I have met some. I myself came back to the church because of a change that took place in my own heart, seemingly instantaneously. 

Looking back later though, I could see that there was a number of  influences that gradually coalesced, and eventually guided me back to Christ. 

It didn’t happen just like that.

Rather, like you, I have become painfully aware that living a Christian life is a struggle. It isn’t something we can achieve right away.  

It helps that we are part of a church community. It helps that we consciously try to live better.

It’s a good thing if our partner is also trying to live as a Christian. One can help the other.

But boy, sometimes it seems like one step forward and two steps back.

On the good days, though, it is two steps forward and one step back. That’s how we like, it isn’t it?  

We become disciples gradually, as every day we try to be purer, calmer, more patient, more loving, than we were the previous day.

The trouble is, that immersed in this world, we sometimes absorb, by osmosis, it seems, the world’s ways of doing  things. 

It’s a fast paced place.

It needs people who can think on their feet, get things done.  Aggressive people!

The adjective most often used in advertising for executive positions is “aggressive.” 

You had better be aggressive if you want to be a manager, or a salesman.

But is aggressiveness  an ideal Christian trait? 

I don’t think so. The people I remember as being good Christians always seemed to have lots of patience. They were the opposite of aggressive.

But I  met an aggressive Christian once. He wasn’t from one of the mainline denominations. He knocked at my door one Friday when I was trying to write my sermon, and falling behind schedule.

When I answered the door, he said, “Good day, can we (he had a colleague) spend a few minutes with you to tell you about salvation?”

I said, “Well, I think I know about salvation, and I am very busy, and I don’t have time  to get into a big discussion about faith right now.”

“So you don’t want to be saved?” the other one asked.

“Well I think I am saved.” I said.

“I don’t think so,” said the first.” You need to listen to what we have to say.”

“So you are the only one who knows the secret?” I asked.

“ We have the key to salvation,” he said.

I said,  “Well, I don’t have time to dispute that right now, so would you please leave?”

The second one then leaned forward, (they made no attempt to leave) and said  something to the effect that I obviously didn’t care about what happened to my soul, and that I was headed for somewhere horrible.

It took me a long time to get them off my porch, I tell you. I was becoming aggressive myself, if you must know.

That young man may have been a salesman in his secular job, and he may have been using techniques that were valued in that job.   And which he felt should be used in persuading pagans to convert. 

He was determined to close a deal!

But that’s the point, isn’t it?   The things that are valued in this world are not necessarily what make a good Christian.

And yet we may have so slipped into the world’s ways without knowing it.

Sometimes, it may take another Christian to show us where we go wrong.

I will show you what I mean, by means of a I found a sketch on the web by Dave Marsh : I will play all three parts.  

It goes like this:

Jim was busy at work, his was a busy desk, and he had just taken a call from his minister, where they discussed livening up the Bible Study that Jim was leading at his church. 

He then began dictating a letter to his admin assistant, Donna, but was soon interrupted by a call from his wife reminding him that he hadn’t bought a gift for his father, whose birthday was coming up soon.

He was a little bit tetchy with his wife. She had already reminded him about his dad many times.  He finally told her to get anything she wanted and wrap it.

Then he got back to the letter, which was to a supplier. Jim was drawing their attention to the fact they had shipped two computers less than ordered and invoiced. 

Jim suggested to admin assistant  Donna that they should say the shipment was short shipped three.  Not two.   

As he was doing the letter with Donna, a pretty young woman, named Tina came in with a message, smiled, and complimented Jim on his tie.  “You look good today, Jim,” she said.

Jim reacted to the compliment from this pretty young woman, as you might expect, and had to be reminded to come back to the matter at hand by Donna.

When he had finished dictating the letter, he asked Donna to read it back to him.

This is what she read:

Dear Mr. Johnson. I’m writing you this letter in regard to the last shipment of Pentium machines. It appears that I  – am rude to my wife on the phone and that the shipment of July 1^st was in error. We ordered 17 Pentium 450 meg processors and our clerk Tina only received – inappropriate flirting from me – 15 processors – even though I’d like my assistant to lie and say 14. –  Please contact me with any questions. I expect the missing 3 – but really 2-  machines here on Monday. Best regards, Jim Davis.

Jim jumped up, “Donna?” he cried out, “Are you crazy? Don’t you know the difference between what you’re supposed to say and not say? Between the good stuff and the bad stuff?”

Donna said, “ Funny, I was going to ask you the same question.

Paul’s advice about coping with the world is to “Let the Lord Jesus Christ be as near to you as the clothes you wear. Then you won’t try to satisfy your selfish desires.”

And you will mind what you do, even if you don’t expect to be caught out.

Amen.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life^[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” ( Mt 16: 21-28)

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I was preparing to do a communion service at a hospital once, and as I waited for the chronically ill patients to be brought in, I found myself standing next to a man immobile, in a wheelchair.

I knew him as a retired United church minister.

Although he wasn’t able to move, I could see from his face that he was bothered about something so I leaned over to hear him whisper, ” Now you won’t leave me out there not knowing what is going on, will you?”

I wondered what he meant at first, then I realized that the noise and bustle of preparing the service, people talking, the organist quietly practicing a hymn – all these sounds had taken him back to when he was a minister.

And the feeling of having to participate. And of being unprepared!

It is everyone’s worst nightmare isn’t it,.to be in front of people, to have to address them, and to be totally unprepared.

In a study that was taken, the top of the list of what people feared the most, was speaking in public. The second item on the list was a fear of dying.

So people would rather die than speak in public.

At that moment, this man, he must have been ninety if a day, and a stroke victim, was ready – albeit nervously – to serve his God, as he had for goodness knows how many years, if only he were prepared.

The phrase `faithful unto death,’ comes to mind, doesn’t it?

Jesus says in today’s Gospel that those who want to become his followers must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him.

I imagine that old man had taken up his cross many, many years ago and never put it down.

You must deny yourself, Jesus also says.

To be a Christian means to deny what “we” want and do what “He” wants.

In my home town there was a woman doctor by the name of Dr. Skelly. She didn’t look like a doctor. She wore laddered nylons, and broken down shoes, and I imagine her car was older than she was.

Some people used to laugh at how she was, behind her back.

It turned out that Dr. Skelly only took out of her salary enough for the bare essentials. She gave the rest to those who had nothing. She didn’t care what people thought about her appearance.

That’s what it means to deny what “you” want, and do what “He” wants.

Then Jesus says, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

When Matthew wrote this Gospel, the church was in the midst of a terrible persecution. Christians were being killed just for being Christians.

But you could save your life by renouncing Christ.

An eighty year old bishop of the church was told he was to be questioned the next day about his faith, and that if he didn’t deny Jesus, he would die.

His friends begged him to do as he was asked.

He said, ” In all these years I have known Jesus he has never let me down. I can’t let him down, now.”

It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? It’s something that we have never had to face.

But there are pressures in this world to renounce Christ. Admittedly not as extreme as those.

We can’t get children into Sunday School because of hockey, baseball, skating, or whatever. People can’t make church because of having to work on Sundays. A late night on Saturday, means missing church next day. You can’t fill a Bible-study class because people are too busy.

Television, movies on video, computer games, even the internet – I read somewhere the other day that the biggest problem with the internet is that there is just too much material available – there’s not enough time in the day, the article said.

A million things compete for our time, and call us away from Christ.

We just don’t see it. Because it’s just natural to do what everyone else is doing, isn’t it?

Jesus faced temptation to do what the world expected.

You will remember that in the wilderness, Jesus was tempted by Satan to take the way of power. ” Give them bread ,” he said, “Give them, sensation. Give them wonders and they will follow you.”

Jump from the height of the temple. You will live, and imagine how people will turn to you after something like that.

“Compromise with the world, reduce your standards, and they will follow you.”

Jesus didn’t give in to temptation, of course.

But when Satan ended his efforts to tempt Jesus, there in the wilderness, Luke said,” He departed from Him until an opportune time.”

Satan would be back.

And there were opportune times. I imagine.

Like in the Garden of Gethsemane.

When Jesus was looking toward the cross.

Let’s face it, no-one wants a cross. No-one wants to die.

And now not too long before that Gethsemane moment Satan uses Peter to try to talk him out of doing what his Father asked him to do.

I don’t think Jesus said, “Get thee behind me Satan,” in anger, but rather in sorrow.

But Jesus could call Peter, `Satan’ because anything that deflects us from the way of God….. is Satan – the Adversary,

Anything that makes us turn back from the hard way that God has set before us…… is Satan.

Any power which seeks to put human desires in front of wanting to serve God….. is Satan.

Satan used Peter’s love of Jesus to try and turn him away.

Peter wanted to protect Jesus, as we all want to protect the ones we love.

I am sure that most of us with grown up children have tried in our love, to protect them from the world, even if they are old enough to go out and look after themselves.

Real love encourages us to fulfill our destiny. Not to protect us unnecessarily.

What really wounded Jesus’ heart and what made him speak as he did was that the tempter spoke to him through the fond… but mistaken love… of Peter’s impulsive heart.

Jesus was going to give up his life and Peter wanted to stop him.

Brooks Philips was a man, famous for many achievements who was even better-known for the help he extended to many people – he was always there, and had always been there – a phone call away – and he died an early death.

Someone said that he could have lived much longer except that he gave so much of himself to others. They asked why didn’t somebody stop him so he could have a longer life?

The response was, “Ah but he would not have been Brooks Philips then, would he?”

You might say that Brooks Philips had taken up a cross, and never put it down.

Jesus talked about taking up a cross didn’t he? He didn’t mean it literally, of course, it means to take up a life of sacrifice.

Joel Osteen, the current popular television evangelist doesn’t preach a life of sacrifice. He preaches a life of good things which come from following Jesus. A prosperity Gospel!

Follow Jesus and you will be prosperous and happy, and so on.

But according to Jesus himself, the Christian life is a life of sacrifice.

Anybody who has been a warden, a treasurer, a Sunday School teacher, a fund-raiser, a group leader, and so on, knows that.

You have often had to sacrifice a quiet hour by the fireside, or time with family to do what had to be done.

It’s a good job there have been, and are, real Christians like that, ready to sacrifice, or many a church would have been gone years ago.

It shouldn’t surprise us, that the Christian way is the way of sacrifice, should it? After all, we are called Christians because we follow Jesus…… we follow our leader.

Do you remember that game we played as children, called Follow the Leader? You had to do everything the leader did. Remember that game? There’s a grown up version, did you know?

I remember once, standing in line in the service club, when I was in the Air Force. I played a silly game of follow your leader.

A young lady, standing behind the counter was talking to a friend and waving her arms as she talked. I copied what she was doing. And my friends laughed, waiting to see what she would do when she saw me mimicking her.

Isn’t that annoying, when someone does that? Mimic you?

But she didn’t get angry ……… she just struck a very sexy pose, and I of course, red-faced, didn’t mimic that in front of my buddies.

The laugh was on me!

There’s no fear of being caught doing something that’s not right when we follow Jesus.

But being a Christian does call for us to follow a leader who sacrificed all. We know that don’t we?

Was it the opportunity to sacrifice that brought you to your church?

And what about those who don’t attend church? What would attract them?

Should we tell them that yours is a nice easy church and you can sit back and don’t have to do much. Just show up on Sundays and drop your envelope onto the plate. That would be the extent of your involvement.

Or should we say: It’s a church where you are expected to attend, and, as far as you can, to make an offering to support your church, but that in addition, you will be asked to help in a ton of other ways: teaching Sunday School, reading, carrying a chalice, providing coffee hour, serving around the altar, right through to helping clean up the grounds.

Oh, and not to mention providing a casserole when a family needs help.

Or to drive someone to the doctor’s office.

Because church is family, and everyone in a family helps, don’t they? It’s not much of a family where no-one helps.

I wonder which type of church would bring in more people? The one which doesn’t ask for that sort of commitment or the one that does?

I know what that old minister, in the wheelchair would say, if he could. Even at ninety years old.

I think he’d tell us that that the church which has expectations of its members is one that breeds commitment. And that commitment breeds growth.

So, pray with me, that we can follow Jesus in a life-long… and life-giving…. commitment. Sacrificing, and following, and resisting the temptation to take the easy way.

“For the Son of Man is coming in great glory and he will repay everyone for what has been done.”

Amen.