Love God Above All
Based on Matthew 10:24-39
Delivered to CCH on June 25, 2017
Hymns: Come and Find the Quiet Center, Trust
and Obey, I Have Decided to Follow Jesus
Matthew 10:24-39
10:24 "A disciple is not above the
teacher, nor a slave above the master;
10:25 it is enough for the disciple to be like
the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of
the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
10:26 "So have no fear of them; for
nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will
not become known.
10:27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in
the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
10:28 Do not fear those who kill the body but
cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in
hell.
10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
10:30 And even the hairs of your head are all
counted.
10:31 So do not be afraid; you are of more
value than many sparrows.
10:32 "Everyone therefore who
acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in
heaven;
10:33 but whoever denies me before others, I
also will deny before my Father in heaven.
10:34 "Do not think that I have come to
bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
10:35 For I have come to set a man against his
father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law;
10:36 and one's foes will be members of one's
own household.
10:37 Whoever loves father or mother more than
me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me;
10:38 and whoever does not take up the cross
and follow me is not worthy of me.
10:39 Those who find their life will lose it,
and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Hello, my name is Darci Strutt McQuiston and I
am one of the Lay Speakers of the United Methodist Church up on the hill. It is my honor to be here speaking with you
today.
The Gospel lesson in this Sunday’s lectionary
is a little unsettling, and I hesitated to take it on. It has some important thoughts within it for
us, so I decided to give it a go. The
lessons I’m hoping to bring you from this reading are:
Love God above family
Love God above life
Love God above all
Love God above family
10:34 "Do not think that I have come to
bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
10:35 For I have come to set a man against his
father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law;
10:36 and one's foes will be members of one's
own household.
10:37 Whoever loves father or mother more than
me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me;
In the past I have thought this scripture to
be unreasonable. Is Jesus really asking
us to give up our family? We need to
turn that question around. Does our
family ever ask us to give up following Jesus?
I was blessed to be brought up in a Christian
home. We went to church, my mother was
the church choir director, my father served on multiple committees, and the
Sunday rule was you didn’t get to go out for breakfast if you didn’t either
teach or attend Sunday School.
You would think there would never be an issue
within my family that would test this scripture, but there was. Not a relationship breaking one, but one of
some conflict. My eldest brother decided
religion was a virus of the mind, and felt intelligent people should realize
this and evolve to a higher level and leave such superstitions behind. We have love for each other as siblings, but
he and his family don’t come for Easter or Christmas services.
Even in Christian homes there can be conflict
if a child becomes too zealous. I’m not
100% sure my parents would have supported me becoming a pastor instead of
following my career in computer science.
My own daughter has spoken of going out into the mission field, and my
protective mothering side needs to work to keep the “don’t go” at a quiet
level. She is willing to die serving,
and I’m much more interested in having her live a very long comfortable life,
with multiple children – grandchildren for me, as she serves God.
Sometimes the sword is a gentle pull away from
where you feel called to be.
Love God above life
10:38 and whoever does not take up the cross
and follow me is not worthy of me.
10:39 Those who find their life will lose it,
and those who lose their life for my sake will find it
The companion lectionary scripture from Romans
brings out this same theme.
6:3 Do you not know that all of us who have
been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
6:4 Therefore we have been buried with him by
baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life.
6:5 For if we have been united with him in a
death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like
his.
6:6 We know that our old self was crucified
with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be
enslaved to sin.
6:7 For whoever has died is freed from sin.
6:8 But if we have died with Christ, we
believe that we will also live with him.
6:9 We know that Christ, being raised from the
dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
6:10 The death he died, he died to sin, once
for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
6:11 So you also must consider yourselves dead
to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
This puts life and death in a different
perspective. If we understand we are
already living in eternity then fear of death should be behind us. Death has already been overcome.
I had a coworker pass away from cancer this
spring. She said as she continued to
fight the disease, “I do not fear dying, but I’m not ready to die yet.” She trusted she would be in God’s hands when
she died, but also saw life as precious.
I find wisdom in her words. Life
is very precious and I believe we are here for a purpose. Our time on earth should be a time of
learning and growing our talents so we can fulfil that purpose. This scripture is a reminder that being alive
to God is the greater life. That life is
not limited by our earthly body.
Love God above all
10:28 Do not fear those who kill the body but
cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in
hell.
10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
10:30 And even the hairs of your head are all
counted.
10:31 So do not be afraid; you are of more
value than many sparrows.
Peer pressure works so well because we have a
survival instinct that tells us we need our tribe. We have a strong need to feel loved and
accepted. Here in our little pocket of
world it is very rare to have our life threatened because of our belief in
Jesus Christ as the way to God, but it has happened in our country. Probably more likely is to be afraid of what our
friends with think about us if we get too “churchy”. Most peer pressure falls away when we get a
strong sense of ourselves and our own beliefs, but often there is still that
nudge that wants approval from outside.
We need to feel love.
This scripture makes it sound like you need to
be a fighter, but that isn’t what it is saying.
It is setting the expectation that following Jesus will not be supported
by everyone. There may be loss a of
friends and family due to their pulling back, not because you are supposed to
pull back. Our call is to continue to
love.
1 John 4:19-21 “19 We love because he first
loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a
liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen,
cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command:
Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
We are much loved. Romans 8:38-39 tells us, “38 For I am sure
that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord.”
God lets nothing stand in the way of His love
for us. The question for us from this
passage is, how are we doing at loving Him back? Do not be afraid to love God openly and
fully.
In Matthew 22:36-40 a Pharisee asked;
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it:
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All
the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
It is what we are called to work toward.
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment