I Peter 5:6-11

6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. 8 Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. 10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

This passage was written to Christians in the ancient world who were well aware they could be arrested and imprisoned, or worse because they were followers of Jesus. The path to security was to rest in God – vs. 6 – humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand; vs. 7 – give your anxiety to God, This leads in vs. 9 to the call to be steadfast (faithful) in their faith. Their faithfulness, steadfastness was rooted in their resting in God.

Sometimes being faithful is not about advancing, sometimes being faithful is not about new ventures, sometimes being faithful is about standing firm where we are and holding on. As vs. 10 makes clear the faithfulness of the readers will find a response of blessing from God who will restore and strengthen. The readers of this passage, including us, do not need to do the restoring and strengthening – instead we are simply to remain steadfast in the faith and know that God will see us through.

In many ways the church in North America is at this moment. We are told again and again that we should be growing, that by our efforts we should be drawing new people into the church. Maybe the call is to stand firm, to be steadfast and faithful to Jesus, and God will do the party of drawing people to Jesus. If we remain steadfast and faithful, God will do the part to “restore, support, strengthen and establish”.

And so we are back to the start of the passage – resting in God: humbling ourselves before God, trusting God with our fears and anxieties. Having faith in Jesus, trusting him, makes it possible to be faithful to Jesus, standing firm, being steadfast.

PRAYER:

O Lord, help us to trust your Son Jesus Christ, and to trust you, and to trust that you will send us the Holy Spriit – to trust so that we might be faithful. To trust so that we can stand firm. In Jesus’ name. Amen.  

Matthew 10: 32-39

32 ‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

34 ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

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;
36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

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; 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

To say we have faith in Jesus is a call to be faithful to Jesus. And as Jesus bluntly states in vs. 34, the path of following Jesus is going to be difficult. In many parts of the world acknowledging that Jesus is Lord, stating that you are a follower of Jesus, are grounds to be thrown into prison, to lose one’s job, to be ostracized by family. The decision to be a follower of Jesus, and to publicly declare that truth is to have made a stand with and for Jesus, and Jesus is the most controversial person in human history. This passage confronts us with the question – where do our loyalties lie? With Jesus, or with other people or things.

Vs. 37 feels offensive to us, how can Jesus demand a loyalty, a love, from us that is greater than our love and loyalty to our families. Such a demand sounds scandalous. But Jesus is saying exactly that, that Jesus comes before any other loyalty in our lives.

While vs. 37 feels scandalous – vs. 38 is even more demanding. Not only is our loyalty to Jesus to be placed above our family – our desire for self-preservation, our desire to protect ourselves, is to be set aside in favour of living for Jesus. Because the line, “take up the cross” as Dietrich Bonhoffer so famously said, is an invitation to come and die. To die to self and one’s own agendas in order to live for Jesus and Jesus’ agenda in the world. 

In vs. 39, Jesus remarkably claims that it is only as we lose our lives for his sake, for his purposes, that we will keep our lives. Those who are faithful to Jesus to the end, will find that Jesus is faithful to them to the end. 

PRAYER:

O Lord, we read this passage with fear and trembling, because the cost of being faithful seems too much, too demanding. Strengthen us, calm our anxious souls, so we can be formed into people who put you first above all else. Faithful to you, first, foremost and always. In Jesus’ name. Amen.