Pentecost 15 2005

Exodus 1.8-2.10, Psalm 124, Romans 12.1-8, Matthew 16.13-20

If any want to become my disciples, let them deny themselves and take up the cross and follow me.

Apathy is the great Australian killer.

I don’t know whether it kills the body, apathy, maybe in the sense that we aren’t real good at getting off our butts to do anything it could, but its more a killer of the soul.

We watch those so-called current affair programs – Today Tonight, A Current Affair, and get our prejudices deep fried and ready-wrapped with a side order of self righteousness and paranoia. They tells us that we’re ok, and it’s those young dole bludging single mothers and those awful Moslems who are the cause of all the trouble in the world today. It makes us feel better about our carefree life on the couch, consuming. We let the tv channels do the agitating, we let them form our opinions for us, we subscribe to the world view they want us to have. They feed us this diet of moral garbage and we don’t even need to chew it – it is pre-masticated. Baby food. And we swallow it whole.

So then, this is a happy start to a sermon for a baptism isn’t it? I apologise a little bit, but I really wanted to get your attention and get you all thinking about what our role as Christians in the world is. Obviously when we are baptised we become part of the family of Jesus Christ, we become members of the church and we become heirs of the kingdom of God. But it’s more than that. There are other responsibilities, other duties. Because being a Christian is not a passive thing. You see, I just don’t believe as Christians we are supposed to live a life where all we have to do is just sit back and let all the bad stuff in the world happen, so long as it happens to other people. We are not supposed to be self serving all the time. We are not supposed to always put ourselves first at the expense of others. And we are not supposed, either by action or inaction, to allow others to suffer if we are at all able to do something or say something about it. When we are baptised, we are baptised, re-born, into a life of engaging with the world and forming opinions, especially about issues of social justice. We are baptised into lives of taking actions on those opinions and beliefs. We are not baptised into a life of accepting blindly what others want us to think, of sitting on the couch and accepting all the rubbish. We are baptised into a life of making a difference in the world. Just like Jesus did.

John Mellenkamp. Anyone heard of him? He’s a singer. First he called himself Johnny Cougar, and then it was John Cougar, then John Cougar Mellenkamp as he began to reclaim his birth name, and then finally John Mellenkamp. God knows what will be next. Anyway, he wrote a song about making a difference. Actually he wrote a few, but this one in particular has a line in it that always sticks in my mind. It goes “Stand up for something, or your gonna fall for anything”. I think that was pretty much the chorus. It’s a great line. It’s about having an opinion and doing something about it. It’s about being passionate about a cause and helping out. That’s how things happen, that’s how social justice occurs, that’s how change occurs. Has anyone heard of William Wilberforce? What is he famous for? He is famous for his tireless work for the abolition of slavery. He was a man who felt called to serve God and the Kingdom in politics, and it was in that arena that his beliefs drove him to work for social justice, in areas like education for all people, overseas mission, parliamentary reform, and religious liberty, as well as every year for 18 years raising a motion to abolish slavery. In this matter he was finally successful 4 days before his death in July 1883. He was a man who followed the example of Jesus, giving his life for the pursuit of a greater good for all humanity, not his own personal agenda of the acquisition of wealth and power. He stood up and made a difference, devoted his life to it. He was patient and he perservered because he believed.

Wilberforce’s example for the way to live his life was of course Jesus. So then, what was Jesus like. Meek and Mild? I doubt it. Gentle, compassionate, empathic – yes. Meek – NO! Mild – NO!

Jesus was an agitator. That’s the main reason he died. The powers that be don’t like agitators. Agitators are trouble makers. They can be dangerous, especially if they go around telling the truth. Jesus, in his work and his words, made a difference. He made a difference in terms of humanity’s relationship with God, but let’s set that aside for just a minute. Jesus made a difference in terms of His relationships and actions during His life. He befriended the friendless. He ate with the unclean. He touched the untouchable. He healed the sick. He liberated those held under the bondage of a legalistic interpretation of the Law, he set them free. He pointed out the hypocrisy of the rulers and law interpreters. He showed that the Kingdom of God could begin here on earth. He showed that Gods grace was available to all, not just the select few of a select few, a particular ethnic group or language speakers, a social class, or those who were fortunate enough not to suffer an illness or disability. He showed that God’s law was not given to separate people but to bring them together. It was not given to create a class of the elite and the privileged few, but a society of equals. Sounds a bit like a socialist, doesn’t he?

Essentially what I want to say this morning is this - Please make a difference in the world. This is what we are called to do as the baptised members of the family of Jesus Christ. (This is what I implore you, the parents and godparents of Kane, to do – to help raise Kane to be someone who will strive to make a difference, who will question and investigate, who will speak up when it is warranted,who will be compassionate, caring, assertive and always seeking justice. This is vitally important. Our nation, our world, depends on people like that.) Its not always easy – Jesus did say to the disciples that those seeking to follow him must take up their cross. This implies a hard road, a journey that will be difficult, a journey that may mean self sacrifice, but ultimately a journey that will benefit others, as well as being self-fulfilling. It’s a journey that has as its destination something that lies beyond our mortal existence, a journey that actually has some meaning, that actually goes somewhere. It’s a journey that benefits the many, not just the one. It’s a journey of love.

Get off the couch. Make a stand for something. Change the world, change yourself.

The Lord be with you.