13th Sunday in Ordinary Time 28.6.2020.
Lectionary Readings
Jeremiah 28 v5-9 Jeremiah accuses Hananiah of being a false prophet.
Romans 6 v12-23 Obedient slaves of God.
Matthew10 v40-42 Rewards.
‘Slave owner’ maybe, but not a ‘taskmaster’.
“Now you are set free from sin and are slaves who please God. I am using these everyday examples because in some ways you are still weak. You used to let different parts of your body be slaves to your evil thoughts. But now you must make every part of your body serve God, so that you will belong completely to him”. (Romans 6 v18,19)
The thought of God as a ‘slave owner’ is not one that is easy for us to accept, living as we do in the 21st century. But we must remember that slavery was commonplace in the 1st century.
Paul is using, as he says, ‘an everyday example’ to challenge his readers (us included) to think about who it is that we are obedient to.
Are we true to our calling, to be the sort of people God desires; people who will help build his kingdom on earth? Or are we happy to leave it all to God, seeking to satisfy our own desires, paying lip service to the notion of discipleship, which is really the same as being obedient to the demands of apathy.
Can we, as disciples of Jesus, really be content to live in a world where issues of injustice, poverty, and damage to the environment are so obviously harming God’s creation?
God will certainly succeed in reconciling heaven and earth, but, he would rather do so with our help. God is not a ‘taskmaster’, he is not going to force anyone to do something against their will. That is not God’s way. God is waiting patiently for us to respond, in kind, to his overwhelming love for us. Waiting for us to realise that being a ‘slave’ or ‘servant’ of God is about ‘obedience’ in the form of loving service to the one who truly loves us.
When we do something for someone we love, we do so willingly, as a token of our love for them.
Actions motivated by love for another is what God desires of us, (Micah 6v8) and as Jesus taught his disciples (Matthew 25 v35-40).
Choosing to live a life motivated by love, is, as Paul points out, the way to a better life, a life in God’s presence.
Bible quotations taken from the Contemporary English Version.
Thanks to Mike Peck for submitting these reflections