Last Sunday, we shared in the joy of Rachel's baptism. In her baptism, Rachel was united to Christ in his death and resurrection and she committed herself to following the Christian way. We are all called to follow Christ, but what does that mean in our daily lives? What do we expect a Christian life to look like?
What are the marks of a true Christian? I wonder how you would answer that question? Perhaps we might think of kindness, patience, generosity, prayerfulness, faith...
In the NRSV translation, the heading given for the passage we just heard from Romans 12 is 'marks of the true Christian.' Here Paul outlines some of the characteristics of a Christian life and community and encourages the Christians in Rome to live in such a way. Of course, they can only begin to do so because of all that God has first done for them. The first 11 chapters of Romans are about God's grace in Christ; his love, his sacrifice, his action, his call. Everything begins with God and not with us; nevertheless we are then called to respond and to offer our whole lives as a 'living sacrifice' to God, as Paul says at the beginning of chapter 12.
If we do respond to God's freely given love in Christ; if we commit ourselves to living out that love in our daily lives, what will that look like? What are the marks of a true Christian?
Paul here offers a list of both inner attitudes and spiritual disciplines, practical actions and ways of relating to others. Some of them are perhaps more challenging than others. Looking at the list, I think they come broadly under three categories.
First is our attitude and behaviour towards our fellow Christians: 'Love one another with mutual affection' Paul says. Such love needs to be 'genuine'. We all know that it's easy to say we love others but our inner thoughts, attitudes and behaviour may suggest something else! What does it mean to love one another? The love we are called to have for one another as Christians is not a vague, sentimental, lovey dovey feeling. It doesn't even necessarily mean we will always 'like' each other. Within church, there can be people who particularly irritate us or rub us up the wrong way. We haven't chosen one another as friends; rather we are drawn together because of our faith in Christ. But we are called to love one another, not by trying to drum up in ourselves a nice feeling towards those we don't like very much, but by showing practical care and support, kindness and respect. We are to seek to 'live in harmony with all'; that means avoiding gossip, factions and cliques within the church and being patient with those we disagree with. That's an important reminder for any church fellowship and I am keen that we heed it at St Ursula's.
We are encouraged to 'contribute to the needs of the saints'. Paul's focus here, and elsewhere, is on giving financially to those in need in the Christian community. Giving in such a way should always be a part of our Christian discipleship; both planned giving to the church and other giving as needs arise. Your giving enables our Christian ministry and mission here at St Ursula's and it is also used to help those in need through the charities we support across the world.
But, of course, we don't only give money. We will also want to offer practical support or a listening ear to those who are sick, housebound or distressed in any way..We are encouraged to share one another's joys and sorrows: 'rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.' I wonder how easy we find it to share with others in the church the things that really matter in our lives ... our joys and our struggles? Are there opportunities for us to share these things together, support one another and pray? I know that some of you meet in small groups regularly with Christian friends and also that the Men's Group provided a place of support and fellowship during the lockdown. We are hoping to start up an online Bible study group for men and women soon which will include discussing and sharing in smaller groups. We need to find these opportunities, otherwise we don't really get to know one another well enough to share our joys and struggles and be there for one another.
Of course, sharing one another's joys and sorrows, building up a sense of community and support isn't meant to turn us into a closed clique. We are also called to be welcoming to outsiders, as Paul says, to 'extend hospitality to strangers.' We need always to be outward looking in all our activities in church and review from time to time how hospitable and welcoming we are to strangers.
So that is the first emphasis I see in these words of Paul: how we relate to one another within the community of the Church, while also being hospitable to strangers. In a second category in this list, Paul talks about our inner spiritual attitudes and disciplines. These are also marks of a true Christian: 'Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit...' We are encouraged to keep our spiritual lives truly alive, to make time and space to be nourished by God's love so that we find joy in him. 'Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.' It is perhaps easy to praise God and be thankful when the sun is shining and we see the beauty of the world around us. But life can sometimes be hard and painful, tedious, and profoundly disappointing. We will only find the resources of hope, patience and faith we need at such times if we persevere in prayer day by day. Do we have a rhythm of prayer and Bible reading, reminding ourselves regularly of God's goodness and making space to receive from him? If we wait till we feel like praying we are likely soon to give up; finding a time to pray regularly can deepen our faith so that when trouble comes we have a rootedness in God's love which will sustain us.
The third category concerns how we relate to those who hurt us. This is where the rub really comes! 'Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them...do not repay anyone evil for evil', Paul says. And persecution for the early Christians didn't just mean a bit of antagonism or mockery, as it might do for us, but beatings, imprisonment and even death because of their faith. And there are many Christians in the world today who are still persecuted in such a way. Paul's words here, then, are all the more startling: 'bless those who persecute you... do not curse them.' He goes on, 'never avenge yourselves...' but leave judgement to God. Rather, 'if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.' I don't think that this last phrase means we're to show kindness to our enemies in order that they suffer more in hell. 'Heaping burning coals on their heads' may mean making them burn with shame at receiving such kindness from their enemies. But the main point is clear: as Christians, we are to respond to our enemies with forgiveness and kindness.
This is where the mark of the true Christian is most at odds with our natural instincts. The natural human response to suffering, persecution or evil, is to want to 'hit back' to call for revenge and punishment. And we see plenty of that attitude on the TV and in our newspapers. When people respond with a different attitude it is often rather shocking. One particular example stands out in my mind. In 1987, there was an IRA terrorist attack on Enniskillen in Northern Ireland. After the attack there were angry calls for retaliation. But Gordon Wilson, the father of one of those who died and who was himself injured in the attack, said publicly that he forgave those who had killed his daughter. He received hate mail from some people asking what kind of father he was to forgive the murderers. But what he was trying to do, at great cost to himself, was to live out his Christian faith: to forgive, to pray for our enemies and bless those who persecute us and to leave all judgement to God himself.
Of course, this is not easy. And I am not underestimating how hard it is to forgive and to pray for those who have hurt us when we have suffered serious abuse or pain from others. Forgiveness may be for some people a very, very long and hard journey, and forgiveness certainly does not take away the need for justice for those who have been wronged. Nevertheless, the Christian message is clear: we are to seek to love our enemies, and bless those who persecute us.
Being a true Christian is challenging! Some things we might find easier than others ... perhaps showing hospitality, or sharing the joys and sorrows of those around us. But which of us always perseveres in prayer, is patient in suffering, or responds with forgiveness and care for those who have hurt us? The point is that the mark of a true Christian is not just being a generally nice person but following Jesus and seeking to be like Jesus. That's what 'Christian' means. And Jesus is the one who loved even his enemies and prayed from the cross that God would forgive his torturers.
No one said following Jesus would be easy. In fact, Jesus said to his disciples in our gospel reading 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me...' For some of Jesus' disciples this literally meant losing their lives. It may not mean that for us, but it certainly means a big challenge to our ego in many different ways.
One last point. We may all be aware that we fail so often to live in the ways we've thought about this morning. We may feel woefully inadequate as a Christian and somewhat discouraged by that. But another mark of the true Christian (which is not mentioned here) is that of daily turning back to God and starting again. Recognising our failures and inadequacies, we 'repent', that is we turn around; we turn away from ourselves and back to God, receive his abundant grace, move on, and start again. Again and again. This is also the mark of the true Christian.
Revd Helen Marshall