Our Calling to Love

The Gospel is Matthew 10:24-39

The Pax Roman wasn’t truly a time of peace, and dissent was brutally suppressed. During this time Jesus taught his path of true peace, maintained by the power of divine love and forgiveness. 

A major theme of Matthew’s Gospel is the clash of kingdoms. Jesus’ nonviolent Kingdom of God was a threat to the worldly culture of that day, resulting in the murder of Jesus. 

Jesus identified the consequences His followers could expect. His statement “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” was not a call to violence. Rather, the commitment He calls for would be like a sword cleaving in two families, systems, and more.

In our time, people doing their jobs and staying true to their understanding of truth receive death threats to themselves and their families. This is the kind of consequence Jesus foretold for those giving themselves to his countercultural path.

We must choose where we will place our loyalty. The future holds more than rejection because of our embrace of Jesus’ countercultural way: we gain a new self that needs to grow and breathe in a natural way, and we may suffer along the way. If we lose the socially-approved but spiritually vacant life, we gain spiritual life.

Faith in God does not bring us safety. Danger still exists. As people of faith, we are invited to respond by loving, and our calling to love displaces fear. 

What does this calling to love look like in our individual lives, and to Christ Church as we face an uncertain future?

Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.