REFLECTION

What side are you on? That's not just a question about which football team one supports but more importantly we can see it in so much of the news today. The lines are drawn in Belarus between the supporters of Alexander Lukashenko's government and the mass demonstrators protesting at the rigged election and calling for real change. Following the Democratic Convention in the United States the battle lines of the Presidential election campaign are now clearly drawn up between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. In the Brexit negotiations recent reports are that on some significant issues the EU and British positions remain far apart. As the schools go back after the Covid lockdown, debate continues about the rights and wrongs of this and other actions to relax the lockdown. Our Bible readings today raise the same fundamental question as they highlight a new way of living.
'Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good....' (Romans 12:9). With these few words, Paul begins a passage that spells out a way of living that runs counter to the prevailing 'wisdom' of the Roman Empire. Jesus explaining how 'he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised' (Matthew 16:21) is outlining a personal agenda that is very different to that which Peter has in mind. And Jesus' amplification 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me' (Matthew 16:24) pulls no punches in challenging Peter's own idea of riding on the coat-tails of Jesus into a position of power in Jesus' new kingdom.
If we are honest, we can recognise how typically human Peter's response is, how it chimes so readily with what we expect even today. People aligning themselves with the rising stars in political, business, and entertainment galaxies, anticipating advantage by their support. Or people basking in the reflected glory of being seen with the famous, the 'next best thing', even if it only is a 'fifteen minutes of fame'. Peter has just made the startling declaration: 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God' (Matthew 16:16). Perhaps it was just a bit of overstatement, Peter wanting to outdo the rest. Perhaps it was a truly startling realisation on Peter's part, a revelation he voiced even as it came to him and before he had had time to think it through. Whatever, it seemed good. If it was just a bit of bluster to outdo the others, it did the trick, earning him real praise from Jesus, a definite boost to his ego. If it was a true revelation, and Jesus was indeed the expected Messiah, then the prospect was mind-blowing. And he, Peter, was part of it - a follower - surely he would have a special place in the new order? Little wonder, then, that Peter could not cope with the idea of Jesus suffering at the hands of the people's leaders, and worst of all being killed. It neither fitted with his expectation of the Messiah nor his vision for his own future.
Yet Jesus had a different view. Not for him a Messiah in the image of the Emperor, a military kind of figure leading an army against the occupying forces, or the leader of a popular uprising of demonstrators. Not for Jesus any rose-tinted spectacles about his reception among the leaders and the privileged of the people. He knew the noses his teaching put out of joint. He knew what cost to himself the new life he came to bring to the people entailed. And he did not shrink from it. He knew too that his followers would find life no easier: they too would suffer at the hands of the privileged, the ones challenged by Jesus' teaching. And he never hid the fact from them - they had to understand it, they had to be fully committed, ready to take up their cross and follow. Discipleship is costly.
What does that mean for us, here, today? We are not persecuted as others have been in our country's history or as some are today in other parts of the world. We are unlikely to face death because of our Christian faith. Does that mean the cost of discipleship is only in our pockets as we give to charitable causes? No. Jesus invites us to follow him in a whole way of living, the way of selfless love.
Paul, in the passage from Romans, spells out something of this cost of discipleship as he describes more fully how the Christian is to live - a lifestyle quite counter to that prevailing in the Roman Empire at the time.
Genuine love (Romans 12:9) is not tinged with self-centred calculation ('what's in it for me?'). Loving one another with mutual affection (v.10) is not always easy - some are easier to love than others. It's hard to be patient in suffering, and at times its hard to persevere in prayer (v.11). Extending hospitality to strangers (v.13) is not an easy stance in an era when many want to pull up the drawbridge against refugees and asylum seekers. Can we honestly say we 'bless those who persecute us' (v.14), those who do us wrong or hurt us in any way? What about living in harmony with one another (v.16)? Do we bear grudges? Do we take an instant dislike to some people? Do we have our preferences for those we will relate to? There's no escaping it, even in our society today, following Jesus is not an easy option.
Yet, if we think even for a moment, we can see how much better this life can be if we live as Jesus taught. A world of mutual care instead of selfish competition; of peace and harmony instead of war, conflict, argument; a world characterised by genuine love and respect is a world far superior to one dominated by the evils of 'me first' attitudes and striving to come out on top regardless of the effect on others. True discipleship is about striving for God's kingdom of love, peace and justice for all - and the striving is demanding. But the rewards for everyone are great.