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Sunday 28 June 2026 Trinity 4, Thirteenth in Ordinary Time, Proper 8
Which Team Do You Support?
Romans 6:12-23, Matthew 10:37-42
Context: A Sunday morning Eucharist in a suburban setting, with an average-sized congregation of mixed ages
Aim: To encourage the congregation to follow the path that leads to life
In life we always have choices. As a child I chose to support the football team of the town where my grandparents lived. The first FA cup final I remember was this team winning the cup and I was delighted. However, I never went to watch a match in person so was only an armchair supporter. At university, I went with friends to watch my first ever football match for a team that was a rival to the team I supported as a child. From that day I was hooked. I have watched my team gain promotion to the premier league, been to Wembley to see them lift the FA cup and have also supported them through the tough times of successive relegations.
THE CHOICE
Our reading today from Romans reminds us we have a choice to make. We can choose to have payment for what we have earned, or we can choose to have an unearned gift. I always think it is good news that we get paid for what we do, unfortunately though the payment for our sins is death. As humans we constantly mess up, we break rules, we hurt those around us with our words and actions, and we don’t live a life that honours God. Death is the wage we receive for doing this. Thankfully the story doesn’t end there, there is a choice we can make. We can choose to receive the wages we are due, or we can choose to accept the free gift of eternal life. Would you rather have your wages or a free gift?
Matthew 10:39 phrases the choice in a different way: we can choose to find our life or to lose it. God’s Kingdom is an upside-down Kingdom and if we choose to live life our own way by our own rules, we will ultimately lose it. By doing what we want and accepting the wages of sin we receive death. But if we choose to lose our life, to forego the wages we have earned and to accept the free gift, we will find life in the form of eternal life.
ACCEPTING THE GIFT
When you accept a gift, it is no use putting it on a shelf and admiring it from time to time. When you accept a gift, you need to unwrap it to see what it is. Season tickets are expensive and my first season ticket was a gift. When I unwrapped it, I couldn’t believe what I had been given. I could have accepted the gift but left it in its nice wrapping. Then the gift would have been useless. The season ticket needed to be unwrapped and used. That season every time I entered the stadium for a match day and used my season ticket, I thanked my friend for their incredible generosity. Imagine though what would have happened if I hadn’t opened the present, if I just kept it wrapped and admired it from time to time, or if I had opened it, framed it and hung it on my wall. The gift was only worth something when it was used.
Some Christians are like the person who doesn’t unwrap the present, who just sit and admire the paper, or who hang it on the wall to look at from time to time. They say they accept the gift of eternal life from God but they never unwrap it. I call these people ‘Sunday Christians’, they go to church and do the right things on a Sunday but then leave God on a shelf for the rest of the week rather than being someone who does what Mark 10:38 encourages us to do – to take up our cross and follow him.
WHAT’S YOUR CHOICE?
Taking up our cross daily and following Jesus is not easy. When Paul contrasts death with eternal life we need to remember he is talking about the present life of the believer. He is stressing that now we have been freed from the slavery of sin we must live our life serving God. I can’t support two football teams. I can’t support red and blue at the same time. I made my choice to become a true blue and I have the season ticket to prove it. What about you? What’s your choice? Will you choose to be on God’s team, every day making a conscious decision to follow Jesus, to take up your cross and to follow him on the path that leads to eternal life?
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