In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
We have heard the Gospel, that death has been defeated, that sin has been overcome, that idolatry has lost its power, and have come to believe in Christ as the risen God and Saviour. But what is it to believe in Christ?
“Every one who acknowledges me before men,” says the Lord,
I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in Heaven; but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny him before My Father who is in Heaven.
Since to be a Christian is not a hidden thing, a secret organisation, a marginal opinion: to be a Christian is to acknowledge Christ before all. This does not mean we stand on street corners shouting our opinions, the Lord tells us,
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven.
— Matthew 7:21
To acknowledge is not to say, to acknowledge is to do the will of God: to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, take in the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned, “inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” (see Matthew 25:31–46) But the Lord demonstrates to us how and why we should do these things, for we are familiar with the commandment,
Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
— Exodus 20:12
Yet he seemingly contrasts that with,
He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Because we honour our parents when we follow God, we bring them glory when we demonstrate our fidelity to God. We cannot let anything stand between us and God—He is the God of our Fathers, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but He must be my God if I am to be a Christian; my love for my parents is not independent from God, my love for my parents is because of my love for God. For we must cry out as the Righteous Ruth when any would use family to separate us from the people of God,
Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God.
Where you die, I will die,
And there will I be buried.
The Lord do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me.
— Ruth 1:16–17
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to be a Christian is to follow the Lord, doing His will, in whatever may come so that neither family nor society, blessing nor hardship, life nor death, may pull us away from God. But in remaining faithful to the Lord we show true love to our parents, to our family, to our society, to our world. In remaining faithful to Him we proclaim His death and rejoice in His resurrection that all the more may come to Life. Our faithfulness to God is true honour to our family, our loyalty to God is true love for our neighbour, our fidelity to God is true sacrifice for the sake of the world that all may receive the blessings of God. As the Apostle writes to the Romans,
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written:
‘For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
— Romans 8:31–39
Let us follow Christ, let us serve Him and set nothing between Him and us that we be found worthy to be called Christians, inviting all to receive salvation through Him, and together inherit eternal Life.
To our crucified and risen God and Saviour Jesus Christ be all glory, honour and worship, together with His unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, all the saints through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated – of whom the world was not worthy – wandering over deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
— Hebrews 11:33–40, 12:1–2
The Lord said to his disciples, “Every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Then Peter said in reply, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many that are first will be last, and the last first.”
— Matthew 10:32–33, 37–38, 19:27–30