Sermon for Sunday 7th June 2026, preached at Family Service in Granborough

By Peter Evans

 

First Sunday after Trinity

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READING

Genesis 12: 1 - 4

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

“I will make you into a great nation,

    and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

    and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

    and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

    will be blessed through you.”

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

 

Matthew 9: 9 – 13

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

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While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

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On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’

For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 

 

THE TALK

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It might come as a surprise to you, but we are a nation of contract makers. All of us are making contracts all of the time. Every time we buy something, a contract exists. Every time we enter into an agreement, a contract exists, even if not under law. And if we are unhappy with the terms of the contract, then we’ll either negotiate until we’re happy, or not sign up.

 

And our deal making tendencies start early. We might offer to tidy our bedrooms in exchange for more screen time. Or other such privileges. Extra homework, washing up, lawn cutting, car washing, all offered as part of a trade to get something that we want.

 

And that negotiation continues into adult life. And not just in far away markets where bartering is the order of the day. Houses, cars, second hand items (ebay, facebook market place, antique shops) – negotiation is commonplace.

 

Of course, it can be taken too far. Imagine trying to negotiate the price of every item in your weekly supermarket shop. It would be chaos.

 

We all make deals. From as soon as we start negotiating with our parents right through to when we sign up for Amazon Prime.

 

And the thing about any deal is that they only work if there’s a commitment.

 

If Amazon take your money for Prime and then everything arrives a week late, that commitment isn’t there and you cancel the contract.

 

If you’ve negotiated an increase in pocket money because you’re going to mow the lawn every week, then you’ll find that increase evaporates pretty quickly if you don’t do what you said you were going to do.

 

We even hold our politicians to account in the same way. If they don’t do what they say they are going to do, then come the next election, they’re toast.

 

The commitment that forms part of the deal is essential.

 

And for many of us, the biggest deal that we will make is to a life partner, typically when we get married. It’s certainly life changing and it certainly requires commitment. And as we know, it doesn’t always work out. Being married is not always easy. It requires commitment to make it work. It’s like riding a bicycle. Sometimes the road is bumpy and you have to try really hard to keep the bike from crashing. But even when the road is smooth, the steering requires constant correction. All the time. Little tweaks on the handlebars. The physics of riding a bicycle is that the bike is always wanting to fall over and that fall is constantly corrected at the handlebars. If the handlebars were locked in position, then the bike would be impossible to ride. Marriage is the same, it requires constant commitment to make it work, or eventually, it falls apart.

 

And in one sense, today’s readings are also all about making a deal, and the commitment that goes with it.

 

The first reading is about the call of Abraham, or Abram, as he was known at this point.

 

The call of Abraham, and what it would actually mean, takes place over several chapters, and involves three covenants, although they are closely related.

 

When God first calls, in Chapter 12 of Genesis, Abraham does not know the whole picture, or understand why, but he follows as God calls him to. He does know though, that God has made a promise of blessing, that his descendants will become a great nation.

 

And in our second reading, Matthew is called by Jesus to follow him. Here, the calling is just a one liner, one verse. There is no promise of blessing, or great riches, or becoming a great nation. Just a follow me statement. And Matthew followed.

 

But what we do know for certain is that Matthew was a tax collector. Now, please don’t think that tax collecting was viewed with rose tinted spectacles, eg, the government needs the money, and all that. Not at all. Matthew was collecting taxes for a hated occupying power, the Romans.

 

Just to put it in context, our present Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has a negative approval rating of minus 56. – 69% unfavourable less 13% who have a positive view. But I am absolutely certain that Matthew would have been more unpopular. Much more unpopular. If YouGov were doing the rounds in first century Palestine, then Matthew’s net rating would have been minus 100. Guaranteed.

 

And yet, Jesus called him. You can hear the indignation of the Pharisees in the next couple of verses when they challenge Jesus for having dinner with tax collectors and sinners.

 

In fact, to get a feel for how controversial this was, it probably helps to try and bring this into a modern context. Have a think about someone who is socially outcast and despised by society. It doesn’t matter who it is. And imagine if Jesus called them to be one of His disciples. We might find that alarming. Of course, Jesus does not condone sin in any way. But when He calls, He calls us to repent, to turn around, to change from our old lives. 

 

And so, Jesus called Matthew, someone who was despised by society. Of course, we don’t know what God really thought of tax collectors, despite what the pharisees might have said. Jesus responds to the pharisees by quoting from the prophet Hosea. Jesus says “Go and learn what this means – God says ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’. And if you read it in Hosea, God says that what He wants is love, not sacrifice, knowledge of God, not holocausts. God wants love from the heart, not the ritual of burnt offerings.

 

Once again, Jesus is telling the pharisees how wrong they have got things, how they look at the letter of the law, and not towards God.

 

And so, Jesus dines with tax collectors and sinners. And it’s the same for us. Even though we are sinful by nature, God still calls us. This does not mean that God approves of or tolerates sin – far from it. But call us He does. Because He Loves us.

 

We who are full of sin are loved by God and called to worship, to serve and to step into a relationship with Him.

 

We often talk about being called by God in the context of serving. What are we called to do? How are we called to serve? But there is a stage before that. And this is the most important calling. It is the calling where God calls us to Him. To be with Him.

 

And when we respond, our lives change. We step into that relationship with God that was previously based on hearsay.

 

One of my favourite verses from the Old Testament is from the very end of the book of Job.

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In chapter 42, Job says to God:

 

I know that you are all powerful, what you conceive you can perform.

I am the man who obscured your designs with my empty headed words.

I have been holding forth on matters which I cannot understand – on marvels beyond me and my knowledge.

(Listen, I have more to say, now it is my turn to ask questions and yours to answer me).

I knew you then only by hearsay; but now, having seen you with my own eyes, I retract all I have said and in dust and ashes I repent.

 

What was exceptional in the Old Testament, is offered to us through Jesus. To meet with God and not just know about Him through hearsay. It’s amazing.

 

I want to take us back a couple of weeks to Pentecost, all described in Acts chapter 2. The first part of the chapter describes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And then in the second part of the chapter, we have Peter’s (long) address to the crowds. At the end of his address, Peter says:

 

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

 

And of course, the same exhortation applies to us. Repent and be baptised. And receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For most of us, that will have been a while ago in our spiritual journey, but it’s good for us to be reminded.

 

That time when God came to live in us. The start of our relationship with Him. It’s when the hearsay ends and the knowing begins.

 

And it comes from that repentance, that turning away from our old lives and turning towards Jesus.

 

And for our part, it takes commitment. From what we were talking about earlier, it’s that commitment that makes the deal work. It seems crass in some ways to talk about this life changing event as a deal. But God offers, we accept and we commit. Our lives change.

 

Many, many people, become Christians in exactly the same way as described in Acts 2. But there are also loads and loads of others whose faith journey has taken a different route. For example, some people start a journey to faith out of curiosity, and then something just clicks into place.

 

But for whichever route you took to faith, there will have been a point where you realised that you were committed. When you know that Jesus Christ is your Lord.

 

For me, it was a point in time, on a house party in 1976. For others in this church, I know there are some who cannot remember not being a Christian, and having faith from the earliest of ages. And here and in other churches too, there will be all and everything in between.

 

But for all of us, whatever our faith journey, it will include repentance, accepting the forgiveness that comes from God, and being committed.

 

And this is important for a number of reasons.

 

Firstly, being a Christian is not a lifestyle choice. It is not about following a set of rules. It is not about being a member of a church or following a particular philosophy in life. It is solely and purely about repenting, turning towards Jesus and being filled with His Holy Spirit. Everything else flows from that point forward. All the things that we associate with being a Christian, for example, giving to those in need, showing Christ’s love to the world, it all flows from repenting, turning towards Jesus and being filled with the Spirit.

 

And it’s important for a second reason. Sometimes I think we need to cross check our own commitment. Sometimes, life just gets in the way and our relationship with God can take a battering. So it can do no harm to have an honest conversation with God from time to time and just check that our commitment is still in place.

 

And perhaps more importantly, if not yet made for the first time, to come before God in prayer and make that commitment. It will be the start of something truly amazing.

 

Amen