On the One Hand . . . An Excerpt of My Sermon for Proper 9A, Ordinary 14A, and Pentecost+8A

I have just posted my full sermon for Sunday on Word and Table, my preaching and worship blog.  Below are a few introductory paragraphs.  To read the full sermon, click here. This sermon is based on the following Scripture readings:

Matthew 10:34-39
Matthew 11:16-19
Matthew 11:25-30
Romans 7:15-25a

Any comments or suggestions for improvement would be greatly appreciated.

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Today I come to you with two questions for us to consider.
The first is this: 
Is Christianity war or peace?
The second, and related question:
Is Christianity hard or easy?
Now both of these questions seem to have different answers to them depending upon the passage of scripture you read from in the Bible.

For instance, on the one hand Jesus promises to his disciples that he will give them peace,
a peace, he says, that the world cannot give,
a peace that that the world cannot take away.
A peace, in other words, that passes understanding.
In passage after passage we see this promise made or alluded to
I Corinthians 7:15 says that God has called us to peace.
Galatians 5:22 tells us that peace is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit working in our lives.
Ephesians 2:14 states that Christ himself is our peace,
and time and again God or Christ is referred to as the Lord of Peace.
With all the peace being mentioned in scripture,
one would think that the Christian life would be a rather peaceful endeavor.

But a look at other passages of scripture might convince us otherwise.
The best passage to examine in order to get an opposing viewpoint is found in today’s reading from Romans.
Here Paul is describing a struggle that is,
on the one hand,
an intensely personal battle.
On the other hand though,
Paul would seem to be speaking for all Christians who struggle with good and evil,
with the decisions they make,
and the actions they carry out.
Basically Paul in writing these words is saying,
I don’t have a clue why I do some of the things I do.
On fact, I even end up doing some of the very things I hate most.
The good that I want to do, I don’t.
And the evil that I want to avoid doing, I do.

To put this in more personal language,
and to use a phrase I’ve already used several times,
On the one hand, I want to do what is right,
but on the other hand,
I often end up doing the exact opposite.
I am miserable,
and I am powerless to overcome this dilemma,
this problem on my own.

If there is a better description of Christian life as a type of warfare,
I don’t know about it.

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To finish reading this sermon, click here.