Preached at Christ Church, Bulkington
Readings – Romans 6.1b-11; Matthew 10.24-39
“fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Do you think about hell and the Devil much?
The Devil as the coolest dude in town… Al Pacino in The Devil’s Advocate (1997).
I thought that would be a good way to start a sermon on a glorious summer evening in an adorable little village like Bulkington!
We can scoff at talk of the Devil as ridiculous and primitive nonsense, and I have no doubt that some of you here tonight do. I did for a long time. We can even find ourselves glamorising the Devil – you know, the cool bloke who lets you drink and tells you dirty jokes, instead of making you sit on a cloud playing a harp forever like God (that boring old fart!) Yet whatever we think about an actual personification of evil in the form of the Devil, none of us can escape the reality of evil, obvious every time we hear a news bulletin.
If we believe that we have a soul, then we also need to consider seriously the possibility that it might be damaged or corrupted by evil. More than this, if we take the Gospels seriously as a record of what Jesus taught, then we need to embrace the reality that Jesus taught his followers about the Devil: among other places, in this evening’s Gospel reading. Satan is a recurring theme throughout the New Testament, where we are presented with a picture of Christians in a running battle with forces of evil that, without the grace of God, would be beyond our powers to resist or break.
The Devil is real, taunting us over the battlefields of Ukraine and our indifference to hungry children in a world of plenty. The Devil taunts us over every Saturday night stabbing, over every carefully nursed family feud, and every intentionally bitter dispute over the custody of the children. The Devil taunts us when we scream at the TV that we wish someone would shoot one of our least favourite politicians and when we lash out at the people who love us most because they’re the people we know we can hurt without fearing retaliation.
Most people in this country, unlike Jesus Christ, think the Devil is a silly fictional character that, at best, distracts us from dealing with the world’s real problems. That suits Satan fine; if we think he doesn’t exist it makes it so much easier to worm his way into people’s souls.
A cheerful picture, eh?
Yet here’s the thing, Jesus told us to fear the one who can destroy our body and soul in hell, but pretty much in the same breath, told us “do not be afraid”, because God loves each and every one of us so much that He can count the hairs on our heads.
So don’t despair. The Devil exists only by the permission of God, and to serve the purposes of God – have a look at the dialogues between God and the Devil in the Book of Job for evidence of that.Christ has already won the victory over Satan through His sacrifice on the Cross. So, take the Devil seriously; take good care of your soul; but trust that if you stay close to your brother and saviour, Jesus Christ, He will protect you from the Devil and redeem you from your own evils.
I felt I had to take this hard stuff on in this evening’s sermon because so much of our Gospel reading consists of sayings of Jesus that are challenging and perhaps even a little upsetting. Which of us enjoys hearing Jesus say “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” or that “whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me”.
Could there be a more idyllic setting in which to preach on the devil on a warm midsummer evening.
One thing I want you to take away from this evening is that the picture of Jesus in popular culture bears only a passing resemblance to the Christ of the Bible. The biblical Jesus was certainly loving and compassionate and particularly concerned for the outcast and the poor, but He absolutely was not the meek and mild wallflower of universal affirmation that He is often painted as. Even Christians sometimes slip into accepting this false portrait of Jesus the hippy social worker, a nice bloke but a bit of a wally whom you can’t take too seriously.
Jesus taught things that upset people. He upset some people so much that they even called Him Beelzebul, in other words the Devil, as we heard this evening – and He in turn could be sharp tongued in His discussions with his detractors. There is also a hard and judging side to Jesus’ teaching, which is particularly noticeable in Matthew’s Gospel, from which most of our Gospel readings come this year. Thank the Lord for that, for the world contains many wicked things that need to be judged – and remember that Christ’s judgement of the world will be more just and merciful than any human justice could possibly be.
Christianity isn’t a religion of sugary niceness. It should have an edge to it. We can find ourselves running away from that sometimes, partly because we don’t want to be judgemental towards others – quite rightly, because judgement belongs to Jesus Christ and not us – and partly, and less honourably, because we worry that a sharp-edged Christianity might cut into us ourselves a bit. The secular world around us mostly doesn’t even know about that edge – it has absorbed the idea that Jesus was a wise teacher a long time ago who taught that nice people should be nice to everyone, which is an idea it respects, but also rejects. Toning down the sharp bits of the Gospel convinces nobody in a world that is full of evil deeds, and where people of honesty and maturity, regardless of their faith or lack of a religious faith, are aware of the darkness that lurks in depths of their hearts.
With all that in mind, let’s return to Jesus telling us that God values each and every one of us so much that he can number every hair on each of our heads. God loves every human being that much – you, and those whom you love, and those you find frankly tiresome and, yes, God loves those whom you find hard not to hate, and loves them unutterably. Now, if you find some of Jesus’ teachings in this evening’s readings difficult, remember that the hardest teaching of all is that God loves all human beings, no matter how wicked their actions and thoughts have been, and no matter how much you might detest them!
God’s grace is as real as the Devil, and so much more powerful. Through God’s grace, as St Paul writes in tonight’s Epistle, in baptism we were united with Christ in His death so that we will be united with Him in His resurrection. In the end, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well, for Jesus Christ has already won our redemption from our sins through His sacrifice on the Cross.
So don’t be complacent; have a healthy fear of him who can destroy both soul and body in Hell. Be aware that he seeks to lure you and all around you into evil and sin. But don’t be afraid: remember that God knows you better than you know yourself, loves you for what you are, and on the Cross has saved you for eternal life.
Now thanks be to God the Father, who has given us the victory through Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
