Is Christ Core?
MINISTER’S LETTER - 4 August 2022
Friends in Christ, last week, I talked about the controversy surrounding the Manly NRL Team being asked to wear a rainbow pride football jersey, and the conscientious objection some players expressed due to their religion.
I added some suggestions about how you might respond if you had a concern when something similar happened in your workplace or club.
Image courtesy of freelyphotos.com
Part of what I suggested was to note how deeply personal these matters are, such that one might say "my Christian convictions are core to my identity".
Further reflection during the week made led me to realise that we all need to ask ourselves whether that's true! Is your belief in Jesus core to your identity.
Or is it peripheral? ...A Sunday hobby?
Perhaps faith is important but not absolutely core! Is Christianity one of a constellation of circulating beliefs, that are sometimes complementary, sometimes competing for attention, or sometimes even contradictory if push comes to shove?
Of course, real faith in Jesus cannot be non-core. If Jesus is Lord of all, King of Kings, then he can't be peripheral. He needs to be in the driver's seat of your life.
Archbishop Kanishka Raffel shared how astonished he was as a keen young Buddhist at uni to have a Christian friend say they'd lost control of their life to Jesus! ...And to add how good and freeing that realisation was!
But on what basis can we trust Jesus with our entire life direction and convictions?
The Scripture that came to my mind was Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
This famous verse comes just after the Apostles Paul has underlined the great truth that we are justified (or accounted right before God) by faith and not by doing good works of the law. He says that three times in one verse (Gal 2:16)!
Having this faith in Jesus transforms our identity!
That is, we can gladly put our trust in this Jesus because we know God's own Son gave his own life for us on the cross to bear our sins. That once-for-all perfect sacrifice tells us how very deeply loved we are by God.
And it's as if our old sinful life of "doing it my way" is gone forever and our identity and future is caught up in life with the risen Lord Jesus at the core, setting a whole new direction for us.
So we do love Jesus more than we love even parent or child or spouse (Luke 14:26). We do love him more than money or career (Luke 5:27-32; 18:18-30).
And by implication, if you cannot yet say Jesus is core to your identity, then it raises the question of whether you really trust him at all as your Lord and Saviour.
So if there is something holding you back, or a question you have about this, then any of the Cathedral's pastoral staff would be privileged to discuss it with you.
An old illustration puts it this way. It's not just enough to have Jesus knock on the door or your life and to let him into the hallway of your home, and maybe into your nice and neatly presented lounge room. If Jesus is Lord of all, he needs to be Lord of your bedroom, your kitchen and your dirty laundry closet as well.
He is a good and loving Lord. But Jesus is also an "access-all-areas" Lord.
And if he really died for you, and rose again, then that's the only way to take him.
Warmly in Christ,
Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney