Being Different
Epiphany 1 – 2017 – year A – Family Service
Why mention Preston North End Football Club? They are in the FA Cup 3rd Round – playing Arsenal. There can be some pretty scary supporters. In recent years they maybe haven’t had much to cheer about. They were in the FA Cup Final – in 1954 against West Bromwich Albion, losing 3-2. There aren’t many supporters this side of the water – I knew one in Belfast. In fact you could say that to be a supporter of Preston North End is to stand out as different from everyone else.
This morning I want to talk of ways of being different, of standing out in a crowd. Some people dress differently and do their hair differently. Then we are all different. God loves us all, no matter where we come from, how old we are – even how we dress.
The difference we are talking about this morning is who we follow. The lesson told of Baptism of Jesus – I want to think about our own Baptism. When we have a Baptism, at one point in the service I will say:
In baptism, God calls us from darkness into his marvellous light. To follow Christ means dying to sin and rising to new life with him.
That means very consciously choosing – choosing different attitudes, different behaviours, different priorities in life in the sort of people we choose to be.
The Bible talks about repentance – it uses a Greek word: ‘metanoia’. That’s what John and Jesus meant when they told people to ‘repent’. Turn around, change direction, take a different journey through life.