Sermon: Use your freedom to seek Christ
Six deacons pray during their ordination to become priests at St John Bosco Kiamuiru Primary School in Nyeri town on January 14, 2023.
We know how one Christian will go in one direction while another goes in the opposite direction, both looking for the ideal place to worship our Lord Jesus Christ. Are they deciding which way to go like people choosing between the local nyama choma joint versus Kentucky Fried Chicken?
I’m all in favour of each person choosing. The saints of the Church insisted on it. As one of them wrote: “You show bad spirit if it upsets you to see others working for Christ without regard for what you are doing. Remember that passage in Saint Mark’s gospel (9:37): ‘Master, we saw a man casting out devils in your name, though he does not follow us, and we forbade him. Do not forbid him, Jesus replied, for no one who does miracles in my name can then speak ill of me. For he that is not against you, is for you.’”
While all Christians should be left free to choose, all should be encouraged—as I am encouraging you today—to seek the truth. Seek the truth remembering that at times the truth is hard to listen to. It does not always make us feel good. It challenges us.
That is why Saint Paul insisted (1 Cor 1:23): “While the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, we are preaching a crucified Christ: to the Jews an obstacle they cannot get over, to the gentiles foolishness, but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is both the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
