You

You’re not a “slave” are you? Romans 6:16-23 26/06/05

Slide 1 You’re not a slave are you?

1. “Anybody would think I’m your slave.”

I think I can remember my mum saying something like that if she was feeling particularly exasperated with the actions of one of her four sons, or her husband. Or to be more accurate, with their lack of action - she might have said it if any one of us seemed to be taking for granted the fact that dishes washed themselves up after meals, or clothes automatically picked themselves up off the floor.

“I’m not your slave.” It’s something people say when they feel that what they do is not appreciated by the people they are doing it for. Maybe there are one or two people who have said it here. I suppose for us it’s just a figure of speech, something we say to express how we feel.

2. Unfortunately Slavery is not a thing of the past although we sometimes talk about it as if it is.

Slide 2 William Wilberforce

In the past Christians have led campaigns to abolish the slave trade. Many of you will have heard of the life’s work of William Wilberforce who campaigned for the abolition of slavery in the eighteenth century.

But now in the 21^st century - William Wilberforce would be shocked by what he could see in Europe and in many other parts of the world. Here is a figure from the news…

Slide 3 Millions live in modern slavery

12.3 million slaves in the world today.

Earlier this year William Hague who will soon be the ex ex-Tory leader said

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“The distressing truth is that there appear to be more slaves in the world today than there were transported across the Atlantic in the entire period of the trans-Atlantic slave trade."

Mr Hague said that Home Office figures showed 1,400 women were trafficked into the UK each year - part of a $13bn international industry.

There are a lot of slaves around today.

Maybe a lot more than we realise.

Slide 4 Roman slaves

3. At the time when Paul was writing his letter to the Christians in Rome, to be a slave, was to occupy the lowest possible place on the ladder of human society.

Slaves had no rights in Roman Law – and if you were a slave you were simply someone’s property. Owning a slave was no different from owning a set of tools or a piece of furniture.

Paul, probably knew much better than us what it means to be a Slave, and yet he begins his letter to the Church in Rome like this…

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This letter is from Paul, Jesus Christ’s slave

Now if that sounds a little hard to our ears where for most of us SLAVERY is hidden from our eyes and our experience-

how do you think it sounded to the Christians who first heard it… people who every day would see and come into contact with SLAVES.

The apostle Paul, the evangelist and church planter describes himself as a SLAVE of Jesus Christ.

Maybe they were thinking

I’d rather be a friend of Jesus Christ,

I don’t mind being a disciple or follower of Jesus Christ? But a slave. That sounds a bit harsh!

Slide 5 Chain

4. Paul would say that the only alternative to being a slave of Jesus is to be a slave to something or someone else.

As human beings we were made to belong to someone… either we are owned by Jesus, as children of our heavenly father… or we are owned by the forces of sin and the devil. Those are the only alternatives.

Paul says in today’s passage:

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Don’t you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval.

Slide 6 Question:

Whose slave are you?

Who or what have you chosen as your master?

Maybe it’s a choice that we have to make every day.

We can be a slaves to so many things -

Slide 7 Emotions, fears etc.

We choose to obey all the promptings of our emotional ups and downs, constantly allowing anger and bitterness to spoil our relationships. Or we can make ourselves slaves to our own fears or feelings of rejection so that we can never form mature relationships with other people.

We can make ourselves slaves to our bad habits. Things that we know are wrong in our, lives… and yet we are comfortable with them. Deep down we don’t really want to give them up.

Slaves to our ambitions.. our lives dominated by our desires to earn more money, get a better job a better house, dominated by our ambition to have children who are brilliant, who do more that we think we have done.. or whatever.

We can be slaves to our own negative self-image. A wrong understanding of who we are. I’m no good at so and so, or I am a failure, What a rotten Christian I am. The devil loves it when Christians say that. Jesus must weep.. He must be saying “Don’t you realise what I have done for you. You are mine.”

But we can choose to allow another master to rule over us - and we can be deaf to the voice of Jesus, and fail to hear and receive the truth that he speaks.

Paul said that we need to become slaves of Jesus.

Slide 8 Roman Slaves

5. Now Paul was not in favour of the institution of human slavery. He was radical in his attitude to it. Far from seeing slaves as simply the property of their owners he saw them as brothers and sisters in Jesus, equal members of the family of God. In this respect the Christian Church was a revolutionary force for change in the culture of the Roman Empire.

What Paul did was to look at the society around him, and use language and imagery that would have been well understood, in order to explain what it means to be a Christian. He wanted to say that

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the church consists of slaves of Jesus Christ.

Slavery is based on the understanding that the owner has rights over the slave, rights that have been paid for when the slave was purchased.

And from the slaves point of view whether or not life is going to be worth living will depend entirely on how the owner exercises those rights.

I would say that to be a slave of a human master is not a good thing… and yet to be a slave of Jesus is.

Why?

This imagery of slavery that Paul uses is saying that to be a slave of Jesus means that I belong to the Church not because of my own merit,

not because of my own gifts,

not because I have earned a place within it.

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ because Jesus himself has paid for me.

Slide 9 Jesus paid a price for us.

It is his sacrifice for me when he bought me with his own life that keeps me here.

It is his will, his love for me, that brings me here.

There may be times when I fail, there may be times when I feel like giving up… but I am a slave, and I know that if I belong to Jesus HE will keep hold of me.

Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Church,

the OWNER of each and every person in the Church.

But Jesus is unlike any other slave-owner.

Jesus paid a price for us –

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To set us free.

Slide 10 Jesus said…

He said himself…

I assure you that everyone who sins is a slave of sin. And he went on to promise…

if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free.

(John 8:34-5)

To be a slave to Jesus means to be committed to choosing to be obedient… time after time after time. Choosing to be free from every other person every other force every other desire or feeling or emotion that can enslave us. And choosing only to be obedient to Jesus.

“whose service is perfect freedom.” That’s a phrase I remembered from a prayer I had heard long ago in church. Discovered it came from one of the collects in the book of common prayer. Part of a prayer of St. Augustine. Here is a prayer that is based on the prayers of Augustine.

Slide 11 Jesus you are the light…

Jesus you are the light of the minds that know you, The joy of the hearts that love you,

and the strength of the wills that serve you.

grant us so to know you that we may truly love you; And so to love you that we may fully and freely serve you - whose service is perfect freedom.

It is one of the great truths of the Christian faith that only as we choose to live as slaves, who belong to the risen Lord Jesus, that we can discover the freedom of life as the children of God.

In the past it has been slaves of Jesus who campaigned to end all forms of human slavery and oppression. Judging by that news item I began with… we probably need slaves of Jesus in our own Generation to do the same again.

Let’s pray this prayer together now….