Sermon for Morning Prayer on 4th November 2025 at All Saints Church, Penarth

Romans 12:1-16; Luke 14:15-24 

I want to talk about being ‘conformed to this world’.

What are the principles that you have to abide by if you are a Christian? Obviously you could trot out the two greatest commandments, to love God and to love your neighbour as yourself, but you need to go a little bit wider than that.

I think most of us would think about the Sermon on the Mount. Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile. Not an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth any more. 

If you look at our lesson from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans, there are quite a number of bits of it which reflect the teaching of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. Never pay back evil for evil. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. And you’ve got this interesting phrase at the beginning of the lesson, ‘Do not be conformed to this world.’

‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.’ [Romans 12:2].

We can see Jesus in his teaching, in our other lesson from St Luke, talking about people going by earthly standards, barging their way on to the high table at posh dinners and generally going for status symbols when in fact they were not entitled to them.

I’ve always wrestled with what the true meaning of these passages is, in that it’s all very well to talk about going by heavenly standards rather than earthly fashions; but how do we know what the heavenly standards are? I think if we look at the passages carefully, we may be able to get some reliable pointers. 

Saint Paul emphasises that we do not need to be people who have all the virtues at the same time. It’s perfectly okay to concentrate on the things that we are particularly good at and not worry if there are other things where we have no special ability. The kingdom of God is a team effort and some people play in the pack and others on the wing. 

Then again, you do not have to be particularly qualified or of a certain status or come from anywhere particular in order to qualify for entry to the heavenly banquet. Indeed, if you are too preoccupied with practicalities, this may be a disqualifying factor. I have just bought five yoke of oxen, says one chap. What is the equivalent today? Presumably he has just taken delivery of his new Lamborghini, and wants to try it out. But that shouldn’t stop him from coming to church and helping at the food bank.

Both Jesus and Saint Paul emphasise the need not to be snobbish about the company that we keep. 

‘Do not be haughty, but go about with humble folk.’ 

‘Go quickly into the streets… And bring me in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame’. 

Perhaps we should think again about this teaching in the context of what some politicians today are arguing, to restrict the benefits which we enjoy to a certain sector of society: to ‘people like us’. 

The argument is that people who are ‘not like us’, whatever that means, have not contributed to the cost of these benefits and therefore shouldn’t enjoy them. It doesn’t look as though Jesus or Saint Paul thought that sort of thing matters. You should look after anyone, anyone in need.

Let us pray that we can always see neighbours in need, and help them to come in to the Lord’s Supper, the heavenly banquet: to be fed, to be fed not just with the love of God in Christ Jesus – certainly that – but also with the best and tastiest food on earth.

Amen.