The Call to Holy Living

The Call to Holy Living
ROMANS 6.12-14

We ended the last section with a picture of someone moving house, changing from one landlord to another. Let’s extend that a bit, and imagine that I am a smallholder living out in the countryside, about a thousand years ago. My little farm sits on the border between two great estates, and for years the lord of the manor in whose land I actually live has had me completely under his thumb. In particular, whenever he has wanted to fight a war or even a local skirmish he has called on me to join up and fight on his side, and has threatened me with all sorts of unpleasant things (like burning my house down, for instance) if I don’t come along. What’s more, he has more than once made me get all my farm implements, nice peaceful things like hoes and spades, and take them down to the blacksmith to make them into swords and shields. So off we go to fight his wars, when really I ought to be looking after the farm...