Inge Williams, Vicar (Intern)
Mark 8:27-38
27Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” 30And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
31Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
34He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Will you pray with me? Gracious Lord, we pray that you bless now the speaking and bless the hearing, that your Word may plant seeds in our hearts, and bear fruit in our lives … for the healing of the world you so loved, and to the glory of your holy name. Amen.
This past Tuesday marked the eleventh anniversary of September 11. I was in High School at the time, and during our morning band class, most of us were socializing and jabbering away while we were supposed to be watching the events unfold on television. Our band teacher shushed us and said, “You need to be quiet! You are watching history.” How true his words turned out to be. September 11 was unprecedented, and a tragic shock for the nation. I don’t know if you remember, but in the wake of September 11, there were discussions about reparations for the families of those who had lost their lives; this was called the Victim Compensation Fund. Questions came up like, how much would be distributed? To whom? And first of all, how do you measure the cost of someone’s life? To answer these difficult questions, Congress turned to lawyers.
I met a man this summer who used to work as a lawyer on Capitol Hill- not the hip place to live in Seattle, but in Washington DC. Joe was a corporate lobbyist, practicing his talents as a lawyer to do the will of corporations in the government and bumping paths with Congressmen and women. Joe was a successful lawyer, and he was also a member of a Methodist congregation and a Sunday school teacher. Many months after September 11, Joe was sitting around the board room one day with other corporate lobbyists, as they casually discussed the Victim Compensation Fund. It turns out that there was a small minority voice advocating that all victim’s families should receive the same amount of money for reparations. One of his co-workers said, “Can you believe that anyone would think that a CEO is worth the same amount as a janitor?” They all laughed at the idea that a person’s worth wasn’t measured in their income; they all laughed, that is, except Joe, who sat stunned. As he remembered the stories of Jesus he taught in Sunday school, where a person’s worth was based not on money but on the gracious love of God, and he had a realization: what he believed because he was a Christian was not what his co-workers believed. Being formed by the story of Jesus gave him a different set of values, a different outlook, a different belief in what made the worth of a person. His beliefs put him in a situation where he could not simply fall in line with the others, simply laugh with them. If he stood up for what he believed in, he would be laughed at and rejected. If he stood up for what he believed in, he would suffer, and something in his life would have to change.
Today, we hear Jesus call his followers to “deny themselves and take up their cross and follow [him].” Jesus is headed to Jerusalem to die. He knows he will “undergo great suffering, and be rejected, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” He is inviting those who wish to follow him on this path of certain rejection and death. He is asking anyone in the crowd or his disciples to follow him, to give up their own lives for the sake of the Gospel. This was the invitation Joe heard in that boardroom, the invitation to DP and Kate and Emily and Olivia as they are welcomed into this congregation today. “Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” It is not the most welcoming invitation, but it is an invitation first to death, and then to new life. It is about dying in Christ, dying well, dying for the sake of the Gospel.
We often have the idea that cross bearing is about passive suffering, the suffering that comes from simply being human. The old adage, “oh, that’s just your cross to bear” is often said to people who are suffering from illness, depression, going through a hard time financially or in their relationships, as if all suffering were somehow due to each of us, somehow simply the will of God. We resign ourselves to our “cross to bear.” But Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and scholar says, no. In his book the Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer writes that bearing the cross is not any suffering we face in life, but suffering we face for the sake of the Gospel. Bearing the cross means suffering we choose to undergo because we are following the call of Christ. Staying in an abusive relationship, letting ourselves be pushed around by bullies, suffering from over-work and under-appreciation are not cross-bearing because they do not serve the Gospel. Instead, bearing the cross is an active way of living out the faith we have in Jesus, each of us in our own way in the specific circumstances of our ordinary lives. Denying ourselves means not letting ourselves be trampled upon, but standing with our heads held high, arms open in love, an offering to God and to our neighbors. Our life not taken from us by the violence of the world, but offered to God in love.
Each week, we begin worship at the Baptismal font. Each week, we journey from death into life. As we confess the things we do that alienate us from each other and from God, we die to our old self. It is drowned away. We rise to God’s forgiveness, to a new way of being in the world. I had the opportunity this week to go swimming, and I was reminded what Baptism feels like. For fourty minutes, I immersed my body in the water. I used to be afraid to swim because I didn’t know how to breathe. The water can be scary. But when I got back out of the water, I felt like a different person. Somehow, each lap I made left behind some of my worries, some of the things I was clinging to. I got out of the pool refreshed and ready to move on.
In Baptism, we face the death of our own will, and come up ready to serve God. We rise with gifts given to us by God in abundance, called to serve, called to give our lives for the sake of love. Cesar Chavez wrote, “it is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life.” In the waters of Baptism, we give up our lives for the sake of the Gospel. In Baptism, God turns death into life.
Joe died to his own success and approval in the boardroom that day. Realizing his work didn’t reflect his values as a Christian, he eventually left his job. Now he gives his time and talents to the church, where he works with the working poor, advocating on their behalf to Congress. Joe died to one reality and entered another, following Jesus. If we die with Christ, we shall live with Christ. “35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Following Jesus wherever he may lead, and giving ourselves for the sake of the Gospel, is the pathway to life. For the gift of Baptism, for the gift of following Christ, for the gift of love that turns death into life by the power of Christ’s resurrection, thanks be to God. Amen.
0 Comments