+In the name of our God who hands us our cross. Amen.
Last week, we spoke of baptism--something often associated with the beginning of life. Today, the "theme" seems to be death.
There are many kinds of death. There are dramatic deaths and routine deaths. There are little deaths and death on an epic scale.
Death is a part of life. In fact, we wouldn’t be alive without it. Cells are dying all the time in our bodies so that we can live. These are not random deaths—they are programmed deaths for our own good.
Look at your hand. It has five fingers because the cells that used to live between them died way back when you were an embryo. If certain of our cells hadn’t died way back then, we would not be as fully developed as we are.
Everyday we are dying just a little. As soon as we are born, we begin a calculated dying process.
Our bodies are full of little deaths. Our skin is constantly changing, our hair, our fingernails. Did you know that there is something called the p53 protein in your DNA that commands cancerous cells to commit suicide in your body every day? These cancer cells die so that we might live.
Whenever we are over an infection, the white blood cells who have fought the good fight, commit suicide so that our system can become balanced again. Isn't that amazing?
In this context, let's place the very matter-of-fact statement by Jesus to his disciples that he is going to undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed. (Mark 8:31)
He says this, as if he were reporting that his white blood cells were massing for a terrible infection. And, some dying will need to take place.
Peter takes Jesus aside and tries to scold him for talking such nonsense.
Jesus, in turn, scolds Peter and tells him in no uncertain terms that his messiah must die... because of the benefit this brings to the greater whole.
Today, we are challenged to find a way to respond to the call of Jesus when he says, “If any wants to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
Have you ever felt uncomfortable when you heard this? Even if Jesus himself was here right now, looking me right in the eye, and asking me to take up my cross...I would be very uncomfortable.
And, frankly, there's a side of me that would wish I could be anywhere else at the moment than there in front of him. Please Jesus, not that cross business.
I’m grateful for an excellent discussion during one of our monthly clergy meetings with the bishop in which we examined the word “cross.”
Until that moment, I hadn’t noticed that my interpretation of ‘cross’ was insufficient.
I realized that, all too often, my perception of taking on a cross was too close to being a burden, something just as heavy and unwieldy as that cross that Jesus actually carried.
My question was, “You want me to carry what?!”
We're all aware of people who figuratively walk around with the largest, heaviest cross on their shoulder because it makes them such a good martyr.
And maybe, if you ask them, they might say that God is testing them somehow and that their lot is to bear their cross willingly.
Who wants to be like that?
Jesus, however, made a conscious decision to take on the cross.
He certainly did give up a great deal in order to take on the cross.
This brings to mind the question of whether taking on a cross actually means denying oneself, or taking on a new dimension of the self.
What does it mean to “take up your cross”?
Notice that here Jesus didn’t say, “take up MY cross.” He said, “…let them …. take up their cross and follow me.”
What does your cross look like?
At this point, we realize that taking up a cross is probably a very positive thing. It can have no negative connotations!
Why? Jesus is calling us to take up the power of the cross not because it makes us weak, but because it makes us strong!
Friends, if there are only a few things that I ever succeed in teaching you, this is one of the most important. You need to pay attention at this point.
If I have said it once, I will say it a hundred times: our God is a God of contradictions.
The power of Jesus lays in the fact that he is the God Incarnate of contradictions. The very cross itself is the symbol of that contradiction.
Time after time, Jesus upset the norm. Whatever we thought he SHOULD do, he often did...just the opposite.
Backing up a few thousand years, God takes an old Abraham and Sarah and calls them out for childbirth well beyond the normal childbearing years. And to emphasize the radical turnabout, God gives Abram and Sarai new names.
Paul recounts that Abraham and Sarah were living proof of this God of contradictions. He also highlights that Jesus came back from the dead
as yet another proof of this God of contradictions.
The God of contradictions says that anyone who loses his life for his sake, will save it.
I know what you're thinking."If I agree to this cross-bearing thing, and actually open myself up to the power of this God of contradictions, will I be changed in some way? I kind of like things the way they are."
The season of Lent is our time to ponder whether we are ready to experience a necessary death and be birthed into a world of contradiction, of cross-bearing that isn’t a burden, but a delight.
During the season of Lent we are called to examine just how the sacrifice aspect in Jesus’ ministry can mean a wonderful new life in us.
So now I hope you can see...like programmed cell death, the death of Jesus brings benefit to the greater whole. The challenge for us is to see how we can find the up-side of his death in the lives we live every day.
To become a follower of Jesus means being willing to make our lives a living sacrifice for the good of all; to be willing to deny ourselves for the benefit of the larger human organism.
First, we do need to examine the big picture.
Peter in our gospel reading couldn’t see the big picture. His mind was, as Jesus said, set on human things. Jesus saw that the cross was inevitable as part of the divine plan, God’s big picture.
Where is it that we need to expand our vision of God’s plan for us?
It might be that we need to die to the idea that the world revolves around us. It takes a death of self and pride to be willing to work on the big plan, or to be part of God’s greater work, and to put oneself at the mercy of something far bigger than ourselves. That’s certainly one kind of cross to bear.
Second, we need to fight the good fight.
I said ‘the good fight’ not the bad fight.
We can give our fights the litmus test by asking ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” It’s cliché but it works. This might mean that we'll take an unpopular stance once in a while.
Let’s face it: we’d rather not fight. We’d rather not even be in the game, but rather watching it from the sidelines! Why, we’d rather not even be in training!!
I’m very proud to observe however, that parishioners are bucking this typical reaction. More and more I am seeing you step up to the plate and ask, “What can I do?” We’re not quite to the point where people ask for their boxing gloves, but we’re on our way to the Good Fight and some of us are entering the ring. Praise God.
Finally, let's put our fears aside. By this I mean that we need to ask the question, "What's stopping us?"
I think the best way to get away from our manufactured fears is to examine our lives and spot road blocks we have made—and any veils we might be hiding behind.
If we are going to fight the good fight, run the race, journey down the road, then we’ve got to trust that what Jesus did for us on the cross was nothing less than life-transforming, road-block smashing, veil splitting.
As we take up our cross, I hope that you will be able to look back on your decision and say, "This wasn't as bad as I thought. In fact, thank you Jesus. Thank you."
Amen
Scriptural Texts: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Psalm 22:22-30; Romans 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-39
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