Carrying the Cross Together
The Rev. Amy Morehous
Proper 17
August 31, 2014
Last week Fr. Brett reminded us that we are the keeper of the keys, we
ARE Peter - we are equally imperfect, equally called by God. We are fully
known by Jesus - and we have the chance to come to know him and to
proclaim him as the Christ. The Messiah. We all have the chance to stand
before Jesus and answer the question "who do you say that I am?"
So the question Jesus asks us in the Gospel today is if Jesus is the Christ
- the Messiah, then so what? What are we going to do about it? So what?
Has it made any difference in how you live your life? Today Jesus asks the
disciples - asks us - what have we done to follow him?
As Fr. Brett admitted last week, he didn’t want to preach on “who do you
say I am?” because he has trouble answering that question for himself.
Well, I’m here to tell you that I wrestle with that "so what?" - with my own
stubborn will - far more than I wrestle with knowing Jesus as Christ. The
three things most frequently standing between me and a life of
discipleship are me, myself and I. What I found in my journey toward
Christ is that I want to give him parts of my life, but still hang on and
control everything else. Here, Jesus - here's the time I spent here at
church. Is that enough? Here are all the good "holy" parts of my day. How
about that - is that enough? But Jesus isn't interested in my life being
more holy - what Jesus wants to know is if my life is his. My whole life -
not just the parts I want to hand over. Perhaps that's just my cross to
bear.
How often have you said, "Well, that is just my cross to bear.” Or heard it
from others? Not Jesus' cross. My cross. As if we were all, each of us, Jesus
on the road to Golgotha. My cross. Mine. We worry about all the things
that are ours. Our money, our time, our health, our family - as if any of
that truly belonged to us. As if it were not all a gift from a loving, giving,
grace-filled God.
All the time that is given to us is given as a gift from God. And we have no
control over how much of it is left to us in this life. None. And no matter
how tightly I hang on to my life with a white-knuckled grip, that will never
change. If I am a follower of Christ, my time is not my own. My very life is
not my own. It is God’s. It came from God, and it will return to God.
This world we have helped construct around us would like us to believe
that we are so important that we can control it all. That our time is only
ours, that we can all do it all by ourselves, we have earned it all
ourselves, and that we are in charge of our own lives. This world would
have us believe that the most important thing is only what’s good for me,
regardless of the consequences for anyone else.
But if all we can see is what's best for us, and not what's best for our neighbor, we are not seeing with the eyes of a disciple. If we are worried only about being "holy enough," we will miss being the living, growing, giving real self God made me to be. If we are not giving of our real, whole selves, we are not following Christ - we are not loving with a Self-sacrificial, Christ-like love. We are blinded by our freedom, and by the kingdoms of this world. So, like Jeremiah, we are free to choose. We can choose what is precious, or we can choose what is worthless. We can choose to hang on to this gift of a life tightly, and live only for ourselves, keep it all to ourselves. Or we can open our hands and give it away. We can hand our lives to God, our whole lives and let God make what God will, and know that it will be infinitely richer than anything we could imagine alone. If we hand our lives to God, if we follow Jesus, we will not be taking up our own crosses.
To choose a life in Christ is not to take up our individual crosses. Jesus
isn't asking me to carry my cross alone. “If any want to become my
followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow
me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose
their life for my sake will find it.” The cross is singular, but the people are
plural. Will we let go of our one life and join with all the faithful disciples?
Will we carry the one cross of Christ together? There are many disciples,
but only one cross. We’re not meant to carry that one Cross alone, nor
could we. That cross is too large for anyone except Jesus.
Today Jesus asks us to take up the cross together - to fling our whole
selves with abandon into relationship with him AND with one another. The
Rev. Mike Kinman says that "following Jesus is not a solo act. Exactly the
opposite. Following Jesus binds us to one another in ways wonderful and
terrifying, joyful and difficult.” And Jesus knows that in order to take up
the cross together, we're each going to have to let go of the things we're
holding individually. And that letting go is terrifying. We can't hold a little
bit back, just to be safe. We can’t hedge our bets and build up our
kingdoms in this world on the side, just in case this whole “Jesus thing”
doesn’t work out. It doesn’t work that way.
Letting go of what you have always known, and grabbing on to that cross
is a hard thing to do. But to be a follower of Christ, we have to do it
despite our fear. What are afraid of? We're afraid that we will let go of
what we think we know, and reach for the cross, only to find air. We fear
that we will reach and we will fail. We will fail others. We will fail God.
That God will fail us.
Giving yourself wholeheartedly into relationship with Jesus will strip you of your sense of self-determination, any sense of pride, your calm feeling of being in control, and it will fling you out on the other side, stunned and grateful and joyful, sure of God’s presence in your life, and completely unsure of how you got there.
So, are you giving your life over to God, or are you not? Are you going to follow Jesus, or are you not? Some of us do that wholeheartedly, all at once. We let go, and we grab on to the cross, exhilarated and bold. Some of us have to do it grudgingly, inch by hard-fought inch. It’s as if we are hanging on tightly to the ledge of our lives, and having to peel off one finger at a time. Because letting go means that we are giving up control. It means we have to trust. We have to trust that other people will be there to hold that cross alongside us. We have to trust that Jesus will meet us there when we do.
If we really believe that Jesus is who we have proclaimed him to be - if we
give ourselves to him, deeply and profoundly - we allow ourselves to enter
into relationship with him and with others. We give our whole life to him,
and to those around us, and we trust that who we are in Christ will be
enough. We trust that even when our life together is difficult that God will
be in it.
God will give you strength. God will save you and deliver you. God will
redeem you. So let go, friends. Let go of the life you had planned, and
choose that which is most precious - the cross of Christ.
Amen
Proper 17
August 31, 2014
Last week Fr. Brett reminded us that we are the keeper of the keys, we
ARE Peter - we are equally imperfect, equally called by God. We are fully
known by Jesus - and we have the chance to come to know him and to
proclaim him as the Christ. The Messiah. We all have the chance to stand
before Jesus and answer the question "who do you say that I am?"
So the question Jesus asks us in the Gospel today is if Jesus is the Christ
- the Messiah, then so what? What are we going to do about it? So what?
Has it made any difference in how you live your life? Today Jesus asks the
disciples - asks us - what have we done to follow him?
As Fr. Brett admitted last week, he didn’t want to preach on “who do you
say I am?” because he has trouble answering that question for himself.
Well, I’m here to tell you that I wrestle with that "so what?" - with my own
stubborn will - far more than I wrestle with knowing Jesus as Christ. The
three things most frequently standing between me and a life of
discipleship are me, myself and I. What I found in my journey toward
Christ is that I want to give him parts of my life, but still hang on and
control everything else. Here, Jesus - here's the time I spent here at
church. Is that enough? Here are all the good "holy" parts of my day. How
about that - is that enough? But Jesus isn't interested in my life being
more holy - what Jesus wants to know is if my life is his. My whole life -
not just the parts I want to hand over. Perhaps that's just my cross to
bear.
How often have you said, "Well, that is just my cross to bear.” Or heard it
from others? Not Jesus' cross. My cross. As if we were all, each of us, Jesus
on the road to Golgotha. My cross. Mine. We worry about all the things
that are ours. Our money, our time, our health, our family - as if any of
that truly belonged to us. As if it were not all a gift from a loving, giving,
grace-filled God.
All the time that is given to us is given as a gift from God. And we have no
control over how much of it is left to us in this life. None. And no matter
how tightly I hang on to my life with a white-knuckled grip, that will never
change. If I am a follower of Christ, my time is not my own. My very life is
not my own. It is God’s. It came from God, and it will return to God.
This world we have helped construct around us would like us to believe
that we are so important that we can control it all. That our time is only
ours, that we can all do it all by ourselves, we have earned it all
ourselves, and that we are in charge of our own lives. This world would
have us believe that the most important thing is only what’s good for me,
regardless of the consequences for anyone else.
But if all we can see is what's best for us, and not what's best for our neighbor, we are not seeing with the eyes of a disciple. If we are worried only about being "holy enough," we will miss being the living, growing, giving real self God made me to be. If we are not giving of our real, whole selves, we are not following Christ - we are not loving with a Self-sacrificial, Christ-like love. We are blinded by our freedom, and by the kingdoms of this world. So, like Jeremiah, we are free to choose. We can choose what is precious, or we can choose what is worthless. We can choose to hang on to this gift of a life tightly, and live only for ourselves, keep it all to ourselves. Or we can open our hands and give it away. We can hand our lives to God, our whole lives and let God make what God will, and know that it will be infinitely richer than anything we could imagine alone. If we hand our lives to God, if we follow Jesus, we will not be taking up our own crosses.
To choose a life in Christ is not to take up our individual crosses. Jesus
isn't asking me to carry my cross alone. “If any want to become my
followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow
me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose
their life for my sake will find it.” The cross is singular, but the people are
plural. Will we let go of our one life and join with all the faithful disciples?
Will we carry the one cross of Christ together? There are many disciples,
but only one cross. We’re not meant to carry that one Cross alone, nor
could we. That cross is too large for anyone except Jesus.
Today Jesus asks us to take up the cross together - to fling our whole
selves with abandon into relationship with him AND with one another. The
Rev. Mike Kinman says that "following Jesus is not a solo act. Exactly the
opposite. Following Jesus binds us to one another in ways wonderful and
terrifying, joyful and difficult.” And Jesus knows that in order to take up
the cross together, we're each going to have to let go of the things we're
holding individually. And that letting go is terrifying. We can't hold a little
bit back, just to be safe. We can’t hedge our bets and build up our
kingdoms in this world on the side, just in case this whole “Jesus thing”
doesn’t work out. It doesn’t work that way.
Letting go of what you have always known, and grabbing on to that cross
is a hard thing to do. But to be a follower of Christ, we have to do it
despite our fear. What are afraid of? We're afraid that we will let go of
what we think we know, and reach for the cross, only to find air. We fear
that we will reach and we will fail. We will fail others. We will fail God.
That God will fail us.
Giving yourself wholeheartedly into relationship with Jesus will strip you of your sense of self-determination, any sense of pride, your calm feeling of being in control, and it will fling you out on the other side, stunned and grateful and joyful, sure of God’s presence in your life, and completely unsure of how you got there.
So, are you giving your life over to God, or are you not? Are you going to follow Jesus, or are you not? Some of us do that wholeheartedly, all at once. We let go, and we grab on to the cross, exhilarated and bold. Some of us have to do it grudgingly, inch by hard-fought inch. It’s as if we are hanging on tightly to the ledge of our lives, and having to peel off one finger at a time. Because letting go means that we are giving up control. It means we have to trust. We have to trust that other people will be there to hold that cross alongside us. We have to trust that Jesus will meet us there when we do.
If we really believe that Jesus is who we have proclaimed him to be - if we
give ourselves to him, deeply and profoundly - we allow ourselves to enter
into relationship with him and with others. We give our whole life to him,
and to those around us, and we trust that who we are in Christ will be
enough. We trust that even when our life together is difficult that God will
be in it.
God will give you strength. God will save you and deliver you. God will
redeem you. So let go, friends. Let go of the life you had planned, and
choose that which is most precious - the cross of Christ.
Amen
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