March 19, 2000
Sermon by Rev. Laurel Bobb
Crosses! Crosses! Get your crosses
here! Will anyone take God up on the offer? They cost our very
lives and yet, if we don't take up the offer we can't be Christ's
disciples. Carrying our crosses is our sign to the world that
we have a radical faith in God's promises despite our circumstances--that
we are willing to trust in God's plan and not worry about how
things seem at the time.
That is something Abraham was willing to do at least in the beginning, but Peter wasn't quite there yet, and sometimes we aren't either. We aren't really sure that God would take care of us, if we were trying to follow his plan. We wonder where the money would come from, or how the healing would come, or how life could get easier. We must remember God's definition of how things are to turn out all right may not necessarily be the same as ours. We may loose our jobs, we may not be cured of a physical illness, our relationships may not be restored, we may not be able to achieve those big dreams. Nevertheless, to have radical faith means to trust that God already knows all these things and is working out plans we can't understand from a human perspective.
That is what was happening with Peter. He had all these preconceived notions about what the anointed one must do and be, and none of them included being a suffering Messiah. There is nothing rational or expected about the way God chose to save the world. If I were going to set about saving humanity, I certainly wouldn't have wanted the plan to included sacrificing my only son, but that is exactly what God did. God knew that his plan for the salvation of the world had to include a suffering Christ.
Jesus displayed a radical trust in this plan of God's, and for the love of us and his Father was willing to follow it. At this point he had no guarantees that things would work out all right. What he knew was that God had told him he was to suffer and die and rise on the third day. No one else had ever done that before. All he had to cling to was the knowledge that God is faithful.
That's all we have as well. We, too, are called to be willing to bear the cross for the sake of following God's will. That doesn't mean we ascribe to a doormat theology, however. It can be just as much of a cross to lovingly confront others when they try to take advantage of us or make us feel guilty about something that is not our fault as it is to bear the cross by suffering unjustly.
Bearing the cross of Christ is a sign of our belonging to God and a reminder how highly God values each of us. God doesn't want us to be defeated by or a part of evil in the world no matter how cleverly it is packaged and delivered. For Christ's sake and by his power we can and do decide and act against our evil natures.
This is difficult and costly, but then again everything of lasting value has a cost. Taking upon ourselves Jesus's cross means dying to sin, yet not only dying with him to our sin, but living in his light. As St. Paul reminds us in II Timothy 2, 'If we die with the Lord we shall live with the Lord. If we endure with the Lord, we shall live with the Lord.' Part of this is allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us to sanctify us so God can use us for his purposes--to be his lights shining in the darkness of a sin-cursed world. That means we have power to resist temptation when it comes along; as we grow in grace we make those choices that are God-pleasing more and more, and leave behind our former way of doing things.
This transforms our whole outlook on life; it changes our expectations. We look at every circumstance in life to see how God is going to bring about a blessing even when it looks like a curse according to human standards. Typically we, like Peter, would want to keep ourselves and our loved ones from difficulty and hurt, but we know that sometimes great growth accompanies struggle or pain and we wouldn't want to keep that from happening any more than we really wish Jesus hadn't gone to the cross for us.
We engage in this radical living by choosing against the worlds view of success grabbing for power at any cost, by becoming willing witnesses to the hope that is in us, by loving the unlovely, by giving sacrificially for the sake of the Kingdom instead of buying the latest gadget or taking that expensive vacation or wearing a designer outfit. We step out of our comfort zones to minister to those in need even when we would rather not get involved, like with the Y-bridge ministry. Radical living puts others first, so that we might reflect God's desire to be in relationship with them. We recognize that whatever we do, we do as unto the Lord.
Radical living such as this takes radical faith--faith like Abraham had that against all odds, God would fulfill his promises. People probably thought Abraham was becoming senile when he told them he was going to be the father of nations. 'Yeah, you and your old lady just keep on dreaming, pops,' may have been going through their minds.
In the same way we risk having others think we're odd, or excluding us because we just don't fit in any more. Our friends or coworkers may not understand the concept of having God's priorities and trusting God to work things out for our good. They may not comprehend the change in our behavior as we become convicted not to do things we formerly thought were perfectly acceptable, but have come to believe God is now calling us to a higher standard. One reason they may reject us is that the light of our lives illumines the dark corners of their hearts and shows up their sin, and they don't want to have to confront it and perhaps have to change, so it is easier to reject or deride us for following God.
God put his stamp of ownership on us when we were marked with the cross of Christ in our Baptisms as Jared will be today. It proves to the world that God loves us and that we are subject to Christ. This frees us from the worry about ourselves and our care--that's God's job. It actually always was, but when we name him Lord we are agreeing to trust ourselves to his care. We are also freed to do the owners work in the world and to show God's radical love for others.
We believe that God's love is unconditional--that God loves us and others even when we fail to live the radical lives we have been called to live. We even know that there will be times we will get it all wrong just as Peter did, no matter how hard we try. Kettlewell tells a fictitious story about a man who ''went through life thinking he was living the right way. He was trying to be helpful, sharing with persons in need. He went to church, gave an offering each week, even taught a Sunday school class. He assumed he would 'make it' into heaven.
He died and arrived at the Pearly Gates. He met Peter and heard Peter's explanation that it takes 100 points to get into heaven The man was ready. He came forth with a list of his works. He said, 'Well, I went to church.' Peter said, 'That will be one point.' 'I taught Sunday school.' 'That will be another point.' 'I gave money for a mission project.' 'That will be another.' All the while Peter was marking points on his chart and the man was getting worried.
'Oh, dear,' he said, 'only three points. I'll never make it. I'll have to trust in Christ to be saved.' 'Fine,' said Peter. 'You've learned the secret!''
Taking up our crosses means we lay down any pretext of getting brownie points or stars for our crown thinking that these will save us. Whatever we do on earth that is noble and true is done only for the glory of God and out of gratitude for what he has first done for us. We know that we indeed would have nothing to offer, if we were left on our own to live by our own plans. But the one who came up with the plan enables us to fulfill his grand design for our lives by giving us the power of the Holy Spirit made available to us through Christ's death and resurrection. In response may we take up our crosses and live the radical lives to which we have been called.
Copyright 2000 by Rev. Dr. Laurel Bobb