Date: January 11, 2009
Scriptures: Mark 1:4-11
Pastor: Rev. Kim Wells
Sermon
Part 1
How many times have we heard people say, in the face of some undeserved suffering, “It’s just my cross to bear.” A child is born with Down’s Syndrome. It’s a cross to bear. An injury leaves a person incapacitated in some way. It’s their cross to bear. A loving parent deals with a child on drugs. It’s their cross to bear. We use the expression to refer to undeserved suffering or hardship. Usually a situation in which the person suffering had little or no say in the circumstances. There is much inexplicable and undeserved suffering in this life, and it deserves compassion and empathy. And Jesus’ suffering on the cross certainly was undeserved and unjust. But when we read in the gospels Jesus’ invitation to the crowds, “Take up your cross and follow me,” we want to look more closely at the meaning and intent.
Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion was not the result of random bad luck or bad judgment. Jesus taking up the cross was a result of his complete and total faithfulness to God. He chose to align himself with the purposes of God. Each step of the way, in his ministry, he is going off to pray. This is to keep him on the path that God intends for him. This is so that he stays in on track with the wider purposes of the creator of the cosmos. Jesus eventually faces the cross because of his choice to be faithful to God, not because of random fate.
Part 2
When we hear this invitation to “Take up your cross,” we are being beckoned to live our lives consistent with the purposes of God. We are not being asked to literally pick up a heavy wooden cross. We are not being asked to suffer randomly. We are not being invited to be crucified. We are being called to completely align ourselves with God’s purposes for our lives, each one of us as individuals.
To “take up your cross” is to fulfill God’s hopes and dreams for you, that only you can realize.
Jesus took up his cross because he chose to embody God’s love, forgiveness and peace and in his situation, that led to crucifixion. The call to us to “take up our cross” is also the call to embody God’s love, forgiveness and compassion. This is an intentional choice to devote ourselves to God’s dreams for creation and the human community. “To take up your cross” is to choose to alleviate suffering, embody compassion, honesty, generosity and service. It is to choose to resist oppression, injustice, greed, violence and abuse.
The gospel invitation to “take up your cross” is an invitation to choose the Christian life, a life of service in the spirit of Christ, accepting whatever consequences that may entail.
Part 3
For Jesus, the choice to follow the will and way of God with complete devotion did lead to his actual physical death in a heinous, humiliating manner. It was capital punishment by cruel and unusual means. For most of us, the choice to “take up our cross” will not have those consequences, but there will be costs. To live by the values of the gospel, treating all people with dignity and respect, leading a life directed by the desire to give not to get, this leads to a life very different from the images that our culture espouses. In our culture, we are admonished to look out for number one, pamper ourselves, seek comfort and privilege. We are encouraged to avoid pain and suffering, and to make sure we are getting as much as we can – of money, power, of whatever else we want. Afterall, we are entitled to it. This is a far cry from the gospel perspective of what can I offer, how can I serve, how am I needed, what can I give, where is there suffering I can share, how can I live in solidarity with those who are oppressed, where can I work for justice, how can I make the world more peaceful?
When we embrace devotion to the way of God, when we “take up our cross,” we will pay a price. Maybe it will be in terms of worldly success or popularity. It may be in relationships. It may be in the way others think of us. It may be in monetary terms.
Recently someone from our church who has been unemployed for many months was offered a managerial position at a Walmart. Knowing its sketchy reputation, she did some research into the labor practices, etc. of Walmart. She decided not to take the job because she knew that as a manager, she would be responsible for making employees do things she did not believe were fair or just. This is an example of the cost that comes with taking up your cross. She gave up this job, and has not been able to find another one with commensurate pay, even after several months of looking.
Part 4
When Jesus invites us to “take up our cross,” there definitely is a cost. But the goal is not to make people suffer or be miserable. Ultimately the promise is that by taking up our cross we will save our lives. The call to the life of service, compassion, and generosity, is a call to our highest good, our deepest well being. When we devote ourselves to the will and purposes of God, we find our greatest happiness and joy. We find our healing and wholeness. We find purpose and meaning that satisfies.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. noted that serving others does not degrade a person, but ennobles a person.
For our 40th anniversary as a church, we chose the theme “Out on limb for 40 years.” We wanted a graphic to go with the theme. I spoke to our son who is an artist about the theme and doing a graphic. “Great mom. I’ll do a tree and at the end of one branch I’ll put flowers and fruits and lush leaves because when you go out on the limb, you find the good stuff, the beauty, the bounty.” This was perfect for our anniversary, for the life of our church, and as an image for the Christian life. When we “take up our cross,” we find the beauty and bounty of love and community. God does not ask us to :take up our cross” to suffer undeservedly, but to find joy and wholeness.
Dr. Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist, once gave a lecture on mental health followed by questions from the audience. One person asked, “What would you advise a person to do if that person felt a nervous breakdown coming on?”
Most people expected the psychiatrist to reply, “Consult a psychiatrist.” To the astonishment of the audience, Menninger responded, “Lock up your house, go across the railway tracks, find someone in need and do something to help that person.” [The Sowers Seed, p.44]
The invitation to “take up your cross,” is an invitation to life. This call to service, to give, to attend to the needs of others, is for our own good, for left to ourselves, we are so easily sucked down the whirlpool of our own self interest and self centeredness. As one person put it, “The trouble with a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off the altar!” [A_Z p. 115] We can so easily be taken in by the messages of entitlement promoted around us. And then we feel we are being cheated. We are not getting our due. We need to fight for ourselves. And our world gets smaller and smaller. Our souls shrivel. Our relationships dry up. It is so easy to become a victim of the tyrant selfishness, seeking our own good at the expense of others, lusting after control, desperate to dominate.
There’s a story told about a south sea island where the inhabitants trap monkeys for food. They have an ingenious way of ensnaring the primates. The people take clay jars, with long narrow necks and tie them to the trees in the habitat of the monkeys. Then the jars are filled with grain. At night the monkeys come down from the trees and reach into the jars to get the grain, but when they try to take their hands out of the jar, it is impossible because they have the fistful of grain. All the monkeys need to do is let go of the grain, and they can get their hand out of the jar. But they refuse to turn loose the grain. So, in the morning, the people find the monkeys with their hands in the jars of grain, and they are captured. [Stewardship p. 74]
To “take up your cross” frees us from being trapped by selfishness and self interest. From holding on to what ensnares us and deprives us of life full and free.
It is interesting that the motion for salvation in sign language involves the breaking of chains. The sign begins with two fists side by side. The idea is two links of a chain, bondage. Then the fists are separated and the arms raised. The chain of bondage is broken. This is salvation. It is freedom from that which keeps us in bondage. When we take up our cross by devoting ourselves to God and emulating the serving life of Jesus, we are saving our lives, we are breaking the chains that keep us bound, including the bondage to self interest.
Medical researchers and scientists have found that there are also physiological benefits to helping others and serving. They have found that doing good, volunteer work, helping others lowers blood pressure and increases the body’s immune system. [See the Healing power of doing good]
So this invitation to “take up your cross” is intended for our well being and our healing, and flourishing. It is not a sentence to drudgery and suffering and deprivation. “Take up your cross.” This is an invitation to life. This is an invitation to peace.
This Lenten season, we are exploring the way Christianity offers peace to the individual and to the world. Last week, we explored the tradition of imaging a disarmed, nonviolent God. Today we see the peace and well-being for ourselves and the world that comes with invitation to “take up your cross.”
But this teaching is not unique to Christianity. With so much benefit derived from serving others and devotion to a higher power and purpose, it is not surprising that the sentiment “take up your cross” is found in many other religions as well. The word “Islam” means submission. Islam is based on complete submission to the will of God in every aspect of life. In Buddhism, the idea is referred to as renunciation. By renouncing self centeredness and desire, the path to peace and wholeness is attained. Pema Chodron, a contemporary Buddhist teacher puts it this way: “Renunciation is realizing that our nostalgia for wanting to stay in a protected, limited, petty world is insane. Once you begin to get the feeling of how big the world is and how vast our potential for experiencing life is, then you really begin to understand renunciation.”
In the Baha’i faith, this principle of devotion to a larger reality is of significance as well. In The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i faith, we read, “O Son of Man! If you love Me, run away from yourself; and if you seek My pleasure, regard not your own; that you may die in me and I may eternally live in you.” [World Script. P. 639] In the Talmud, teachings of Judaism, we read, “Torah abides only with him who regards himself as nothing.” [P. 639]
To “take up our cross,” is not to denigrate the self, it is not an endorsement of abuse or self negation. It is honoring the image of God in each and every person, including ourselves. And affirming that image as one of compassion, mercy, generosity, love, and service.
To “take up your cross” is to choose devotion to the will and way of God and in so doing, find your highest good. For few of us will that mean facing our literal deaths, instead, for most of us, it will mean every day acts of mercy and justice offered year in and year out. To “take up your cross,” is a life long process. Preacher Fred Craddock offers this image:
We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table – ‘Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all.’
But the reality for most of us is that God sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. . .Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time.” [Quoted from Leadership, Fall 1984, in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VIII, p. 629]
We are given these lives to spend. Take up your cross is the invitation to spend your life, in service to others. And so to find your highest good. As humanitarian Albert Schweitzer put it, “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know, the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”
This Lenten season, may we take up our cross and find our truest happiness and peace.
Amen.
A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.
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