For the sake of the gospel

Simon Says

Touch your nose

wave hello to your neighbor

clap your hands

Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus

And that I imagine was exactly the thoughts that were going through the disciples heads

What a very very strange thing to ask

How does one even do that?

How do you know that you are going to do that?

Is that literal or is that a figurative thing? After all Jesus communicates in a lot of parables and stories, he told us just last week he said that the religious leaders were yeast and to watch out for them (in Matthew 7) it’s worth a read later if you are wondering

Last week this person fed the equivalent of a filled Jack Trice Stadium with the amount of food the average 3 people would eat at one fish fry during lent

I have to give the disciples some Grace here because much of what Jesus was saying had to of been rather shocking and at time unsettling.

What does this cross language mean?

What it doesn’t mean

It is not a burden to be carried like is often the way that we use it in our lexicon today

an illness, or brokenness in a relationship, and in a bout of self-pity say while I guess that is just my cross to bear as we roll our eyes knowing that explanation doesn’t quiet quell the inner turmoil we actually feel

To the first-century person the cross meant one thing and one thing only - death, and death in the worst way possible

What it does mean?

It means being willing to die for Jesus

But I don’t actually think it has to mean dying in a physical and literal sense

certainly there is some historic irony that we have historic and archeological evidence that suggests that most of the disciples that heard this were likely later crucified.

We - we find ourselves in the midst of the lenten road

Lent is often a time for us to think about the fullness of the gospel story, the fullness of the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus

Although these are stories of people from thousands of years ago they are familiar stories because when we read them we realize that in some deep part they are often questions that we are asking ourselves

Last week Pastor Mary preached about the experience of being in the wilderness

Jesus returns from the wilderness, continues in his public ministry, calls the disciples, and begins to have crowds following him

Peter just learned that Jesus is the Messiah and he is immediately pushing back

Peter asks who Jesus is just before this passage and compares him to the giants of the faith are you think person or that person. Jesus answers I am the Messiah

Our passage this week comes not when Peter asks what a messiah is, the question that gets asked in this passage is what type of messiah is peter really looking for?

What type of Messiah is he prepared to find?

We read the story of Peter knowing the context and being able to see to the very end of Peters story

but this was relatively early on in Peter’s story and I this if I am honest I carry similar questions maybe you do too?

How do we not blame Peter or distance ourself from him but rather develop a curiosity as to why he is that way?

When we enter a place of worship like this on a Sunday morning what is it that we are seeking? What type of messiah are we looking for? But more importantly what type of messiah is Jesus? What type of Messiah does Jesus claim to be?

God

We cannot grasp the conditions of messiahship for Jesus until we grasp the conditions of discipleship for ourselves

To be a follower is a good thing

So often we talk about how to cultivate leadership that we forget that being a follower is also a skill to be cultivated

Surrender is the way to regaining our psyche

For those who want to lose their soul. Or their life, the actual word is psyche. Which roughly means life or spirit?

It is in many ways the avenue in which we best understand ourself

It is to die to self

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To die to self is to be ultimately surrendered to God

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different accounts of this same story in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s accounts of the gospel and all three of them have near identical words immediately after Jesus tells us to carry our cross and follow him

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“They say for whoever wants to to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it”

It is not us that has to die, but what piece of ourselves are we ready to let go of

To die to self is to be ultimately surrendered to God

3 different accounts of this same story in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s accounts of the gospel and all three of them have near identical words immediately after Jesus tells us to carry our cross and follow him

“They say for whoever wants to to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it”

You - What within you ought to die?

It is not the loosing of our lives that is the good part of the passage the good part is in the gaining of our lives

When we honestly come before God in our own devotional patterns and are able to honestly pray the words thy kingdom come thy will be done, and know that for that to happen we have to get out of our own way

There is an irony in Christian discipleship that appears to us in this passage that when we surrender to God when we go to God honestly and humbly with our whole selves and ask for God to breathe through us, it is then that we find a life of meaning and purpose following a God that is so much greater than the things that I was previously spending my time on.

The irony of the Christian walk and the whole narrative of lent is that it is through dying to ourselves that we find life. It is through Crucifixion that we find Resurrection, it is through Good Friday that we find Easter.

But this message of those who must loose their life must gain them and those who gain their lives will loose them

There is within our psyche a need to let go of things

Us - Crucifying white privilege and resurrecting a much more powerful Jesus?

Are we ready church honestly to allow for nationalism, and racism to die? In order that we might regain our life?

Are we ready to be willing to allow for our systems of war, greed, and tribalism

For Simon says to take up your cross and follow Jesus, but to do so becuase it is in doing so that we regain our life. That we see ourselves as partners in the on-going work of Resurrection that God is doing in our lives and communities.

Prayer of confession and repente ce

Come let us turn to our God, who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Let us pray.

Holy Friend, our God and Saviour, we have talked much about faith yet have been slow to take its risks, we have lauded forgiveness yet have been miserly in giving it, we have praised truth yet have fudged our own integrity, we have extolled love yet have placed conditions on our loving, we have urged hope for others yet have ourselves lived like cynics, we have honoured Christ’s Cross yet have avoided our own.

Most faithful God, please deal with each according to our individual betrayals of the Gospel we espouse. By your Spirit enter the secret caverns of the soul and there expose, judge, counsel, cleanse and reform us. Forgive us repeatedly, we pray, until forgiveness is such a part of us that it may become a way of life as we deal with those around us. In the name of Christ our Redeemer.

Amen!