“Pick Up Your Cross
and Follow Me"
Couple of Questions to get us thinking this morning. When you hear these words what do they mean
to you, “Pick up Your Cross and Follow Me”, what is the first thing that comes
to your mind? If you could give up just one of the things that is weighting you
down, or is holding you back from living a full life, what would that one thing
be?
Note: for those who want to read the passages for
today hover your curser over the blue print and the passage will be made
visible.
March 1, 2015 readings: Romans 4: 13-25, Psalm 22: Mark 8; 31-38
The Easter Season for the Christian community begins on Ash
Wednesday each year. At the Ash
Wednesday service we took time to reflect upon our commitment to Jesus and his
way. During the service we all came
forward to receive the mark of the Ash.
Ashes as we know make great fertilizer to promote new growth in the
spring of the year. The ash also represents
for us the dust of the earth from whence we came and to where we will return. Then we moved to the communion table to once
again share with Jesus as we took nourishment for the journey through bread and
wine. Then we moved to the baptismal
font. As we dipped our hand into the
bless water we were reminded of our commitment to serve, to following and
profess our faith in Jesus. At the end
of the service I offered you a challenge to those who came. For the next 40 days instead of giving up
something for lent as is the custom of our tradition, I suggested you consider specifically
doing one kind deed or gesture for someone each day, not just to someone you
like, but to include someone you do not like. I then suggested you mark it on your calendar
as your daily reminder. For those who
missed the service, you could join with us by starting the difficult challenge today. I say
difficult because, many good church going folk have trouble when it comes to sticking
with a faith commitment. It’s not easy
folks, it will take work.
In the first Sunday of lent we talked about taking an honest
look at our commitment to following Jesus. We talked about our personal understanding
of, and the symbolism surrounding the cross and were presented with some ideas to
set us on a path for our personal journey to the cross.” It is now the second Sunday in Lent and we are
being asked to consider picking up our own personal Cross to prepare you for
the journey. Easter is all about preparation,
preparation for your journey to the Cross.
Just as our Islamic friends are committed to make their own personal
journey to Mecca at least once in their life time, so we too should make our personal journey to the cross at least once
before we pass into the next life.
In the bulletin this
week I have placed an insert with the picture of an empty cross. {If you are reading this blog, may I suggest
you draw a cross on a half sheet of paper}. This will be your personal cross for the days
and weeks leading up to Easter Sunday.
Think of it as a place of surrender, a way to prepare yourself for your resurrection
on Easter Sunday morning. Easter Sunday is not just for Jesus, it
is also about our own spiritual journey and “OUR” resurrection. Something new is supposed to happen to us on
Easter Sunday folks and it isn’t the Easter bunny. On
Easter Sunday morning we get a second change to begin a new resurrected life in
Him once again. Here is the challenge: Each
day with a pen, write down one thing on your cross that you struggle with in
your walk with Christ. For example: It could be your impatience, maybe you
struggle with jealous feelings, worry, fear, are you prone to anger, feeling of
worthlessness, do you have old hurts, old sins that keep cropping up in your
life causing you to feel poorly towards yourself or towards others. These are the things that hold you in bondage,
keeping you from the resurrected life you seek.
We all have darkness in our lives
that need to be surrendered, literally put to death. Write them down on your Cross. Do this until Good Friday. Then on Easter Sunday morning I would like
you to bring in your cross folded and taped.
This will be part of your offering for that morning. These will be collected only to be burnt after
the service. The ironic thing here is
that, as simple as these challenges sound, many will find them too difficult to
commit to and will not do them. For
those of us who will a blessing will come.
For those of you who are reading this sermon on the blog and
would like to get in on my challenges, please do. Nothing
pleases God more than being committed to action.
The Romans, which would have been Marks original audience
knew what taking up your cross meant. It
meant suffering, fear and death. It
meant humiliation by publically having to carry your own instrument of death on
your day of execution and it was a sign of submissiveness to the Roman
authority. Mark would use this ugly suffering image of
carrying a cross to illustrate the ultimate submission required in order to be
a follower of Jesus. See your challenge through to the end folks.
This is not to say that Mark or
Jesus was against pleasure, nor was it a requirement to seek pain needlessly as
many Christians over the centuries have. What the writer was and is still saying, is
that it takes courage, trust, and commitment to follow Christ, especially when
the work is difficult, when the future look bleak or the going gets tough. Mark is
also saying that you should be willing to lose your life for the sake of the Gospel
because there is no life like it.
Paul is also stressing here that there is nothing worth gaining more in
this life, than your relationship with Christ.
Don’t let the illusions of the world hold you any longer.
There is a real nugget to be found here folks, if you can see
it. My understanding of the Gospel is that Salvation
is not all about being saved for a Cosmic Heaven in an afterlife. It
seems to me that salvation cannot be complete without being saved from “YOURSELF” that self-centred egotistical, self-righteous
self. Mark
8: 35. Those who seek to save themselves will lose themselves. Jesus is asking you to surrender to Him your-self,
literally the self in you with all that burdens your soul, give me those filthy
rags you have collected around yourself, rags that keep you held in bondage and
I will not only give you rest, I will give you the peace that passes all
understanding, you will eat with joy at the table of your enemies, and you will
love, with a love that never fails. Choose to go it alone and you have chosen fear
and unbelief, and you will receive. Choose faith in God, believe in Me, Jesus
says and you will receive, how come the same? Folks, you cannot escape the consequences of
your choices. Fear bigots Fear,
Jealously bigots jealously, anger bigots anger, violence bigots violence and
the list goes on. But on the other hand,
Trust bigots trust, gratitude bigots gratitude, thankfulness bigots
thankfulness, compassion, bigots compassion and the list goes on. Believe me, you will receive according to
the choices you make in life. “Choose
Me and my way” sayth the Lord, and I will exchange those filthy rags and your
sinful human nature for my cloak of righteousness, my spiritual nature and when
your time comes, I will present you to my Father covered in all my glory. As you continue on your journey to the cross
on Easter Sunday let us begin to make those good choices that will resurrect in
us our new life in Him. Let us
pray.
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