Take Up Your Cross and Believe

 Sermon John 3:12-21 March 1, 2021 Fourth Sunday in Lent yr B

Take Up Your Cross and Believe

Take up your cross and believe.

Take up your cross is our theme this Lenten season.

Take up your cross and believe is for this Sunday the fourth Sunday of Lent.

In this message from the gospel of John-Jesus calls on the disciples and those around him to look to him lifted up on the cross and believe. Jesus will be lifted high on a cross and in that moment, all will look to him will see that God has truly loved them and has given them life abundant.

The disciples didn’t really understand that Jesus was talking about his own death. But, they did remember the story about Moses they were all taught growing up.

Jesus tells of the time when the Israelites were wandering in the desert and grumbling. Numbers 21:4-9. They were angry at God. They were miserable with the boring same old food and drink. They were frustrated with their way of living in the desert for so long. And they took their anger and frustrations out on God and Moses. So, God sent snakes to bite them. Then the people begged Moses to pray to God for them. Moses prayed and God told Moses to get his staff and put a bronze snake on it. All those who were bit needed to look up at Moses and look at the snake lifted high on the staff. When they looked up they would live and have life.

 

God has always provided for those who had turned away from God to find a way back.

God offered life to those who would look up and would hold their eyes upon the staff that held their sin.

As they looked at the snake, the symbol of their rebellion, high in the air, ascended above them, they experienced God removing their pain, their sentence of death, their sin.

In this act they lived.

 

And so it is as Jesus describes for us in this scripture.

If we look to the cross where Jesus was lifted high,

it holds all of our sorrow,

our pain,

our sins.

It is all there upon Jesus on the cross.

It is not a moment of humiliation for Jesus but a moment of exaltation.

Where there is death and sorrow, God promises us life and hope. God loves us so much that the whole world benefits from this love. It is not just for one group. It is not just for one corner of the world. It is not just for one gender, or one animal classification. It is for arthropods, vertebrates, humans, donkeys and snails. It’s all of creation!

 

The verse we all memorize as one of our first verses is John 3:16. We see it everywhere. We see it at baseball stadiums. We see it on invitation to church literature. We know this verse and we hang on to this promise; even though we know we are not living in a perfect world. God so loved the world he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life! It’s a new life for us now , not only the future. It is a promise meant for us to be fulfilled now in this present time. Eternal life=That’s life in the present that carries us into eternity. Real life that through all circumstances keeps us together and holds us through the hard times, the crazy times, and through the blessing filled times.

 

Today marks one year! “This is only temporary”, I had said. I was certain and hopeful that we would be in a situation that would last only a few weeks or a month at the most. We were all willing to risk whatever it took to make things right for just a few weeks. We were willing to show love and care as we could. Until it started to last too long and we, like the Israelites, began to grumble. It has been too long. There has been too much death. There has been too much separation which has been too painful. There has been frustration and behaviors that make no sense. There has been a lot of darkness. And yet, even in the darkness there has been much light-we’ve just needed to look up to it.

 

To what lengths are we willing to be drawn to the light of Jesus and risk being loved by him?

How can this love from God draw us from our dark places and enter us into the strong blinding light of love?

We are constantly carried by God in the very ways scripture describes for us. God is like a mother hen who draws her chicks under her wings. God is like an eagle who carries us high above the fray. God holds us in the palm of his hand. God takes our burdens and makes them light. God offers us love and life through his cross for all who believe.

Photo credit Joe Valentine

I’ve shared this story before and I believe it deserves to be told many times. It is a story that reminds us that we are not the judge of who deserves God’s love, grace and eternal, abundant life. Because God did not come into the world to condemn it but to offer life to all. Anyone who lives in the light is already living in the love of God. Because God is light.

Working as a nurse in ICU’s, burn units, pediatrics, and dialysis, we served everyone without consideration of who, where, or how they came into our care. One Christmas I was dialyzing a man who had had another overdose and was impaired with alcohol. I remember being mad at him because he wouldn’t listen to any of us who cared deeply for him. He was determined to continue his self-abusive behavior. With every appeal to him he wasn’t deterred. We were all crazy about this man-we really loved him. And he was grateful that he could count on coming to dialysis. Yet, his reasons were different than ours. He knew he could count on the treatments which would straighten him up so he could go out and get high again. I sat with him at Christmas mad at him. I was really angry. I begged him to change. I needed him to meet my expectations of who and how he should be. Yet, he looked at me and said. I know I need to change. I know I should do better. But, I also know that no matter what, you all really care about me.

At that moment I was no longer angry. I was in the presence of a man who I cared about and he cared about me, us, the dialysis team-we were his family and nothing could change that. And so, in that moment, I realized what God does for us. That no matter what state we are in. No matter how wrong we are. No matter how we seek to lose our life or injure ourselves or find ourselves without worth. No matter who or how we are, God still descends from heaven to bring us grace and mercy. “Thy kingdom come.” God pours out a constant love that is for ALL the world. We are always precious children of God-always! God’s love is continuous and never, ever, ever, leaves us. IN God’s eyes we ALWAYS matter and are Loved unconditionally!

The cross of Christ is not something to shy away from but the realization that God’s love was so great that it was lifted high in exaltation. God is not afraid to draw us out into the light from the dark shadows of our ways. We do not need to be afraid of the light. It might be blinding at first and hard to see where were going, but it will guide us as we trust and believe. Take up your cross and believe.

Friends believe this good news of the gospel: God so loved us now and forever. 

Amen.

 

Resources: NIB Gospel of John-Gayle O’Day; Working Preacher Matt Skinner 2021

Property of Monica Gould. Sharing is permitted. Please send requests to reprint with permission to mongould@gmail.com

 

Sermon Mark 8:31-38 February 28, 2021 Second Sunday in Lent yr B

Take Up Your Cross and Follow

In the sanctuary at Naomi Makemie we see the cross hanging there. Here at Francis Makemie we do not have a cross but the symbols of pulpit, font and table to mark our church as a Christian church. Many of us wear a cross around our neck as a reminder that we are Christians. The cross is an important symbol across all denominations as the witness to the redeeming work of Christ.

We understand as Paul Tillich taught that the cross is a symbol that points beyond itself by shining on the reality to which it points-the saving love of God.

The cross we look to during this season of Lent is the cross on which our Savior died. It is something many of us are uncomfortable talking about and many of us uncomfortable singing about. We don’t like to sing the songs that mention the cross and especially not songs that mention blood. Eww.  And we are even more uncomfortable trying to explain the cross, blood and death to ourselves, our kids, or our friends.

Yet, we cannot have a resurrection without a death.

We cannot have spring without a winter.

We cannot have bright flowers without the darkness of the soil.

All of our life is a cycle of which we all take part.

Birth, growth, aging, death are our ways of creation from generation to generation.

During Lent we try to take seriously our relationship with Christ. We leave behind the excitement of the baby Jesus coming into the world to make us all new and full of the presence of God. We start to realize the depth of the presence of God with us as we walk through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. As we travel through the scriptures of the life of Jesus we learn about all he did in his life.

The seriousness of his presence in the world then and now begins to hit home. His sacrifice, his suffering, his rejection, all begin to sink in to our thoughts as we realize what he gave up for our lives to be free in love.

But, while we sing of the cross and we sing of what Jesus did, these verses in Mark’s gospel call us out. The hardest part of scripture is when it turns to those who follow Jesus and reminds them of who they are.

Jesus calls out Peter for telling him he can’t suffer and die. Jesus has already been tempted in the desert and doesn’t need his followers to tempt him to go against the plan that God has for him. Peter like so many of the followers of Jesus and so many of us today had their own idea of what Jesus the Savior should look like and act like. Peter and so many followers expected Jesus to be a strong, rebellious leader and overthrow the government of the day. Peter wanted Jesus to take a crown and sit on a throne, but Jesus told him to stop. Jesus could not and would not be a Savior to the demands of others.  He had to tell Peter to back off, just as he tells us to do the same when we turn him into a god of our choosing and desires.

That is not who Jesus was or is today. Jesus lets the crowd know that they are ALL called to be his disciples. Jesus calls the whole crowd to come to him to hear his words. But, the stakes are high. They and we are called to take up our own cross.

What was Jesus asking of his disciples then? And how does that apply to us today?

Jesus was asking his disciples to let go of their ideals. He was telling them that they could not make him be the rebel leader they wanted.

They needed to realize that if they really wanted to follow him they had best be ready to lose their lives in the same way he had.

It meant that they would need to be willing to stand up for the least of these.

They would need to be willing to heal the sick and broken hearted.

They would need to be willing to leave their homes to share the message of the gospel of Jesus beyond their backyards.

They would need to be willing to stand in the way to protect the widows and orphans. And in their willingness to deny themselves,

to lose their lives they would gain their life

and so much more.

When we pick up our cross we too gain so much more.

In Christ our self-esteem is lifted up. When we deny ourselves into the grace of Jesus we discover a God who adores us and tells us how magnificent we are because we are his creation. When we choose to lose our lives over to the message of the gospel we discover the Light of Jesus that seeks to shine through everyone and everything so that all we see is the glory of God in each face. And finally, well probably not finally, when we pick up the cross Jesus gives us we discover how it is not a burden but the sign of Christ’s completion in us.

Oswald Chambers says, ‘If a man or a woman is called of God, it does not matter how untoward circumstances are, every force that has been at work will tell of God’s purposes in the end. If you agree with Gods’ purpose God will bring not only your conscious life, but all the deeper regions of your life which you cannot get at, into harmony.

This season of Lent the theme is Take Up Your Cross. It is a theme for a reason this year. We have been through a lot in the past 11 to 12 months. We’ve seen our friends lose their jobs, we’ve seen our friends die. We’ve seen our family suffer with the isolation and restrictions. It has been a time of suffering, turmoil, anxiety, and so much more. We have not been able to ignore this or make it go away. It has definitely been a cross, a burden, to bear. And probably the last thing we want to hear about in this Lenten season is to take up a cross of suffering and pain. We might look to Jesus, and say nope, not doing it, been there, done that.

Perhaps, that’s why it’s so important this year to look to the cross of Jesus and to hear him one more time ask us to take up our own cross.

Because as we take it up this year we can remember

all the times he has been with us.

We can remember all the good that we’ve discovered in the midst of the sadness.

We can remember that the cross we carried wasn’t as heavy as we thought because there were those around seeking to help us along the way.

We might never know our strength of faith if we don’t’ follow Jesus’ calling and pick up the cross he’s set before us. We give up our life to Jesus in order to gain life. When we commit to being his disciple we are overwhelmed with opportunities to live sacrificially in our acts of love, compassion, reaching out, and serving. There is an everlasting love that is lavished on us as we offer ourselves to Jesus and follow him.

We can do this. 

He’s calling us. 

Look to the cross, 

take up yours, and 

Let us follow. 

Amen.

Resources: NIB gospel of Mark Pheme Perkins, Feasting on the Word year B W. Huelett Gloer & Paul C. Shupe 

Property of Monica Gould. Sharing is permitted. Please send requests to reprint with permission to mongould@gmail.com