Good Morning!
At the very front of the sanctuary at First Presbyterian Church of Willmar there is an invitation in very large letters on the wall: “Take up your cross and follow me.” In today’s reading, in Matthew 16:24 it says: “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’”
We spend a lot of time in prayer, meditation, reading and praise glorifying the cross of Jesus. And so we should. But sometimes when we focus on the cross of Jesus we miss the gravity of Christ’s invitation to us: “Take up your cross!” In fact many of us trivialize “our” crosses. We tend to speak about any burden in our lives – physical, emotional, social, political, economic – as the cross we have to bear.
That fact that everyone human must endure some kind of pain or suffering in this world is a reality of daily life. It’s not the cross that Jesus calls us to bear. Even as I looked through several hymnbooks I found very little about “our cross” and a great deal about the cross of Christ. There is nothing wrong with glorifying the suffering which the world laid on Christ’s life, but in calling us to share his mission and ministry he is reminding us that IF we follow him then the world will also have a cross for us like the one he was given.
Christians are called to be different. We are called to give our first allegiance to Jesus. We are called to love God first and love our neighbor as a VERY CLOSE second. If you do that then sooner or later someone will laugh at us; someone will take advantage of us; someone will say that we can’t do that and remain their friend; someone may say that if we do that you can’t be a member of their family; someone may say that we are traitors to our native land; someone may be so threatened by our loving actions that they may kill us.
Back in the old days when it was assumed that everyone around us was Christian, or at the very least everyone who was respectable and powerful in our community was assumed to be a Christian, we began to think that being a Christian was not only respectable but was even useful for our social and economic and political ambitions. That’s the real reason that we are so insistent these days that we must return to those good old days. That’s the real reason that we resist the notion that we are in a post-Christian era. But it never was a Christian era. We had been seduced by a world that knew if it made life easy for us to think that we were Christians then we would let the world get away with a lot of anti-Christian behavior – often in the name of protecting our right to be Christians!
We are entering the 21st Century with the knowledge that being a Christian will no longer be easy and respectable. That’s actually a very freeing moment. For now we shall see more clearly the cross that the world will lay on the shoulders of those who would follow Christ. Now we shall have to make a true decision to follow our Lord.
Take up your cross, heed not the shame,
And let your foolish heart be still;
The Lord for you accepted death
Upon a cross, on Calvary’s hill.
Take up your cross, then, in Christ’s strength,
And calmly every danger brave;
It guides you to abundant life
And leads to victory o’er the grave.
[“Take Up Your Cross, the Savior Said,” Presbyterian Hymnal #393]
Jesus took our place on his cross so that we might be reunited with God and one another as part of the family of God. But the powers of this world still oppose the Gospel of Jesus Christ and will still do everything in their power to block our return to God. We get to clearly make a choice.
Prayer: Lord Christ, give us the strength to follow you in a world that sees your followers as aliens. Let us see the glory of the light of your path that we might follow you from here unto eternity. With Paul we pray that we shall not grow weary. In your name, with the communion of saints throughout the ages, we pray. Amen.
Today’s readings are Morning Psalms 84, 148; Ecclesiastes 11:9—12:14; Gal. 5:25—6:10; Matt. 16:21–28; and Evening Psalms 25 & 40.
Blessings.
Pastor Jim
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