31 Then Jesus
began to teach his disciples: “The Human One must suffer many things and be
rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed,
and then, after three days, rise from the dead.” 32 He said
this plainly. But Peter took hold of Jesus and, scolding him, began to correct
him. 33 Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, then sternly
corrected Peter: “Get behind me, Satan. You are not thinking God’s thoughts but
human thoughts.”
34 After
calling the crowd together with his disciples, Jesus said to them, “All who
want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and
follow me. 35 All who want to save their lives will lose them.
But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will
save them. 36 Why would people gain the whole world but lose
their lives? 37 What will people give in exchange for their
lives? 38 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this
unfaithful and sinful generation, the Human One will be ashamed of that person
when he comes in the Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
As president of my college class, one of my responsibilities was to plan
and organize the senior class trip.
Previous classes had gone to such exotic locations as New York City,
Washington DC, Myrtle Beach, and Hershey, PA.
Each destination was a direct reflection of the fund-raising prowess and
leadership of the particular class.
As I did the research, comparing prices and seeing how far I could stretch
our fund-raising dollars, I raised the bar and set a higher standard for senior
class trips – taking 36 college seniors on a cruise to the Bahamas. Those few days were a welcome relief to a
bunch of college students in upstate New York, where even by March, we were
still up to our hindparts in piles of gray snow. To say that I earned the title, “class
president for life,” because of that cruise would not be an understatement!
Has anyone here ever been on a cruise?
Cruises make their reputation on service and attention to detail. If you get on a cruise ship, prepare for a
few days of rest and relaxation that is focused all around you. Prepare to be entertained, prepare to be
pampered, prepare to be well-fed.
One of the oldest images of the Church is of a ship. It’s an image that suggests the Church is a
place of safety and refuge from the storms of life – something about how we’re
all in this boat together. The technical
name for the part of the sanctuary where the congregation sits is “nave,”
derived from the same word we get “navy.”
And indeed, if you look at the inside roof of many church sanctuaries,
including ours, you can imagine that you are sitting inside hull of a ship
turned upside-down.
So, the church is a ship, but what
kind of ship? Within every church,
there are those who will act like it’s a cruise ship – where other people do
the work so we can relax and be entertained and pampered and well-fed, which
would be very comfortable and pleasant, to be sure, but it doesn’t square very
well with the Jesus who tells us, in today’s Scripture reading, that those who
would want to come after him must say no to themselves, take up their cross,
and follow him.
For those who would like a life of ease and comfort and power and prestige,
Jesus is making it very clear that following him will not get you there – news
that is perhaps as unsettling to us as it was to his first disciples.
Peter, James, and John, and the other disciples had been among the first
ones to follow Jesus, to respond to his invitation to “Come after me.” They had already left behind much – their
family, their friends, their careers.
They left much because following Jesus promised much more. He was performing signs and wonders, healing
and casting out demons, walking on water, raising the dead – gaining more fame,
more prominence, more popularity with each move.
A movement was forming around Jesus, and these disciples were right in the
middle of the action. They had hitched
their star to Jesus, and as he rose into positions of power and influence, they
would be there at his right and left hand – the power next to the power, as it
were.
Peter went as far to call
Jesus, “the Messiah.” Jesus said he was
correct, but shocked them all by teaching that the Messiah would be rejected by
anyone with any shred of power. He would
suffer and die a criminal’s death - naked & humiliated, hanging upon a
cross for all to see. Distressed, Peter
took Jesus aside and said, “Say it ain’t so.
I was hoping for smooth sailing from here on out, and a cross just isn’t
part of my plan.”
Jesus turned to Peter and
said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are
thinking human thoughts and not God’s thoughts.” Then Jesus called the rest of the crowd
together and said, “Listen up, people, and listen good! If any of you would be my follower, if any of
you would be my disciple, if any of you wants a place in my kingdom, let them
deny themselves and take up their cross - this emblem of suffering and shame -
let them take up their cross and follow me.”
Peter, you see, wants and needs a strong God. Peter wants a strong God...and who can blame
him. Are we any different? When the crushing weight of hardship bears down upon
us, when the voices of despair drown out all others, when it's one
disappointment after another, don't we also want a strong God to avenge our
hurts, to right all wrongs, and to put us back on top of things?
Except...except that it's precisely when I'm down and out, when life's
setbacks and disappointments have conspired to make me feel like I'm nothing,
that I wonder what a God of might, strength, and justice--the God of winners,
that is--has to say to me, an ordinary schmuck and everyday Joe, who often
feels far closer to defeat than to victory.
I think this is what Jesus means in his rebuke to Peter by contrasting
divine things and earthly ones. By our human reckoning strength is everything,
might makes right, and the one who dies with the most toys wins. But God
employs a different calculus and measures strength not in terms of might but of
love, not by victory but vulnerability, not in possessions but in sacrifice,
not by glory but by the cross.
Following Jesus is not
comfortable. It’s not a golden ticket to
an easy life. Following Jesus is going
to require more than just knowing things about Jesus. Following Jesus means going where he went,
doing what he did. It means dying to
self so we can be part of God’s greater life, submitting our will to Christ’s
will. “Take up your cross and follow me”
– Jesus poured out his life, his access to power, wealth, prestige, comfort –
in order to give life to others. We are
called to nothing less.
You see, there’s a big
difference between a cruise ship and disciple-ship. You climb aboard a cruise ship, and someone
will hand you a cold drink and a hot towel.
Follow Jesus and pursue a life of discipleship, and he hands you a cross
and says, “Here, you’re going to need this. And in the meantime, grab an oar
and start rowing, or grab a net and start fishing, or grab a tool and start
fixing, or grab a map and start navigating.”
To be part of the church,
to be aboard this ship means to be put to work and service in some way. Now, many churches operate on the 80/20
rule. 80% of the load is carried by 20%
of the people. In such churches,
everyone’s favorite person to do a task is “Someone Else.” Who will teach the children? Someone Else.
Who will sing in the choir?
Someone Else. Who will lock up
the building? Someone Else. Who will lead the outreach effort? Someone Else.
Can I let you in on a
secret? Someone Else already has enough
on their plate. In reality, Someone Else
probably doesn’t have the time or energy to get to that project, and so it’s
probably just going to go undone.
Friends, the church is at
its best when all of its members are at work in loving service in some
way. You see on the front of the
bulletin, under the staff listing, “Ministers – all who lovingly serve God and
Neighbor.” The reality is that not just
pastors, but all Christians are called to ministry, it’s just that many fail to
claim that call. Important, life-giving,
life-changing ministry never takes place, for want of servants who get it all
done. We have important work to do, and
it will take all hands on deck to get it done.
I can’t do it all. Our staff
cannot do it all. Our leaders and
committee chairs can’t do it all – each of us has a role to play, each of us
has work to do.
The exception to that is
when we’re going through a season in life where we cannot contribute, in terms
of time, talent, or treasure, like we might want to. Maybe a health or family situation or some
other circumstance that is a barrier to us doing everything we’d like to or
feel we should – friends, that’s where the rest of the church has a vitally
important role to play. That’s when
those of us who can, who are able, need to step it up all the more to stand in
the gap on behalf of those who can’t in any given season.
That’s something I stress
to people who are preparing to join the church as members. To every person who joins, it’s more than
just about having your name on the roll, it’s about making a commitment to the
ministry God is doing in and through this church. Membership is a way to say, “This is my
church, I am responsible for it. I am
committed to it. I will give of my best
– my time, my talent, and my treasure – to see God’s purpose through this
church realized.”
Yes, it’s fun and safe and
comfortable and easy to simply be along for the ride. It’s nice to let everyone else do the work
while we are pampered and entertained, relaxed and well-fed. It’s nice, but
following Jesus calls us to more. Jesus
calls us to follow him, which will always come with personal cost and
sacrifice.
The difference between the
cruise ship and disciple-ship is the difference between being served and being
a servant. Don’t settle for just being a
passenger. Jesus needs us all to join
the crew.
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