Take up your cross
One of the great challenges of Lent is to ask ourselves whether we will be changed at the end of it – this period gives us the chance to reflect on our relationship with God and with other people…
Our Old Testament reading today (Genesis 17:1-7, 15,16) recounted God appearing to Abram, an old man. God told Abram some things – first he would be the father of many nations. Second, his name would change and so would that of his wife Sarai. He would become Abraham and she, Sarah…
And God made promises to them and Abraham listened and he trusted and his life was transformed as was that of Sarah….
It was all about listening and trusting – Abraham didn’t turn around and think he was having a strange dream and he didn’t start to make objections about it all – he listened and he knew that he had to follow God…
Abraham received an offer of a life transformed by God and he accepted….
A similar challenge to live out our faith comes with the words of Jesus in our gospel this morning (Mark 8:31-38), ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me’.
During Lent it is right that each one of us is challenged to ask ourselves how much our faith means to us, and how well we actually live out that faith.
We are challenged to ask ourselves if our faith is just a practice of religion or whether there is more to it, and if there is then what ? And these can be unpleasant and difficult questions because these words of Jesus ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves take up their cross and follow me’ are some of the most important words that Jesus ever spoke, and they demand a response from us….
He knew that to choose to follow him was to go against much of what the world wanted or expected. He knew that to truly follow him as he spoke these words to those early disciples would mean persecution and suffering for them.
Today it still involves those things for people in some places in the world… For us it doesn’t mean that, but it does sometimes mean living at odds with things that society seems to expect today….
Many of those early followers were reluctant to rise to the challenge, perhaps understandably….
At home I’ve got a picture up on the wall of a scene from the old TV series, ‘Dad’s army’… Gathered around Pike are Captain Mainwaring, Sergeant Wilson, Corporal Jones and Private Fraser, and they’re all looking accusingly at him – below are the words of Captain Mainwaring ‘Stupid Boy’.
Mainwaring of course was the one who expressed the anger whilst the others kind of just looked disappointed, and I always think this scene is similar to what we’ve heard about this morning – Peter was the mouthpiece for all of the disciples who were just a little disappointed in Jesus !
The reaction of the disciples was not unnatural – they couldn’t see the need for suffering – Peter had showed this as he rebuked Jesus after Jesus said that he must go to Jerusalem to die.
And Jesus responded with the words, ‘Get behind me Satan !’
Today we often hear of Football Club Directors giving the assurance that they are right behind their managers, the vote of confidence, but we know that normally the manager doesn’t last too long after such a statement has been made – their backing wasn’t that full after all.
When Jesus asked his followers to take up their cross and follow him, He was calling for the full backing of his closest followers – he would need them to build his Church, and today he offers the same call to his followers. He needs us to build his Church and if we are willing to do that then inevitably it will be a difficult call…
Martin Luther famously said, ‘A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing and suffers nothing is worth nothing.’
True discipleship leads us to follow the example of Jesus. He stood up for love, truth and justice – and if we do the same then we will encounter suffering and opposition. When Abram accepted the call from God his life was transformed but it doesn’t tell us it was easy…. !
This Lent it is important that we seek an image of Jesus that speaks to us directly – whether it’s through our Church services, our Bible reading and study or our prayer, or whether it’s at a special place… This week in the readings, we are thrown right into the heart of our Lenten journey with Christ challenging us to follow him…
We are asked to think about what it means to be a member of the body of Christ, the church…. And perhaps we wonder why we never seem to be able to do enough to build the Kingdom of God; or why our plans sometimes come to nothing, and how we can lack direction and purpose in our lives.
The readings this week are appropriate for the second week of Lent because they challenge us to think about God’s commitment to us and our commitment to God.
God has given everything for us and continues to love us, and his invitation to us is to immerse ourselves in Jesus, and all that he means… Being ‘in Christ’ is so important that the phrase is used 164 times in Paul’s letters alone, and that means seeking to be more and more like him and trusting his care for us…
As we look around and all too often see tragedy and pain in the world, we need to be reminded of God’s promises… Promises which are about him caring for us and loving us and walking alongside us… In a world of so much bad news, there is a lot of good news in Jesus…
And this good news is for sharing… We are called to live out our faith standing alongside those who suffer for whatever reason. We are called to be strong for those who cannot. We are called to pray for the seemingly impossible, we are called to share in joy and grief…. trusting in God all the time.
And all of those things are dependent on us knowing God for ourselves….
This Lent let’s make sure that we don’t leave Jesus as an outsider in our lives, but that we make him a central figure in our lives – inviting him to share every part of our lives and asking him to transform them as he desires.
I couldn’t finish this sermon without making reference to Billy Graham, the great evangelist who died earlier this week at the age of 99, the same age as Abram when he accepted that call from God to have his life transformed…
I was fortunate to hear him speak twice live and to visit his training centre and library out in North Carolina. He left a huge impact on me, but he wouldn’t like me saying that – because the only impact he ever sought to leave on people’s lives was introducing them to a relationship with Jesus….
‘Take up your cross and follow me’ doesn’t sound the most appealing invitation ever and to follow Jesus won’t always be easy but it transforms us and offers us a life filled with love and compassion, with peace and hope, wherever we find ourselves and whatever may happen to us…
And so in this lent let’s think about what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus and let’s seek to be continually transformed into his image as we draw closer to him in our lives.
We won’t all be called to do incredible things at the age of 99 like Abraham and we won’t speak to millions of people as Billy Graham did, but God can use us whoever we are in some way….
Paul in a verse from the letter to the Romans (4:13-25) that we heard earlier talked about the faith of Abraham who believed in the presence of the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence that don’t exist… He believed what God would do for him and through him, and that is our invitation as we go through Lent – to believe the promises God has made, trust those promises, allow ourselves to be transformed by Him and just watch in awe what he can do through us… AMEN
Our Old Testament reading today (Genesis 17:1-7, 15,16) recounted God appearing to Abram, an old man. God told Abram some things – first he would be the father of many nations. Second, his name would change and so would that of his wife Sarai. He would become Abraham and she, Sarah…
And God made promises to them and Abraham listened and he trusted and his life was transformed as was that of Sarah….
It was all about listening and trusting – Abraham didn’t turn around and think he was having a strange dream and he didn’t start to make objections about it all – he listened and he knew that he had to follow God…
Abraham received an offer of a life transformed by God and he accepted….
A similar challenge to live out our faith comes with the words of Jesus in our gospel this morning (Mark 8:31-38), ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me’.
During Lent it is right that each one of us is challenged to ask ourselves how much our faith means to us, and how well we actually live out that faith.
We are challenged to ask ourselves if our faith is just a practice of religion or whether there is more to it, and if there is then what ? And these can be unpleasant and difficult questions because these words of Jesus ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves take up their cross and follow me’ are some of the most important words that Jesus ever spoke, and they demand a response from us….
He knew that to choose to follow him was to go against much of what the world wanted or expected. He knew that to truly follow him as he spoke these words to those early disciples would mean persecution and suffering for them.
Today it still involves those things for people in some places in the world… For us it doesn’t mean that, but it does sometimes mean living at odds with things that society seems to expect today….
Many of those early followers were reluctant to rise to the challenge, perhaps understandably….
At home I’ve got a picture up on the wall of a scene from the old TV series, ‘Dad’s army’… Gathered around Pike are Captain Mainwaring, Sergeant Wilson, Corporal Jones and Private Fraser, and they’re all looking accusingly at him – below are the words of Captain Mainwaring ‘Stupid Boy’.
Mainwaring of course was the one who expressed the anger whilst the others kind of just looked disappointed, and I always think this scene is similar to what we’ve heard about this morning – Peter was the mouthpiece for all of the disciples who were just a little disappointed in Jesus !
The reaction of the disciples was not unnatural – they couldn’t see the need for suffering – Peter had showed this as he rebuked Jesus after Jesus said that he must go to Jerusalem to die.
And Jesus responded with the words, ‘Get behind me Satan !’
Today we often hear of Football Club Directors giving the assurance that they are right behind their managers, the vote of confidence, but we know that normally the manager doesn’t last too long after such a statement has been made – their backing wasn’t that full after all.
When Jesus asked his followers to take up their cross and follow him, He was calling for the full backing of his closest followers – he would need them to build his Church, and today he offers the same call to his followers. He needs us to build his Church and if we are willing to do that then inevitably it will be a difficult call…
Martin Luther famously said, ‘A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing and suffers nothing is worth nothing.’
True discipleship leads us to follow the example of Jesus. He stood up for love, truth and justice – and if we do the same then we will encounter suffering and opposition. When Abram accepted the call from God his life was transformed but it doesn’t tell us it was easy…. !
This Lent it is important that we seek an image of Jesus that speaks to us directly – whether it’s through our Church services, our Bible reading and study or our prayer, or whether it’s at a special place… This week in the readings, we are thrown right into the heart of our Lenten journey with Christ challenging us to follow him…
We are asked to think about what it means to be a member of the body of Christ, the church…. And perhaps we wonder why we never seem to be able to do enough to build the Kingdom of God; or why our plans sometimes come to nothing, and how we can lack direction and purpose in our lives.
The readings this week are appropriate for the second week of Lent because they challenge us to think about God’s commitment to us and our commitment to God.
God has given everything for us and continues to love us, and his invitation to us is to immerse ourselves in Jesus, and all that he means… Being ‘in Christ’ is so important that the phrase is used 164 times in Paul’s letters alone, and that means seeking to be more and more like him and trusting his care for us…
As we look around and all too often see tragedy and pain in the world, we need to be reminded of God’s promises… Promises which are about him caring for us and loving us and walking alongside us… In a world of so much bad news, there is a lot of good news in Jesus…
And this good news is for sharing… We are called to live out our faith standing alongside those who suffer for whatever reason. We are called to be strong for those who cannot. We are called to pray for the seemingly impossible, we are called to share in joy and grief…. trusting in God all the time.
And all of those things are dependent on us knowing God for ourselves….
This Lent let’s make sure that we don’t leave Jesus as an outsider in our lives, but that we make him a central figure in our lives – inviting him to share every part of our lives and asking him to transform them as he desires.
I couldn’t finish this sermon without making reference to Billy Graham, the great evangelist who died earlier this week at the age of 99, the same age as Abram when he accepted that call from God to have his life transformed…
I was fortunate to hear him speak twice live and to visit his training centre and library out in North Carolina. He left a huge impact on me, but he wouldn’t like me saying that – because the only impact he ever sought to leave on people’s lives was introducing them to a relationship with Jesus….
‘Take up your cross and follow me’ doesn’t sound the most appealing invitation ever and to follow Jesus won’t always be easy but it transforms us and offers us a life filled with love and compassion, with peace and hope, wherever we find ourselves and whatever may happen to us…
And so in this lent let’s think about what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus and let’s seek to be continually transformed into his image as we draw closer to him in our lives.
We won’t all be called to do incredible things at the age of 99 like Abraham and we won’t speak to millions of people as Billy Graham did, but God can use us whoever we are in some way….
Paul in a verse from the letter to the Romans (4:13-25) that we heard earlier talked about the faith of Abraham who believed in the presence of the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence that don’t exist… He believed what God would do for him and through him, and that is our invitation as we go through Lent – to believe the promises God has made, trust those promises, allow ourselves to be transformed by Him and just watch in awe what he can do through us… AMEN
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