Notes from the Sermon for 13th September

Take up Your Cross

13^th September 2015

Prayers……..

“Whoever wants to be my Disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”

Are we ready for this  challenge?  Is humanity ready for this revolutionary take on life?

And there are 2 answers to this question.

1) No we are not

2) Yes we are.

NO we are:

Not ready to be disciples

Not ready to deny ourselves

Not ready to take up whatever maybe our particular cross.

Not ready to:

Be disciples

Fear perhaps, that we are not good enough, but remember the disciples were just human and had plenty of faults they fell short  we all  fall down on this one too.

Not Ready to:

Deny Ourselves, this ones more difficult, how do you deny yourself, in the Epistle reading this morning James speaks of “taming the tongue” ( go home and read the passage 3: 1-12)  of how we can tame the creatures but not ourselves, we are “a restless evil full of deadly poison” 

 And we have to realise it, we, the human species are capable of the most horrendous acts of violence and barbarity, because seemingly we cannot deny ourselves anything, and when someone manages it

Such as Nelson Mandela deny himself the vengeance for those years on Robben Island the example succeeds but only up to a point.

And what about the instruction  to “Take up our cross and follow him”  

What about those who seem to be ready there is a Cartoon  that has stuck in my mind which I saw a few years ago.. This stated that most famous assassinations happened to people who had argued, preached peace and reconciliation & justice.

Jesus

Lincoln

Ghandi

Anwar Sadat

Yitzak Rabin

Martin Luther King

“If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anybody.” So said Michael Corleone in “The Godfather, Part II.” He was right. Indeed you can and indeed we do.

In other words those who had been brave enough to do exactly what   Jesus told them to do in this passage will suffer ( next week we will see how Jesus  speaks of his own death) and the  reading from Isaiah this morning predicts this

Now I am sorry if this is all upsetting, but remember our faith does not promise an easy life ‘take up you cross and follow me’ says Jesus. Effectively following me will get you into trouble at best, persecuted and killed at worst.

YES

 It would seem on the surface that all this is hopeless but  here comes the good news, on all three counts we often succeed but the downside to this is that we don’t recognise what we are doing.

How many of you  have stood up for what is right, have fought for what you believe in, like a true disciple?, how many have denied yourself to help someone? How many have readily shouldered a burden for a family member or friend.

Thinking about mine own experiences here are a few of mine.

• Looking after my mother for 14 years.
• Missing 2 of my youngest daughters birthdays because I was training (and that was hard) Being away from family for long periods (I’d never done it before)
• Being seen as somehow different and not fitting in with the crowd.
• Standing with the parents of a stillborn baby and then going to conduct a wedding, I couldn’t get the face of that little dead child out of my mind.

.

Each one of these and the equivalent in your own lives is an act of discipleship, and act of denial, a desire to lift your cross and carry it if imperfectly. So we are not just full of deadly poison, we are also full of and capable of, love, kindness, truth and justice and we have a great example to follow. Its not easy to be a Christian, to follow the teachings of Jesus, but when we try the reward is great. I'll end today with this poem, written when I began to realise the totality of becoming a priest.

The Shadow

The shadow grew out of the sun

Rising with the light of dawn,

it tipped the city’s towers with darkness.

Lengthening with the growing of the day,

it stole across the grass and stones,

beyond the hills, into the very sky.

Tall it stood, greater than anything,

dominating sky and land with dreadful power.

No shadow of gentleness at noon,

no peaceful, sleepy shadow of eventide,

this shadow looms, absorbing the cosmos

 in its blinding depths.

In darkness of moon and starlight it gleams,

solid and cold, uncompromisingly alive,

a very terror to behold, so many

beholding it flee and hide,

to find refuge in the abyss

of emptiness.

The shadow grew out of the Son,

lifted high above the city.

Longer it grew as night followed day,

and centuries and ages passed away.

Longer it grew, until the shadow of the cross,

lay the burden of its liberation upon my heart.Amen.