Pastor Dismer’s sermon from Sunday, March 8, 2009:

“What it means to pick up our cross and follow Jesus.”

Mark 8:31-38

Some years ago a group of workers were taken to the middle of downtown Minneapolis and asked to dig a hole 5 ft. wide, 5 ft. long and 5 ft. deep.

When they finished the foreman jumped into the hole, looked around, climbed out and said, “Fill it back up.” Then he chose a new spot and said, “Dig here.”

This went on all morning, and 4 holes were dug and filled in. At noon one worker gave his shovel to the foreman and said, “I quit.”

“Why?” the foreman asked. “Am I working you too hard? Is the pay too little?”

“It’s not that,” the worker replied. “You’re making fools out of us – digging holes, filling them up, endlessly. It doesn’t make sense.”

Then the foreman explained that he was looking for a broken water main. Once the worker knew there was a reason for his work, he was willing to continue.

In our gospel text this morning Jesus gives his disciples a reason for his ministry, a reason for their ministry, but they don’t get it.

Or they don’t want to get it, because it is so challenging.

Three times in Mark’s gospel Jesus tells his disciples clearly that he is going to go to Jerusalem, where he will be killed and raised again in three days. And, he explains that if they are willing to follow him any further, they will need to take on the role that he has been exemplifying: that of a suffering servant for others. And it will lead to Jerusalem.

The disciples’ reaction to this news is the same all three times. They don’t – or can’t – or won’t – believe or understand what Jesus is telling them.

In these hard times we are facing, we may not want to hear Jesus’ difficult words either, although we know that he was telling his disciples the truth, and it is truth for us as well.

For the past few weeks we have looked carefully at the beginning of Mark’s gospel. We have listened to Marks’ words about Jesus’ baptism, his testing in the wilderness, and the urgent message in his first sermon at the beginning of his public ministry.

We know that Jesus was clear about his message and that he immediately invited others to follow him. And they did! They followed Jesus throughout Galilee as he taught and preached and healed and did miracles. And yet, after all this they were still unclear about what Jesus’ ministry, or theirs, was all about.

Jesus taught them that to follow him meant to deny self, and soon after they argued who was greatest among them! He taught them that to follow meant the first shall be last and servant of all, and they asked to be allowed to sit at his right hand in heaven! Jesus said “Let the little children come to me,” and still they rebuked children who came to him.

In the verses that come just before our text today, Jesus turns to his disciples and asks them, “Who do people say I am?”

They replied: “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” Jesus asks. “Who do you say I am?” And Peter answers: “You are the Christ.” “Tell no one that,” Jesus says.

And then Jesus begins to teach his disciples what they have still, somehow, missed: what it actually means for him to be the Christ; the reason behind what he has been doing; and what that requires of his followers.

Jesus and his disciples were living in a time when the Roman army occupied their land: The Romans were powerful rulers and put up with no disobedience from the Jews.

The road leading into Jerusalem had permanent crosses lining the way, where criminals – where all who opposed the Romans – were crucified.

Jesus and his disciples and followers had been avoiding Jerusalem. They had been avoiding attention as much as that was possible. Now Jesus was telling them that he was going to Jerusalem where he would suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and be killed. And, after three days, rise again.

Peter was having none of this. Today we are in Peter’s shoes. Jesus is saying to us what he said to his disciples and the nearby crowd:

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

So this is it. This is the hard message: If we want to follow Jesus it means losing our lives, so that he can save us. To be the Christ meant that Jesus would die. To be Christians – Jesus’ followers – means that we must die.

Are you looking around for the “mute” button? This is hard to hear. Is this what it means to pick up our cross and follow Jesus; to lose our life in order to save it?

One thing I know “picking up our cross” does not mean: the hardships in life – pain, illness and loss – that we all, at one time or another must carry, are not our crosses. Things that happen to us are not our crosses.

The burden we choose to carry, for another’s sake, is our cross. Let me repeat that: The burden we choose to carry, for another’s sake, that is our cross.

Jesus carried his cross – actually the crossbeam – to the hill outside of Jerusalem where he would be nailed to that crossbeam and raised up onto one of the waiting posts. But in another sense, Jesus also carried his cross daily by the way he lived: he gave up his life, day by day, hour by hour, to serve others.

In the political and religious climate of his day his life was an affront; his message – spoken and lived out – was not acceptable. His teachings about the kingdom of God did not fit the religious message of the day, and stirred up political tensions. And it led to death on a cross. As he knew it would.

We don’t do crucifixions in the us. So where will following Jesus lead us? What are we to do? This is not easy to answer, and the answers I can offer are not easy. Like Peter, I’d rather rebuke Jesus: No, Jesus, let’s not go to Jerusalem.

Let’s not give up our lives! Times are hard. My life is difficult right now. I have enough on my plate – too much really. Maybe I don’t get it, or just don’t want to get it.

Let me be the first to confess here that truly following Jesus is hard and demanding and sometimes more than I am able or willing to do.

This text would leave me in tears and deep depression if I hadn’t read the whole of Mark’s gospel; because that is where the good news can be found: In Mark’s gospel I learn that Jesus’ disciples didn’t get it, or didn’t like it. They tried, and failed, over and over again.

And yet, Jesus was still willing to die for them; still willing to continue to call to them to follow him. And he is willing to do that for me, for us, too. He has died for us. He has died for our failures and selfishness and blindness and he calls us back, over and over again, forgiving us and teaching us once again what following him is all about.

And like Jesus’ disciples, we stumble toward Jerusalem even while protesting. We look for ways to give away our lives: an hour at a time, a dollar at a time, one prayer, one visit, one tiny effort of servanthood at a time. Forgiven, we are urged to keep following, and we try, and we do.

Let me close with one example. There is an organization many of you may already know about: Bread for the World. This is a group that looks at the big picture of poverty and advocates continuously on behalf of the hungry people of the world.

For the last 35 years this group – working with churches and other groups – has persuaded Congress to establish a grain reserve, create a child survival fund, provide debt relief to poor countries, expand funding for school lunches, and strengthen the food stamp program. Until this recent economic downturn, hunger in the United States and abroad had been steadily declining. But given current conditions, that could, and probably will, change again.

There are things we can do in the Valley to help feed the hungry, and things we can do nationally when we join efforts with thousands of others, in programs like Bread for the World, or Heifer International, or the ELCA World Hunger project. This kind of effort is choosing to carry a burden for others. Choosing to carry a burden for others is picking up our cross and following Jesus. Amen.