Sermon Mark 8:34-9:1

This morning we hear Jesus in Mark's Gospel tell us what discipleship is about. But, what he says sounds hard to hear;

Lets review some of the sayings Jesus has for us and potential disciples;

Deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me."

Saving your life is losing it; losing your life for Jesus or the Gospel is saving it.

Gaining the whole world is not worth giving your life up for.

If we're ashamed of Jesus and the Gospel, he'll be ashamed of us.

And more hopefully;

There are those here who will not taste death before seeing the coming of the kingdom of God in glory.

Whoe ... hold on Jesus ... my heads spinning with the first saying let alone all the others. Taking up crosses, losing ones life for Jesus, being ashamed of Jesus, pretty harsh stuff ...

Those of us Christians with training in marketing want to jump up and give Jesus advice ... no no no Jesus ... you need something positive and catchy ... smooth out the downside and emphasise the positive aspects of discipleship ... your message Jesus is to hard for us to hear.

First off Jesus, start out with the offer of seeing the coming of the Kingdom ... "Follow Jesus and see the coming of the kingdom ...." then maybe at the end have in very small print or by a fast talking voice. "Caution: following Jesus May result, loss of wealth, life, and carrying of crosses." This would be easier for us to hear Jesus.

Jesus sayings are difficult for us to hear in our North American cultures which tell us to ask, "Hey, what's in it for us Jesus ..." We are taught that life is about gaining something not about losing it ...

Anyone seen that bumper sticker that says "The one who dies with the most toys wins!" I've never figured that one out ... what do you do with the mini-van, 40inch TV set, big house ... and all that other stuff when your dead ... we don't really need that stuff when we're alive and certainly we don;t need it when we're dead . And people accuse us Christians of having strange thinking ....

But, back to Jesus words to us ...instead of sweet selling words, and catchy marketing, Jesus is up front with these discipleship sayings ... he wants us to know what the whole package is; that there is a cost to discipleship.

Dispense with Old Understandings

But is it clear what Jesus is calling us disciples to do or be;

The carrying of crosses saying is familiar ... even to non-Christians ... its an expression ... my illness is a cross to bear ... my troubles are a cross to bear ... there is nothing I can do ... it's my cross to bear ...

But is this what Jesus means by bearing of ones cross ... sicknesses, trouble, hopelessness ... or do these crosses Jesus calls us to mean something entirely different. Let's look at Jesus and the cross he chose to bear.

Jesus & the Cross

As we look forward to Easter we will see Jesus, the Son of God, going to Jerusalem to proclaim the Good News of God's kingdom, knowing pretty well that people would kill him for it.

As a gift to us; Jesus freely gives up everything, including his whole life, to defeat the powers of death. Here we have the Jesus who could have had all the power in the world ... emptying hiimself of power on our behalf ... wow! Jesus died for each one of you... so that you might have life through him.

So the cross has something to do with those who have power giving up their power for those who are in need. Bearing crosses are not about putting up with misfortune or with putting up withing being abused, or putting up with hopelessness. Bearing crosses is about being there for those who are less fortunate. Its about self-giving love. About God's transforming love.

Losing our lives to gain them

But what the part about losing ones life for the gospel and there being nothing in this world worth more than our life in Christ?

Now, I'm going to diverge here for a bit but bear with me ...

Gambling

Ever wonder why the United Church doesn't allow gambling? That's right ... we teach that lotto 6/49 and Bingo and if your a real purist even raffles are a no-no. Now some people would say that this is just a hold over from moralistic times and the United Church is holding onto at least one of these old Codes.

However its not primarily a moral issue that the church is concerned about. Of course there are issues of how gambling is harmful to poor people but there is something more that we are saying when we avoid gambling ...

Giving up gambling

I remember someone once telling me how it was a strange experience giving up buying lotto tickets ... initially it was difficult ... especially when the big 15 Million dollar prizes were at stake ... and those TV commercials came on .... you know the ones .... Big Big Big Big ... walking by the lotto booth they would be tempted to buy lotto tickets ... hey ... what if I won 15 million dollars ... but then after a while this feeling turned to a different feeling ... I don't need to win ... my life is about something other than getting rich ... it was a liberating feeling ... their focus is changed ... instead of putting their hope in winning the big one they placed their hope in the hands of The Real Big One ... God!

Giving up Everything

But, how far does placing our trust in God go? Let's look again at Jesus ... in the following weeks in the scripture readings we'll see Jesus travel closer and closer to Jerusalem. We'll see Jesus finally put his whole trust in God ... even his whole life by dying on the cross. And we'll see that God did not let him down. Three days after he died Jesus was raised from the dead.

Christians Costly Discipleship

This is why Christians from all ages have been able to face the shadows of their lives and the evils in society ... knowing that in the end God's love will prevail. Christians have given up their lives by serving those in need, by giving kindness where is was not deserved, and even by giving their very lives in order to oppose the forces of evil. Christians who placed their lives into the hands of God ... from small everyday ways and in really big ways.

And we too are called to put our trust in God. Jesus is calling us to be his disicples and put our lives and everything we have into the hands of God. To acknoweldge that God is the source of our lives, our being, our everything. We can do this because in the end God will be shown to be faithful.

Too much to ask for: Trusteeship

But some might say ... hey ... this is too much ... Surely Jesus can't be asking me to give up everything I own ... to place my life into the hands of God.

Have you ever listened to the offering hymn that some churches sing "We give thee but thine own ... what err the gift may be, all that I have is thine alone a trust Oh Lord from thee." We give to God what is God's alone ... because everything belongs to God. Everything came from God and everything belongs to God.

Another strange idea for our culture ... a culture where we hold on dear to personal property ... we don't like being told that nothing really belongs to us ... that everything is God's ... but that is the biblical view ... everything belongs to God ... this building, our wealth, this land, our bodies, other people's bodies, everything belong's to God.

Taking Offering

That is one of the reasons we take an offering each week. The offering is a weekly reminder that all that we have belongs to God. God gave us everthing ... and according to tradition God only asks 1/10 back in a tithe.

Some of the more cynical among us might think this is a ploy by the church to get more money but it is really something more radical.

Disciples are called to place all of their being into the trust of God. Everything we have, including the whole world are worth nothing compared to the gift of being able to follow in Jesus way.

Seeing the world in a new way

By claiming all we have as a gift from God, and by following Jesus and the Gospel we come to see the world in a new way. We come to glimpe the world through the eyes of Christ.

This is a world where the last are first, where the strong suffer for the weak, where children are a blessing, and where the beloved Son of God is willing to give up all power on our behalf. Jesus Christ has shown us a a way that is very different from what this world's authroities teach!

It was Deng Shiow Ping, leader of one of the most powerful nations on earth who said, "Too be rich is glorious". Now that he has died, where are his riches now ... he died with the same amont of money that we all do ... zero. But, our glory is not in money or power ...

Jesus showed us another way ... one which said ... "blessed are the poor" ... " to lose you life is to gain it". On the cross Jesus gave up his life so that we might be free of death and through the working of the Holy Spirit see the coming of the Kingdom in Glory.

Seeing the Kingdom Coming in Glory

Did you notice in the reading this morning that it said that some of us would see the Kingdom coming in Glory? And the kingdom is coming each day in glory not like a mighty storm or an eathquake but quietly ... behind the scenes ... like rays of light breaking through the clouds ...

When we embrace the upside down logic of the Kingdom and place our lives in the hands of God ... we come to see the the Big power & Big promises of this world are empty ... we come to see that the loving power and loving promises of God are like an everflowing stream ... like water bubbling up through the rocks in the wildernesses of our lives.

Jesus doesn't want our lives

But, some are surely saying to themselves, Jesus you can't want my screwed up life ... surely I'm not welcome in the kingdom! Any of us who has lived on this earth for a while knows that their are shadowy places in all of our lives . Past failures that haunt us, regrets that lay heavey on our souls, and all the dashed hopes and dreams. Jesus can't want our lives! Can he?

Leonard Cohen once said,

"Ring the bell, that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."

Let me say that again,

"Ring the bell, that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."

The funny thing about Jesus kingdom ... its filled with people who have cracked lives, with people who have failed, with those that have been rejected by the world, with those who think they are unloveable, and with those who desparately want to be loved ... And the funny thing is that Jesus wants all of us to hand our cracked lives over to this kingdom.

Light transforms us

And as we follow Jesus in the way of the kingdom, light does shine through the cracks in our lives and their shadowed areas. ... and as this happens we become transformed ... we become the light for others lives ... shining through the cracks in their lives ... spreading the Good News of God's love through Jesus Christ.

So, let us hand our cracked lives and our cracked world back over to God through Jesus Christ ... let us let our lives shine with the light of God's love. A light that helps us see the world in a new way ... seeing with the eyes of Jesus Christ. Amen