Taking Faith Seriously

Today we have this verse, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Me.”

We have to sit with, What is the cross that we are called to bear? What does that mean? What does that look like? It does call for sacrifice. That denying of oneself. It does call for us to put the needs of others ahead of our own needs and wants.

It also sounds like it could be asking us to become martyrs. But rather than thinking about martyrs,
or of being a martyr, that’s not to be our goal. So that we would get the glory, of whatever glory there comes with martyrdom.

But it’s meant to be about pointing towards God. This is really important right now, in this time and in place that we live, because there are people who are trying to perceive themselves or saying that they are martyrs. Martyrs are not looking for revenge. Martyrs are people who are seeking righteousness and justice.

We say that we are about justice.

That’s important. That’s a very important distinction today. Because there’s a lot going on in our world. And It’s hard. Taking up our cross means that it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be painful.
And yet, we are called to do that.

We are trying to create God’s kingdom here on earth, which is not like ours. It is not about power, or money, or prestige. It is about love and it is about mercy.

So when we take up our cross, we need to be taking it up or bringing in more love and justice into the world. I struggled with this one mightily, because there’s plenty of people who feed on martyrs, they feed on people who are willing to give up everything that they have to please another person and that is not what this is saying.

The only reason to give up everything is for God.

It is not to please one’s spouse, one’s partner, or one’s friend. It is only to bring more love and light into the world. If what one is doing is not bringing more love and light than it is not of God.

I say that because I do think we have an example of one who bore their cross this week in our news, and that is Alexei Navalny. No he was not killed for his faith. But it is his faith that made him challenge Putin in the way that he did. It was his faith that brought him back to Russia after he had been poisoned and stand trial for allegations of going against the government in 2021. He had a long closing statement in that trial, but what stood out for me the most was that he said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”

He said, he didn’t come back for glory. He didn’t come back for any publicity. He came back because he wanted the people of Russia to be free from Putin’s oppressive forces. It wasn’t about him, it was about something larger. And because of his faith, he was free. His faith made it easy, he said, to make the decision. That’s a powerful faith.

When you can trust that you are in God’s hands. All you are doing is following God.

I find it interesting that they combined Abraham’s story with this text of picking up your cross. This is a picture I took in Turkey, of the landscape and up at the top of the hill, it’s covered with sheep. There’s a whole line of sheep up there. Which is what I was looking for an image of for Abraham. I thought, Abraham in the wilderness, you know, Abraham walking through these, this the area of Mesopotamia and into Palestine and trying to find the place.

In our scripture today, Abram got a new name. He’s now Abraham. The point of Abraham story is that he is called and chosen. Because he listened and answered the call. That is Abraham’s only redeeming value. His only redeeming quality is that he answered the call of God to follow what God wanted. So he picked up his whole family and he took them all and said, Nope, this isn’t where we’re meant to be. God says, I’m to follow God, and I don’t know where we’re going. But we’re going on a trip. Going without a map. The only thing I know is God will tell me when we’re there.

The beauty of Abraham’s story, is that God stays faithful to him. Abram makes terrible decisions. That’s is really the beauty of Abraham, we find out that no matter how bad Abraham behaves, including denying his wife and letting the king have her,
to save his own neck. God doesn’t leave him. God stays with him. So the overall message seems to be follow God, and you will live.

Kind of the same message that Jesus has for us this morning.

In this hard text that we have to read, it’s about following Jesus, so that we live. What Jesus is asking is for is this giving up of oneself for the greater good.

Now there’s an interesting dynamic that we need you to know about from history. During the Roman Empire, there was a phrase “Pax Romana”, meaning the peace of Rome or Rome’s peace. In order to have Rome’s peace, the people were told that they needed to sacrifice. They needed to sacrifice, they needed to pay the exorbitant taxes, they needed to do the forced labor for Rome, and if they needed to die for Rome, then praise be. Let them starve to death or die for Rome.
But that was it, then you died for Rome.

I put these two pictures up, because these are from Turkey, these are from Istanbul when I was there. The one on the left is the last palace of the Ottoman Empire, which is as much of a palace that we have left of any kind of empire. Roman palaces aren’t they’re ruins now. So we don’t have an idea of what they look like. But this was the one built in the mid 19th century, and is still in good shape. That’s on the left.

On the right, is a picture of the houses that the people live in. I can’t I can’t take you back 2000 years, but this is in 2006. I’m sure that the houses on the right, probably have some better building materials than they did mid 19th century, although some of those may have still been there in the mid 19th century too. But it was the people on the left, telling the people that lived in the homes on the right, that they needed to sacrifice for the people on the left.
And I want you to think about that power dynamic.

When the wealthy tell you that you need to sacrifice everything you have so that they live, and you live like the people on the right.

This is where we talk about social justice.

In Jesus’s message, Jesus says “If we will deny ourselves and take up our cross for God”, and here’s the difference, “You will live.”

Jesus promises life, not death. Not death and just being a servant to the wealthy and to the empire. But Jesus promises life
because Jesus will be raised again. And eventually we are also promised that we get to rise with Jesus. That’s end game.

I don’t talk about salvation a lot. I’m not one who preaches that you’ve got to be saved because I believe we all are.
I believe we all are saved already. Not because of anything we have done. But because of the love and the mercy of God. Because like Abraham, we are going to make terrible choices.

But Christ is hoping that sometimes we’ll make the right choice to be the love and the light that the world needs.

It might be as simple as the love or the light that a friend needs to see. When they’re in a dark place. When they’re feeling like everything is going wrong. Maybe that’s what we can do. Maybe that’s the something good we can be up to.

As a congregation. We have named that compassionate justice is important for us. So this week I want you to sit and think about what is it that you are being called to do to bring more justice into the world?

What is Christ tugging at your heart with?

We can’t solve it all. But we can make small progress one step at a time.

There’s lots of issues right now. There’s lots of places where our society is breaking down. We need voices of justice.
That we make sure that all people have access to health care and education and that it works for everybody. That we are creating a world that we want our children to grow up in. That we’re making sure there is going to be a world for our children to grow up into.

So what what is the area that you are being called to? That is your question to sit with. What difference are you being called to make in this world? Who needs your help? Whatever sacrifice you can make, to put more love and justice into the world is what Christ is looking for you to do.