The Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost - Rev. Colette Hammesfahr

 The Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost 

September 3, 2023

Rev. Colette Hammesfahr

Take up your cross and follow me. Sam was a good man and he was ready to take up his cross and follow Jesus. Here’s a little dialogue Sam had about taking up his cross. 

Well, here I am, Lord. You said, "Take up your cross," and I'm here to do it. It's not easy, you know, this self-denial thing. I mean to really go through with it, you know? Yes sir, I'll bet you wish more people were willing to be disciples like me. I've counted the cost and surrendered my life, and it's not an easy road. 

You mind if I look around over the crosses? I'd kind of like a new one. I'm not fussy, You understand, but a disciple has to be relevant these days. I was wondering -- are there any here that are vinyl padded? I am thinking of attracting others you see, and if I could show them a comfortable one I'm sure I could win a lot more people. And I need something durable so I can treasure it always. 

Oh, is there one that's sort of flat so it would fit under my coat? One shouldn't be too obvious. Funny there doesn't seem to be much choice here -- just that coarse rough wood one over there. I mean, that would hurt. Don't you have something more distinctive? Lord, I can tell you right now, none of my friends are going to be impressed by this shoddy workmanship. They'll think I'm a nut or something. And my family will be just mortified if they see me with that. 

What's that? It's either one of these crosses or forget the whole thing? But Lord, I want to be your disciple. I mean, just being with you, that's all that counts; but life has to have a balance, too. But you don't understand -- nobody lives that way today! Who's going to be attracted by this self-denial bit? I mean, I want to, but let's not overdo it. Start getting radical like this, and they'll have me off to the funny farm, you know what mean? 

Being a disciple is challenging and exciting and I want to do it; but I have some rights, you know. Now let's see -- no blood, okay? I just can't stand the thought of that…Lord ... Lord? Jesus? Now, where do you suppose He went? 

This is a difficult time for Peter and the disciples, listening to Jesus tell them of His fate. The suffering he will go through before he is killed, then his death and resurrection. Just last week, we read of Peter acknowledging that Jesus was the Messiah. Peter was in good graces with Jesus. Jesus blessed him as the rock upon which he will build his church. And now, just as quickly as Peter affirms Jesus’ Messiahship, with this news of Jesus’ death, Peter rebukes Jesus. He doesn’t approve of what Jesus has said. The Messiah came to save them from the Romans, not to die at the hands of the Romans. Peter, this man who had just been called the rock, is now called Satan by Jesus. And now, there is a struggle. There is this struggle over who Peter expects Jesus to be and there is a struggle over who Jesus expects Peter and the disciples to be. And this struggle continues because Jesus has told them they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him. 

“Take up your cross and follow me,” He said. What does that mean? What did that mean for Peter and the disciples? What does that mean for you and me? For Peter and the disciples, it meant understanding and accepting this new perspective on who Jesus was and what it meant to be a disciple. In Jesus’ conversation with him, Peter only heard the suffering in what Jesus was saying. He didn’t listen long enough to hear of the angels, and the glory, and the kingdom. He wanted Jesus to make different choices – to escape the cross. He wanted to protect Jesus from suffering and death. But those were man’s ideas, not God’s ideas. What Peter was not understanding was that following Jesus leads to a new life. 

How do we see this declaration of taking up our cross and following Jesus? If we are anything like Sam in the earlier dialogue (and I think we are) we want following Jesus to be comfortable, like the padded vinyl cross Sam was asking for. It’s risky business going outside our church walls, so we only want to do what is comfortable to us. Sometimes we want to draw attention to ourselves…to be the martyr. What did Sam say? “I’ve counted the cost and surrendered my life?” 

Then, there are times when we want to be Christian…but not too Christian. Sam wanted a nice, new cross, but something that could fit under his coat so as to not be out in full view all the time. Yet, when it was out in the open, it had to look nice for the people who were going to see it, else he would be embarrassed. 

And then, like Sam, we like to have our own set of rules. I’ll go to church on Sunday…that is, unless the Georgia game gets over too late. 

When it comes to taking up our cross and following Jesus, we have to be all in. The choices we make have to be based on the promises made to us of what is to come rather than what is of this world. Taking up our cross and following Jesus means putting Christ, the Church, and God’s people at the center of our lives. It’s caring for those who are hungry, comforting those who are without, it’s being in community with one another in this building and outside our walls with those who are less fortunate.

 Reverend Melanie and I have been talking about church in general and how things have changed over the years. Many of us here today grew up in a different time. There was no internet. You had to physically leave your home to see a movie and you had to get up off the couch to change the channel on your TV. After-school activities were minimal, mainly because many kids were latchkey kids – both parents working so the kids were home alone after school. I don’t remember knowing anything about traveling baseball, soccer, or cheer teams. What both of us say we do remember is that church was the center of our lives. That’s where I made my best friends. Before other choices were made in our family, the first question was, “What’s going on at church.” 

Today, there are so many things that keep us “busy” and “entertained” it’s mind boggling. Much of the time, we tend to lose focus on what’s important. Taking up our cross and following Jesus means putting Christ, the Church, and God’s people at the center of our lives. In our second reading today, Paul explains the marks of a true Christian to the Romans: love one another with mutual affection, serve the Lord, be patient in suffering, extend hospitality to strangers, don’t claim to be wiser than we are, live peaceably with all. That is taking up your cross and following Jesus. 

There is a difference between existing as a Christian and living as a Christian. Existing means our heart is beating and our lungs are pumping. Living is where you are alive and everything you do is worthwhile. You have peace in your soul and joy in your heart. There is a little bit of Sam in all of us. 

Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” This week, I’d like you to think about what that means to you. 1. What is one thing you can do this week to carry the cross of Jesus a little higher, make it a little less shiny and less comfortable. To live as a Christian verses existing as a Christian? 2. What is something you love about your church family and what is something you long for in your church family? 5 We take up the cross and follow Jesus every time we say, “Yes.” We take up the cross every time we open ourselves up to the power of the Holy Spirit. We take up the cross every time we choose to live beyond ourselves in big and little ways. Amen.