In the Name of the Living God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
If we say, week after week, that we are followers of Jesus, but we also say the whole experience has been a rather peaceful experience – let’s call it a tranquil or comfy experience – then I can assure you that we have followed something significantly less than the Way of Jesus Christ and His holy cross.
And I can say this to you, because Jesus Himself was perfectly clear: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
At a bare minimum, following Jesus will complicate your life – maybe even your closest relationships. At a maximum, it will cost you your very life blood. As we sit here – quite comfortably, I might add – there are Christians being told by ISIS this morning either to convert to their version of Islam or have their throats slit.
And while none of us face such a violent test today, we all must face the fact that following Jesus is in fact costly and complicated – even risky. And it’s costly, complicated and risky because we risk losing our very selves – or, better put, we risk losing the notion of who we think we need to be in order to be “healthy, wealthy and wise.”
But, following the way of Jesus is totally worth it, because, when we lose ourselves, or who we thought we needed to be, we are actually and paradoxically freed to find our truer selves!
And, when we actually find our truer selves – in other words, when we discover the men and women we were intended to be from the beginning – we find that deeper meaning, which is the abiding joy of all the saints. That’s what Jesus means when He says, “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
At the risk of oversimplification, the world all around us tells us we basically need to experience self-fulfillment (or self-actualization), if we want to experience meaning and happiness.
Let’s go back to Psychology 101. Do you remember the name Maslow and his so-called “Hierarchy of Needs?” You’ll remember at the top of his list of so-called needs is the need for self-actualization, which he described as the need to seek self-fulfillment.
But, the way of Jesus isn’t the way of self. Piercing us with a sword, He says that the way of life – the way to life – is the way of the cross! “Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Thus we boldly seek the cross-shaped life today! C.S. Lewis says it best. On the very last page of Mere Christianity, he writes:
Look for yourself (there’s that word “self again”!), and you will find, in the end only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in (Mere Christianity).
But, being schooled as we are in seeking self-fulfillment, living a cross-shaped life is a real challenge! The very first challenge I think we face is even finding room for the cross in our busy and self-centered lives. Then we have to muster up the courage to pick it up and, finally, we have to learn to love and embrace it by living a sacrificial life of self-giving love for the sake of others.
And it’s certainly not all progress! Just when I think I’m rounding a corner for the better, I’m mindful of Longfellow’s timeless poem:
There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
I can’t identify with the girl bit, but I’m convinced this is the curl he was writing about!
That’s why we need a sword today – to pierce and awaken us and to remind us that our way of life – the path to true life – is the way of the cross!
Our lives, especially in difficult times, find their right shape in the cross as we give ourselves to others just as Jesus gave Himself for you and for me.
When I look back on it, the most genuinely fulfilled people I’ve personally known – truly the most joyous – have all been people who put the welfare and well-being of others ahead of themselves. I’m willing to bet you have experienced the same thing in your life.
I find myself wanting to be very practical with you now.
Practically speaking, if we want to live cross-shaped lives, we must pray, asking God to direct our hearts outside of ourselves and towards God and others. Prayer is the first step in living cross-shaped lives.
The sacramental life is absolutely essential; we can never become Christ’s hands and feet – in other words, more Christ-like – without consuming His most precious Body and Blood.
Our lives can become more cross-shaped if we forgive others more readily while, at the same time, asking God and others to forgive us. The cross screams forgiveness; cross-shaped lives do the same. Forgive! Forgive everyone for everything – right now!
People who live cross-shaped lives are generous. “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ,” writes St. Paul, “that though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor.” Be more generous for the sake of others.
I can be especially practical now, because there are two ways, in particular, that you and I can be more generous in the coming weeks and months.
Day 4 Hope is less than a month away. We will come together as a parish family to serve 250 at-risk children in our community – to make sure they have what they need to start the new school year (pencils, a haircut, a family picture, books and more). You name it and they are going to receive it. Be generous with your time: sign-up to volunteer at Day 4 Hope. It takes hundreds of people to make this work. You can see someone after mass today on the veranda, or you can sign up online.
Another way we can be more generous, more cross-shaped, is to give of our material wealth to our long-range building campaign, “Christ Is Our Foundation.” I loved when the campaign chairman, Bob Morris, stood in this pulpit and reminded all of us that none of us paid a penny for the church in which we worship today. All this was given to us by others, who, numbering fewer than 200 at the time, thought more about us than they did of themselves.
A cross-shaped life sacrifices now so that future generations may receive the greater gift. Whether or not you like the capital plan, or whether I like it or not, isn’t the point. The point in giving to the campaign is to live a cross-shaped life. It’s not about you; it’s not about me. It’s about others who will come after us. Give to the capital campaign. And give generously.
Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
Sermon preached by the Rev. Charleston D. Wilson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
3rd Sunday after Pentecost
25 June 2017