Language is an interesting thing. It changes with new words added each year to our lexicon and old ones falling out of favor.
It also means that the meanings of words change and some are used as either as a verb or a noun. (Slide 1) For example, we when say ‘ADdress’ we mean a specific location and is a noun. (Slide 1a) But when we say ‘adDRESS’ it means to take action (a verb) by ‘adDRESSing’ or speaking to someone or something as in ‘he adDRESSED’ the crowd.’
The same holds true with clichés. Some we use for perhaps our entire life and others come and go.
When was the last time you heard someone say, ‘A stitch in time saves nine?’ Today we might say, ‘that was close.’
The challenge to make the Christian faith understandable is an ongoing one for pastors. Especially when today’s sermon includes a strong Biblical phrase that causes one to stop and blink.
(Slide 2) To bear one’s cross
Our main text for this morning is Mark 8:34-37 and you can follow along in your Bible or on the screen:
(Slide 3)
Then he called his disciples and the crowds to come over and listen. “If any of you wants to be my follower,” he told them, “you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.
(Slide 4)
“If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (NLT)
I believe that one of the most important things said in the last century was by the late Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor who stood up to the Hitler regime during World War two, who wrote (Slide 5) “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
This leads me to the focus question for today, (Slide 6) ‘What does it mean to bear one’s cross?’
Jesus’ audience understood this expression very, very well. In Jesus’ day, to bear, to carry, one’s cross was to face death because it meant that you were headed to your execution. Your freedom had come to end and now your life is coming to end.
I also think, and so do others, that what He meant in our main text was the death of one’s agenda and the taking up of His agenda. How? By setting aside ‘your selfish ambition.’
Someone wrote that in taking up the cross a person was submitting to the power and authority of the Roman authorities. In taking up our cross, we are submitting to the power and authority of Jesus Christ.
To be a missionary then; to be missional is to let go of our agendas and take up Christ’s agenda because the cross, as Pastor Tory Baccum says, “is not just a sign of forgiveness; it is a sign of communion and grace.” Because as Baccum notes, in “carrying the cross… one gets to stay close to our Lord.”
(Slide 7) How then do we carry our cross?
(Slide 7a) First, we carry it daily…
Living the Christian faith is a lot, a lot like marriage. (I think that I have said this before but I’ll say it again.)
Conversion is like the ceremony in which the couple publically pledges their commitment to one another. It is the start of the relationship – with your spouse and with the Lord.
But it does not stop there. For a marriage to work and to grow you have to nurture it, feed it, and stay faithful to it.
The same holds true for our relationship with God. Our conversion experience, our public profession of faith is the start of our faith relationship not the end.
Just as marriage is a process of on going ‘I do’s,’ so is our commitment to Christ a process of on going ‘I follow’s.’ So we must daily pick up our cross and follow Jesus.
(Slide 7b) We also carry our cross with Christ surrounding us on our journey. Notice what Jesus said at the end of verse 34, ‘follow me.’ Now how do we best follow someone? By keeping up with them and by keeping them in sight!
Someone one once said, “If God seems far away, guess who moved?” For years, the standard answer was ‘God.’ Then someone started responding, ‘Me.’
Today I think that the correct answer is ‘it depends.’ God is moving in a certain direction, Jesus did. Remember that He never stayed in one place during His earthly ministry. He kept moving.
God is moving but so are we. Sometimes, it is in the opposite direction or on a tangent away from the Lord. But, if we obediently keep Jesus in sight and follow Him… then in the fellowship with Christ… and… with one another, our cross is easier to bear. We do not bear our cross all alone though it sometimes feels like it.
(Slide 7c) We also carry our cross as we fulfill God’s mission. (Look at that! A complete sentence!)
Last week I briefly introduced this chart from the work of Dr. Milfred Minatrea. (Slide eight) As a reminder, the four blue phrases at the noon, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions were labeled as the four dimensions of missional churches. The eight black words he calls ‘eight passion actions.’ I call them ‘eight missional commitments.’
Maybe you have been asking, ‘What does my particular cross look like?’ (That is another great question!)
How about this? (Slide 9) Study that slide for a moment.
Let’s start at the top. We love God by worshipping and obeying Him. Worship is an everyday thing not just a Sunday morning event.
Obedience is required in loving God. Jesus made that clear in places like John 15:10, ‘When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love.’ We cannot adequately love God and not obey what He has said in the Bible or to us in prayer.
But there is more to it than just loving God. We must also live his mission by serving and sharing.
I think a question we need to ask ourselves as a church is ‘What are we doing for our community in Jesus’ name?’ How well are we serving and sharing what we have?
We are called to serve and share. Let us remember what Jesus said in Matthew 25:35-36, ‘For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
We have the time, we have the resources to do what God has for us to do. If we don’t and God has called us to do something, He will provide those things that we lack… something that He is very good at doing. Do we have the willingness and the desire?
Serving and sharing lead to loving people and we better love people as we invite them and embrace (or welcome them) not just to Sunday morning but to other events and even out for lunch or over for dinner. Even a simple phone call, note, or e-mail can be a tremendously embracing and inviting thing.
As we then do all of this, it provides us with the opportunities to lead them to follow Jesus by equipping and empowering them. How?
I think that we can learn from the example of one of our nation’s largest churches, Willow Creek. Over year ago they did a study of their constituency that revealed after all of the programs and events what was needed the most were four simple things: 1. Learning to read and study the Bible. 2. Time spent in prayer and solitude. 3. Sharing life issues and joys with others. 4. Serving others. They are now seeking to implement some programs to address these issues.
But I suggest that we look at them not as programs but as essential habits that all of us must develop in order to, in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit, take up this cross and follow Jesus. The task to us may seem overwhelming, and it is, because what Christ calls us to do is put Him first in our life; not our work, nor even our family, but Him and Him alone. And yet, taking up our cross also means including our work and our families but from God’s perspective and purposes and not our own.
We are in the process of developing plans for a new building. It is an important process and I think that the right decision was made to purchase the property last summer.
But I am also concerned about our development as God’s people in this building. I believe that the Lord has a greater blessing and a greater life for us, individually and as a congregation than we can possibly imagine. However, it requires us to look at ourselves differently than perhaps we have in the past.
It requires us to look at ourselves, individually and corporately as missionaries.
We are the ones being sent to these places. (Slide 10) We are God’s people (along with others) in these locations and situations. This is where we serve the Lord.
Let us therefore do these things:
(Slide 11)
Add value to our community, in Jesus’ name, by serving in our community. We are needed in places like the Big Brother’s Big Sisters Lunch Buddy program or the various Junior Achievement classes in our elementary and middle schools. Visiting those we know and love in the various nursing homes is another way to serve. Remember Myrtie Howell?
(Slide 11a) Let us add value, by daily asking the Holy Spirit into your life. There is a prayer by John Bailie that I have started to pray aloud each day that is a description of how the Holy Spirit helps us to walk with God.
(Slide 12) O holy spirit of God, abide with me; inspire all my thoughts: pervade my imagination; suggest all my decisions; order all my doings. Be with me in my silence and in my speech, in my haste and in my leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and in the weariness of the evening; and give me grace at all times humbly to rejoice in Thy mysterious companionships. Amen.
That’s a very practical prayer, I think. God wants to help us get through each day and one of the ways we do so, is by asking, and then letting, the Holy Spirit lead and direct us.
Have you and are you asking the Holy Spirit to come into your heart and soul and do the work He needs to do? We have to! We cannot live as missionaries and a missional church in our own strength and power. We have to stop relying on only personalities and programs and the like to make our church move forward.
We have to rely on the power and strength of the Holy Spirit. Stop, stop resisting the Holy Spirit! Stop resisting the Holy Spirit! Let Him have His way with you and with our future as a church.
(Slide 13) Finally, let us add value by taking up our cross and following Jesus. Jesus called the twelve (and others) to ‘follow me.’ Some did and some did not. Some started to but quit.
(Slide 14) Our cross is the ministry and mission that the Lord has called us to do, in His strength and power. We are called to worship, obey, serve, share, embrace, invite, equip, and empower.
Now, how do we start doing this? Let me suggest a course of action that came to mind as I met with a pastor who recently came to our community because of a job with a community agency.
In the course of our conversation and discussion, he began to share a way of seeing mission and ministry that began to make sense to me.
(Slide 15) Take out the sheet of paper found in your bulletin and get a pencil.
In the center box, right your first name.
Now, I want you think for a moment about three things you really like to do. Let me prime the pump by giving you some suggestions to consider.
Fishing, hunting, reading a book, watching NASCAR, visiting people in the nursing home, sending cards to people, going out to eat, playing golf, and making things.
Got your three? In the three circles, write those three interests or hobbies.
Now, think about three or four people you like to or would like to, do that hobby with. Write their names either on or beside the arrows next to that particular hobby. Take some time to list three or four people for all three.
Now look at your list of people, How many of them do not attend church at all? Circle them.
What if you began to set up a time either each week or each month to go fishing on a Saturday morning with your group? Is that a possibility?
What if you added a time of prayer to that fishing experience? You took time to hear the concerns of the other members and simply prayed a simple prayer on behalf of one another.
Look at your sheet of paper. That is your mission field. That is your place of service.
As I listened to my colleague this past week, he shared how he began to help develop these kinds of groups in the church that he was serving at the time. As he did, they multiplied.
One kind of group was a ‘dinner and a movie group.’ Couples got together at a home had dinner, watched a movie together, and took time to pray together.
What if you invited a group of people over to watch a NASCAR race and at the end of the race simply asked if you could pray for them?
Building respectful relationships with people and showing them you care by bringing Christ into your normal and everyday life is a simple and effective way to be missionaries. You see, when a missionary arrives in a new land, they have to build relationships with the natives as they go along.
They have to earn their respect and trust and begin to speak their language and see things from their perspective. This is what we need to be doing as a church – intentionally building relationships with people so as to help them connect with God down the line.
(Slide 16) To be a missional church does not mean adding a bunch more programs but building relationships with people that we know and love and that Jesus knows and loves by simply being with them along the journey of life and helping them connect with God as we go along.
Folks, I think that this is what Jesus had in mind when He said, ‘Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.’
I believe that we need to start seeing the ministry our church this way. Will you join me, and, more important, will you join the Lord, on this journey?
I will be having more to say about this in the days and weeks ahead. But I challenge each of us to start thinking of one group we can start before Easter. It does not require a great deal of preparation but a willingness to be used of God. Let’s begin. Amen.
Sources:
‘Address’ yoursecondlanguage.com
Bonhoeffer quote: from “The Cost of Discipleship”
Baccum quote: francisasburysociety.com
Willow Creek: willowcreek.org/weekend/REVEAL/default.html and
willowcreek.org/weekend/REVEAL/page2.html
