Your Cross Has Arrived

Your Cross Has Arrived

“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Mark 8:34

Intro: This week we celebrated Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent.

Lent is a the 40 days, (not counting Sundays) from Ash Wednesday till Easter.

Lent is a time of fasting, moderation, and self-denial.

During Lent, we are called to eat sparingly or give up a particular food or habit.

It’s six weeks of self-discipline.

I want to talk to you today about what it means to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus

And how to do so in some practical everyday situations.

Many years ago I was pastor of an average church that had about 65 in Sunday morning worship.

It was a church that had a sense of value from everyone knowing each other on a personal level

and by calling one another by their first name.

There was a senior member by the name of Bob who kept to himself mostly on Sunday morning.

He did not serve on any church committee.

He did not express his opinion very often. Usually not even when asked.

I did notice his car at the church fairly frequently and he and I became great friends.

Into my third year as pastor the man became ill with cancer

and after a very a short time developed pneumonia and passed away.

Everyone at his funeral expressed kind words.

Things like, “He never complained about anything.”

“He was always faithful to be at church every time the doors were open.”

And other comments about his “being a very private person who mostly stayed to himself.”

A couple of months after his passing I was still missing our talks and just seeing him around the church.

Then one day, a member of the congregation approached me about the light

on the outside church sign not shining at night.

I called the chairperson of the Trustees to inform him of the need to check the light.

He told me that in all his years at the church he had never known the bulb to burn out

and did not even know where the key was to unlock the lid to change it.

A few weeks later the clock on the wall in the sanctuary stopped working.

I took the clock down and it turned out to simply to be that the batteries needed changing.

When it was pointed out one lady said that in all her years of coming to church

she never knew the clock to stop working or the batteries to need changing.

Sometime later I noticed a hinge on one of the cabinet doors in the fellowship hall was loose.

I heard many people complain about the hinge being loose but no one took time to fix it.

After several more similar incidents occurred it became more and more apparent

that Bob was the one who fixed things and kept things going smoothly at the church.

No one was aware of just how much Bob had done.

The quiet old man who had kept mostly to himself

was the one who kept the light bulbs changed,

the batteries in the clock changed,

the broken hinges repaired, and the list went on and on.

The Season of Lent is a time to reflect on how we live out discipleship in the world around us every day.

For forty days before Easter excluding Sundays because every Sunday is like a little Easter.

We are tested,

and tempted,

our sins exposed before us.

Repenting,

searching for purpose and passion in our faith.

This cloudy journey through the 40 days of wilderness prepares us for what happens next.

At the end of Lent we will see Jesus during his last week in Jerusalem.

“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Mark 8:34

A little boy was playing in the yard. He fell and scraped his elbow.

It was bleeding a little.

It was hurting enough he went in crying to his mother.

She took him to the sink, with water she washed away the dirt from his arm. She took a band aide and carefully put on his elbow. She kissed the little boys elbow.

Then she sat in a chair and held him in her lap till he fell asleep.

She sat there in the chair not moving.

It took at least ten minutes before he fell asleep.

What made the little boy feel better?

Was it the cool water she uses to clean the elbow?

Was it the band aide she carefully put on the elbow?