“TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME”

       Today’s passage is often used to glorify suffering as “the way to God.” The cross, in the time of Jesus, was a harsh reality of Roman rule. Ultimately, it was a form of torture that eventually led to death.

There is no doubt that Jesus lived under constant threat of the Romans. He was a Jew, and like all Jews, he was subject to Roman laws and punishments for perceived violations of the law.

There was no separation of church and state.

Religion equaled culture in the ancient world. The temple, in the ancient world, was not only a house of worship but also a bank, marketplace, school, community center – Basket - weaving on Mondays, Camel Washing on Tuesdays, Drachma Management on Wednesdays – you get the idea.

Political minorities, such as Christ and his followers, had to be “on guard” against pushing the Romans too far. Jesus was a bold advocate of reforms that would threaten Roman power. He already caused division among his own people, there were Jews who were his followers and Jews who did not believe that he was the Messiah. Jesus threatened all earthly powers.

What was so controversial about Jesus was that he proposed a cultural revolution! He aimed to change one of the most fundamental elements of culture…how we perceive and treat one another. What is our relationship to one another?

There is nothing quite like a cultural revolution to get the attention of those in power. Jesus had established a reputation as a troublemaker with authorities of Rome because he sought to empower the Jews. The cross is the ultimate price for troublemakers, those that threaten insurrection and defy Rome’s authority.

I won’t deny that suffering might be one path to finding God. Suffering might bring home the fact that even though we are in immense pain, whether it’s physical or psychic, there is a God that carries us.

In the reading and re-reading of the passage for today I began to see that it was no mere coincidence that “take up your cross and follow me” comes after Jesus tells Peter “Get thee behind me Satan.” He states, “You have your mind on human things not on divine things.”

What if Jesus’ message is: If you live your life afraid of X, Y, Z happening then you’ve already lost your life? Satan or the Satan, the tempter in Old Testament terms, has already stolen your life from you.

Fear, or anything else that blocks us from living out our divine purpose, will dominate us if we allow it to do so. Fear has about as much power as we give it over our lives. Satan has as much power as we give Satan.

I am not saying that evil doesn’t exist. I am saying I choose to focus my life’s energy on the life-giving positive spirit of Christ.

What if Jesus was saying that in order to save one’s life one must be willing to face one’s deepest self? What if his statements about the cross really are a call to live out one’s divine truth?

Jesus knew that victory was a part of the cross and that he couldn’t get to the victory without going through some suffering. He lived from a place of deep knowledge of God’s will and plan for his life, his death and   his resurrection.

We, in the G/L/B/T community, know a bit about searching our hearts and responding to the truth about ourselves that God has revealed to us. I dare to say that, virtually everyone in this room thought to themselves, at one time or another, “Okay, I know who I really am…G/L/B/T…but I don’t have to do anything about it.” Somehow God worked on you…nudged you until you listened and decided, not without fear and tears, to live out your truth, to listen to your heart.There was, most likely, some suffering involved.

Jesus was a truth-teller.Truth- telling is a lonely and dangerous art in a world filled with delusion and denial. It always has been and always will be.

Jesus calls us to live out our own unique truths. Suffering will be a part of any authentic life. We do not suffer because of our true selves. We suffer from our efforts to hide from our God-given truths.We suffer because others fail to embrace our truths. Our truths collide with their perceptions of us.

God created you, all of you, to be complex human beings, with unique gifts and abilities, unique challenges and blocks. I lift weights and they are blocks…the longer I lift, the more I can lift…my muscles have gotten stronger. We only get a stronger connection with God by learning to lift the things that block us from God’s will up to God …our fears, our doubt, our anger, our pain, etc.

We have a stronger self to give God as a result of our struggles. Our challenges bring gifts to us just as much as our talents and abilities do…if we approach them with a divine mind and not a human one.

              Each one of us has a divine purpose.

There is something that you, alone, can do. Someone for whom, you alone, can make a difference. Will there be challenges, even stumbling blocks? Sure there will be, but there will also be the gift of tremendous grace extended to us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian, arrived in NYC to teach at Union Theological Seminary in June 1939. He spent one month there before returning voluntarily to Germany.

He wrote: “I have had time to think and pray about my situation, and that of my nation, and to have God’s will for me clarified. I have come to the conclusion that I have made a mistake in coming to America. I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of the Christian life in Germany after the war if I did not share in the trials of this time with my people. Christians in Germany face the terrible alternative of willing the defeat of their own nation in order that civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose. But I cannot make that choice in security.”

Bonhoeffer returned to Germany and was

imprisoned by the Nazis for being a part of “Operation 7,” a rescue mission helping a small group of Jews over the German border into Switzerland. He also participated in an unsuccessful plot to overthrow Hitler.

Ultimately, Dietrich Bonhoeffer faced execution by the Nazis on April 30, 1945 at age 39. Within a month of his death, Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered seven days later.

Okay, wow, a Christian martyr of the 20^th century…but what about those of us who won’t be martyrs for Christ and Christian principles? The vast majority of us will not die as martyrs. How do we “take up our cross and follow?”

Every time we make a choice to live out a message of unconditional love rather than dehumanizing another person, we take up our cross.

Every time we dare to proclaim our love for one another in the presence of those who dishonor us, we take up our cross. Every time we choose conflict resolution rather than hatred or violence, we take up our cross.

We don’t have to die a violent and tragic death to lose our lives. We can, instead, lose our sense of purpose in the race for possessions. We can deny our innermost selves and what is life – giving to us. We can live a life ruled by addiction – to sex, money, gambling, drugs, or alcohol.

Do not live in fear of suffering. If you choose to live deeply, to love deeply, to belong to one another, to be responsible to one another…you will suffer.

If you take risks and put your dreams on the line, you will suffer.

Suffering is not the final step. It is but a doorway to a deeper life with Christ. Suffering is a means by which we realize, deep in our souls, the depths of God’s grace. Take up your cross for it is the key to true freedom, don’t lose sight of the victory, claim your life for Christ and don’t look back.

Amen.

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