Letting Jesus Lead

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
September 13, 2015

19 Proper B

Several weeks ago now, we had the Blessing of Teachers and Students at Christ Church to mark the beginning of the new school year.  At the 10 o'clock service, typically at least half of the congregation comes forward for that blessings.  We are a congregation with a lot of educators.  Today, churches all over the country are beginning the Christian Education year.  Sunday School teachers have been recruited.  Classrooms have been prepared.  Goals have been set.  Curriculum has been chosen.  The teachers have spent hours preparing.  A lot of effort goes into Christian Education at Christ Church and in most churches.  Between our commitment to Christian Education, the work so many of us do in the field of education, and the value we as a congregation put on education, I have to say I was somewhat dismayed when I read the passage from James this morning.  "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness."  Those are daunting words as we begin the new program year!

In addition to these somewhat discouraging words from the book of James, we hear these words from Jesus this morning: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will save it."  Those are hard words that don't exactly make me want to jump out of my chair and follow Jesus.

But Christian Education, whether Sunday School or Pub Theology or Bible Study, is actually about learning what it means to follow Jesus.  What does Jesus mean when he says "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me?" The temptation is to think of our cross as all the burdens we shoulder either ourselves or on behalf of others~the burden of unemployment, concerns about children, whether our own or the children of Springfield, refugees, sickness, homelessness, inadequate health care, the list seems endless and picking all that up is makes following Jesus seems like a burden in itself.  But I do not think that is the cross Jesus calls us to carry.  In baptism, we are each marked with oil in the form of the cross, and these words are said "You are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ's own forever."  The cross that we are called to carry is not the sum total of all of our challenges and the challenges of the world around us.  There is nothing distinctively Christian about that.  In another place, Jesus says "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will refresh you.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  I wonder if perhaps we are called to let Jesus carry all of our burdens so that we have the strength to carry the cross of Christ, which is the ultimate triumph of life over death.  But what, exactly, might that mean?

When Jesus asks the disciples "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answers with great confidence "You are the Messiah."  Peter's answer, of course, is correct.  But Peter wants to define the Messiah on his own terms, following a Messiah of his own creation.  When Jesus describes what will happen to the Messiah, that he will be rejected, suffer, die, and rise again, Peter is aghast.  Obviously these things do not happen to the Messiah!   Jesus' rebuke is severe because Peter is denying the very cross of Christ that is the triumph of life over death and defining the Messiah on his own terms.  Peter must have been mortified when Jesus said "Get behind me Satan, for you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things."

Peter is not wanting to follow Jesus.  Peter is wanting Jesus to follow him-to go where Peter wants to go and do what Peter wants him to do.  Jesus has just healed a sick girl, given hearing to a deaf man, and turned a small amount of bread and fish into a feast for the masses.  Peter wants to follow that person.  Jesus, on the other hand, is talking about pouring out his life.  Jesus calls the disciples to follow him as the journey takes him through the cross, not around it, giving his life away rather than holding on until his knuckles turn white.  Jesus calls the disciples to give up their own itinerary-their own ideas about where this journey will take them, get rid of their road map, quit limiting their possibilities, and live fully by picking up the cross of Christ and following Jesus into new life.

In a week when we marked the 14th anniversary of 9/11, followed the refugees fleeing their homeland for safety in Europe, and tended to the various stumbling blocks in our own lives, we can easily wonder about this journey we are on with Jesus.  We did not choose journeys such as these and quite frankly, sometimes we find ourselves on a journey we did not sign up for.  On bad days, we can wonder why, if we are putting ourselves out for Jesus, Jesus does not do a better job of taking care of us or our loved ones, or people we have never met but we know to be enduring unimaginable horrors. All we see are the burdens we and others have to carry, and the part of discipleship we want is the part where Jesus carries our burdens and takes them away.

Jesus says "If any want to become my followers, let them take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will loose it and those who loose their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will save it."   Following Jesus means not avoiding hard questions or difficult situations, but trusting that God is present and trying seeing life in the midst of death.  Following Jesus is to trust that there is no place we can find ourselves where the Risen Christ cannot be found, not necessarily to fix the situation but to go first through the challenge and let us follow.  Following Jesus means we may not always be able to see where we are going because we are not first in line, but trusting that Jesus is first in line and does see.  What it means to pick up the cross of Christ is to trust that life has the final word and Jesus will get us there.  What it means to follow Jesus is to actually let Jesus lead the way.

                                                                           Amen.