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Bearing the Cross Spencer C. Lawrence, Church of the Cross, Hoffman Estates, IL, February 21, 2007, Ash Wednesday In tonight’s lesson Jesus was preparing his disciples for his death, telling them how the religious authorities would reject him and eventually execute him. More than that, he went on to tell them that they, too, would each have to bear their own crosses. Whoever sought to save his life would lose it in the end and whoever was willing to lose her life for Jesus’ sake would gain it in the end. Now the disciples had no clue what he was talking about. Of course, they understood the words. They knew what a cross was and what it was used for – executions. They knew he was going on and on about dying, but they were sure it wouldn’t happen to him or to them. After all, Jesus was the Messiah. He wasn’t going to die. He was going to lead them to victory after victory. Together they would drive out the Romans and help usher in the glorious Day of the Lord. Regardless what Jesus was saying, he couldn’t possibly mean it. But he did. He was rejected by the authorities in Jerusalem – both Roman and Jewish. He was sentenced to die, and he was executed. His disciples were scared out of their wits and spent the next few days in hiding, until they received word of Jesus’ rising from the dead. Slowly it began to dawn on them that something else was up. Something better than they had imagined. They were slow, however, to give up their notions of victory. Just before Jesus ascended into heaven – Luke tells us – his disciples were asking him whether he was going to restore the kingdom to Israel right then. He basically told them that it wasn’t any of their business. In the end most of Jesus’ followers suffered physically just because they believed in him. Tradition has it that Peter and Paul were executed in Rome – maybe Andrew, too. John was exiled to an island where he spent his last days. The others died at the hands of enemies of the cross. Jesus’ followers really did pick up their crosses and follow him. What does it mean for us to take up our crosses and follow Jesus? How can we bear our crosses today? We certainly do not face persecution for our faith – at least not yet. Nor are our lives difficult by the world’s standards. How can we meaningfully speak of bearing our crosses in 21st century America? David Goetz in his book Death by Suburb tells about a time when he, working for a Christian magazine, interviewed Joni Eareckson Tada. At that time she was a woman in midlife who had been a quadriplegic for some years. When she was a teenager she dove into a lake, struck her head on a rock and had been paralyzed ever since. In the course of the interview he found her to be a gracious, warm-hearted woman who had come to accept her limitations. She said near the end of the interview, “I think life is supposed to be hard.” While he struggled to make sense out of that, he could see that she was, in a way he had not anticipated, bearing a cross – her disability, and bearing it gracefully. The truth is that while we in the west rarely suffer for our faith, we do suffer. There are times when we recognize what psychiatrist M. Scott Peck said so simply in his book The Road Less Traveled: “Life is hard.” Even the most comfortable life can be difficult. Some of us have experienced the loss of jobs we’ve loved. And with those losses the loss of a career. And with the loss of a career the loss of a little bit of ourselves. Some have experienced not just the death of a grandparent or parent, but also the loss of a spouse or a dear friend. Others have had to face the horrifying loss of a child. Still others have seen the bright hope they had for a newborn fade to a dull gray as they learned their child was a special needs child. Some have seen children wander away from paths they have held dear, and it breaks their hearts. Others have suffered with serious illness, stared death in the face and survived. And many have just stared death in the face and died. A few have lived so long that they have known suffering that comes with aging. I was saying the other day that I’d heard older people talk about how it hurt to stand up and hurt to sit down. Now I know what they meant. It’s not the standing or sitting that hurts – it’s just getting there that sometimes causes me to wince. Most people – even children – suffer in some ways. The point is that since everyone suffers, bearing our crosses has more to do with how we bear them than with what sort of cross we are actually bearing. Some people complain and whine about the least inconvenience, the tiniest pain, the smallest slight. Others can face great difficulty with kindness and generosity. Even though they bear crosses the rest of us cannot fathom their hearts are filled with gladness just for being alive. They better than many know that the joy of the Lord is their strength. Goetz tells about an Episcopal priest he befriended. The priest had lost a young son to leukemia and had written an article some years later for the magazine Goetz worked for. He writes this about the priest: In a piece Al wrote, he described the evening of Easter Sunday, days after he and his wife, Vickie, buried their oldest. He and Vickie sat on their front walk, watching the sunset and their two-year-old daughter, Hannah, who was playing in the yard. “What do you think Nicholas sees?” Al asked his wife. “Do you think he sees this sunset?” “He sees an even more beautiful sunset than we can see, “ Vickie replied. Al, the priest, paused and then said, “What if this is all there is? What if dead is dead is dead? What if life does come to an end? What if Nick is no more?” After a lengthy silence, Vickie said he might be right, but that “I choose to live my life believing it is true.” The priest says about six months later he chose to believe the same; the other options were not pretty: bitterness, hopelessness, isolation. Not long ago, Al told me that before his son’s death, he saw life in black and white; now many years later, he sees it in full color. I take that to mean that . . . not only does he see life for what it really is – one part suffering – but he can also enjoy its sweetness. Suffering is common to us all. We all bear crosses. The key is whether we are bearing them in Jesus’ name, in Jesus’ way, confident of God’s love in spite of everything. The writer to the Hebrews invites us to remember Jesus “who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” It is this Jesus, Hebrews says, who is able to help us as we bear our crosses: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” As we enter the Lenten season I invite you to remember that you are not alone in bearing the cross. It is a common experience. More than that, remember, too, that Jesus himself bore a cross, and that he is able to help you when you need help bearing yours. | |||||
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