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What’s Your Name? Spencer C. Lawrence, Church of the Cross, Hoffman Estates, IL, May 6, 2007 “What’s your name?” is one of the questions we ask people we meet for the very first time. We know that names serve an important function. They help us identify each other so we can say, “Hi, John” or “Hey, Sally.” Names help us identify one another; they also help us identify ourselves. Names shape how we think of ourselves. To be honest I never much liked my name. Especially when I was young. I think for a very long time I was the only “Spencer” in our little town. It was such an unusual name. I often wondered why my parents couldn’t have named me “Steve” or “Scott” – my dad’s first name. Not only was it unusual, it has turned out to be inconvenient. People often get my first and last names reversed. Just last week when I had my car into the body shop for repair work the body shop manager called me “Larry.” Over the years, I have grown to like it pretty much. I think it all started when I was in college and a girl said she thought it sounded like a movie star’s name. In retrospect I could have taken that ball and run with it, but I didn’t. I did begin to feel more comfortable with my name. In the process I began to feel more comfortable with who I was – my identity. Liking our names helps us like ourselves better. So what do you make of a name like “Church of the Cross”? What does it say about who we are as a congregation? The cross was a device the Romans used to execute Jesus. These days, however, cross has lost its meaning as a tool of execution. We have sanitized it by putting it in and on top of our churches and by wearing it around our necks. But when you think about it, when we call ourselves the “Church of the Cross” we might as well call ourselves “Church of the Firing Squad” or “Church of the Hangman’s Noose” or “Church of the Guillotine” or “Church of the Electric Chair” or “Church of the Lethal Injection.” Not exactly happy images, are they? But they all mean the same thing as the cross. What does any of this have to do with being a Christian or with being a member of this congregation? Matthew records how Jesus had just elicited from Peter a confession that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus went on to tell how he was to be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, be killed and after three days be raised from the dead. Peter stepped in to encourage Jesus. He told him that none of this would happen to him. Jesus responded sharply: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Jesus went on to say that not only was he going to die, but also he expected his disciples to do the same. He said, “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 will find it.” As unattractive as it sounds, to be a follower of Jesus involves a kind of dying. Not necessarily a physical death, but at least a spiritual death. German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that when Jesus calls a person to follow him, he bids that person to come and die. When we name ourselves “Church of the Cross” we are saying the same thing - that we are people who are willing to give up our lives for Jesus’ sake. But it’s not just negative. We give them up in order to find them. You see, it’s not just about death and dying; it’s also about coming alive again. As Jesus’ death led to his resurrection so ours leads to a new beginning. What then does it mean to give up our lives for Jesus’ sake? How do we give them up in order to find them? Jesus said that if we want to be his disciples we have to do three things: deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow him. To follow Jesus we have to deny ourselves. That means choosing not to have everything we want, choosing to give up things that are important to us. Earlier in Matthew’s gospel Jesus taught about fasting in the Sermon on the Mount. Fasting, of course, refers to not eating food for a while in order to devote time to prayer. But fasting can also refer to giving up other things we want or like. Living in a consumer-oriented economy like ours there is a lot of pressure to buy new things, pressure to keep up with the Jones, pressure even to get ahead of the Jones. Jesus challenges us to set limits on what we own, to exercise discipline in how we spend our money, to die to the consuming demands of our culture. A boy ran into this dad’s place of work. All excited, he said, “Dad, I’ve found this really cool car at the store. Can have it?” His dad asked, “Is it something you really need?” The boy thought about it for a minute and said, “No. Not really.” The boy went home to play with his way more than enough toys. The young man was learning how to say “No” to his wants. Being a member of Church of the Cross means we are willing to do that, too. To follow Jesus means that we take up our crosses as Jesus took up his. It was, you may recall, a cross thrust upon him. He wasn’t eager for it, but when it came upon him, he accepted it. Now taking up our crosses can have an active side – as when we go out of our way to protest a wrong and do so at some risk to ourselves. Civil disobedience for a righteous cause is a way to bear our crosses. For most of us, though, taking up our crosses is more passive. It means accepting what comes upon us without becoming bitter, without walking away from God. Augustine, 4th century Bishop of Hippo in northern Africa, wrote: “What is, ‘Let him take up his cross’? Let him bear whatever trouble he has; so let him follow Me.” Martin Luther in a sermon on this text wrote that this sort of cross bearing “should be the kind of suffering which we have not chosen ourselves . . . . It should be the kind of suffering which, if it were possible, we would gladly be rid of . . . .” An important way we bear our crosses is living with the difficulties of our lives. Bearing our crosses is not just enduring the difficulties for Christ’s sake, but by seeing them as opportunities to bear witness to Christ. Former Nixon advisor Charles Colson was stricken with colon cancer after he had become an active Christian leader. In an article he reflected on his cancer and why it had come upon him. His main thought was that perhaps we shouldn’t wonder why Christians or anyone else gets cancer, but instead consider how we can bear witness to God’s faithfulness in the midst of it. It’s one way we can bear our crosses. Being a member of Church of the Cross means that we similarly bear our crosses and see them as opportunities to bear witness to God’s faithfulness. To follow Jesus also means that we do what he tells us. Jesus told Peter to get “behind” him. That’s where followers belong – behind Jesus and not in front of him. Following Jesus, then, means we follow his lead; we do what he tells us. To do that, of course, means that we listen to what he says, that we struggle to understand it, and that we obey it often without fully understanding it. As we give up our own ideas and submit them to Jesus’ thoughts we die a little to ourselves. We are saying with Jesus, “Not my will but yours be done.” At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told a parable about a man who built his house on sand. When the winds blew and the rains fell the foundation gave way causing the house to fall down. Another man built his house on a rock. He faced the same storm, the same winds, the same rain, but the foundation of his house stood firm. The house did not fall. So it is, Jesus said, with everyone who not only listens to his words but also does them. Obedience leads to a firm foundation for our lives in this world and in the next. Obeying Jesus means we submit our wills to his. It’s a kind of dying, but it’s actually life giving. In this life, it allows us a place to stand as we struggle with difficult decisions. Following Jesus simplifies our lives; his teachings help us make those decisions. Because we obey Jesus our lives take on meaning that is larger than this world: we serve the King of kings. The work we do for money may not provide much meaning, but that we do it as if we were serving Christ does. And it helps us to live in the light of our physical deaths; we have hope of spending it with God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit and with all those who’ve gone before us in the faith. What it means to be the “Church of the Cross” is that we be willing to deny ourselves, bear our crosses and follow wherever Jesus leads us confident that in doing so we will find the life of God.
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