Creekside Church Sermon of February 23, 1997 "An Iffy Invitation" Mark 8:31-38	Rev. David Bibbee
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Portraying the pastor of The Church of What's Happenin' Now, he preached to his flock: "If this church is to grow, it's got to crawl!" Getting caught up in his emotion, the congregation repeated, "Make it crawl, Rev! Make it crawl!" He continued, "If this church is to grow, it's got to stand, it's got to stand!" "Make it stand, Rev! Make it stand!", they shouted. "And if this church is going to grow, it's got to run! It's got to run!" "Make it run, Rev! Make it run, run, run!" All revved up, the Rev declared, "If this church is going to grow, it's got to give, it's got to give!" And the people shouted, "Make it crawl, Rev! Make it crawl!"

Back in THE CHURCH OF WHAT WAS HAPPENIN' THEN, Peter led the refrain, "Make it crawl, Jesus! Make it crawl!" Prior to this moment, Jesus had praised Peter. Peter had answered Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am?" with the declaration, "You are the Christ." Next came the big chill as Jesus laid out what was going to happen to him. The end toward which Jesus was heading was not exactly what Peter had in mind. Three times Jesus tried to prepare the disciples for what was coming, and three times they missed it. They had such a conditioned response to power and ambition, they couldn't hear what Jesus was saying. It wasn't his coronation that was coming, but his humiliation...not a sparkling crown, but a rugged cross.

"The Son of Man must suffer many things," is what he said. "But it can't be!" Peter injected. Pupil presumed to teach Master. Mark says that Peter rebuked Jesus. We can understand why he didn't want it to be this way. The verb REBUKE is the same word used to describe what Jesus did to the storm. He rebuked it, censored it, said, "Keep quiet!" "Be still!" "Enough of this talk, Jesus. Keep quiet. Be still. It won't happen. You're the Christ!"

Then Jesus rebuked Peter one better. "No Peter, you keep quiet. Get behind me Satan. You're not on God's side, but peoples. He had just praised Peter, but now put him in his place with very severe language. "Get behind me!" But this didn't mean, "Get out of my sight! Get away from me! I don't want to see your face again!" It means, "Get back where you belong...get yourself behind me in a following mode like you were when I first called you to be my disciple."

But he called him Satan, too. Human ways and Satan's ways were one in the same. "Who's side are you on, Peter. Man's or God's? Ambition, position, and power is not what I'm after. I'm walking a different path to a different tune, and I won't have you divert me. I want you behind me, following me. If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow. Whoever would save their life, make it crawl, will lose their life. Lose it for my sake, and you will find it."

If this is what Jesus said to the head of the church, I guess it applies to the church's constituency as well. As those who have accepted the invitation, it's necessary to keep matters straight. Who do we say he is? Judging by what we hear ourselves saying, Jesus is a nice God who makes nice people nicer. He makes the prosperous prosper. He will heal your hurts, meet all your needs, and make life manageable.

"I'm having a hard time being a Christian," she told me. "What do you mean?" "It's hard controlling my tongue and considering the needs of others before my own. I'm not used to it...it's not very natural." This is the challenge of being a Christian...doing what comes unnaturally. It's a process of unlearning and relearning. Jesus forces no one to follow him. He only invites. If we should decide to follow, we don't set the conditions. IF anyone would come after me, if you want to live, you will go where I go and do what I do. It's a conditional invitation.

On this difficult path of discipleship, we are asked to deny ourselves. The law of physics states that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time, and a life cannot have two centers. One must make way for another. First, you must deny yourself. I read that the average television viewer sees eighty commercials a day. I would challenge you to find one that says your wants aren't the most important. The plea is for everyone to seek their own pleasure and security. Deny yourself? What sense does this make in a world where we are told that if we don't look out for ourselves, no one will? If anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves. How odd and out of step is this condition Jesus has established? TEACH AMERICA is a program that places talented young teachers in the most troubled schools across the country. Speaking to a large group of students at Duke University, the representative began with a disclaimer: "Looking out at you tonight, I really don't know what I'm doing here. I can look at you and tell that all of you are here to be successful. I can tell that you are all headed to Wall Street, or law school, or some other successful place like that. And here I am trying to talk you into going to the most difficult, risky job you will ever have. I am looking for people who are brave enough to go into some of the worst schools of this country, who will risk emotional and physical harm, and will work for peanuts. And I can tell that none of you would be interested in a job like that. Yet if you are by chance interested, then I've got some brochures here and I would be glad to talk to any of you who might be interested. That's all I've got to say to you."

Immediately the students crowded to the front of the room, swarming over the brochures like bees. It wasn't simply the skill of the representative, but the hunger of the students. Deep down, maybe they sensed that if you can't identify something to die for, there's probably nothing worth much to live for, either.

Like that representative, most Sundays I stand here and feel I don't have a chance of getting you in line behind Jesus. You're bombarded with persuasive, seductive incentives not to. You're too tangled up in other pursuits to be a church that changes things. But there is always a chance that you'll want to follow a path that doesn't go in circles and sacrifice yourselves for something that is true.

Those who save their lives--who worship at the altar of the high and mighty me, are left with something less than life. We talk about finding ourselves as though this is the most important search in life, but not if you are a disciple. Jesus said the only way to find yourself is to get lost in something besides yourself. Through the hard of work of denying yourself and getting behind Christ, there is a better self to be found.

This iffy invitation asks for self-denial. And it asks you to take up your cross. But what does carrying a cross mean for us? I've heard people describe a problem with a child, a physical ailment, being stuck in a job they didn't like but couldn't do anything about, or some other stroke of misfortune and say, "I guess it must be my cross to bear." I want to say, "It's a great burden you carry, but it's not a cross." The cross isn't something that comes to one and not another by virtue of a divine draw. The cross is standard issue apparel carried by everyone who decides to follow Jesus.

It's tempting to describe the potential benefits that can be reaped by following Jesus. When you take the cross, take away your aches and pains. Come to church and you will find that everything will begin to work out. The trouble is, I don't hear Jesus saying this. Take up your cross and life may become more complicated, not less; you may experience more conflict, not less. Jesus never offered the cross as an incentive, but as a condition of following him.

If we want to know God and see God, we must take the road that leads us to God. Jesus didn't give a map of alternative routes. There is only one way. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Peter equated God's way with power, prestige, and influence. Easy street paved with glory. But God had another way in mind. The way of the cross.

"Have the same mind as Jesus Christ," Paul said, "who did not regard equality with God a thing to be exploited, but he emptied himself, humbled himself, and became obedient. Parker Palmer speaks of the empty, powerless hole we encounter in life where the real power comes to us. When we face problems and tasks that are too much for us, when faced with situations for which we have no power to respond, sometimes in those empty moments, is a presence--a power that is Christ which makes us more helpful, and more powerful than we could ever have been on our own.

Taking up the cross means being willing to live with an emptiness which is cross shaped, and daring to believe that Christ is in us to live, even if it seems like nothing to those who know him not.

If you would be a disciple, think hard. There is a self to deny and a cross to take up, and then there is a way to be followed. For the disciples, it meant leaving the fishing nets and tax forms behind. I can't say what it will mean for you, but for everyone who responds to Jesus' invitation, there is one constant...to go from where you are, to where you're called to be. There is an old Russian proverb that says it like this:

"When one gives ones life to Christ, one no longer looks at all the directions one might have taken in life, all the idols before whichone might have knelt, but faces and follows one direction only."

One direction only. Such a difficult, unnatural thing we are to do as Christians. Following him to who knows where and who knows what. No wonder it's such an iffy invitation.

To follow another way may be easier, it may seem more attractive, and offer more immediate rewards, but not lead you to life, and not lead you to God. And how do you begin to follow? I'll let these words from the Christian mystic, George MacDonald suggest the answer.

"I will tell you. Get up, and do something the master tells you; so make yourself his disciple at once. Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because he said, do it, or once abstained because he said, to not do it.

It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in him, if you do not do anything he tells you.

But you can begin at once to be a disciple of the living one--by obeying him in the first thing you can think of in which you are not obeying him.

We must learn to obey him in everything, and so must begin somewhere. Let it be at once, and in the very next thing that lies at the door of our conscience!"

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