SERMON - September 03, 2023
Matthew 16:21-28
Anyone who has visited my office at St. Simon’s can easily see my love of books. I have books in and on any free shelf and table space available. Without doubt I am one of Amazon’s best customers. However, no matter how many books I acquire there is always another that I have learned about and that will soon be squeezed into some tiny space amongst all the other resources that have proved so valuable in helping me to understand what it means to take up my cross and follow Jesus.
As you can well imagine each book has a slightly different way of answering the same question: How do we keep the Word of Christ as the standard, our standard, as we encounter an ever-increasing globalized, multi-cultural society in which scripture as the essential guidepost of life is infrequently understood, or even sought? How do we proclaim the overarching importance of scripture in a way that is relevant to the culture which we seek to welcome and to serve?
As I consider today’s Gospel reading in which Jesus tells his disciples, “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 have lost their life for my sake will find it,” two of my many books come instantly to the forefront of my mind. The first is one that I am currently deep into; Anthropological Reflections on Missiological Issues, by Paul G. Hiebert and the other is The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a classic that I continue to read time after time in order to grasp its complex theology.
Hiebert’s book, which is utterly fascinating, makes many excellent points about the challenges of taking up the cross and following Jesus; of bringing the standard of scripture into the lives of those whose way of being has drifted from a focus on God to a way of being that focuses on one’s self.
Hiebert writes, “The church must also challenge the values of our day: the obsession with the self, with the present, with health, success, and personal fulfillment. It must guard against popular and pragmatic methods that provide immediate solutions but, in the end, subvert the gospel. Satan did not challenge God’s goal for humans. He simply offered them an instant, easy means to get there.” (p. 253)
Hiebert’s views are essential as we seek to reinforce the presence of the Episcopal Church in our community and in the world. A straightforward reminder of our call to lift high the cross of Christ as we go forth into this troubled world with its many challenges and complex ways of being, all outgrowths of confusion, suffering, anger, anxiety, and fear.
However, to successfully realize our call as Christ’s disciples both in our community and in the world it is essential to understand and respect the complex and so frequently unfamiliar ways of being of those whom we strive to incorporate within our fold. It is crucial to learn and speak a language that touches the hearts of those to whom we seek to bring the standard of the gospel, without allowing it to compromise our message or the way in which we live our lives. We are called to live lives that without the slightest doubt convey the message of Scripture as the ultimate guidepost to a Christian life.
Put quite simply, we must strive to understand the cultures and ways of being of those whom we encounter while at the same time and without ceasing remain firmly grounded in Scripture as manifested in our words and behavior.
Hiebert characterizes this as an ongoing response that sees the gospel outside culture. We respect the culture of others through engagement, presence, and sensitivity to language and ways of being, but never at the expense of Scripture which remains the standard by which we are all called to live our lives.
Bonhoeffer used different concepts and language in his writings that address our call to take up our cross and follow Christ, but his overall message is much the same. You might call it the front end of what Hiebert has to offer. Bonhoeffer believed that “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” And that, “The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world.”
Bonhoeffer did not offer these observations without including a firm directive on what a decision to take up the cross entails. He indicated that “…the act of discipleship comes only after a process of discernment that listens for and responds to the reality of Christ in the world.” And that “The first step, which follows the call, cuts the disciple off from his previous existence. The call to follow at once produces a new situation. To stay in the old situation makes discipleship impossible.” (p. 62)
Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
Hiebert lectures, “We are called to live lives that are firmly grounded in scripture as manifested in our words and behavior.”
Bonhoeffer and Hiebert each in their own way agree that the life of the church must be linked to the life of the people. That people of all cultures must hear, see, and believe in the gospel because it is communicated in ways that they understand and value.
The theologies offered by Bonhoeffer and Hiebert must be carefully considered as we at St. Simon’s face the, at times, daunting challenge of reaching beyond our four walls to a community and a world that has changed and continues to change in so many ways.
Communities that have never seen the light and love of Christ, never understood that they are beloved children of God, forgiven, saved, members of the Communion of Saints. Communities that speak different languages and have skins of different colors. Communities that reflect the face of a globalized, multi-cultural world.
To meet this challenge our community, the community of St. Simon’s on the Sound, must as Bonhoeffer instructed us, enter into “…a process of discernment that listens for and responds to the reality of Christ in the world.” And, importantly, we must be ready to take the first step, which follows our discerned call. We must be prepared to free ourselves of the confines of these sacred four walls. We must discern a commitment to abandon these walls and enter into new relationships. Relationships without walls. Relationships that engage, listen to, and love new communities.
Christ speaks to us quite clearly
today as he commands, “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 have lost their life for my sake will
find it,”
I have
decided to follow Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back.
Tho' none
go with me, I still will follow,
No turning back, no turning back.
The world
behind me, the cross before me,
No turning back, no turning back
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=842127887202877 – Sermon is at 23:24
