READING: Mark 8:31-38

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan! he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

SERMON

In this morning’s reading, we can see what Jesus himself had to say about discipleship. “If anyone will follow me, let him take up his cross and follow me” (Mk. 8:34)

I doubt any of us will be ask to pay the ultimate price in taking up our Cross. Yes, we may lose so called friends upon the way, may be mocked and laughed at because we follow Jesus Christ but I don’t think that we would lose our lives.

But I do wonder how “taking up one’s cross” might be relevant to us today.

We live in a post Christian culture. Choosing to lead a Christian life is not easy. It runs contrary to our culture. Jesus recognised this when he said “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Mt 7: 13-14)

Most, if not all of us here today or watching via our live-stream are Christians and so, in some way or another we have chosen to follow the Christian way of life.

So I would like to ask the question: Having decided to follow Christ, what is the level of our commitment? In other words, what does it mean to “take up our Cross and follow Him”

To explore that mystery a little further, I would like to suggest that we have three choices in our level of commitment so far as the will of God in our lives is concerned.

1. We can decide to put His will foremost in our lives some of the time
2. We can decide to put his will foremost in our lives most of the time
3. We can decide to put his will foremost in our lives all of the time.

I believe Peter made each of these choices at different stages of his Christian life.

1. The first choice; we can decide to put His will foremost some of the time in our lives

In today’s Gospel reading we see Peter rebuking Christ when Jesus told his disciples that he (Jesus) must suffer and die. At this point in his life, Peter wanted a comfortable Christianity to follow. He loved Jesus and wanted only the nice things associated with Christianity – for example he liked the miracles Jesus performed, Jesus’ beautiful teachings (such as the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon in the Plain) and being around Jesus as his follower. These all fitted Peter’s theology – but the Cross didn’t.

Today we can be like Peter at this time of his life. We can have two spheres of life. A Christian life and a secular life.

How often do we fear being thought of as too fanatical by our friends and neighbours? Are there times when we are ashamed of being Christians? Jesus said in Mk 8:38 “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

2. The second choice: We can put God’s will foremost in our lives most of the time.

Matthew’s Gospel records a little scene between Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin and his trial before Pilate. Peter has just denied knowing Christ three times and Matthew records this: “Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the words Jesus had spoken; ‘Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times’. And he went outside and wept bitterly” (Mt. 26:74&75)

Peter wanted to follow Jesus totally, but when it came to the crunch he bottled out. I am sure we’d have bottled out too. The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.

There are areas in all our lives, which we cannot completely give over. And it is a sign of our Christian life, that we find the Holy Spirit coming back to these areas time and time again until we surrender them. We find ourselves wanting, like Peter to be totally committed, yet somehow holding back.

3. The Third Choice: We can decide to put his will foremost in our lives all of the time

Before the Crucifixion, we read of Peter denying Christ before a servant girl of the High Priest. After the Resurrection and following the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, we see a totally different Peter.

He was bold to preach the risen Lord, even before the High Priest and the Sanhedrin. When they threatened to beat him and made veiled threats, he replied: “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have heard” (Acts 4:19)

Here we see a very different Peter, perhaps having reflecting Jesus own words in the Garden: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42)

When we make a wholehearted commitment to God’s will in our lives – then prayer and reading our Bible will become central to our daily lives. We will search the Scriptures to know more of the will of God.

Whichever choice we make, whichever level of commitment we have it will affect the type of Christian we become.

Conclusion: I recently came upon a poem that really had an impact on me titled

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

Let me read it to you in closing:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And – sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could.
To where it bent in the undergrowth,
Then I took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way – leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I wonder which road you would take, the well travelled road of self will or the road ‘less travelled by’ of God’s will. Amen

PRAYERS

To God who loves the world that he has made, let us pray for ourselves and for all people.

As you have given to your people the gift of faith, make that faith powerful as a witness to your love. Let your Church be constant in prayer, never doubting your power to save

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

Gather into your fold the lost sheep of this world, the unbelievers, the doubters, the hard of heart. Hear those who desire to know you but cannot speak their need.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

Guide and guard our families and all others with whom we share our lives. Bless the homes where there is sickness or any other trouble.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

Bring healing to children who are ill or in pain. Comfort and strengthen parents who are anxious for their children. Give peace to all unquiet minds and troubled spirits.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

Give peace to the dead who had no peace in dying. Have compassion on those who have died without faith, that they too may receive your mercy.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

Fed at the table of the Lord, we ask him to accept our faith and pardon our unworthiness.

Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

And so we bind our prayers together in the words that Jesus taught his disciples.

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen

Revd Kevin.

Associate Priest at St.Wilfrid and St.Thomas