Text: Mark 8:27-38
Spirit of the Living God Fall Fresh On Me! Congregation
Repeats.
Jesus tells his followers if any want to be my followers,
let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Deny yourselves!
I don’t know about you, but I am not very fond of
self-denial. For most people life
is hard enough without voluntarily giving things up. Growing up working-class, my dad always said, “We don’t have
to give anything up because we have got nothing anyway to give up.” In a different way you may resonate
with these sentiments. You all
experienced so many losses these last few years of members and of a
rector. I have so much empathy for
you. It is time for the people of
St. Francis Church to have joy, peace and abundant gifts.
So does self-denial have any meaning for this congregation
at this time?
I believe self-denial has a very important role in bringing
you greater joy. First, we have to
rehabilitate our notion of self-denial.
Many forms of self-denial lead us to following Jesus as a spectator
sport. Many forms of self-denial
turn us in on ourselves as we give up things or abstain from something. Our self-denial often takes energy and
sometimes leaves us exhausted.
Jesus has taught that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. We too often have interpreted
self-denial as self-mortification, purification and the work of self-cleansing
leading to greater perfection.
The self-denial that Mark emphasizes through Jesus’ words
and teaching is a posture that fosters in us a very specific way and manner of
being and action. The self-denial that Jesus invites us to participate in is a
way that we might be spiritually free.
Jesus’ path always leads from the cross to resurrection.
When we deny ourselves in healthy ways, we lighten the
spiritual baggage that we carry. When we are spiritually free we are not
burdened or distracted with our unhealthy desires. We see God’s desires in
God’s time.
Spiritual freedom opens us up to new possibilities and
liberates us from our self-imposed burdens, if you will our self-imposed
crosses.
For my college graduation in 1978, Bill, my eldest brother
took me to Rome, Italy and Dublin, Ireland for a two-week trip. It was my first trip out of the
country. Bill was an experienced
traveler. Even if he went away for
a month he only carried one very small bag with a few changes of clothes that
he constantly washed. I on the
other hand packed a reasonably big bag. Our trip was before the days of wheels
on bags. We were on our last day
in Rome. We had checked out of our
hotel with our bags and spent the day touring. My bag was heavy.
At one point I said to Bill, my bag is heavy, will you help me carry
it? Bill, said to me, “you packed
it, you carry it”.
At the time I was a little frustrated with my brother. Bill, knew it and said to me, you will
be able to travel far in life if you manage your needs, desires and travel
lightly. On that last day I was
not able to walk around as much as my brother Bill. It is human to carry more than we need. Too often we confuse our needs with our
desires. Desires evolve into must
have and we lose clarity to our basic needs. The more we need the less physical and spiritual distance we
are able to travel. Lightening our spiritual load is more of a challenge.
The focus of spiritually mature congregations is always on
growing their relationship with Christ in community through worship, ministry
and fellowship.
Are you familiar with the activities of the Diocese of
Northern California? As members of the diocese, we are:
Focused on mission.
Seek to stay together.
Keep moving forward in the name of Christ.
The activities of the Diocese are my desires for St. Francis
Church too.
I want to help you focus and reflect on your future mission
in ways that responsibly use the resource of your campus so that you may
continue your journey in this place. In doing so fellowship that grows your
staying together is vital. It is
also vital to keep moving forward in the name of Christ. One way to move forward with
revitalized mission and the privilege to stay together is through spiritual
freedom.
Don’t confuse spiritual freedom with the popular
psychological notion of letting go.
It is possible to let go and still not be spiritually free. Letting go requires our human
intention. After that trip to Rome
with my brother I quickly learned to pack less and live out of one small bag on
my future trips.
Spiritual freedom requires a shift in what we choose to rely
upon and from where we draw our strength.
When we self deny in healthy ways we travel more lightly so that we do
not load up our spiritual trucks with lots of unnecessary stuff. We travel lightly. To follow Jesus congregations have to
travel lightly.
How does St. Francis Church become spiritually free so that
its mission for a new generation will be discovered anew?
The first step is to lighten your baggage. When congregations lose many members as
St. Francis Church has over the last decade those who are left often feel an
enormous sense of responsibility.
Indeed their/your sense of responsibility is unrealistic. When people leave churches, those who
remain with the church tend to give more and more to make every effort for ends
to meet. Often this process of
generous giving of more time and more money exhausts and depletes congregations
of all their spiritual and physical energy. When congregations deplete their energy they are less likely
to hear the still voice of the Spirit of God leading them to new forms of
wholeness.
I would like to suggest that self-denial for St. Francis
Church in this time and in this place is about each of you taking on less. And feeling better about yourselves as
you let go of some things. It
would mean looking for ways to do more with less. Sometimes it is necessary to find a smaller bag or take a
few less things on the journey.
When we do choose to travel more lightly we are amazed by the places we
are able to go.
Empty nesters know this experience. When all the children leave the home
for college and leave to get married, parents often down size because they want
to be free to travel lighter. By
carrying less they can do things they never did before. Money once spent on healthcare and
education can now be spent on a special trip. It may mean just sleeping later for some living more freely
without a daily agenda.
I invite each of you to lighten your load and take on a
little less individually and collectively. To borrow from Paul, as we become less, then Christ will
become more. As Christ becomes
more we will discover some new pathways through the Spirit’s direction versus
our limited capacity to just do more and more. It is a paradox. As we do less and take better care of
ourselves we will be capable of more.
We will see more possibilities.
I am giving you permission to take care of yourselves and of
each other. You don’t need my
permission, but sometimes it is helpful to have another person cover us in our
blind spots. We need the most care
from each other in our blind spots.
When congregations keep on taking more with fewer people they are
operating out of their blind spots.
In our blind spots we do as we typically do, but the results
are not always pleasant. When we
are driving if we do not see oncoming traffic in our blind spots there is great
potential for an accident. Our
blind spots create different kinds of accidents where our spiritual energy and
capacity is depleted. Through
healthy spiritual denial we grow in our spiritual freedom and diminish our
blind spots.
The good news today is that we have the privilege to self
deny and so grow into deeper joy through our spiritual freedom. Only then are we able to take on our
ministerial responsibilities and the mission to which we are called. Jesus was called to carry his cross, as
this was his mission. We will in
time know our cross that is our mission.
The first step in picking up our cross is to deny ourselves in this
healthy way of doing less.
No comments:
Post a Comment