September 9, 2007 – 15th Sunday after Pentecost
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
In my second parish, I was sitting in my office one morning and one of the elders came in for a talk. I had been there about a year and thought that things were going along pretty well. Anytime there is a change of leadership in the church, everyone has to make some adjustments. No two personalities or leadership styles are the same. During the course of our conversation, this elder said to me. "You know, Pastor Burk, your style is very different from the last pastor. George so and so told me the other day that you aren't near the preacher that she was."
I remember feeling very troubled by the remark. I felt angry and I felt a bit bushwhacked. I felt angry at the person who originated the words and frosted with the person in my office who had chosen to repeat them.
I'm sure the same thing has happened to you too, hasn't it? The Arabs have a proverb that covers this "behavior territory". It says, "The one who repeats an insult is insulting you." I remember when I heard that proverb I resonated with it in a big way. Suddenly, I knew why I felt so angry.
Communication is always breaking down among us human beings. Our lesson from Luke this morning reminds us that being a Christian person calls on us to be our highest self. Jesus says "whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." Carrying the cross is a tall order. The cross is heavy and it is a burden. The cross reminds us that redemption and salvation have cost the life of God. Naturally we all shy away from the cross. No one willingly wants to suffer. Only a masochist would be willingly crucified.
We bandy the expression "carrying the cross" around rather loosely. What does it mean to carry the cross? The first thing I believe it means is that we embrace unreservedly the worldview of Jesus. Foundational to Jesus' worldview is love. God created all things. God loves all things and all people - even the difficult ones. If we are to be like God we are to love as God loves.
How do we love as God loves - if that is carrying the cross? For the answer to that question we look to the life of Jesus. Jesus gave himself up - his life, his future to pay the price for our sin and free us from sin. He taught us simply but elegantly what whole, unreserved loving looks like. He said:
1. Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.
2. Sell what you have and give it to the poor.
3. If you have two overcoats, give one to your brother who has none.
4. Do not judge others for the measure you give will be the measure you get.
5. Let you who is without sin be the first to throw the stone, that is, do your own
moral inventory before you punish another.
It's pretty impossible to follow such commandments, but we all can see what the world would be like if we did. No war, no poverty, harmony, peace, the total reign of God.
Carrying the cross doesn't mean you don't stumble with it, or sometimes put it down because it gets too heavy. But it does mean that you never take your eye off the cross. You live your life with that cross before your eyes and always in the back of your mind. It means being constantly open to learning new ways of speaking the truth in love, and becoming a more loving person.
A friend of mine talks about "a prick of Christian conscience". By that he means that we become more sensitive to the interior mental and spiritual monitor that goes off when we are about to, or are engaged in sin. When we hear gossip or repeat something vicious about someone that monitor that "prick of Christian conscience" goes off. It should stop us in that act, or send us into "recall" mode - that is - own our sin and apologize for it, or stop in the middle.
God calls us to the highest standard of ethical behavior. We are not to talk about others when we have a concern or a criticism; we are to talk directly to them. Passing on secondhand criticism like one of my parishioners did to me in the opening illustration of this sermon is ultimately a form of cowardice. Deborah Tannen, a communications theorist at Georgetown University describes it this way. "Hearing criticism secondhand is like being shot by a gun with a silencer. The wound is intensified by the surprise of the attack." There is always a passive aggressive quality to such behavior that is mean spirited and decidedly unchristian. Having said that about my anonymous former parishioner, I should own that I have done the same thing. None of us is above repeating an insult - it comes with the territory of being a sinner. I've even done it to people I love dearly when I wanted to criticize something about them but was too chicken to own the remark and let someone else "fire the shot".
Dr. Tannen makes a couple of suggestions about what to do when you realize someone's about to bushwhack you with a repeated insult, how to stop a speaker in her verbal tracks. She says to say: "I'd rather not hear what George said, since he's not here. Let's stick to what you think." If you can't head off the insult you can say: "Why are you telling me this?" or better "How do you think your telling me this will make me feel?" She says: "In other words, when someone comes bearing secondhand criticism, you need to ask the gift horse to open its month for inspection."
Being “pricked” by the Holy Sprit can mean other things too. Being a disciple means having Christian antennae that are always attentive to the needs of the "least of these I the world.”
Lately the Holy Spirit has been nagging at me to do something about 18 year old foster kids who are dropped by the system. According to US law, when a child becomes 18 he or she loses all benefits being considered as adult. They lose their financial support, often their home, and are expected to be launched into life.
I’ve raised 3 kids and I remember being 18. No way was I prepared to meet life’s challenges at that age. These kids need kelp. The Holy Spirit is nagging at me to do something. I don’t know what yet – but the cross is always before my eyes.
The Christian life is always guided by the Spirit of Jesus. "He is the way, the truth and the life." His way is not an easy way. It is painful. Anyone who carries his cross is bound to get splinters. Yet his cross gives life to the world, and abundant life to those who practice his Way.
In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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