Second Sunday in Lent , March 8, 2009

Where’s My Cross?

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Mark 8:31-38

If that’s the case, our secular Lent might be instructive for us as we walk with Jesus through this sacred forty days of Lent leading to the cross.  Author Frederick Buechner suggests that Lent is a time for Christian self-discovery.  “Jesus went off alone into the wilderness where he spent forty days asking himself the question what it meant to be Jesus.  During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask one way or another what it means to be themselves [as Christians].”  (Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark, page 74.)  I agree.  Now that we are in this wilderness of Lent, and the finding ourselves in the wilderness of our current economic world, our task is to see in this God-given moment God’s deliberate attempt to shape our Christian lives:  heart, soul, mind, and body.  What does it mean for us to be Christian?

It’s a good question; one you might expect is addressed in the Bible. But being a faithful Jew, Jesus never defines “Christian.”  In fact, you won’t find the word “Christian” in your Bible.  What we find are stories about faithfulness.  Here in today’s gospel lesson, for example, Jesus suggests what it means to be faithful in a way that echoes his own journey.  Noting that his course was leading to conflict both religious and political, he teaches his followers that his is a journey into suffering, and that he will likely die at the end.  Then he invites followers to share this journey of loss and pain:  “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  (Mark 8:34, New Revised Standard Version) It’s a difficult image, but one easily understood by Jesus’ first listeners.  As children, Jesus and his followers certainly must have heard about, and may even have watched, as the Romans crucified 2,000 Galilean Jews who had rebelled against the Roman occupations in the year 6 of our Common Era.  Being a faithful follower, says Jesus, means following him all the way to death, that kind of death.

The cross is a powerful image, that’s why it is remains central in our churches.  But before we look at the cross more closely, let’s not forget the picture of Abraham and Sarah given us in today’s first lesson.  After all, Jesus is not our only Jewish ancestor.  So is Abraham.  He and Sarah are our Bible’s first models of what it means to be faithful to God.  A rich, successful couple, amply endowed for their retirement, they were up in years when they discover that God has other plans for these golden years.  “Walk before me,” God invites. It’s an invitation to faith.  God then promises to be faithful, too:  “And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” (Genesis 17:2, NRSV)

This is the third time in Genesis that we overhear God make this covenant with Abraham.  Why the repetition, I wonder?  Maybe so we don’t miss it. And maybe because this story is co central, so – well, crucial.  It is the definition of faith, right here. Abraham and Sarah’s faithfulness, in fact, comes to define faith:  following God wherever God leads.  Trusting God to be present fully, no matter what the day may hold.  As one pastor commented on this passage, “Their trust is unconditional.” (Barbara Brown Taylor, Feasting on the Word:  Year B, Volume 2, page 53.) And that, truly, is faith:  not believing without doubt, but trusting without reservation. (With thanks to William Sloane Coffin for this oft-repeated phrase of his.)

Abraham and Sarah’s faith is central to all of us, their children in the faith, their covenant offspring.  That includes us, of course, as well as our Jewish neighbors and cousins, and, most central to our own worship, Jesus the Jew.  Notice that Abraham and Sarah’s faith is so significant that their names are changed as well, confirming their new status as those claimed by God. 

And while Abraham and Sarah carried no crosses, still their sacrifices were real.  They left home; they left family; and they walked away from security and ease. As senior citizens, they became as children again, fully trusting God to lead them on a journey with no map.

That map-less journey is an image that resonates with us, of course.  We may have thought we had our lives charted, but God has other, and better plans.  What are we to do in such a time, in such a wilderness? Our lesson suggests this:  trust God.

It’s interesting to come to this lesson just now, for trusting God is just what we must do if we are to respond to challenge of our church’s current financial needs.  Even though we will not launch our capital funds campaign until April 19, the Sunday after Easter, several of our members have been asking themselves about the spiritual implications of undertaking this process in these difficult times.  Yes, many of us – maybe all of us – find our lives financially decreased, and therefore fearful?  But will give, when we do, out of our fear?  Or will we give out of the sense that God is with us, even leading us, just as God called, led, and accompanied Abraham and Sarah and Jesus and his disciples?

This spiritual committee of the campaign actually asks three more focused questions for each of us as we pray about God’s guidance in our giving.  Their questions are these:

While I had nothing to do with those questions, I believe they’ve been given to all of us, as a gift from God’s Spirit. 

So, in the wilderness of our woes, and in the spiritual geography we call Lent, how shall we live our faith? What is the essence and what is the calling of our Christian faith? Good questions, those.

Jesus asks no more of us than he gives for the world.  And Jesus asks no less, either, than he gives.  He goes to the cross, and in doing so he embodies the faith of Abraham and Sarah.  Jesus goes to the cross, fully aware of his own sacrifice, and fully trusting in God’s presence every step of the journey.  Where is our cross?  Where is God leading us, together, and each of us as his faithful servants?

As you ponder these questions, I share a story from the life of Clarence Jordan, founder of Koinonia Farm, an interracial community in rural Georgia, and a spiritual mentor to the recently deceased Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity.  Jordan had an impact on the lives of many, partly because his faith meant so much to him, no matter what the cost.  Once when Jordan was preaching in a big church, one of its members told him of her love for the church.  She even boasted, “Why the cross on our steeple cost us ten thousand dollars.” Jordan replied, “You may have paid too much.  Time was, Christians got their crosses for free.”

Jesus said to any who would listen:  “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”