How Much?

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

March 4, 2012

The Second Sunday in Lent

How Much?

Mark 8:31-38

Are you truly a follower?

A follower of Jesus Christ?

Or are you really more of an admirer,

a fan,

an avid student of his teaching?

There is a difference,

a profound difference,

between being a follower

and being even the most ardent of admirers.

You and I: we are called by Christ to be his followers;

Followers, following him,

living our lives as he teaches us to live them,

walking in his very footsteps,

following him wherever he might lead us.

        

His call to his disciples 2000 years ago

is also his call to you and me:

“If you want to become my follower,

then you must deny yourself,

take up your cross, and follow.”

We can profess our faith;

We can join a church;

We can worship on Sunday;

We can say to others, “I am a Christian.”

But doing any or even all of those things

doesn’t necessarily mean we are followers,

truly following our Lord Jesus Christ.

                 

To follow Christ is to go all in,

nothing held back.

Utter and complete surrender of our lives

to God through Christ.

Jesus doesn’t sugarcoat what this means:

he lays it right out:

“if you want to be my follower,

then you too will have to take up your cross.”

Two thousand years later

it’s almost impossible for us to grasp fully

just what Jesus meant by that.

For the disciples, a cross wasn’t the

sign of salvation as it is for us now;

the cross was the executioner’s cruel tool.

In his call to take up your cross Jesus was saying,

“If you want to follow me,

you’d better be ready for a path that may well include

pain, privation,

ridicule, scorn,

loss of friends,

even the loss of family.

If you want to follow me,

you’d better be ready for a path

that may even cost you your life.”

Jesus’ stinging rebuke to Peter

reinforces the point Jesus was making,

that if we want to follow, truly follow Jesus,

then our minds must be on divine things,

and not on human things –

things like our comfort, our success, our possessions.

This is a difficult passage,

but so appropriate for Lent.

We tend to get stuck on Jesus’ words to Peter,

“Get behind me Satan.”

But if we want to understand this passage in its entirety,

we need to set aside that outburst,

and focus on what Jesus is saying to all,

what Jesus is saying to you and me.

How fully committed each of us is,

is up to each of us;

Jesus leaves that to us.

We can each create our own definition of “follower”:

A Sunday follower;

A follower-as-long-as-it doesn’t-otherwise-interfere-

with-more-important-things-in-my-life;

A follower as long as it isn’t too difficult or demanding;

A follower as long as you don’t ask too much of me,

too much of my time,

too much of my treasure.

Do you remember the parable of the sower?

We can find the parable in Matthew’s, Mark’s,

and Luke’s gospels.

“A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed,

some fell on the path and was trampled on,

and the birds of the air ate it up.

Some fell on the rock;

and as it grew up,

it withered for lack of moisture.

Some fell among thorns,

and the thorns grew with it and choked it.

Some fell into good soil,

and when it grew,

it produced a hundredfold.”

(Luke 8:5)

Aren’t we all, if we are honest about it,

a combination of the second and the third types of soil?

The second, where the seed fell on rock

and withered for lack of moisture:

God’s words, Christ’s teachings,

falling on our hard hearts,

not nurtured,

withering,

faded,

lost.

The third, the word choked off

by all the other things that fill our lives,

the cares, the concerns, the distractions.

It’s the fourth kind of soil that should be our goal, though;

the fourth kind of soil nurtures

the receptive hearts and minds

of true followers.

“A follower is one who strives to be like the one he follows”,

This doesn’t mean you and I are called to copy Christ;

We are to emulate him.

We are to be ourselves,

the individuals God created each of us to be,

but we are to model our lives on Christ’s life.

In this Lenten season of repentance,

who among us can say that we do this well?

Lent is the time for us to acknowledge

that we fall short,

that if we model our lives on Christ’s

it is selective modeling

a bit here, a bit there,

a little more on Sunday,

a little less on Monday.

Soren Kierkegaard was right when he said

Christ’s life is a demand on our own lives.

We are being asked to step up and step out

from the comfort of our own lives

and live as Jesus calls us to live,

without asking how much it might cost us,

living fully as God’s word in both Old and New Testament

teaches us to live.

    

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’,

and do not do what I tell you?”

(Luke 6:46)

Jesus asks this of his disciples and

Jesus asks the same thing of you and me.

Put another way, Jesus asks us,

“Why do you say you are my followers,

but not follow?”

Jesus knows how hard what he is asking of us is,

but Jesus also knows we have help,

help every step along the way throughout our lives,

help from God through the Holy Spirit.

As we said in our Affirmation of Faith

at the beginning of the service,

the Spirit binds us together,

feeds us,

and gives us courage and strength

so we can more readily and faithfully

deny ourselves,

pick up our crosses,

and follow our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Do not be conformed to this world”

Paul tells us,

but be transformed.

(Romans 12:3)

Be transformed into a follower.

It is the work of a lifetime,

but as the first letter of Peter reminds us,

“to this you have been called, ….

that you should follow in Christ’s footsteps”

(1 Peter 2:21)

Even the original disciples struggled to be faithful followers.

We all know what happened when Jesus was arrested:

the disciples scattered with the wind,

filled with fear for their own lives,

Peter so notoriously denying he even knew Jesus.

But they all repented of their weakness,

and with the power of the Holy Spirit helping them,

they all later picked up their crosses

and followed,

followed faithfully,

fully.

fearlessly.

Lent calls us to look within ourselves

to see where we have fallen short as followers.

And the Lord’s Table is the place for us to come

to be fed and nourished by the Spirit,

to be strengthened and renewed

so that we can pick up our crosses and follow.  

As you come to the Table,

I invite you to ponder in your hearts and minds

the words Joshua said to the children of Israel

before they crossed the Jordan

and entered the Promised Land:

“Choose this day whom you will serve.”

Just change the words slightly:

“choose this day whom you will you follow”:

whom you will follow with all your strength,

all your mind,

all you heart,

all your soul.

And then respond with your renewed commitment:

“As for me, I will follow Christ.”

AMEN