The Rev. Carol S. Wedell
August 31, 2008

Have you ever noticed how much of our life is spent on games and activities where winning is what matters the most?  When our children were little we tried to teach "cooperative games," but it seems that in the long run, the activities which have most captured their attention almost always involve a winner or loser.  And it's clear which one of those we would rather be!

As most of us were riveted by hours of coverage of the recent summer Olympics I'm guessing that virtually all of us found ourselves cheering for the United States to win - or at least to get a medal.  We might appreciate the grace, speed, or strength of another athlete - but "going for the gold," was certainly what it was all about.

Our family loves to play group games - but we have to be careful.  For depending upon the game our over-the-top competitiveness comes flying out.  What starts as a fun family activity can quickly disintegrate into arguments over which word counts, or who spoke first, etc...And this is not just the kids.  We want to win!   I suspect that our family is not alone in this trait. Ask the youth who went on the mission trip about a game called "Encore."  Just a tiny bit of competitiveness among all of them!!!

In the middle of one of the most intense presidential campaigns in recent history, it's clear what the goal is.  Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain is seeking the presidency, so they can be patted on the back in the end and be told, "Well, you ran a good race."  No, come this November, they and their supporters want them to win - not merely campaign well.

We care a lot about winning.  In our economic, political and social structures, winning matters.  From a very early age we are taught to try hard so we will be a "success" in life.   Success is usually defined as "the good life":  a well-paying job, a nice home, a healthy family, and strong relationships.  That's the prize that most of us are seeking.

Sometimes, this ‘win at all costs" mentality may be softened by the circumstances.  We know that the Indians aren't going to the play-offs this season, so we can just enjoy watching the various players they are trying out. (Or the less than die-hard fans may quit watching altogether.)   When our daughter's soccer or softball teams have not been terribly competitive, we set different goals:  having a good time, improving skills, playing hard, and being good sports.

Yet this summer when her team would go up against a couple of the teams who were easily twice as good as hers, her team didn't even consider forfeiting before the first inning.  Our girls would play their hearts out, trying to go as long as possible before the "mercy rule" went into effect.  Another way of "winning" was seeing how long they could stay in the game.

The gospel of "winning" or of "the good life" surrounds us.  We are lulled into believing the messages of commercials and culture that tell us that that good life we're so desperately seeking can be ours - if we just work hard enough - or win the lottery!

Then we come this morning to this familiar passage from the gospel of Matthew.  So familiar, in fact, that it may not hit us with the same force and impact as those who heard it in the first century.  For in essence, Jesus is challenging the disciples - and us - to turn our whole concept of "winning," our whole idea of what constitutes "the good life," upside down. 

Following Peter's declaration that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus tells the disciples that he is headed toward Jerusalem - and certain death.  Not just any form of death, either, but the cruelest, most humiliating form of death - death on a cross.

If we sit back and imagine ourselves in Peter's position, we can understand his confusion.  He has just identified Jesus as the Messiah - the King - and been affirmed for his insight and understanding.  So why is Jesus talking about a cross?  Peter pulls Jesus aside and in tells Jesus, in not so many words, that he's crazy - this isn't the way Messiah's behave!    You're not supposed to suffer!  You're King.  Kings have castles where they are kept safe, not a cross which exposes their vulnerability.  We like the idea of following a King - but following you to a cross?  Surely, Jesus, you've got this one wrong!

Peter wants Jesus to play by the rules he knows.  And he knows that going the way of the cross is not the way of winning.  It's the way of suffering.  It goes against everything he has been taught.  Why would Jesus come this far simply to give up?

Then Jesus rebukes the same disciple that he has just praised.  "Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."  What a great humbling reminder Peter is for all of us.  Even when we think we've got God all figured out, we're probably messing it all up!  How easy it is to put our energy into what Jesus calls "human things" and forget about what God may be up to in the world and in our own lives.  Maybe winning means something quite different to Jesus.

So Jesus gets down to the real business at hand.  If he is headed toward the cross, those who dare to follow him, are also headed on the same path.  He promises another shock.  Not only is he headed for the cross, but the cross will be there for his disciples, as well.  Sounds inviting, don't you think?  It doesn't quite measure up to our idea of "the good life"!  Jesus did not call the disciples, nor does he call us, to be cautious and conventional - he call us to be daring, "forfeiting" the so-called game, before it even gets started, by playing a different game altogether, by following the way of Jesus.

Jesus calls his disciples to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him.  This kind of denial doesn't mean skipping our favorite latte, or giving up chocolate for Lent.  It means realizing that for those who choose to follow Jesus, we are no longer at the center of our universe.  Our needs may be very real and need attention, but as Christians we are called to look beyond ourselves, and see, as Jesus did, a world that needs us.

I've often talk heard folks talk about "the cross they have to bear."  And here we need to make a very clear distinction.  For what Jesus is talking about here are not the burdens of life which may come to each of us. Jesus is not talking about a nasty teacher or an irritating brother or sister. He is not even talking about a cancer diagnosis, or a painful divorce, or a lost job.  Jesus does not equate the sometimes overwhelming pain of living in a sinful, human world with taking up the cross.

In other words - we have to give our lives fully to following Jesus. Taking up our cross isn't about enduring life's little troubles along the way. It's about giving ourselves completely over to the cross. Not the cross of death - but the cross of life.

To take up a cross is to be in the world in the same way that Jesus was in the world:  voluntarily taking on the burdens of others.  He's asking us to live in the world as God is in the world, open to the needs and pain of those around us.  And the truth be told, we don't want a crucified Jesus any more than Peter did.  Because all of a sudden it sounds as if our whole life might be turned upside down.  It asks much more of us than most of us are ready to give. 

So many of our interpretations of Jesus and his demands of us are domesticated so we can more easily fit them into the world we know - and not cause us embarrassment.  We are vastly more comfortable keeping life as we know it. 

It reminds me of a cartoon in the New Yorker magazine.  A cartoon preacher tells his congregation, "If your lifestyle is going to be seriously affected, then of course disregard everything I've said."  And of course, that is precisely what this passage seeks to do - to turn our priorities on their head, and our life around, to dramatically affect our lifestyles!

As Presbyterian pastor and professor Tom Long has written about this passage, "Cross bearers forfeit the game of power before the first inning; they are never selected as ‘Most Likely to Succeed.' Cross bearers are dropouts in the school of self-promotion.  They do not pick up their crosses as means of personal fulfillment, career advancement, or self-expression, rather, they ‘deny themselves' and pick up their crosses, like their Lord, because of the needs of other people"  (Thomas G. Long, Matthew: The Westminster Bible Companion, Westminster John Knox Press, 1997, p. 190).

From this vantage point, we begin to realize that it's not just at the Olympic games that we are intimately linked as brother and sister with everyone around the world.  Suddenly our eyes are opened and we realize that the state of the Cleveland schools is our problem, that flooding in India and Cuba and the Gulf Coast matter to us, and that the pain and suffering of any other person affects us.  We begin to see people and situations that we have walked by in the past and understand that as cross bearers, we have a relationship to them.  When compassion is in charge of our lives, we have taken up the cross. 

Paul Lutz, an online colleague describes discipleship, taking up the cross in this way:  No, denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Jesus is all about your growing discomfort at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships. It is all about your increasing anger at the injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people you see.  It is about your increase shedding of tears for those who suffer from pain, rejection and starvation and war.  Taking up your cross, discipleship is about how God blesses you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you do what others claim cannot be done. (Midrash, 8/29/08).

And God alone knows where that might lead us.  It might lead some of us back to the gulf coast, or to South Dakota.  It might lead others of us to time spent at North Church, or tutoring Cleveland public school students at Church of the Covenant. It may mean inviting a hurting friend to church and making sure that he or she is welcomed and brought into the fold.   It may mean sitting with the new kid at the lunch table, or standing up for the one who is different.  It may be choosing a simpler life, so that you can be more in touch with where God is leading you, where God is leading us as the Church of the Western Reserve. It may mean deciding that the money spent on a new house, a new car, a new dress or a special dinner out could better be spent funding a Habitat house or the Cleveland Food Bank. It may mean serving on one of the boards of the church or teaching a class or befriending a senior or a youth or a child. What's clear is that following Jesus will take us places we never imagined - and always, always, beyond our own comfort and ease.

As fun as it was to watch the Olympics and cheer our "winners" on, there was actually one commercial that was even better.  I don't remember the name of the athlete, but at a previous Olympic, he fell during a race and was unable to continue under his own power.  His father some how made it to the track, and holding his son up, they slowly made their way to the finish line, dead last.  No gold, or silver or bronze.  Probably not even an "official" finish.  Winning in this case was about so much more - and the athlete's father under stood that.

We who like to carefully plan out each step of our lives are invited to the journey of a lifetime, never knowing for sure where we'll land next.  As E.M. Forster once said, "We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us."