FROM BELIEVING TO FOLLOWING  

    2ND Sunday in Lent-----March 12, 2006

                            Mark 8:31-38

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  Mark 8:34

             Grace to you and peace, this morning, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen

              I’ve always gotten a kick out of some of the expressions of Yogi Berra, the former great New York Yankee catcher.  His expressions have a twist.   Such as, “It’s déjà vu all over again!”   Or this one, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”  For me it fits with this morning’s text.   Here at the beginning of our Lenten journey, we come to a fork in the road.  Mid-way through the Gospel of Mark in the 8th chapter of Mark’s story of Jesus there is a fork in the road.  This is where one part of the story ends and another portion seemingly begins.  The first section has Jesus traveling through several small communities in Caesarea Philippi; his baptism in the Jordan, resisting evil, exorcizing demons, and calming the storms of life.  Then like crossing something of a “continental divide” he sets his face toward Jerusalem and here in Mark is the first of several times when Jesus “foretells” his coming death and resurrection.

              Together with Jesus, the disciples have come to a fork in the road and they seem to want to “take it”.  They have followed Jesus and want to keep following him.  But the way that Jesus charts his course, causes them to question, what in the world he is thinking.   He speaks openly about what is going to happen to him once they reach Jerusalem.  Shocked by what Jesus has said, Peter pulls Jesus to one side and begins to question and rebuke him.  “How can you say that?  Why would you say that?  Do you think that anybody wants to hear that sort of thing from you? I thought this would be a march to victory—you’re saying it’s a funeral procession?   Who else will follow you now that you’ve told them this?”

              Quite literally Peter is taking Jesus aside from the place where he has been standing, away from the middle, no longer at the center.  Jesus response is to put this special disciple back in his place and to call the crowds with the disciples around him again. No disciples can put anything in Jesus’ place-not even love for him nor for his safety.  No follower can successfully drag Jesus out of the center.   Jesus intentionally remains front and center and offering his instructions to help us remember that we are to “TAKE UP OUR CROSS AND FOLLOW HIM!”

              It’s then that Jesus lists the conditions of discipleship and it seems that the only certainty is the promise that Jesus will undergo great suffering, be rejected, killed, and after three days be raised from the dead.  We recognize that he does keep his promises because we view this story from the Easter side of the telling.  Now the conditions of discipleship for his followers mirror what Jesus himself had to endure.  Denial of self, risking rejection, losing life are all calls to shadow the example of Christ.

The temptation, of course, is to find and easier path(follow a different fork in the road), to seek the crown of glory rather than the pursuit of the cross.  But Jesus seems to be saying, “first things first”, denial, cross-bearing, and following.

              This is the fork in the road where many did part company with Jesus although Peter and the disciples do not.  At least not yet!  There have been some rather “successful” ministries which have aborted these tough and controversial claims.  Some have removed the cross from their worship centers because the symbolism of the cross is unpleasant, puts people off, or is too negative an image.  One that I read about a few years ago, decided to do just than and then used the word, LENT, to symbolize their emphasis during the Lenten Season.  Using the letters of the word—LENT their theme was “LET’S ELIMINATE NEGATIVE THINKING!”  It had little to do with the Call to Discipleship or the Way of the Cross.

              Peter had just confessed in the previous text in Mark 8…”You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”.  Then came this prediction of Jesus whose life would b e laid out for the suffering and sins of the world, the suffering and rejection to fulfill of God for justice, and which later is translated into a call for each of us to believe on this Lord Jesus Christ, as Savior and Lord—Savior of the world, Lord of our lives, and daily and eternal friend.

              Coupled with that call to faith, placing our trust in Him…comes this amazing and often times disconcerting call to follow.

When new members are received into a faith community(as they are being today here at United) we don’t always ask them if they have responded to the call to follow Jesus but most often ask them to profess certain beliefs.   As in the words of the Creed---“DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY?  DO YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST?  DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT?”   Would it make a difference if we stood up and said, “I BELIEVE IN JESUS AND I AM A FOLLOWER OF JESUS, WHO LAID DOWN HIS LIFE FOR ME AND FOR MY NEIGHBOR?” or

“I HAVE DECIDED TO FOLLOW JESUS THIS COMING WEEK IN ALL I SAY, DO, OR THINK?”

              It seems to me that’s what our banner outside in front of the church suggests…”CENTERED IN CHRIST---FOR A LIFE OF DISCIPLESHIP”.  I sense it is suggesting to us that we seek to be not only believers in Christ, but disciples of Christ.

We might fail at times to extend the call to follow Jesus as it’s suggested in the Scriptures?  Not just believe ideas, intellectualize our teachings/theology but to recognize that to follow is a commitment of the heart, which plays its way out actively in the way of life we choose to live.

              The promise of our baptism is that out of death will come life…amazingly and powerfully.  |This is our Lenten journey.  In such a way that there is this conversion, if you will, and we can use that term in the Lutheran Church.  For that is what God is seeking to do daily in our live—transform, change, provide a conversion of sorts.   The covenant of our baptism is to awaken us to what Martin Luther called the daily death and resurrection.  Luther’s practice each morning was to sign the cross over himself with the words, “I AM BAPTIZED!”  Reminding himself that not only was he called to believe, but called to follow.  This call to discipleship is a serious one for us today, one in which Jesus engages our whole self.   While Peter didn’t quite grasp it at the time, he did continue to follow.  Much as we don’t always fully grasp what it means to be baptized into Christ, yet we are open to follow.

              This dilemma of moving from believing to following as disciples has remained alive throughout the life of the church. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote of it in his work entitled, THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP. 

                            “IF OUR CHRISTIANITY HAS CEASED TO BE SERIOUS ABOUT DISCIPLESHIP

                            IF WE HAVE WATERED DOWN THE GOSPEL INTO EMOTIONAL UPLIFT WHICH

                            MAKES NO COSTLY DEMANDS AND WHICH FAILS TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN

                            NORMAL AND CHRISTIAN EXISTENCE, THEN WE CANNOT HELP REGARDING

                            THE CROSS AS AN ORDINARY EVERYDAY CALAMITY, JUST ONE OF THE

                            TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS IN LIFE…THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

                            ORDINARY HUMAN LIFE AND A LIFE COMMITTED TO CHRIST.”

              Plunge into the Gospel anywhere, we’re likely to find Jesus asking someone to follow.  Yet there is this persistence in calling to belief, but not as consistently calling to follow.   Do you believe in Christ?   Am I following Jesus?   It can be more demanding, more costly because it challenges my life-style, my attitudes, my core values, even my surrender.

              Ernest Campbell, formerly Pastor of Riverside Church in New York has written a list of questions which for me are part of my annual Lenten discipline.  I think they fit with the call to deny ourselves, lose ourselves, and being cross bearers. Here they are:

If I’m following Jesus, WHY AM I SUCH A GOOD INSURANCE RISK?

If I’m following Jesus, WHY, WHEN I HAVE DONE MY GIVING, HAVE I SO MUCH LEFT OVER

FOR MYSELF?

                    If I’m following Jesus, WHY, DO MY CLOSETS BULGE WHEN SO MANY ARE UNCLOTHED?

                    If I’m following Jesus, WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY FRIENDS WHO ARE QUITE AFFLUENT AND SO

                            FEW AMONG THE POOR?

                    If I’m following Jesus, WHY DO I HAVE SO MUCH PRIVACY IN A WORLD THAT IS STARVING FOR

                            LOVE?

                    If I’m following Jesus, WHY AM I TEMPTED TO OVEREAT IN A WORLD WHERE SO MANY ARE

                            BEGGING FOR BREAD?

                    If I’m following Jesus, WHY AM I GETTING ON SO WELL IN A WORLD THAT MARKED HIM FOR

                            DEATH?

              Are we following Jesus or believing in Christ?  The two are inseparable, even though we separate them all the time. If we must err, let’s err on the side of following.   FOR ONE CAN BELIEVE WITHOUT FOLLOWING.  BUT ONE CANNOT FOLLOW WITHOUT BELIEVING!   I believe in our Affirmation of Baptism service(i.e. Confirmation) and in our reception of new members, there is, a fitting format that does incorporate our profession of faith with a call to discipleship.  Following our Confession of Faith the question is asked, “You have made public profession of your faith, do you intent to continue in the covenant God made with you in Holy Baptism?

              -TO LIVE AMONG GOD’S FAITHFUL PEOPLE…

              -TO HEAR HIS WORD AND SHARE IN HIS SUPPER…

              -TO PROCLAIM THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD IN CHRIST THROUGH WORD AND DEED…

              -TO SERVE ALL PEOPLE, FOLLOWING THE EXAMPLE OF OUR LORD JESUS…

              -AND TO STRIVE FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE IN ALL THE EARTH?

              The clear and earnest response is: “I DO, AND I ASK GOD TO HELP AND GUIDE ME!”   That seems truly the movement from believing to following.  It’s also what has come to be known as “faith active in love”.   As we continue to journey into Lent, we are drawn each day closer to the cross of Christ.  We see Christ as the center calling us to focus our attention on the cross.   There is the center of God’s call and plan for us.  Our faith leads us to the cross of Christ.  And in turn, calls us to take up our cross and to follow.   Lord, help and guide us to that end.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.