to bear our cross
Listen to the petition from today’s Collect: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of Jesus’ countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness.
In almost any facet of my life, as I’ve gone along living, favorites have moved through my heart and mind, and may be there a Time, even years, until a new favorite comes along. A longtime favorite has been Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor, teacher, author and theologian in the first half of the 20th century. During Hitler’s era, Bonhoeffer held up the life and teaching of Jesus over against the Nazi regime and the inhumanity of the German people under Hitler, and the Nazis' complicitly evil German National Church. Bonhoeffer, who was hanged in April 1945 a few days before Germany fell to Allied forces, wrote several books including The Cost of Discipleship, in which he defines quite clearly what it means to bear our cross. It is not what you thought and think. Listen:
“To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. When it comes, it is not an accident, but a necessity. It is not the sort of suffering which is inseparable from this mortal life, but the chosen suffering which is an essential part of the specifically Christian life.”
Bonhoeffer has it right, Bonhoeffer’s take on Jesus and the cross and life itself; life and the cross.
Hurricane Michael, if I may continue with it, was not the will of God for us, the destruction, and our horror, pain, suffering, agony, anger, bitterness, grief at what has been done to us. And this did not “just happen,” it was a routine Act of Nature that was done, and is being done, to us who live and love here. But the hurricane is not our cross. Not our cross to bear, so do not misunderstand Jesus or Bonhoeffer. What we, YOU endured on October 10th, and are continuing to endure, is not your cross to bear, precisely because you did not choose it.
Your cross is not an accident or act of nature, but a necessity, a choice, your choosing. It is not the sort of suffering, such as a hurricane, tornado, or fire, or ill health, nor the sickness and death of a loved one or of a relationship; not the cruelty of one human to another, nor being abandoned by someone you loved and thought loved you, all of which are inseparable from this mortal life (those things happen to every one of us); rather, your cross is the chosen suffering that is part of loving Jesus, our God who chose to die on the cross to show us that the Way of the Cross is the Way of Life.
Your cross is very personal. And I’m going to “relate it” to help you “get it”, because you DO NOT “get it”. What I’m going to say may seem, but is not sophistry, not casuistry, not specious reasoning.
A friend who is part of a local area law enforcement organization, is finding his work horrible as he is called to gruesome scenes of death: people who have committed suicide because they were too overwhelmed to go on coping with the disastrous ruin of Hurricane Michael. Listen carefully, it’s quite simple but you still may not “get it”. Hurricane Michael and this nightmare aftermath is not your cross to bear.
Your cross to bear is in every case of life, choosing the Jesus side against the darkness
Your cross to bear is in every case of life, choosing the Jesus side against the darkness
Your cross to bear is — choosing - - to stay here and be part of recovery because of love, when you would rather chuck everything and run.
Or opposite, your cross to bear is - - deliberately choosing - - for love of yourself, and your family and loved ones, no matter how much it grieves you to leave this area that you have loved - - choosing - - to leave because you must find work that’s no longer here for you and you have to look after your loved ones.
Your cross to bear is choosing to look after yourself and go on with life when all you want to do is give up.
Choosing to use what has happened to us with Hurricane Michael, to better understand the suffering of others; victims of storms or fires or floods or war or crime or hatred or prejudice or abuse or cruelty. Choosing sympathy and empathy instead of ignoring others who suffer.
Choosing to keep your baptism promises about how you treat other people no matter how they treat you - -is a cross to bear.
Choosing, when your grief is so great as to incline you to suicide, to make a life for yourself when the one you trusted and loved so dearly, has let you down, whether by death, or abandonment, or disgrace, or any other way.
Choosing to go on in spite of everything, if for no other reason than WWJD, what would Jesus do, how would Jesus respond to this crisis, this pain? And the answer is that Jesus would choose, and has chosen, and did choose, The Way of the Cross.
Choosing to do what you really do not want to do, simply because it’s the right thing to do. Choosing to go against your own personal interests and desires when that’s the right thing to do. That’s a cross to bear that changes you into the likeness of Jesus.
Choosing to include yourself among those wretched people whom Jesus, in the Beatitudes that we read a couple Sundays ago, calls makarios, blest, happy, content, making peace with what life puts on your plate or in your way, and settling peacefully into life this new way in spite of all.
Choosing to see that life itself has been, and was, and is, and will be, worth living gratefully and graciously if for no other reason than because it’s God’s gift of love to you; and it only comes round once.
Choosing to give up bitterness and resentment and hatreds and grudges; choosing to forgive precisely because from the cross Jesus prayed of those who tormented and crucified him, “Father, forgive them.”
“To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. When it comes, it is not an accident, but a necessity. It is not the sort of suffering which is inseparable from this mortal life, but the chosen suffering which is an essential part of the specifically Christian life.”
Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of Jesus’ countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness.
As we go into Lent remember: to bear your cross is not only carrying it, it’s hanging there - -
until Easter comes.
++++++++++
Sermon or homily in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida on Sunday, March 3, 2019. Last Sunday after the Epiphany. The Rev Tom Weller. Text: Collect for the Day
This Proper is always used on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday
O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Pics pinched online. The Passion of the Christ