The Rev. Robert Lundquist XV after Pentecost 8/28/05 St Paul’s, Ft Collins

Our reading from the Gospel today is full of paradox. Deny yourself to follow Jesus. Lose your life in order to save it. You may gain the whole world but lose your soul. It’s been said that you’re not totally alive until you know what you’d die for. Jesus knew. Perhaps the abundant life of which he speaks is the result of knowing what you’d be willing to die for…

Theologian Matthew Fox, in his book The Reinvention of Work, explores the meaning of work in our spiritual lives. Work is more than what we’re paid for, it is really the reason we are created by God. It is a lifelong urge and calling that overarches everything else. We are most satisfied when we’re doing our true work. Jesus’ true work, says Fox, was to “interfere with injustice.” What a great phrase! And apt as well – “to interfere with injustice.”

To begin with, we affirm that Jesus “takes us as we are.” There’s no entrance exam or litmus test in coming to God in Jesus Christ. Jesus takes us as we are… but never leaves us where he finds us. So, we say, “Nobody’s perfect” (in the eyes of the world). But we start where we are, and we listen to God. “Our Father in heaven… your kingdom come on earth as in heaven.” That’s our prayer, that our existence here may reflect the heavenly realm. In order to follow Jesus, we must “pick up the cross and follow.” And when we listen to God, we know what is right. We develop and sharpen the sense that all here is not as God would have it! Following Jesus, we perceive what is wrong and mess with it. Like Jesus, we are moved to interfere with injustice.

Picking up this cross is often expensive. Injustice is pervasive in our world. A story from a few years back has stuck with me. It concerns a 27 year-old Russian woman, Tatyana Sapunova, who spotted a sign while walking near Moscow. The banner read, “Death to Yids!” Offended, she pulled down the sign. Whoever has posted it had rigged it to an explosive, which blinded Tatyana in one eye. One might expect her to be Jewish. But she is Christian. She was interfering with injustice, standing up for others, as she had learned from Jesus.

Our individual ministries, our outreach to those in need, our everyday acts, and how we treat each other – these can be powerful testimony to the One we follow, to the One who went to Jerusalem, suffered, was killed and was raised on the third day.

Jesus left his job – as a carpenter – to do Abba’s work. Author Frederick Buechner says that your true work is that place where your deep joy meets the world’s deep need. It’s a description that I find both meaningful and powerful. We may call it vocation, calling or ministry, this work. As we approach Labor Day, it seems a fitting time to ask yourself: “What is my true work?”

Jesus knew what it was for which he was willing to die. It is Peter, who confessed as Messiah, who chastises Jesus for speaking of his persecution, death and rising. “God forbid! This must never happen!” Jesus, in what may have been his anguish in telling his closest friends about what was coming, snaps at Peter, “You just don’t get it, do you? Get out of my sight, Adversary!” Remember how Jesus had just said to Peter, “Flesh and blood has not revealed to you that I am Messiah, only God could have done so.” But now, “Peter, you are setting your mind on human concerns and not on the Divine!” Insight, it seems, is not a forever thing. It is not “once and always,” nor is it “born again” to eternal peace. We are always on the threshold of the Kingdom, always needing each other, and reminders of our heading, and support in our work. Recall how Jesus said so many times, “The Kingdom of heaven has come near to you.” We are always on the threshold, growing nearer as we follow.

Peter, still proud of his naming of the Messiah, seems to respond to Jesus with his head rather than his heart. “Don’t change, Lord!” Peter, who proposed building booths for Moses, Elijah and Jesus on the Mount of the Transfiguration, wants to preserve and conserve what is, not looking ahead in trust. How often do we cling to what is, resisting change and growth we don’t understand? How different if would have been had Peter said, “Yes, Jesus, tell us more. Tell us more of Abba and the Kingdom, tell us more of your work, of your rising again.” Because I believe that Peter, like many of us, gets stuck on Jesus’ words about being killed and doesn’t quite catch the part about rising after three days… “Jesus, tell us more. Teach us to interfere with injustice.”

In our work, there are two definitions I believe we must acknowledge:

Sacrifice. This is not merely “giving up something,” a common understanding. Sacrifice means “making holy by giving up to God.” The word shares its root with sacred and sacrament. Listen anew to the Eucharistic Prayer, for the theme of “giving ourselves as a living sacrifice to God.
Worship. A contraction of the words “worth-ship.” Worship is “assigning worth and expressing that value” in our lives and actions. When we worship we are reminded of Who it is who made us and loves us.

Our Patron Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may discern what is the will of God…” That’s the beginning our work, each of us – discerning the will of God. Paul continues, “We who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” This is how we accomplish our work – together.

So put away idle talk and negativity. Renew your minds, and in a community of worthship and sacrifice may you find your cross, your life, your soul, your true work, and your God.

Amen.

A Parish For All People!