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Click to hear this sermon sermon071111
Something
is happening to Spring Break. You know Spring Break, when every college student
in America rushes down to Daytona Beach to get drunk, shed clothes, and go
wild...
Saving and Losing Life - Mark 8: 31-9: 1 - November 11, 2007
- Cicero United Methodist Church - Everett J. Bassett
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Something
is happening to Spring Break. You know Spring Break, when every college student
in America rushes down to Daytona Beach to get drunk, shed clothes, and go
wild. There are movies about it, and MTV films it all as a big, raucous party,
and shows scenes from it all year. We all know it's what every young person
waits for, right?
Wrong. In
the last couple years, the truth about Spring Break, and the truth about young
adults, has come to the surface. Oh, there are certainly many of them hitting
the beaches. But more and more college students are looking forward to Spring
Break not as a Big Party, but as an opportunity to do something worthwhile - to
make a difference.
Here's a
tiny sample of what's happening: students from the University of Washington
went to D'Iberville, Mississippi, and spent their Spring Break sleeping in
tents in a city park, and installing drywall and cooking for volunteers during
the daytime. Another group went into rural Washington to teach poetry to
schoolchildren in impoverished areas. Groups from Seattle University went to
work with migrant farmers picking apples, did Habitat for Humanity work in
Central Washington, built houses in Tijuana, Mexico. College officials see this
as a rising movement across our nation.
Here is
what some of the students say: "They are part of my nation ... I want to
get to know these people. I want to help them because I know they are part of
me, no matter how different we are and how many miles (separate us)."
Another statement: "It just opens me to what else is out there and broadens
my perception of the world and opens me to "what things other people are
struggling with ... " And then one more: "Why would I just want to go
to a party when I can be doing this?"i
I'm sure
there are many of those situations where the students involved would not say
that they were motivated by religious teachings, and many others who would say
that is exactly what is motivating them. In that latter case, many of them will
know that they are living out what may be the heart of the teaching of their Savior
and Lord Jesus Christ:
"If any want to become my followers," said Jesus,
"let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those
who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my
sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it."
Those were
serious words given at a serious moment. And the first thing we need to
acknowledge is that there is a very literal application of those words for
millions of people. Begin with Jesus himself. The context of those words about
denying yourself and carrying your cross and giving your life was that Jesus
was predicting his own imminent death on the cross. As he did several times, he
was telling his disciples something they were unprepared to hear - that when he
entered Jerusalem, he would be entering the arena of death. So, carrying the
cross and giving your life - those weren't just pretty poetic images. They were
the hard reality of the path Jesus was walking.
But not
just Jesus. This was the other part the
disciples couldn't seem to grasp - they themselves were walking the road to
mortal sacrifice. That cross was theirs
to pick up as well. And most of them, in
the years to come, would die brutally as they lived out their devotion to
Jesus. And it doesn't stop there -
hundreds of thousands more would die for their faith in the next few
centuries. And I suppose over the
millennia hundreds of millions have given their lives to stand up for their
faith in Jesus Christ. Why? Why would so many be willing to end their
earthly existence for a cause? For a
passion? For a Savior? I believe it is because deep inside we know
that there is something stronger than death.
Something more compelling, more transcending.
Look at the
words Jesus shared - first, his prediction of his death: "Then he began to
teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by
the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three
days rise again." Surely there are dark words there - suffering, rejected,
killed. Who would choose to go through that? But Easter is also there. God's
grace and victory are also there.
Then the
words that follow: "... those who want to save their life will lose it."
What truth rings out of those words. How many people today are obsessed with
trying to figure out how to save there lives - every possible way to delay the
aging process, every possible way to keep the appearance of eternal youth,
every possible way to milk every moment for ultimate enjoyment, to grab every
selfish indulgence, every possible way to insure and protect against injury and
harm - only to end up with an empty longing for something that slipped through
the fingers. Desperately trying to save life, we can so easily let it flow by
unrealized.
But here's
the other side of the coin: "those who lose their life for my sake, and
for the sake of the gospel, will save it." That's the Good News side of
the equation.
So, how do
you give your life? On Veterans' Day weekend, we might consider the legacy of
Michelle Witmer, of New Berlin, Wisconsin, who served in the Army National
Guard, as did her two sisters. I've mentioned them before in a sermon. All
three served in Iraq, and on April 9, 2004, Michelle was killed in small arms
and improvised explosive attack. Needless to say, it was a devastating loss to
her family. At her funeral a few days later, her sister Charity shared these
remarks about her two sisters and herself: "We all wanted to be part of something
bigger. We wanted to make our mark, and joining the army gave us a window into
that. Maybe it was a difference in only a few peoples' lives, but we were able
to do that."ii Obviously, the example of sacrifice by those
three sisters has made a difference in more than just a few peoples' lives.
Military
service is a striking example of putting everything on the line. But ‘giving your life' can be done in many
ways. It's those students on Spring
Break. It's the hundreds of people in
this church who pledge their prayers and presence and gifts and service to make
powerful things happen for the Lord and his people in this community and around
the world. That's the beautiful thing
about offering yourself and your stuff to God - it's not just how it can make
you feel inside; it's what God can do with gifts great and small to create life
and hope for more people than we can even imagine.
One of the
most inspiring books I have read for a long time is one many people will choose
not to read because they don't like the person who wrote it - and that's too
bad, because this is a wonderful message. The book is called Giving, and
it was written by former President Bill Clinton. It is story after story of
inspiring, courageous, compassionate people, who have decided to be part of
something bigger. Some of them are very wealthy. Some of them are very poor.
Some are older and retired; some are first graders. Some live in American
freedom; some live in oppression. All of them have discovered the secret of
life. And I just want to read a passage from the closing of the book. It
includes some of the names of the people whose stories Clinton has told.
"Will
giving make you happier?" Clinton writes. "You'll have to answer that
for yourself. When I was in Africa with Bill and Melinda Gates, watching them
talk to villagers whose lives they had improved, they seemed happy. When I saw
young Brianne Schwantes risk more broken bones in her fragile body to help
people in the Mississippi flood, she seemed happy. When I watched John Bryant
light up the eyes of poor kids with talk of how they could have different
lives, he seemed happy. When I met Osceola McCarty after she gave her life
savings so that young people could have the education she never had, she seemed
happy ...
"So
much of modern culture," Clinton continues, "is characterized by
stories of self-indulgence and self-destruction. So much of modern politics is
focused not on honest differences of policy but on personal attacks. So much of
modem media is dominated by - people who earn fortunes by demeaning others,
defining them by their worse moments,
_ exploiting their agonies. Who's happier? The uniters or
the dividers? The builders or the breakers? The givers or the takers?
"I
think you know the answer. There's a whole world out there that needs you, down
the street or across the ocean. Give."iii
So here is
this moment in your life. The cross of Jesus is before you - the symbol of a
God who gives all. The legacy of millions who sacrificed for their beliefs is
all around you. Here in this place with you are people who give their prayers,
presences, gifts, and services in great causes, serving the Lord in tangible
ways that make a difference in peoples' lives. And never far away are the cries
of the desperate and hungry ones in this world who need some Good News - words
and deeds of faith and compassion that will give them hope. Are you a giver or
a taker? Will you lose your life in the self-centered and the mundane? Or gain
it in service for a higher cause? Those are questions you and God will need to
wrestle with. But God's position is clear. Jesus taught it again and again -
whatever of this life you try to grasp or possess or hoard or petrify, that's
what you'll lose. Whatever of this life you give away for Christ's sake will
come back to you in floods of grace and blessing. Treasure on earth, where it
rots and decays and ends up stolen; or treasure in heaven, where it abounds in
glory.
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i Seattle Times, Christine Frey, 3/14/06
ii Funeral remarks published in Newsweek magazine
iii Giving, Bill
Clinton, 210-211 (2007)
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