Lectionary Reflections
by Various Authors

Why Must We Carry a Cross?
Sermon Starter
 
You might remember comedian Yakov Smirnoff. When he first came to the United States from Russia,
he was not prepared for the incredible variety of instant products available in American grocery stores. 
He says, "On my first shopping trip, I saw powdered milk--you just add water, and you get milk. 
Then I saw powdered orange juice--you just add water, and you get orange juice. 
And then I saw baby powder, and I thought to myself, “What a country!"

Smirnoff is joking but we make these assumptions about Christian Transformation—
that people change instantly at salvation. Some traditions call it repentance and renewal. 
Some call it Sanctification of the believer. Whatever you call it most traditions 
expect some quick fix to sin. According to this belief, when someone gives his or her life to Christ, 
there is an immediate, substantive, in-depth, miraculous change in habits, attitudes, and character. 
We go to church as if we are going to the grocery store: Powdered Christian. Just add water 
and disciples are born not made.

Unfortunately, there is no such powder and disciples of Jesus Christ are not instantly born. 
They are slowly raised through many trials, suffering, and temptations.



Defining Christ

Every photographer knows the importance of having the camera lens in focus 
before triggering the shutter. You can set the right shutter speed. 
You can open the lens to its proper setting. But if that lens is not in focus, 
the picture will be worthless.

Anyone who's trying to sell something these days knows the importance of having 
an accurate focus on the market for which a product is intended. 
Whether you're trying to sell soap or soft drinks, it's necessary to know exactly 
which people will most likely purchase your product. On what age group or sector 
of the public do you focus your advertising?

So Jesus realized that if people were going to follow him, and if his followers were going 
to be truly effective Christians in the world, they needed to know exactly who he was. 
They also needed to know precisely what was involved in being a Christian.

That's probably one reason why he asked this simple, but all-important question 
in our Bible reading. "Tell me," he says, "who do people say I am?" 
And a little later he refines the question: "What about you?" he asked them. 
"Who do you say I am?"

(by Richard W. Patt from Partners in the Impossible, CSS Publishing Company)



Many Different Christs Are Offered

Marva Dawn in Reaching Out without Dumbing Down suggests the possibility 
of different christs today when she writes: At the 1987 Vancouver World's Fair, 
the Christian pavilion's presentation utilized glitzy double-reversed photography 
and flashing lasers. When I tried to explain my qualms about the production to an attendant 
who had asked me how I liked their "show," she protested that it had saved many people. 
I asked, "Saved by what kind of Christ?" If people are saved by a spectacular Christ, 
will they find him in the fumbling of their own devotional life or in the humble services 
of local parishes where pastors and organists make mistakes? Will a glitzy portrayal of Christ 
nurture in new believers his character of willing suffering and sacrificial obedience? 
Will it create an awareness of the idolatries of our age and lead to repentance? 
And does a flashy, hard-rock sound track bring people to a Christ who calls us away 
from the world's superficiality to deeper reflection and meditation? [p. 50]

(by Marva Dawn from Reaching Out without Dumbing Down. Submitted by Brian Stoffregen)



Under Control

There was a certain bishop, in the horse and buggy days, who had two horses 
named Pride and Prejudice. He said on one occasion that people thought it was awful 
that a bishop should be drawn hither and thither by Pride and Prejudice, 
but he reassured them that it was a wonderful thing that a Bishop would have 
Pride and Prejudice under control.

That's a wonderful thing for any of us. It is the test of our manhood and womanhood 
that we are able to deny ourselves. The world says that to be a real man or a real woman 
we must give in to pleasure, but that's absurd. Any creature can give in to natural impulses.

(by King Duncan from Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com)



He Is the Son of God

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say 
about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, 
but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. 
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said 
would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - 
on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. 
You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: 
or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, 
you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. 
But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. 
He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

(by C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity)



Don’t You Know I Am?

Hospital waiting room. One rather self-important individual was getting impatient. 
Unwilling to wait any longer, he barged in and demanded to be seen by the doctor. 
"Don't you know who I am?" Shouted the man. The secretary calmly pressed the button 
on the microphone of her loudspeaker system and asked the waiting patients. 
"I have a gentleman here who doesn't know who he is. Can someone please assist him 
in finding out? Thank you."

If you were to go around asking your friends, "What do people say about me?" 
Or "Who do you say I am?" they might take it as an evidence of pride or dementia. 
But what people believe and say about Jesus Christ will determine their destiny. 
Your confession concerning Jesus Christ is a matter of life or death.

(by Stephen Sizer from Who Am I?)



On Sunday He Is God

There are very few who in their hearts do not believe in God, 
but what they will not do is give Him exclusive right of way. ... 
They are not ready to promise full allegiance to God alone. 
Many a professing Christian is a stumbling-block because his worship is divided. 
On Sunday he worships God; on weekdays God has little or no place in his thoughts. 
I want people to place their faith in Jesus and motivate them to live more obediently.

(by D.L. Moody)



Self Denial

Leonard Bernstein, the celebrated orchestra conductor, was asked, 
what is the hardest instrument to play. He replied without hesitation: 
"Second fiddle. I can always get plenty of first violinists, but to find one 
who plays second violin with as much enthusiasm or second French horn 
or second flute, now that's a problem. And yet if no one plays second, 
we have no harmony."

(by Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com)



Take up Your Cross

This is a cheerful world as I see it from my garden under the shadows of my vines. 
But If I were to ascend some high mountain and look over the wide lands, 
you know very well what I would see: brigands on the highways, pirates on the sea, 
armies fighting, cities burning; in the amphitheaters men murdered to please 
the applauding crowds; selfishness and cruelty and misery and despair under all roofs. 
It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered 
in the midst of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. 
They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. 
They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians--and I am one of them.

(by Cyprian, a third-century martyr)



Stop Following Your Shadow

There is a fable about a man who lived in the desert. He would wake up every morning 
and follow his shadow. So as the sun moved across the sky from east to west 
the man essentially walked in a large oval. At sundown he ended up where he had started. 
This continued for years. The man walked in circles day after day, following his shadow. 
One night the man heard the voice of God in a dream while he slept. 
The voice told him to stop following his shadow. Instead, "Follow the sun," 
the voice challenged, "And you will experience life as you have never dreamed it could be."

The man thought for many days about his vision of God while he continued to walk around 
in circles in the desert. But one day he mustered up enough courage to break away 
from his shadow. Little by little, step-by-step, the man began to follow the sun. 
And he discovered a kingdom that was, heretofore, way beyond his wildest dreams 
and imagination. Ultimately, he became friends with the Son.

"For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for me 
and the gospel will save it."

(by Robert L Salzgeber from Assayings: Theological Faith Testings, CSS Publishing Company)



Humor: Who Do You Say I Am?

When I was in divinity school some student had written graffiti on the bathroom wall. 
And I've never forgotten the humor of it. It went something like this: 
"And Jesus spake unto Peter saying 'Who do men say that I am?' 
And Peter answered, 'Thou art, according to Paul Tillich, the very ground of our being. 
Thou art Emmanuel Kant's deontological categorical imperative. 
Thou art the man of the Eschaton, the ultimately determinative one!' 
And Jesus looked at Peter and saith, 'What?' " 

(by Stephen M. Crotts from Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost, CSS Publishing)



Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring.
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

(The character speaking is Bilbo Baggins in J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, 1956.)



The Hill of Crosses

The people of Lithuania take cross bearing a little more seriously than we do. 
For them the cross symbolizes faith, hope and love. There are crosses are everywhere 
in the countryside, on roads, in city parks and village squares. 
Communities and individuals erect crosses to bring them health and to commemorate events 
like weddings, births and christenings.  Crosses are also erected to commemorate historical events. 
One of these is the Baltic Way, in which millions of people linked hands stretching across the Baltics 
from Estonia to Lithuania on August 25, 1989. About 9 monuments commemorate this extraordinary event.

The nation's pride is the Hill of Crosses, located north of Siauliai. Lithuanians erected crosses there 
as early as the mid-19th century. The Soviet government couldn't tolerate that kind of spiritual expression, 
so they totally destroyed the hill in 1961, then again in 1973 and 1975. 
But people kept erecting more crosses, until in 1980 their destruction stopped. 
Today the crosses number in the many thousands. They are different sizes and shapes, 
some simple, some ornate, but they immortalize Lithuania's troubles, misfortunes, joys, hope and faith.  

For them, the cross is more than a symbol in the church. It is symbol for the world to see. 
A symbol that will not go away. It is a symbol of sacrifice. A sacrifice that gives each and every one of us 
hope and faith and courage.
 
(by Billy D. Strayhorn from 
At Cross Purposes)



Who Do You Say He Is?

If I told you to pull out a piece of paper and write on it who you say Jesus is what would you write? 
We all have some answer; we all have some images of Jesus. Some of them are the images 
we learned as children in Sunday school which have proved troubling and we don’t’ have anything 
to replace them with. Sometimes we dismiss Jesus on the basis of what we knew about Jesus at age six. 
Some of us have never examined the evidence for ourselves.

One of my main goals in preaching is to gain a fresh hearing for Jesus, especially among those 
who believe they already understand him. I'm sorry to tell you this, but you probably don't. 
Because what happens sometimes is that presumed familiarity has led to unfamiliarity. 
Jesus is sometimes obstructed by clouds of well-intentioned misinformation.

But ultimately, rather than give you my answer to the question I’d rather challenge you 
to answer the question for yourself because that’s the only answer that matters. Is he Messiah? 
If that’s what you think, what does that mean? Jesus clearly didn’t’ fit into what a Messiah 
was expected to be. Messiahs were supposed to have power, were supposed to take charge, 
were supposed to set things right and free the Jews from political expression. 
But Jesus refused to stiff arm anybody. He refused to dominate or to take up arms.

Is he Savior? OK. But what is he saving us from and what is he saving us to? 
Some people clearly had no interest in being saved. When Jesus said the poor are precious 
and the rich are in big trouble, only those on one side of that equation found it intriguing.

Is he Teacher? Surely, but is that all?

Who do you say he is? Messiah, Savior, Lord, shaman, teacher, friend, prophet, prince of peace?

Now, as you try and answer that question, don’t be too alarmed if you cant’ nail it down. 
Even those of us who wrestle with the question regularly find it difficult, because Jesus is sometimes 
downright incomprehensible; he is often enigmatic, ambiguous. From the very beginning, 
who Jesus was, what he was about, was far from self-evident. There were people who stood 
face-to-face with Jesus and said, “This is God incarnate.” There appear to be many more who said, 
“This man is nuts.” Although I think that for most of us, the biggest issue isn’t that we’ve listened 
to Jesus and found him incomprehensible; it’s that we’ve listened to him and found him too damned difficult.

(by Herb Miller from Who Do You Say That I Am?)



Music in the Soul
 
Paganini, the great violinist, came out before his audience one day and made the discovery 
just as the applause ended that there was something wrong with his violin. 
He looked at it a second and then saw that it was not his famous and valuable violin, 
but a cheap substitute. He felt paralyzed for a moment, then turned to his audience 
and told them there had been some mistake and he did not have his own violin. 
He stepped back behind the curtain thinking that it was still where he had left it, 
but discovered that someone had stolen his violin and left this old secondhand one in its place. 
Paganini remained back of the curtain for a moment, then came out before his audience and said: 
“Ladies and gentlemen, I will show you that the music is not in the instrument but in the soul.” 
And he played as he had never played before; and out of that secondhand instrument, 
the music poured forth until his audience was enraptured with enthusiasm, 
and the applause almost lifted the roof off the building, because the man had revealed to them 
that the music was not in the machine but in his own soul.

Don’t let anyone tell you that the soul does not exist. We were created in the image of God. 
That doesn’t mean God looks like us. It means there is something divine within us.

(by King Duncan at www.Sermons.com)