Robert T. Young - "The Cost" (November 21, 1976)
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| (soft music) | 0:07 | |
| (anticipatory music) | 3:08 | |
| (soft music) | 5:30 | |
| (soft music continues) | 8:39 | |
| (indistinct singing) | 10:00 | |
| (joyful music) | 11:14 | |
| (singers drowned by church organ) | 12:24 | |
| - | Let us join and confessing our sins to the Lord. | 15:10 |
| First through words of corporate confession, | 15:15 | |
| and then through the silence of private | 15:19 | |
| and personal confession. | 15:21 | |
| Lord God almighty, forgive your church. | 15:25 | |
| It's wealth among the poor, it's fear among the unjust, | 15:30 | |
| it's cowardice among the oppressed. | 15:35 | |
| Forgive us, your children, our lack of confidence in you. | 15:38 | |
| Our lack of hope in your reign, | 15:43 | |
| our lack of faith in your presence, | 15:46 | |
| our lack of love in your mercy. | 15:50 | |
| Restore us to your covenant with your people. | 15:53 | |
| Bring us to true repentance, | 15:57 | |
| teach us to accept the sacrifice of Christ. | 16:00 | |
| Make us strong with the comfort of your Holy Spirit. | 16:04 | |
| Break us where we are strong. | 16:08 | |
| Make us where we are weak. | 16:11 | |
| Shame us where we trust ourselves. | 16:14 | |
| Name us, where we have lost ourselves. | 16:17 | |
| Through Jesus Christ our Lord, | 16:20 | |
| amen. | 16:23 | |
| The God of our faith, who is always more ready to hear, | 16:35 | |
| than we to pray, | 16:39 | |
| and who gives us more than we either desire or deserve | 16:42 | |
| pours down upon us an abundance of mercy, | 16:47 | |
| pardoning and delivering us from our sins, | 16:52 | |
| confirming and strengthening us in all goodness, | 16:55 | |
| and bringing us the promise of life everlasting, | 17:00 | |
| Blessing and honor glory and power, | 17:04 | |
| be unto the Lord our God, | 17:08 | |
| amen. | 17:10 | |
| (soft music) | 17:14 | |
| ♪ We praise thee oh God ♪ | 17:44 | |
| ♪ We acknowledge thee to be the Lord ♪ | 17:48 | |
| ♪ All the earth doth worship Thee, the Father everlasting ♪ | 17:55 | |
| ♪ To Thee all Angels cry aloud ♪ | 18:06 | |
| ♪ The Heavens and all the Powers therein ♪ | 18:10 | |
| ♪ To Thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry ♪ | 18:15 | |
| ♪ Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth ♪ | 18:24 | |
| ♪ Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of Thy Glory ♪ | 18:44 | |
| ♪ The glorious company of the Apostles praise Thee ♪ | 18:55 | |
| ♪ The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise Thee ♪ | 19:02 | |
| ♪ The noble army of Martyrs praise Thee ♪ | 19:08 | |
| ♪ The Holy Church throughout all the world ♪ | 19:13 | |
| ♪ Doth acknowledge Thee ♪ | 19:17 | |
| ♪ The Father of an infinite Majesty ♪ | 19:20 | |
| ♪ Thine honorable, true, and only Son ♪ | 19:28 | |
| ♪ Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter ♪ | 19:37 | |
| ♪ Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ ♪ | 20:04 | |
| ♪ Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father ♪ | 20:14 | |
| ♪ When thou tookest upon Thee to deliver man ♪ | 20:24 | |
| ♪ Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb ♪ | 20:30 | |
| ♪ When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death ♪ | 20:36 | |
| ♪ Thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers ♪ | 20:41 | |
| ♪ Thou sittest at the right hand of God ♪ | 20:49 | |
| ♪ In the Glory of the Father ♪ | 20:52 | |
| ♪ We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge ♪ | 20:59 | |
| ♪ We therefore pray Thee ♪ | 21:07 | |
| ♪ Help Thy servants whom Thou hast redeemed ♪ | 21:10 | |
| ♪ With Thy precious blood ♪ | 21:15 | |
| ♪ Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints ♪ | 21:19 | |
| ♪ In glory everlasting ♪ | 21:23 | |
| ♪ O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine heritage ♪ | 21:48 | |
| ♪ Govern them and lift them up forever ♪ | 22:01 | |
| ♪ Day by day, we magnify Thee ♪ | 22:09 | |
| ♪ And we worship Thy Name ever, world without end ♪ | 22:18 | |
| ♪ Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin ♪ | 22:37 | |
| ♪ O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us ♪ | 22:54 | |
| ♪ O Lord, let Thy mercy be upon us as our trust is in Thee ♪ | 23:07 | |
| ♪ O Lord, in Thee have I trusted ♪ | 23:29 | |
| ♪ Let me never be confounded ♪ | 23:45 | |
| ♪ Let me never be confounded ♪ | 23:57 | |
| Let us hear God's holy word from the Old Testament, | 24:36 | |
| from the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, | 24:43 | |
| beginning with the seventh verse, | 24:44 | |
| "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, | 24:48 | |
| a land of brooks of water, | 24:52 | |
| of fountains and springs flowing forth in valleys and hills, | 24:55 | |
| a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees | 25:00 | |
| and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, | 25:05 | |
| a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, | 25:10 | |
| in which you will lack nothing. | 25:14 | |
| A land whose stones are iron | 25:17 | |
| and out of whose hills you can dig copper, | 25:19 | |
| and you shall eat and be full | 25:23 | |
| and you shall bless the Lord, your God, | 25:26 | |
| for the good land he has given you, | 25:28 | |
| but take heed lest you forget the Lord your God, | 25:31 | |
| by not keeping his commands and his ordinances | 25:35 | |
| and his statutes, which I command you this day. | 25:39 | |
| Lest when you have eaten and are full | 25:44 | |
| and have built goodly houses and live in them | 25:47 | |
| and when your herds and flocks multiply | 25:50 | |
| and your silver and gold is multiplied, | 25:53 | |
| and all that you have is multiplied, | 25:55 | |
| then your heart be lifted up and you forget that the Lord, | 25:59 | |
| your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, | 26:01 | |
| out of the house of bondage. | 26:06 | |
| Who led you through the great and terrible wilderness | 26:08 | |
| with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground, | 26:11 | |
| where there was no water. | 26:15 | |
| Who brought you water out of the flinty rock, | 26:18 | |
| who fed you in the wilderness with manna, | 26:21 | |
| which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you | 26:24 | |
| and test you to do you good in the end." | 26:28 | |
| Please rise for the reading of the gospel. | 26:33 | |
| Reading from an excerpt, from the good news | 26:41 | |
| according to Mark translated by Reynolds Price, | 26:43 | |
| comes this word from the eighth chapter of Mark, | 26:47 | |
| beginning with the 31st verse. | 26:50 | |
| "And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him | 26:54 | |
| and began to teach them that the Son of Man | 26:57 | |
| must endure many things and be refused by the elders, | 27:00 | |
| chief priests and scholars, and be killed, | 27:04 | |
| and after three days, rise again. | 27:08 | |
| He said the thing plainly. | 27:12 | |
| Peter taking him aside began to warn him, | 27:15 | |
| but he, turning round and seeing his disciples, | 27:20 | |
| warned Peter and said, 'Get behind me Satan, | 27:23 | |
| since you think not of God's things, | 27:26 | |
| but of men's things.' | 27:29 | |
| And calling the crowd to him, with his disciples, | 27:31 | |
| he said to them, 'If anyone wants to come after me, | 27:34 | |
| let him disown himself and lift his cross and follow me, | 27:39 | |
| for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, | 27:43 | |
| but whoever will lose his life because of me | 27:48 | |
| and the good news will save it. | 27:51 | |
| For how does it help a man to get the whole world, | 27:54 | |
| but forfeit his soul? | 27:57 | |
| For what can a man give to redeem his soul? | 27:59 | |
| Whoever is ashamed of me in this adulterous | 28:03 | |
| and sinful generation, | 28:05 | |
| the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him | 28:07 | |
| when he comes in the glory of his father | 28:10 | |
| with the holy angels.' | 28:12 | |
| And he said to them, 'Amen, I tell you, | 28:14 | |
| that there are some of those standing here | 28:18 | |
| who shall never know death till they see the reign of God | 28:20 | |
| come in power.'" | 28:25 | |
| May God bless the reading and hearing of this holy word. | 28:27 | |
| (soft music) | 28:32 | |
| ♪ Glory to the Father ♪ | 28:42 | |
| ♪ And to the Son and to the Holy Ghost ♪ | 28:46 | |
| ♪ As it was in the beginning ♪ | 28:54 | |
| ♪ Is now and ever shall be ♪ | 28:59 | |
| ♪ World without end ♪ | 29:04 | |
| ♪ Amen, amen ♪ | 29:08 | |
| - | Let us affirm what we believe. | 29:19 |
| We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 29:23 | |
| who has come in the truly human Jesus | 29:28 | |
| to reconcile and make new. | 29:31 | |
| Who works in us and others by the spirit. | 29:34 | |
| We trust God who calls us to be the church | 29:39 | |
| to celebrate life and its fullness. | 29:43 | |
| To love and serve others, | 29:47 | |
| to seek justice and resist evil. | 29:49 | |
| To proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, | 29:53 | |
| our judge and our hope | 29:57 | |
| in life, in death and life beyond death. | 30:00 | |
| God is with us. | 30:05 | |
| We are not alone. Thanks be to God. | 30:07 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 30:12 | |
| - | And with your spirit. | 30:14 |
| - | Let us pray. | 30:16 |
| Oh Lord, our God. | 30:28 | |
| We offer up to you in prayer this morning, our hopes, | 30:30 | |
| our fears and our lives. | 30:35 | |
| Here are our hopes, oh Lord. | 30:39 | |
| As students, faculty, employees, alumni, | 30:41 | |
| and visitors to this campus, we lift up to you, Lord, | 30:45 | |
| our hopes for this university, | 30:50 | |
| may it continue to widen the horizons | 30:53 | |
| of those who study here, | 30:56 | |
| provide a decent and humane workplace | 30:58 | |
| for those who are its employees | 31:02 | |
| and sustain a climate that nurtures | 31:05 | |
| and stimulates the pursuit of truth and knowledge. | 31:08 | |
| As worshipers who come before you this morning, | 31:14 | |
| from many places and many denominational backgrounds, | 31:16 | |
| we lift up to you, our hopes for your church. | 31:21 | |
| We pray that the people of God in this generation, | 31:26 | |
| may be as true to your purposes as those who came before us. | 31:29 | |
| Help us we pray, to show forth the presence of Christ | 31:35 | |
| in the world, in which we live | 31:38 | |
| and to show our unity with all who believe in you. | 31:41 | |
| As women and as men caught in a world of change, | 31:46 | |
| we lift up our hopes for peace and for justice, | 31:50 | |
| for all your children, here in this city, | 31:54 | |
| throughout our land, and across the globe. | 31:59 | |
| We pray especially, for the people of the Middle East | 32:03 | |
| and Northern Ireland and Southern Africa | 32:08 | |
| and wherever pain and suffering, set brother against brother | 32:12 | |
| and sister against sister. | 32:16 | |
| Oh Lord, we also lift up to you this morning our fears, | 32:20 | |
| we are fearful of so much, Lord. | 32:26 | |
| We fear people who are different from us, | 32:29 | |
| who are younger or older, | 32:32 | |
| of a different color or station or nationality. | 32:34 | |
| Help us, we pray, to know that all people are your children | 32:39 | |
| and give us the courage to reach out | 32:45 | |
| across the divisions of age and class and race, | 32:48 | |
| to recognize the potential, the dignity, | 32:53 | |
| and the God given worth of each person | 32:57 | |
| no matter how different or strange | 33:01 | |
| she or he may appear to us and help us too, oh Lord, | 33:04 | |
| to overcome our fear of the unknown, | 33:11 | |
| of the future which awaits us, | 33:15 | |
| give us strength to accept illness | 33:18 | |
| and the loss of loved ones. | 33:21 | |
| Give us we pray, the courage to help others | 33:24 | |
| overcome their fears and give us the imagination | 33:28 | |
| to find new ways to respond to the needs of those around us. | 33:32 | |
| And finally, oh Lord, we pray for ourselves. | 33:38 | |
| Not with pride nor for selfish reasons | 33:43 | |
| but because we know that we need your presence in our lives | 33:48 | |
| if we are to truly serve you in thought and word and deed. | 33:53 | |
| Be with us in times of trouble and doubt. | 33:59 | |
| Use us to fulfill your purposes on this planet | 34:03 | |
| and keep us and our loved ones safe in your loving care. | 34:08 | |
| We offer up these prayers | 34:14 | |
| in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, | 34:17 | |
| who when gathered with his disciples, | 34:19 | |
| taught them to pray together saying... | 34:22 | |
| - | Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. | 34:25 |
| Thy kingdom come. | 34:30 | |
| Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 34:32 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread | 34:36 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses, | 34:39 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 34:42 | |
| Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 34:46 | |
| For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, | 34:51 | |
| forever and ever. | 34:56 | |
| Amen. | 34:57 | |
| - | There is a song that was popular sometime ago entitled, | 35:16 |
| "I left my heart in San Francisco." | 35:20 | |
| Well, I like many of you left, not only my heart, | 35:25 | |
| but much of my voice in the football stadium yesterday. | 35:29 | |
| So I ask you to bear with me this morning. | 35:35 | |
| It was a great day. A great game. | 35:41 | |
| And a word of congratulations and commendation, | 35:46 | |
| I think is in order, | 35:50 | |
| to the coaches and the players of both teams. | 35:53 | |
| The 26 seniors from Duke who will soon be graduating, | 35:58 | |
| have meant much to this place and to all of them, | 36:06 | |
| we wish our best. | 36:10 | |
| Let us pray. | 36:14 | |
| Oh Lord, | 36:19 | |
| let the words of my lips | 36:22 | |
| and the meditations of all our hearts | 36:24 | |
| be acceptable in thy sight, | 36:28 | |
| as you are our strength and our Redeemer, | 36:32 | |
| amen. | 36:37 | |
| There's a powerful piece of dialogue | 36:39 | |
| in George Bernard Shaw's play, "St. Joan," | 36:41 | |
| where the Archbishop of Rheims tells Joan | 36:45 | |
| that she must be in love with religion, | 36:48 | |
| Joan brightens up and responds to the Archbishop and says, | 36:52 | |
| "Why I never really thought of that. | 36:55 | |
| Is there any harm in it?" | 36:58 | |
| And the Archbishop replies, "My dear, there is no harm in it | 37:02 | |
| but there is great danger | 37:06 | |
| and there is intended to be the cost." | 37:11 | |
| What is the cost? | 37:16 | |
| What is the cost to be a follower of Jesus Christ? | 37:18 | |
| To be a believer in Jesus Christ? | 37:22 | |
| What is the cost to be a disciple of Jesus, the Christ? | 37:26 | |
| What is the cost to the church | 37:31 | |
| to be under the Lordship of Christ? | 37:33 | |
| What indeed is the cost to you? Or to me? | 37:36 | |
| I read a statement by one James McDougall Black recently, | 37:41 | |
| where he said, "There are people who always tried to explain | 37:45 | |
| the highest by the lowest." | 37:51 | |
| We often try to do that with the gospel of Jesus Christ. | 37:56 | |
| That is we try to take the highest, that is the gospel, | 37:59 | |
| and explain it by the lowest, | 38:03 | |
| that is in terms of its demands as we see them. | 38:05 | |
| Jesus, in this passage, | 38:11 | |
| which we read for our gospel lesson for today, | 38:12 | |
| gathered the multitudes to him, along with the disciples. | 38:15 | |
| This means that he was not talking just to his friends | 38:18 | |
| or just to his closest or just to his chosen disciples. | 38:21 | |
| He was talking to a crowd. | 38:25 | |
| To all the people who had gathered around. | 38:27 | |
| To everyone, to anyone, to all, to each, to all of us today, | 38:30 | |
| to you, to me. | 38:36 | |
| With apologies for the sexist language, | 38:40 | |
| which I have difficulty in trying to translate, | 38:42 | |
| the words, read like this, | 38:45 | |
| "If any man would come after me, | 38:46 | |
| let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, | 38:48 | |
| for whoever would save his life will surely lose it. | 38:53 | |
| And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." | 38:56 | |
| Those are stark, hard, harsh, demanding words. | 38:59 | |
| Whoever thinks that being Christian is fun and games, | 39:05 | |
| or is easy or is light stuff or is easy going | 39:09 | |
| or is a soft touch has just not read | 39:13 | |
| or does not understand the gospel of our Lord | 39:16 | |
| or at least the gospel as Mark gives it to us. | 39:19 | |
| This is tough. This is costly. | 39:24 | |
| This is demanding. | 39:27 | |
| There is no cheap grace here and why should there be? | 39:29 | |
| Why should it not cost us to follow the Christ? | 39:34 | |
| As DT Niles, the late great, | 39:37 | |
| brilliant churchman from India wrote once, | 39:40 | |
| "It cost God an incarnation and a crucifixion | 39:43 | |
| to be gracious to us. | 39:47 | |
| For God to be loving toward us, | 39:51 | |
| cost his son, in birth, in life, in death. | 39:53 | |
| Yay even in resurrection." | 39:57 | |
| And for us to be obedient to God, then, what is the cost? | 39:59 | |
| Jesus said, "Whoever would save his life will lose it. | 40:04 | |
| Whoever will lose his life for my sake | 40:08 | |
| and the sake of the good news will find it." | 40:10 | |
| The time that Mark wrote this word, | 40:13 | |
| it had a very literal meaning. | 40:16 | |
| If you made it known that you were a Christian, | 40:20 | |
| then you stood a good chance of being killed | 40:23 | |
| or put in prison. | 40:26 | |
| Therefore, to keep from being killed or being put in prison, | 40:28 | |
| those who tried to save their lives | 40:33 | |
| by not acknowledging their faith, | 40:35 | |
| saved their lives physically, | 40:37 | |
| but lost their lives spiritually and eternally. | 40:39 | |
| But those who were willing to lose their lives | 40:44 | |
| by acknowledging and openly professing Christ, | 40:48 | |
| would likely be martyred. | 40:51 | |
| But the loss of their lives physically, | 40:54 | |
| would mean that their lives had been saved in Christ, | 40:57 | |
| and for eternity. | 41:00 | |
| I read a word the other day, | 41:03 | |
| that really brought me up sharply, | 41:04 | |
| which said the importance of moral choices, | 41:06 | |
| is never seen clearly if the dimension of eternity | 41:10 | |
| is allowed to drop out of our thinking. | 41:16 | |
| The importance of moral choices is never seen clearly, | 41:21 | |
| if the dimension of eternity is allowed to drop out | 41:26 | |
| of our thinking. | 41:30 | |
| I don't know about you, but I often forget that. | 41:31 | |
| I often forget the dimension of eternity | 41:35 | |
| in many of my choices. | 41:39 | |
| Thus, I end up trying to save my life by holding onto it | 41:42 | |
| and then I realized that I've lost it. | 41:45 | |
| I very seldom am willing to lose my life for Christ | 41:48 | |
| and the gospel, | 41:51 | |
| in this, I don't save it. | 41:53 | |
| This is a very strange but true paradox about life. | 41:56 | |
| One that holds truth for us in practical, day-to-day terms, | 42:01 | |
| as well as in the dimension of eternity. | 42:06 | |
| The father who tries to save his life | 42:08 | |
| by claiming all or most of his time for himself | 42:12 | |
| and not sharing much of himself | 42:17 | |
| or his time with his children, | 42:19 | |
| rarely does not save his life. | 42:22 | |
| He loses both his life and his children's. | 42:25 | |
| The roommate who keeps telling you that he or she is busy, | 42:31 | |
| that she or he must study and work for herself or himself, | 42:36 | |
| and doesn't have time for you or for others, | 42:40 | |
| really ends up not saving life, but losing it. | 42:44 | |
| The football player or basketball player who says, | 42:51 | |
| he's got to hold back and save some of his time and talent | 42:53 | |
| and energy for himself and can't get it for the team, | 42:57 | |
| ends up really not saving his life, | 43:01 | |
| but losing both his and the team's. | 43:04 | |
| You can't find life by holding onto it. | 43:08 | |
| The tighter we squeeze life, | 43:15 | |
| the more we try to hold on to it, | 43:18 | |
| the more we hold back or hold on or refuse to risk | 43:21 | |
| or share or give or open up or let out, | 43:24 | |
| or the more we try to save our lives on our own, | 43:28 | |
| and for ourselves, | 43:31 | |
| the more likely Jesus says we are to lose it. | 43:33 | |
| Then when we really are willing to risk, to dare, | 43:38 | |
| to be venturesome, to offer our lives | 43:42 | |
| to some cause greater than we, | 43:45 | |
| to some other rather than self, | 43:47 | |
| or to some others rather than self. | 43:49 | |
| When we're willing to give our lives, | 43:53 | |
| to lose our lives in Christ. | 43:54 | |
| When you have had that happen in any moment | 43:57 | |
| or any given experience, | 44:00 | |
| then you know what it is to find and experience life. | 44:02 | |
| Only one life will soon be past the poet says, | 44:07 | |
| and only what's done for God and others, will last. | 44:13 | |
| I don't like to hear that. | 44:19 | |
| I'm really a pretty low risk, | 44:23 | |
| tight and closed in, no dare, little give, | 44:25 | |
| self-centered, selfish, | 44:30 | |
| take care of old number one kind of guy, really. | 44:31 | |
| And Jesus has a word for me. | 44:37 | |
| A word of judgment, but a word of promise, | 44:40 | |
| the word of judgment, I find very hard, | 44:42 | |
| but the word of promise I find most attractive. | 44:44 | |
| And Jesus is very clear and direct and disturbing. | 44:49 | |
| "If you try to save your life, you will lose it." | 44:54 | |
| That's all there is to it. | 44:57 | |
| If you're willing to lose your life for my sake, | 44:59 | |
| you will find it, rejoice, hallelujah, | 45:01 | |
| forever and ever, that's it. | 45:04 | |
| It's just that simple. | 45:07 | |
| So it is with that line, but the cost. | 45:11 | |
| What is the cost to follow Jesus the Christ? | 45:16 | |
| To deny oneself, Jesus says, that's what it costs. | 45:22 | |
| Deny in this passage has been translated in many ways, | 45:27 | |
| in many different versions, not to accept self, | 45:30 | |
| to forget self, not to worship oneself, | 45:33 | |
| not to belong to oneself any longer, | 45:36 | |
| to undo one's own way of thinking, | 45:38 | |
| to leave oneself to the side, | 45:40 | |
| to leave one's own way behind | 45:42 | |
| or as Reynolds Price translates it in his translation, | 45:45 | |
| which is soon to be published | 45:49 | |
| in a book of translations of his, | 45:50 | |
| of Old and New Testament readings. | 45:52 | |
| He says, "It is to be translated to disown oneself." | 45:54 | |
| Now it does not mean just giving up | 45:59 | |
| some of our little habits and pleasures. | 46:03 | |
| It does not mean just periodically giving up smoking | 46:06 | |
| or drinking or having no sweets or no desserts | 46:09 | |
| during the season of lent. | 46:13 | |
| It really means that we renounce our rights | 46:16 | |
| and our prerogatives to give up our own will for God's will. | 46:19 | |
| Now let's be sure though, | 46:26 | |
| that to deny oneself, does not mean that one is to debase | 46:30 | |
| or to belittle oneself. | 46:36 | |
| We've had enough of that kind of gospel preaching. | 46:39 | |
| One must think well of oneself. | 46:43 | |
| Indeed, think quite well of oneself, even love oneself. | 46:46 | |
| Not as Paul warns us, | 46:52 | |
| not to think more highly than we ought to think, | 46:54 | |
| but to think with sober judgment and with high regard, | 46:56 | |
| but we're not to demean or castigate ourselves, | 46:59 | |
| enough of that. | 47:02 | |
| Think well, care about, love oneself, | 47:04 | |
| and then be willing to deny that good, | 47:10 | |
| noble, virtuous, worthy self, | 47:13 | |
| for the sake of Jesus the Christ. | 47:15 | |
| As one writer puts it for us, | 47:19 | |
| Christianity is simply humane action for Jesus | 47:22 | |
| at the cost of myself. | 47:26 | |
| But I do very little denying of myself. | 47:33 | |
| I don't know about you. | 47:38 | |
| I eat three (scoffs) and often sometimes four or five | 47:41 | |
| or more good meals every day. | 47:45 | |
| I sleep quite comfortably. | 47:49 | |
| I live in a beautiful house. | 47:51 | |
| I drive either one of two, very good cars we own, | 47:53 | |
| anytime I want to. | 47:56 | |
| I use most of my time as I want to, | 47:59 | |
| granted it's mostly in my work. | 48:01 | |
| But I do not deny myself with much of my time. | 48:04 | |
| I have a good income. | 48:09 | |
| And for one who follows Jesus, | 48:12 | |
| who said to those who were the first disciples, | 48:15 | |
| as he sent them out, he said, you remember, | 48:18 | |
| "My friends, as you go out preaching and teaching | 48:20 | |
| and healing two by two, | 48:22 | |
| don't even take an extra tunic for you. | 48:24 | |
| Don't even take an extra coat. | 48:26 | |
| Don't even take an extra pair of shoes. | 48:28 | |
| Don't even take any food. | 48:29 | |
| Don't even take any money." | 48:31 | |
| As a follower of one who said that to the first disciples, | 48:33 | |
| I live embarrassingly well. | 48:36 | |
| The late great sick comedian, Lenny Bruce singed me good | 48:42 | |
| when he said, "I know in my heart, by pure logic, | 48:47 | |
| that anyone who claims to be a member | 48:53 | |
| of the church of Christ is a pure hustler | 48:56 | |
| if he has two suits in a world | 48:59 | |
| in which most people have none. | 49:03 | |
| And I look in my closet and you look in your closet, | 49:08 | |
| anybody here care to argue about that? | 49:16 | |
| When Jesus says, "If anyone will come after me, | 49:21 | |
| let him deny himself or herself." | 49:23 | |
| That word comes as judgment to me, | 49:26 | |
| and I wonder, is the cost too high? | 49:28 | |
| Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, | 49:36 | |
| let him or her take up his own cross or her own cross." | 49:37 | |
| Today, we think of bearing one's cross | 49:43 | |
| as putting up with some petty annoyance or major affliction. | 49:44 | |
| That is, we think of bearing one's cross | 49:49 | |
| as bearing patiently, whatever God sends our way. | 49:51 | |
| And my friends, I know this morning, | 49:57 | |
| that some of you here in the chapel | 49:58 | |
| and others of you who are at home | 49:59 | |
| or in the hospital or in a nursing center, | 50:02 | |
| your cross may indeed be some chronic disease or affliction | 50:06 | |
| or disorder that will never be healed, except in eternity. | 50:10 | |
| And you must, with God's grace, bare your cross. | 50:18 | |
| But then there are others of us | 50:26 | |
| who make a mockery of this passage | 50:27 | |
| and we insult the cross of Christ | 50:29 | |
| when we talk about our cross, which we must bear. | 50:31 | |
| For some of us, think that a temporary sadness | 50:36 | |
| or grief situation is a cross. | 50:38 | |
| Now, it may be a tragedy and it may be heartbreaking, | 50:40 | |
| but very seldom are these matters of being a cross. | 50:42 | |
| Some of us even dare to speak of a financial loss | 50:47 | |
| as a cross that we must bear. | 50:51 | |
| Some of us even speak of our own personality shortcomings | 50:54 | |
| as my cross. | 50:57 | |
| You know, I have an explosive temper | 51:00 | |
| or I have a bad disposition, | 51:03 | |
| or I have an uncontrollable anger, | 51:05 | |
| or I have a lack of sensitivity, | 51:07 | |
| or I have a tendency to procrastinate | 51:10 | |
| or I am impatient, or I am intolerant. | 51:13 | |
| And I say that any one, or maybe several of these | 51:16 | |
| is simply who I am and that's the cross I must bear. | 51:18 | |
| And some of us even talk quite piously | 51:22 | |
| about the cross we must bear. | 51:25 | |
| All of these may be bad or undesirable or unfortunate, | 51:28 | |
| but to speak of these experiences as characteristic | 51:32 | |
| or these experiences and characteristics, | 51:35 | |
| as if they were a cross, is to treat lightly | 51:38 | |
| this most demanding word from our Lord. | 51:42 | |
| To take up our cross, | 51:47 | |
| is to make a very deliberate and a free choice, | 51:51 | |
| as did Christ. | 51:55 | |
| To take up a burden, which could be avoided. | 51:57 | |
| To take upon ourselves some responsibility | 52:01 | |
| and obedience to God, which we really could evade. | 52:04 | |
| It means the choice of taking upon ourselves, | 52:09 | |
| the burdens of other people and their very lives, | 52:11 | |
| of caring for them as if we were caring for our very selves, | 52:14 | |
| of serving Christ and preparing for God's kingdom. | 52:18 | |
| Of putting ourselves on God's side | 52:21 | |
| in the struggle against evil and injustice | 52:24 | |
| and hate and bitterness. | 52:26 | |
| To take up the cross means to choose deliberately, | 52:28 | |
| a way or a stance or a position or an action or a statement, | 52:32 | |
| that may well cost in terms of my position | 52:37 | |
| or my power or my prestige or my person. | 52:41 | |
| And I'm here to tell you this morning, | 52:51 | |
| that I'm not really willing to take up many | 52:55 | |
| or maybe not even any crosses | 53:00 | |
| that will cause harm or injury to me or my name | 53:05 | |
| or my image or my reputation or my good situation in life. | 53:11 | |
| I really don't want to do things for Christ | 53:18 | |
| that will cost me. | 53:22 | |
| I was teaching a class in a study | 53:28 | |
| of the gospel of Mark this summer out at Lambeth College, | 53:30 | |
| in Jackson, Tennessee, | 53:33 | |
| and we were talking about this passage. | 53:34 | |
| There were 42 of us in the class. | 53:37 | |
| We were talking about what it is to be a follower of Christ, | 53:40 | |
| to be Christian, to take up your cross, | 53:43 | |
| to live a faithful life. | 53:45 | |
| And I told them about an experience in our family. | 53:50 | |
| One morning, one of our daughters came to me and said, | 53:56 | |
| "Daddy, I had a terrible, terrible nightmare. | 53:59 | |
| A dream that the United States | 54:06 | |
| was taken over by the communists. | 54:08 | |
| And since communists don't believe in God | 54:11 | |
| and want you to believe in just the state, | 54:15 | |
| they were getting rid of all of the people | 54:20 | |
| who did not believe in the state. | 54:22 | |
| And since you were a preacher, | 54:26 | |
| and since you believe in God | 54:30 | |
| as the ultimate source of power. | 54:32 | |
| And you believe in being obedient to God, | 54:36 | |
| you were one of the first they came and took away | 54:40 | |
| and I saw you go." | 54:45 | |
| It's rather frightening. | 54:49 | |
| But as I told that to the class out there, | 54:54 | |
| one of the members of the class | 54:57 | |
| immediately spoke up and said, "No danger, don't sweat it. | 54:59 | |
| No danger of the communists taking any of us Christians, | 55:06 | |
| away first." | 55:10 | |
| And I said, "Wow." | 55:12 | |
| He said, "We really don't believe enough | 55:15 | |
| to be any threat to anybody." | 55:19 | |
| Well, I don't know about you, | 55:28 | |
| but for me, taking up a cross | 55:31 | |
| is something I really do not want to do. | 55:35 | |
| So when I hear these words of Jesus, | 55:41 | |
| I wonder, is the cost too high? | 55:43 | |
| Jesus said, "If any man would come after me, | 55:49 | |
| let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." | 55:51 | |
| When other people think of one who follows Jesus, | 55:57 | |
| do you think they think about you? | 56:02 | |
| When you think about those people who follow Jesus, | 56:12 | |
| do you think about yourself as one of those? | 56:17 | |
| If so, | 56:24 | |
| what do you think of yourself as one who follows the Christ? | 56:27 | |
| What does it mean? | 56:30 | |
| How has following Jesus affected your life | 56:33 | |
| or affected others through your life? | 56:36 | |
| How do you stack up | 56:40 | |
| with what you think a follower of Jesus should be? | 56:43 | |
| Or with what you think Jesus would have you be? | 56:46 | |
| To follow Jesus, means to be, | 56:53 | |
| or to stay in the presence of Jesus, to be in his company, | 56:55 | |
| to be one with him in spirit and in deed. | 57:01 | |
| To follow Jesus means to go out for Jesus, | 57:06 | |
| to go out with Jesus, | 57:11 | |
| to live for others in the name and in the spirit of Jesus. | 57:14 | |
| To follow Jesus means to bring others | 57:19 | |
| into the fellowship of Christ. | 57:21 | |
| Beautiful story about Andrew. | 57:25 | |
| Remember one of the disciples that Jesus called? | 57:28 | |
| He responded to Christ. | 57:33 | |
| The very first thing he did was say, "Hey, this is so good. | 57:36 | |
| So great. Means so much to me. | 57:42 | |
| I've got a brother back home | 57:45 | |
| that I want to have the same experience." | 57:46 | |
| And he went to get him. | 57:48 | |
| To be a follower of Jesus means to bring somebody else | 57:50 | |
| into the fellowship. | 57:55 | |
| To follow Jesus means to serve, | 57:59 | |
| to serve with concern and with compassion, | 58:02 | |
| the needs of other people, as someone said, | 58:05 | |
| the church's major task today, | 58:06 | |
| is not to make great mental demands on its Christians. | 58:08 | |
| But the real task today is to enlist their compassion. | 58:12 | |
| To follow Jesus means to be willing to suffer. | 58:22 | |
| Suffering is indeed a part of the way of Christ. | 58:27 | |
| It's a part of the way of discipleship for him. | 58:30 | |
| Suffering as a condition of discipleship, | 58:32 | |
| something that comes to true disciples, | 58:35 | |
| as same as it did to Jesus. | 58:37 | |
| So I hear these words, I say these words, | 58:42 | |
| I read these words, I realize these words. | 58:44 | |
| And then I say, | 58:47 | |
| I really don't suffer much because of my following Jesus. | 58:53 | |
| As a matter of fact, | 58:58 | |
| it's a pretty good status symbol | 58:59 | |
| and it gives me some pretty good prestige and rank. | 59:00 | |
| I do not suffer much, if any at all, | 59:07 | |
| because of my following Jesus. | 59:13 | |
| Perhaps my following is not near the kind of following | 59:18 | |
| that Jesus talked about and called for and lived out. | 59:22 | |
| So when I hear these words, "Follow me," | 59:30 | |
| I wonder, is the cost too high? | 59:33 | |
| The words come, "If anyone would come after me, | 59:42 | |
| let him deny himself." | 59:47 | |
| And I don't do much of that. | 59:51 | |
| And take up his cross? | 59:54 | |
| And I don't want to do that. | 59:58 | |
| And follow me? | 1:00:01 | |
| And I'm not willing to do that. | 1:00:04 | |
| I don't know about you, | 1:00:09 | |
| but now I understand why | 1:00:13 | |
| Jesus began this saying with the words, | 1:00:16 | |
| "If anyone would come after me," | 1:00:21 | |
| why he began by saying, "If anyone." | 1:00:29 | |
| Why he said, "If." | 1:00:36 | |
| The cost, | 1:00:46 | |
| is it too high? | 1:00:50 | |
| Let us pray. | 1:00:55 | |
| Oh good and gracious Lord, | 1:00:59 | |
| teach us to serve thee as thou deservest. | 1:01:06 | |
| To give and not to count the cost. | 1:01:14 | |
| To fight and not to head the wounds. | 1:01:20 | |
| To toil and not to seek for rest. | 1:01:26 | |
| To labor and not to ask for any reward, | 1:01:31 | |
| save that, of knowing that we do thy will. | 1:01:38 | |
| Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 1:01:45 | |
| Amen. | 1:01:51 | |
| (soft music) | 1:01:53 | |
| (music drowning singers) | 1:02:25 | |
| (soft music) | 1:05:09 | |
| (soft music continues) | 1:06:00 | |
| (women harmonizing) | 1:06:52 | |
| (singers indistinctly singing) | 1:07:09 | |
| (singers being drowned by music) | 1:07:51 | |
| (music drowning singers) | 1:08:35 | |
| ♪ Singing praises (indistinct) ♪ | 1:08:57 | |
| (singers singing indistinctly) | 1:09:05 | |
| ♪ Singing praises up to our king ♪ | 1:09:50 | |
| ♪ Sing praises, singing praises ♪ | 1:09:59 | |
| ♪ Singing praises ♪ | 1:10:07 | |
| ♪ Singing praises ♪ | 1:10:13 | |
| (singers being drowned by music) | 1:10:52 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 1:11:04 | |
| (indistinct) | 1:11:11 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 1:11:24 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 1:11:30 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:11:36 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:11:45 | |
| Oh Lord God, | 1:11:55 | |
| accept these gifts that we lift up to you as symbols. | 1:11:57 | |
| Symbols of a rededication of our material resources | 1:12:02 | |
| and our very lives to you and to your service. | 1:12:07 | |
| May the way we spend our time | 1:12:12 | |
| and make use of the resources given to us in the week ahead, | 1:12:14 | |
| be a continued offering to you. | 1:12:19 | |
| We pray in your son's name. | 1:12:21 | |
| Amen. | 1:12:24 | |
| (soft music) | 1:12:26 | |
| (music drowning singers) | 1:12:56 | |
| (music continues) | 1:15:12 | |
| Go now, and the spirit of the Lord to go with you. | 1:16:07 | |
| Preach good news to the poor. | 1:16:12 | |
| Proclaim release to the captives | 1:16:15 | |
| and recovery of sight to the blind. | 1:16:17 | |
| Set at liberty, those who are oppressed | 1:16:20 | |
| so that this may truly be a year | 1:16:24 | |
| that is acceptable to the Lord. | 1:16:26 | |
| Go now, and the peace of God, go with you. | 1:16:29 | |
| Amen. | 1:16:33 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:16:37 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:16:46 | |
| ♪ Amen, amen ♪ | 1:16:55 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:17:03 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:17:09 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:17:22 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:17:37 | |
| (joyful music) | 1:17:59 | |
| (joyful music continues) | 1:20:24 | |
| (joyful music continues) | 1:22:26 | |
| (joyful music continues) | 1:24:25 | |
| (all clap) | 1:25:29 |
