Celebration of New Ministry Sermon, Br. Curtis Almquist, May 7, 2025
Presider: The Rt. Rev. Julia Whitworth
Preacher: The Rev. Curtis Almquist, SSJE
Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, 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 will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done." -Matthew 16:24-27
This is appalling, Jesus' saying: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me...." After what Jesus had gone through, wouldn't we expect Jesus to promise, "Follow me, and I will spare you of the cross"? But it's not "spare," it's "share." Jesus promises to share the cross with us, his followers. He calls us to take up our own cross to follow him. Which is not good news. It is very bad news. If only we could get out from under the cross, but it seems to hang over us all the time.
What is it for you "to take up your cross"? I don't think you have to go out and look for it. The cross is probably already there in your life: something which you would never have chosen, yet something from which you cannot escape. You are nailed to it. What is the cross for you? I'll rephrase the question: What is killing you? What has just killed you in life? The cross might have something to do with a relationship - with your spouse, or partner, or parents, or a sibling - or with a friend, or a colleague. Maybe the cross is about someone whom you find repelling or offensive, like an enemy. Your experience of the cross figures into this relationship because of whom they have become, or perhaps because of whom they have not become. They are under your skin, either because they belong there, or because they have intruded into your life. The relationship feels like it is just killing you. Or the cross for you may be a significant elationship that is no more. Perhaps someone has died, or moved on, or broken their ties with you, and you grieve. The cross might have to do with yourself: with your work, which you cannot get out of, or the work you once had, but you cannot get back into it. Maybe the cross has to do with a diagnosis or an addiction you are living with. The fear or the shame of what might be happening to you or in you may some days be worse than the disease. It's haunting, like a living death. And though there is every outward appearance why you would be thriving, you actually feel like you are dying... perhaps in secrecy, or loneliness, or heartbreak, or fear. When Jesus says that he had no where to lay his head, you know very well what he meant." The cross is probably already there in your life and you have either stumbled over it or you have picked it up. Probably the latter. You may have taken up the cross hesitatingly, or haltingly, or fearfully, or angrily, but you carry it.
Could you ever have imagined that you would be where you are now? Did you - say five years ago, or ten years ago, or twenty years ago - have even a clue what you would now be facing in your own life and with those whom you love... or don't love? What you would be dealing with in the world, in your own work, in the church, and among your family, and friends, and enemies? Did you ever, in your wildest imagination, think that you would be where you are now? Some time back, you might have found yourself thinking if you ever had to face such-and- such, you could not imagine how you could go on. Perhaps you have had to face the very thing you most dreaded, and you have gone on. It is nothing short of a miracle. You are probably a walking miracle.
The artist and psychotherapist, Florida Scott-Maxwell, writes, "I often want to say to people, 'You have neat, tight expectations of what life ought to give you, but you won't get it. That is not what life does. Life does not accommodate you, it shatters you. It is meant to, and it couldn't do it better. Every seed destroys its container or else there would be no fruition. Jesus spoke to this very thing, about the seed needing to die to bear fruit. " When Jesus says to his followers, "Come, follow me," Jesus leads us to the cross. We cannot get around it. The cross is Jesus' way and truth and life. But we are not left hanging on our cross to simply die. The cross is not the end; it is the way to the end, and we will probably pass this byway more than once in life. What could seem like a sentence of death is actually a gateway into real, amazing life. What has just killed you becomes a doorway into real life.
Won-Jae, you are familiar with the cross. You who are here, the friends of Saint Paul's parish, will learn this about Won-Jae through his preaching and teaching, his pastoral care, and his humility. Won-Jae is familiar with the cross in his own life, and he will recognize the cross in your life... but also the miracle that will happen. In the ongoing cycle of life there is loss, then recovery, then transformation. vi Loss, then recovery, then transformation. Won-Jae is familiar with this miraculous life cycle, as will you be. It's called the "resurrection life" in the here-and- now. vi And it is a miracle, how the bad news becomes the good news.
The last word belongs to Jesus. Jesus said, "You will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy..” You friends here at Saint Paul's will share together this ongoing miracle of life together. And you will be amazed! Promise.
