Take up your cross, and follow Jesus

4 March 2015

Opening Prayer/Worship

Hymn: O Jesus, I have promised

Theme: Christ, the Image of God

Topic: Take up your cross, and follow Jesus

Reading: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. ²And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.’ ³Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, ⁴‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. ⁵No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. ⁶I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. ⁷I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. ¹⁵ God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. ¹⁶I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’

Introduction

Promise can be described as a pledge of future value.  It is the assurance that expectations of the promised will be met.  However, promises could be delayed but not denied or abolished.  This holds particularly true for divine promises.  It is a known fact that God is not man that He will lie, and that whatever He promises, He will bring to pass.  The Scripture contains numerous promises of God, some of which have come to pass.  God’s most important promise to us is salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, the propitiation for our sins.  With the gift of salvation come peace, forgiveness, healing, good health and many other divine blessings.  However, sometimes in life it appears that God’s promises have eluded us, and we begin to wonder if He is still with us.  At such times, we should remember that God will never fail to bring His promises to pass in our lives.  Although the cross we bear may be heavy, as long as we follow Jesus, God will see us through.

Questions/Discussion

1. What does it mean to take up our cross and follow Jesus?

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

‘But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another, ¹⁷ “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.” ¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; ¹⁹the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’ ²⁵ At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; ²⁶yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ²⁸ ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. ¹⁷So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2. What are the lessons for us in Mark 8:31-38 regarding taking up our cross and following Jesus? 

Mark 8:31-38

hen 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. ³²He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’ ³⁴ He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For 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. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?³⁸Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’

3. Discuss some of the factors that make it easier or harder to take up our cross and follow Jesus.

Isaiah 40:27-31

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
   and speak, O Israel,
‘My way is hidden from the Lord,
   and my right is disregarded by my God’? 
²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
   his understanding is unsearchable. 
²⁹ He gives power to the faint,
   and strengthens the powerless. 
³⁰ Even youths will faint and be weary,
   and the young will fall exhausted; 
³¹ but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
   they shall walk and not faint.

Romans 4:13-25

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. ¹⁶ For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, ¹⁷as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. ¹⁸Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become ‘the father of many nations’, according to what was said, ‘So numerous shall your descendants be.’ ¹⁹He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. ²²Therefore his faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ ²³Now the words, ‘it was reckoned to him’, were written not for his sake alone, ²⁴but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. 

1 Peter 2:4-10

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and ⁵like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For it stands in scripture: ‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ ⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner’, ⁸and ‘A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. ⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Intercession/Worship

Conclusion

Although the cross we bear may be heavy, as long as we follow Jesus, God will see us through.

Closing Prayer (Collect for Second Sunday in Lent, Revised Common Lectionary, 2002, alt.)

God of Sarah and Abraham, long ago you embraced your people in covenant and promised them your blessing. Strengthen us in faith so that, with your followers in every age, we may proclaim our deliverance in Jesus Christ to generations yet unborn.  Amen.

The Celebration of the Eucharist - Supplementary Eucharistic Prayer 2 (S2)

May God be with you.

        And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

        We lift them up to God.

Let us give thanks to God our Creator.

        It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Eternal God, Source of all being, we give you thanks and praise for your faithful love. You call us into friendship with you and one another to be your holy people, a sign of your presence in the world.

When those we trust betray us, unfailingly you remain with us. When we injure others, you confront us in your love and call us to the paths of righteousness. You stand with the weak, and those, broken and alone, whom you have always welcomed home, making the first last, and the last first. Therefore we raise our voices with angels and archangels, forever praising you and saying:

Holy, holy, holy Lord,

God of power and might,

heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed are you, O Holy One: when Hagar was driven into the wilderness you followed her and gave her hope. When Joseph was sold into bondage, you turned malice to your people’s good. When you called Israel out of slavery, you brought them through the wilderness into the promised land. When your people were taken into exile you wept with them by the river of Babylon and carried them home.

        Restore us, O God, let your face shine!

At the right time you sent your Anointed One to stand with the poor, the outcast, and the oppressed. Jesus touched lepers, and the sick, and healed them.

He accepted water from a woman of Samaria and offered her the water of new life. Christ knew the desolation of the cross and opened the way for all humanity into the redemption of your reconciling love.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus, at supper with his friends, took bread, gave you thanks, broke the bread, gave it to them, and said, “Take and eat: this is my body which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.”

After supper he took the cup of wine, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and said, “Drink this, all of you: this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.”

Loving and Holy One, recalling Christ’s death and resurrection, we offer you these gifts, longing for the bread of tomorrow and the wine of the age to come. Therefore we proclaim our hope.

Dying you destroyed our death,

rising you restored our life.

Lord Jesus, come in glory.

Pour out your Spirit on these gifts that through them you may sustain us in our hunger for your peace. We hold before you all whose lives are marked by suffering, our sisters and brothers. When we are broken and cast aside, embrace us in your love.

        Restore us, O God, let your face shine!

Through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honour and glory are yours, O Source of all life, now and for ever. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer (said)

And now, as our Saviour Christ has taught us, we are bold to say,

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Breaking of Bread 7 – Lent and Holy Week

We break this bread,

        Communion in Christ’s body once broken.

Let your Church be the wheat which bears its fruit in dying.

If we have died with him, we shall live with him;

if we hold firm, we shall reign with him.

The gifts of God for the People of God.

        Thanks be to God.

Communion

Prayers after Communion

Let us pray,

God of compassion, through your Son Jesus Christ you have reconciled your people to yourself. As we follow his example of prayer and fasting, may we obey you with willing hearts and serve one another in holy love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Blessing

May the God of mercy transform you by his grace, and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

Scattering

Let us bless the Lord.

        Thanks be to God.