Jordan's serman.

Jesus knew. He knew from very early on how things were going to end. He always knew that he would die on a cross and come back after three days. He knew. He was talking about dying and rising after three days and he uses the words that we know so well “take up your cross and follow me.” We know those words so well that we probably forget that this comes way before the cross had been suggested by the authorities. And what’s more, we’re told that many people heard him say this, in other words it was common knowledge that he said all this. God knew that he was going to die on a cross when he came to earth and yet he came anyway. 

 

St Peter is astounded by the suggestion that something will go wrong for Jesus. That’s not what Peter’s plan would be for Jesus and he, as usual thinks he’s doing the right thing when he says that Jesus shouldn’t talk like that. I feel sorry for Peter, and see myself as something of a spiritual successor to him only in the sense that I’m a master at putting my foot in it. 

 

But actually it sounds quite sensible what he’s saying here, right? Why would the saviour suffer and be killed? That’s not right is it? But Jesus’ response to this idea, that suffering wouldn’t be part of following God’s plan, Jesus response to that is to say to Peter “get behind me, Satan.” 

 

The idea that Jesus’ life should just be nice and fluffy is one that I think the world tends to believe these days but if you look at it, his whole life was lived moving towards that cross. When we look at his teaching and ministry before the cross, it’s not some separate thing, his ministry and teaching is all seen in the light of the cross. You can’t pick out the teaching and look at that without the cross, you can’t take out the ministry and see it for what it is without the cross.

 

I can’t stand beetroot because I used to have it when I was younger in meals, do you remember the beetroot in the old school dinners? The thing I think people hated most about it was that a little bit of that beetroot would get in and contaminate the whole thing and it would all taste of beetroot. 

 

Well the cross, if you like, makes all of Jesus’ ministry and work and teaching ‘cross-flavoured’, it seeps through into everything else. It’s always there. The point is not that Jesus wasn’t meant to suffer as Peter hoped, but that suffering for us is why he came, not for the sake of suffering, but despite it. He came to rescue us, and a part of that plan meant that he was going to suffer, and that was the plan he agreed to.

I think the reason Peter struggled with this idea, with the idea of Jesus suffering is that suffering feels like a defeat, doesn’t it? But I would say this to you, victory is found in being faithful despite suffering for others, not in living carefree. 

 

And that is a different picture to the ideal life painted in today’s world, isn’t it? If you were to take most people today and ask them what their dream would be, the absolute perfect life, the majority would say probably something like, ‘to win the lottery and never have to work again’. Rather that to live a life of serving others no matter what it does to me. 

 

When I was working in the hospital, I had a really long chat with some of the people in charge of the palliative care team. These are the nurses who really sort out the dying. They sit with them. I know a lot of vicars and funeral directors but more than anybody else I’ve met, the palliative care team know death and dying. And I watched as one of these nurses cared for one person who had been clearly in a lot of pain, as he lived his last few moments. Apparently the nurses will often deal with up to thirty or forty dying people in the hospital in one week. 

 

My question to the nurse, once I’d come away and we were having a coffee was, “how do you manage to do this day in day out?” Because to me that would be exhausting, the only people you really get to know were the dying and the bereaved. 

But this nurse, bless her, who was a real firecracker of a woman said something along these lines, she said “yeah, but before I did this I was on a much bigger salary working in finance, and I hated my life. Now, what I do matters because I’m there for people, I can show them love at the end.” 

 

If you’re going to work in palliative care I suppose it makes sense doesn’t it? That pain is going to be a part of life; that you’re not going to see people walk out better very often, but that you get to love them nonetheless. And when you think of all that I suppose it makes sense that pretty much all palliative care used to be run by religious orders in years gone by. It’s not a thing that you go into for an easy life, it’s a sacrificial job that takes a lot out of you emotionally, but it shows God’s love. 

So what if instead of a cross we said ‘take up your palliative care uniform and follow him’. Except with the cross it isn’t just emotional pain, it is the worst physical pain, spiritual humiliation and emotional pain waiting for it to happen, that we could imagine. And we are called to take all that up willingly and follow him. We must be mad, really. 

 

But that is the love, the life, the suffering for the sake of others, which will change the world. And Jesus’ cross, the fact that God chose a life in which he knew he would suffer and die for us, that should be like beetroot in our lives that contaminates all of our thoughts. It should be a thing that grows and spreads as it takes over our hearts and makes us dyed in the same image. That we should come out the other side taking up our cross and following him. 

 

This is clearly what happened with St Peter in the end. He went from the disciple who thought Jesus shouldn’t suffer, to being so permeated with the cross that Peter literally did end up being crucified. He took up his cross and followed him. 

 

Brothers and sisters. Is there some way that you could serve others to your own sacrifice? Is there something you can do to show that love? Maybe it would be giving your time to go and help someone that you don’t think will be fun but that you know they need. Maybe it would mean caring for someone on your street, or standing up for what you believe in.

 

But let’s never make the mistake of thinking like the world does, that God’s kingdom is just a easy life. God’s kingdom on earth is more a place where all people live their lives as Jesus taught us, giving up everything for each other. It is a place where stop and turn to follow him, no matter what, because he, God, chose to come to this earth and to suffer and die out of love for us. Amen 

 

Dear friends,

It was wonderful to celebrate the way the whole world can be healed today, as we focused on Jesus’ cross.

Here is the reflection: https://stgeorgechorley.co.uk/news/news_inner/343

Here is the notice sheet: https://stgeorgechorley.co.uk/brochure/theway.pdf

NEXT weeks is Harvest! Social on Saturday, 5-8pm in the Church Hall, All-Age Service, Sunday, 9.30am. All welcome.

God bless,

Fr Mike