Proper 19

How many dreams would you say you have each week? Do you remember them? Have you ever awakened from a dream and thought, “What was that all about?”

Now me, I dream that I’m always late for something, usually church services.  I also dream a lot about getting lost, either while on foot or driving a car.  The other day, though, I dreamt that a small alligator had climbed up and perched on my head and went to sleep. I was wearing this lil curled up gator like a fine fashion accessory and proudly showing it off to people on the street.

Speaking of strange dreams, Discover Magazine interviewed a man named Chuck Lamb. One night Lamb, a computer programmer for Nationwide Insurance, dreamt that he was lying on the floor dead, with a detective standing over his body. How would you feel if you had a dream like that?

Well, Chuck Lamb felt inspired! Maybe this was a new career path for him. So Lamb convinced his wife to take pictures of him in a variety of poses as a dead body. Then he set up a website DeadBodyGuy.com  to advertise his skills to TV and movie directors. (That site is now defunct, just in case you’re searching for it on your phone right now.)

National TV shows like CNN and The Today Show picked up the story of Chuck Lamb’s website, and he got hired to play a dead body in the TV show “What I Like About You.” Since that first TV appearance, Lamb has appeared as a dead body in numerous TV shows and movies.

In our culture, we have lost the understanding of dying to our self. But that’s what the cross meant to early Christians. It was a symbol that Jesus was willing to give up everything—his power, his authority, his rights, his safety and comfort, his very life—to restore our relationship with God. He chose to give up his own agenda, his own desires, his own comforts to show us how much God loves us. He chose death to give us life. And he challenges people to follow his example.

A Christian mother had been very intentional in teaching her young son about Jesus. By age four, he was very intelligent, and the mother thought he might be ready to receive Jesus as his Savior. So she asked, “Sam, would you like to have Jesus in your heart?”

Sam rolled his eyes and answered, “No. I don’t think I want the responsibility.”

If we’re being honest, that might be our response too. We like Jesus. His teachings are inspiring. His miracles are exciting. But do we really want Jesus to live in us? Do we really want the responsibility?

The influence of social media has made our desire for image and wealth and self-gratification even more difficult. There are now businesses that sell fake backdrops to make it appear on your social media site that you’re living a luxurious and exciting lifestyle, even if you’re living paycheck to paycheck.

A Los Angeles photo studio charges $64 an hour to rent one of their spaces that is set up to look like the interior of a private jet. Other companies sell empty boxes and shopping bags from high-end retailers like Tiffany, Dior and Gucci. Evidently, folks who want to get a lot of Likes or followers on their social media channels buy up these empty boxes and bags to use as props in their photos. They can then project a false image of wealth and sophistication.

How strange these words of Jesus seem in this context: “If you would follow me you must deny yourself.” Deny yourself. How out of place such words may seem in today’s world.  

But imagine that you are sitting home in your recliner eating Krispy Kremes when your doorbell rings. On your porch stand members of the U.S. Olympic Committee. They tell you that they have a special computer algorithm that was designed to sort through the records of every person in America in order to find the next great competitor in the Olympic marathon. And after analyzing hundreds of data points, this computer algorithm has picked you! You are the most uniquely-qualified person in America to compete in the next Olympic marathon.

What would you do at this point? Would you kick the Olympic Committee out and go back to your donuts? Or would you toss your Krispy Kremes, order a case of Gatorade, and set up a new training regimen?

In an instant, your focus changes. You count every calorie and carb. You exercise for hours each day. You study runner’s guides and watch training videos. Your old habits are a distant memory now. The discipline and self-denial that were once unthinkable for you have become your new normal. This new goal has become your new identity.

There is only one path that leads to real success. That is when we deny ourselves in order to take up the cross of Jesus.

The key to truly successful living is to deny ourselves in order that God may fill us to overflowing with His presence and power. As St. Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Now there is the path to real success.

Notice who Jesus said these words to: In Mark 8, Jesus has been performing miracles, like feeding 4,000 people and healing a man who has been blind from birth. His teachings and his miracles are drawing a crowd. So in today’s Gospel we read, “Then he called the crowd to him along 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’” (Mark 8:34).

During Jesus’ ministry plenty of people wanted to follow him—so long as he didn’t demand anything of them. So long as he kept feeding them and healing them and telling them of God’s love. But Jesus makes it clear in this passage that his true followers are those who will follow him all the way to the cross.

There’s a university in Japan that has established a ninja studies program. Students in the program spend two years studying the history, the training regimen and the martial arts of the ninja, the famously-skilled and stealthy assassins. And the end result? A college degree. But many students who apply to the program from overseas are disappointed to learn that they won’t graduate as full-fledged ninjas. The professor in charge of the program emphasizes, “This is a course to learn about the ninja, not to become one.”

Many of us want to learn about Jesus, but we don’t want to become him. We don’t want to take that final step of denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following him. But when we look at the cross, we can’t deny Jesus’ unconditional love for us. And there is no true love without sacrifice. So if we love him, what are we willing to sacrifice?

Alan Paton’s novel Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful is set in South Africa in the days of apartheid. The headmaster of a local school finally stands up against the racist system of apartheid and quits his job. One of his friends warns him, “You know you will be wounded. Do you know that?”

The headmaster points to heaven as he replies, “When I go up there . . . the Big Judge will say to me, ‘Where are your wounds?’ If I say I haven’t any, he will say, ‘Was there nothing to fight for?’ I couldn’t face that question.”

When you come to the end of your life, do you wonder if Jesus will ask, “Where are your wounds? Was there nothing worth dying for?”