"Real Commitment" - August 31, 2014

The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Saint Matthew 16:21–28
“Real Commitment”

Everlasting God, we believe that the power of Christ is still at work in our world and that it is shown every time we love our neighbor, every time we bring compassion to another human being, every time we offer forgiveness and hope to a fellow traveler. May Christ become more than a person of the past. May he become our living reality--ever-fresh, ever-real, ever-shining in your world. Amen. Prayer - The Rev’d Dr. R. Scott Colglazier

I became intrigued and amused this week by the latest social media sensation – the idea of pouring a bucket of ice water over your head for charity. Here, just in case you have been away from television or the internet for awhile, is how it works.

 A friend challenges you to either pour an bucket of ice water over your head or make a contribution to the ALS foundation to benefit research into this terrible disease. If you are willing to get frozen and soaked (and by the way, you are still expected to make a financial contribution to the cause) you get to “call out” two or three of your friends (or soon-to-be former friends) and they have either the option of trying to drown themselves or write a check.

I have given some serious thought to calling out Mr. Park for the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” however, I am sure that he would do what a wise woman in our congregation did when she advised all her on-line friends that she was more than willing to contribute cash to the cause but there was no way she was soaking herself for all to see in a YouTube video. So, she told them, they could call her out until the cows came home but she was staying dry.

However, more than a few famous and not so famous people have taken up the challenge. At the top of the list may be former President George W. Bush, who challenged former President Clinton, former presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who was doused by his running mate, Paul Ryan. Politicians, television and movie stars, baseball players and broadcasters, and just plane folks like you and me maybe, are all getting wet for a good cause.

There can be no doubt as to effectiveness of the fund-raising effort. According to The New York Times: “Donations to the A.L.S. Association, have surged since the challenge started trending in late July. The group said Thursday morning that it had received $41.8 million in donations from July 29 until Aug. 21. More than 739,000 new donors have given money to the association. That’s more than double the $19.4 million in total contributions the association received during [all of] 2013.”

But, as one recently diagnosed ALS patient, 26 year old Anthony Carbajal said through in his video, he is scared to death of the disease. The video then shows him carefully lifting his completely dependent mother in and out of bed; preparing the solution for her feeding tube, and finally placing her carefully in a chair and, in so doing, he tells us in a very graphic way, that ALS is about more than a getting soaked. For him and his family it is a way of life. It’s one thing to dump a bucket of water on your head, have a friend hand you a towel, write a check, and have a hot toddy to warm you up. It is quite another to make a real commitment to the cause daily.

That my brothers and sisters is exactly what Jesus is asking of us.

It would have been a whole lot easier for Peter and the rest of us if Jesus had just let everything rest with the great confession of Saint Peter – “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Peter is feeling good about himself. And Jesus has to be feeling good too. People are placing him right alongside the most famous of the Jewish prophets. He is really making a name for himself. Jesus is really going places. And it looks like, if we follow him, we’ll really be going places too.

But then reality sets in. It hits the disciples and all of us like a cold bucket of unexpected ice water in the face. For it is then, that Jesus makes it clear to his disciples that it “was now necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, submit to an ordeal of suffering at the hands of the religious leaders, be killed, and then on the third day be raised up alive.”

Peter does what all of us would do in hearing such news from a friend. He says, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” Don’t be too hard on Peter here for all of us will and have said the same thing. From losing a job, to losing a love, to a diagnosis of ALS, our response is “God forbid.” Jesus meant everything to Peter and losing him to an early death, much less the terrible death on the cross, is too much for him to bear. It is too painful to get his mind around.

So Peter tries to throw cold water on Jesus’ notion. And I think Jesus has to put Peter in his place because the idea is pretty tempting. Just remember, that the option was always there for Jesus – to put aside his ministry and go home. He could have gone back to Nazareth, re-opened his father’s carpenter shop, settled down, found a partner, had children and lived a good long life.

He could have done that but to do so would have meant turning his back on God’s plan for your redemption and mine. It was all at stake.

Was Jesus going to be tempted by Peter or was he going to follow God? And Jesus decides to follow God.

He tells Peter to get behind him. He tells Peter to stop trying to lead Jesus but to follow him wherever God would lead.
So they went on to Jerusalem and on to the cross.

Then, if things weren’t bad enough, Jesus tells us, that those of us who want to save our lives at all costs will lose them, and those who are willing to lose our lives will save them. In other words, we are to cross-bearers too. As Dr. Thomas G. Long, explains:

Cross bearers forfeit the game of power before the first inning; they are never selected as “Most Likely to Succeed.” Cross bearers are dropouts in the school of self-promotion. They do not pick up their crosses as a means for personal fulfillment, career advancement, or self-expression; rather they “deny themselves” and pick up their crosses because of the needs of other people.

In the midst of all the videos of ice covered people showing their support for ALS there were two other videos this week.

The first was the horrific – and I do mean horrific – video of the murder of James Foley by the godless forces of the Islamic State of Iran and Syria. But here is what the media missed.

  Foley was a Christian. He graduated from Marquette University and, after some volunteer trips to South Dakota and Mississippi, he wrote that he “learned I was a sheltered kid and that the world had real problems.” In coming to know “young people who wanted to give their hearts for others” he decided to be an inner-city teacher.

Then, in graduate school at Northwestern, he was moved to capture the suffering of others by becoming a photo-journalist who found himself imprisoned twice – first by the Lybians and then by the Syrians. After his first captivity he wrote about the power of prayer.

“I began to pray the rosary. It was what my mother and grandmother would have prayed. It took a long time [but] it helped to keep my mind focused. If nothing else, prayer was the glue that enabled my freedom, an inner freedom. It didn’t make sense but faith did.

Foley died in the faith.

And the other man, is Dr. Kent Brantly. You may not know his name but you do know the name of the disease he contacted, Ebola. Under-reported however was the part of the story that said the Brantly was a missionary for “Samaratian’s Purse” a Christian Ministry lead by Dr. William Franklin Graham, son of Evangelist Billy, whose motto is: "No matter where we go or what we do, we offer more than help. We offer hope."

And you almost certainly missed this part of the statement he wrote while in isolation at Emory University hospital.

“My wife Amber and I, along with our two children, did not move to Liberia for the specific purpose of fighting Ebola. We went to Liberia because we believe God called us to serve Him at ELWA Hospital."

He went because he thought it was something God called him to do.

Both men were willing to loose their lives for what they believed in and, living or dying, it was their faith that sustained them.

Christ may never call any of us to go as far as these two men – to risk our lives or even our health.

Still we are called, in whatever way God leads us, to take up Christ’s cross.

Choosing to be a part of Christ’s cause can be an agonizing process. It can lead us to tasks that are overwhelming. But, eventually we will discover that there is no choice anymore. The only decision is to follow knowing that this path is never lived outside of God’s power, and care, and will.

Throwing a bucket of ice water on our head for a good cause is a good thing. Throwing ourselves into the cause of Christ is even better because it places our trust solely and completely in God. And no matter what our lot in life, be it life or in death, that is a very good place to be.