“Self-Denial? You’ve got to be Kidding!”

Mark 8: 27-34

September 13, 2009 + Rally Day

Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ

400 Glenwood Drive

Chattanooga, Tennessee 37404

There’s an old story. Maybe you’ve heard it. A burglar sneaked into a house late at night. The owners were away and the burglar hoped to steal their valuables. As he came into the totally dark living room, the burglar thought he heard a voice: “Jesus is watching you!” He thought to himself: “My imagination must be playing tricks on me. There’s no one in this house.” But then he heard the voice again: “Jesus is watching you.” The burglar turned his flashlight on the corner of the room where he had heard the voice. There was a large parrot in a cage. Once again the parrot said, “Jesus is watching you!” The burglar laughed to himself and was about to go on with his business when he heard a low growl. Flashing his light in that direction he saw the biggest, meanest Doberman he had ever seen. At that point the parrot said: “Sic him, Jesus!”

The story works because all of us who make any claim to be followers of the Man from Nazareth believe that then and now he cares about what we do with our lives. We believe that whatever else we may say about our relationship with Jesus; we are to be his disciples, his followers, the people who show others what being a Christian is all about. So what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? What are the specifics of that commitment?

Today’s scripture lesson could not possibly be more clear. Jesus questions his disciples as they are traveling to Caesarea Philippi: “Who are people saying that I am?” The disciples answer evasively and suggest that some people think Jesus is John the Baptist come back to life or maybe Elijah or some other prophet. With that, Jesus confronts the disciples directly: “But who do you say that I am?”

Friends, that is the basic, fundamental question all of us have to answer if we want to make any claim to being a Christian. Who do you and I say that Jesus is? Believe me, this is not the beginning of one of those salvation sermons we hear in conservative churches. I believe there are many different ways we can correctly answer Jesus’ question, but I also believe that all of those answers must have this in common: we believe Jesus is uniquely different from all the other great religious figures of history. For us, however we define it, Jesus is our way, our truth, our life. For us, Jesus is the one we have chosen to follow.

Yes, I know. Christians have spent the last two thousand years debating what it means to say that Jesus is the one. Is he the only one, the only way to God? We don’t have nearly enough time to answer that question this morning but I will offer this analogy. Even if you believe, as I do, that there are many paths to God, we can only follow one path at a time. For me, and I hope for you, we have chosen to follow the Christian path and that makes all the difference in who we are and what we do with our lives.

That is what makes our scripture lesson so crucial. Peter had no doubt about who Jesus was. For Peter, Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ. And as Christians we say that Peter was right . . . partly. But he completely misunderstood what Jesus thought he should do as God’s special one on earth and what we should do as his followers. Jesus told Peter that he would likely be killed for his trouble. And then to nail it down – if you will forgive the poor pun – he told Peter and everyone else: “If any want to be my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

Deny ourselves? That’s something that would take a lot of practice, wouldn’t it? It’s not the sort of thing that comes naturally to us as human beings. It certainly doesn’t come naturally to us as Americans. We have been known all over the world for our conspicuous consumption of monstrous portions of the world’s goods and resources. Self-denial? You’ve got to be kidding! Though this fierce recession has taught many of us to be more frugal as we should have been all along, for us as Christians this virtue of self-denial is something more than living simply and going green.

We are taught that denying ourselves and placing other people first is a hallmark of our faith. But we are more likely to live in the world of novelist Somerset Maugham who said, “From the standpoint of pure reason, there are no grounds to support the claim that one should sacrifice one’s own happiness to that of others.” Even when we seek to be self-sacrificing, there are times when we can twist even that into some odd version of self-service. George Bernard Shaw put it bluntly and cynically: “Self-sacrifice,” he said, “enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.” Even many contemporary Christians seem to want to wiggle out of this call to self-denial. Think of all those who follow the televangelist who promise if we send them large sums of money, God will see to it we get a big return on our “investment.” This “Gospel of Greed” is very common today, but it is not the Gospel of Christ. As Christians we are called to be as concerned about the good of others as we are about our own, regardless of the pay-off. Even more concerned.

This past week I came across a wonderful passage from an ancient rabbinical text. “There are four types of people,” teaches the Rabbi. “The one who says: What is mine is mine and what is yours is yours – this is the common type, but there are some who say that this is the type of Sodom (not homosexuality but the path to ultimate human destruction). There are others who say: What is mine is yours and what is yours is mine – this is a fool. There are also those who say: What is yours is mine – this is a villain. But there are those who say: What is mine is yours – this is a saint.”

If there is anything our world needs today it is more people willing to practice that kind of saintly living. I believe it is what Jesus meant when he said that his followers should deny themselves for the sake of others. That is the true path to God.

With that said, what is there to add? I think one thing more. Self-denial is misunderstood if we believe it means a life of sour self-abnegation, a forced march through a barren life devoid of all pleasure until we reach the next world. The choice to deny ourselves in favor of the interests and needs of others must carry with it the constant sense that it comes to us as a gift from God.

This may sound a little kooky – self-denial as a gift from God – but I think it is true for two reasons. First of all, self-denial is mostly something we cannot achieve by ourselves. So many times in my ministry, I have been privileged to see people giving up themselves for the sake of someone else: for a disabled child, for a stricken spouse, for a community concern that takes many hours and so much energy. When I have dared to ask them how they can do it day after day, month after month, year after year, their answer is pretty much the same. They don’t see what they are doing as a burden but as a special gift from God and God helps them to do it. They are living examples of what it means to deny ourselves and follow Jesus. They are saints and I want to be more like them. They are positive proof of that old saying: “If you bear the cross gladly, it will bear you.” (Thomas a Kempis)

And that is the other reason self-denial is a gift from God. Like any real gift, it brings joy. A life lived for ourselves and what we can get out of it is ultimately a joyless life. But what I have seen in the faces of those who willingly put others’ happiness and well-being above their own is true joy. When we live to ourselves, we die to ourselves, but when we live for others, what unspeakable joy.

Self-denial? You’ve got to be kidding! But don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. You’ll be amazed at what will happen.