"What Does It Mean To Follow Jesus?"

Mark 8:34-38

September 16, 2012 + Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Reverend Dr. David C. Brown
Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ
400 Glenwood Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37404

A pastor friend of mine tells the story of a father in his congregation who was having a battle with his teen-aged daughter. She didn’t want to go to church with the family anymore. After all, she said, she was old enough to make up her own mind. She had a busy life. She had better things to do with her Sunday mornings. And, besides, she was tired of hearing all that “Jesus stuff.”

In relating this to my pastor friend, the father said he told his daughter that she should feel free to disregard the “Jesus stuff” if she wanted to. Maybe she would come back to it later. Maybe not. But he suggested to his daughter if she kept attending church and listening to my friend, she would hear a lot of other good stuff... stuff about relationships... about values... about making good choices... about the world we live in and life in general...  things that might give her a better slant on living her own life. The father concluded his case for church attendance by saying: “If you listen to Bill (my pastor friend), even if you have to filter out some of the Jesus stuff, you’ll find he has a lot to say.”

When he heard that, my friend reports he wasn’t sure how to respond. On balance, he felt more flattered than offended. And as a father of teen-aged children himself, he could understand what the father was up against. He had his back against the wall. He was grasping at straws. He wanted her to keep coming to church. (She didn’t, by the way.) He probably would have said (almost) anything if he had thought it would work. My friend assured me that both father and daughter are good people. But today, several years later, neither of them is to be seen around his church anymore. And in these intervening years life has not been overly kind to father and daughter. Would things have gone better for them if they had stuck it out with the “Jesus stuff?” My friend doesn’t know the answer to that hard question, and neither do I. But both of us are convinced that things could not have gone worse for them if they had.

As my friend and I talked, we both agreed that many people today have a problem with the “Jesus stuff.” Some of them are religious skeptics, the ones who answer “None of the above” when they are asked about their religious faith. Some of them have been involved in conservative Christian churches. They have grown tired of being told that Jesus is a member of the Tea Party and hates homosexuals, abortion and all non-Christian religions. They are tired of bumper sticker Christianity. A few years ago I was in city traffic following a car that had a catchy slogan on its bumper: “Honk If You Love Jesus.” So I honked and the fellow driving the car turned around, shook his fist at me, and “You…!” I guess it must have been his wife’s car!

Many of us are tired of simplistic Christianity that believes it knows what you and I ought to believe about Jesus and everything else for that matter. That suspicion certainly found its way into Liberal churches like ours where we are almost afraid to talk about our Christian faith for fear someone will think that we’re a right-wing bigot.

Yet for all the foolish faith-claims that some say is Christianity, you and I should not be afraid to say that our commitment to following Jesus Christ is what this church is all about. When everything else is stripped away – and believe me some of it should be – following Jesus is the basic, primary, fundamental reason the church exists. The whole point of Christianity can be summed up in the two-word invitation that Jesus gave over and over again: “Follow me!” The invitation he gave to people in his own time is still addressed to us today by the living Christ: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

“Follow me!”

Those words are at the very heart of Christianity. They are plain. They are personal. They are direct and hard to dodge. They cut through the maze of theological differences and the tangle of denominational confusion. Those who first heard them didn’t have the benefit of 2000 years of debate about Jesus… who was he in his own time?... was he really born at Bethlehem?... what did he say himself and what words did the later church put in his mouth?... Why and how did he die?... And just how was he related to God? No, in his own time, people simply had to hear him out, size him up, and then make a decision about what he asked them to do: “Follow me!”

I believe it is the same today. I don’t discount for a moment the continuing scholarly effort we call the “Quest for the Historical Jesus,” trying to figure out who Jesus was and what he said. But the primary decision required of us as Christians is not one that we make with our heads but with our feet. Years ago, Oliver Wendell Holmes commented: “The great thing in life is not where we stand but where we are going.” That strikes to the very essence of Christianity. To go or not go, that is the question. But like Hamlet we often dither or delay when confronted with the direct decision and concrete actions we are called to make. And there are good reasons to dither or delay.

The first reason is that following Jesus might require us to give up some of our baggage and we have lots of baggage, don’t we? Some of which we carry on our backs. Much of which we carry in our hearts. Almost all of which weighs us down. If we decide to follow Jesus we will have to give some of it up. Our mistake, of course, was in thinking we needed it in the first place.

Bob Morley in his book, “Aerobics for the Spirit,” says he has his own peculiar vision of Judgment Day, assuming, that is, that there is going to be one (!) Bob has a recurring dream where he is standing in a long line. Picture the longest line you can think of, like the one at the D.M.V., or (better still) the one at the customs terminal in the airport. We’ve all heard the old saying that we can’t take it with us. In Bob’s dream, we have to take it with us… all of it. There he is, inching his way forward in the line, trying to keep track of all the many little carts he has for hauling his stuff. But that’s not the worst part. He not only has to take it all with him, he has to explain and justify every last item, first on a 3 X 5 card and then, verbally, to the angel at the gate.

When the historical Jesus then and the living Christ now tell us that if we are to follow him we have to deny ourselves and give up something if we are to be his followers we wonder: “What could that be?”

It could be all the material stuff we have surrounded ourselves with to tell us we’ve made it in life. We may have to ask ourselves if we know the difference between what we want and what we need. It may mean giving away some of our stuff to people who need it far more than we do. It may mean that we ought to give more to our church and other charities than a tip after we have used our money on ourselves. It may mean that as responsible Christian citizens we support a tax code that expects all of us to do our fair share even if it means higher taxes for things that really are essential in a decent society: affordable and excellent education for children and young people, adequate medical care for all people, jobs that provide a livable wage, and compassionate care for elderly and poor people.

It could mean giving more of our time and energy to make Chattanooga a better place for all its citizens. We have been shown by the example of Mr. Romney and other Christians who take the Bible seriously that we are to give 10% of our income to church and charity. I believe we are also called to give a tithe of our time and energy to programs and activities that are working to make life better for everyone in our community.

A second reason we sometimes dither or delay in following Jesus could be that we are afraid we will have to give up a measure of control over our lives. If you’re like me, we would be perfectly willing to go with Jesus if he goes where we want him to go.

Most of us these days have come to believe that we have the best chance for personal happiness and fulfillment when we take charge of our own lives. We are taught to resist strongly when someone tries to dominate or direct us. What do we do then with the message we hear in church about finding and following the will of God? How can we sing with a straight face or a clear conscience: “Just a closer walk with thee…?”

Strangely enough, I believe these two (seemingly) different visions of life can be harmonized. The key is realizing that what God wants for our lives – for yours and mine – is what is truly best for our realization, actualization, and fulfillment. Let me be very honest with you for a moment. I realize few if any of you here this morning have probably had this experience but I must share it with you: “I have made some serious errors of judgment in my life. I have made decisions and taken actions which were not always in my best self-interest. In the process, I have discovered that I was not always best qualified to know what interests were my best interests. By (sometimes) painful experience, I have come to believe that an important part of maturity is the willingness to listen to the wisdom and guidance other people have to offer. Most important of all, I have learned to try to listen for that still, small voice whispering in my inner being, prompting me to follow what Lincoln called “the angels of our better natures.” The wonderful thing I have learned along the way is that God is not a bully. The hand of God on your life and mine is amazingly gentle. It is so light a touch that it would be easy to miss it. But my life has taught me that I ignore that touch to my regret, if not to my peril.

The third (and final) reason to dither or delay is that following Jesus may seem to threaten losing a portion of our own uniqueness and identity. The dictionary says that to “follow” someone means to copy or imitate them. If we follow Jesus, does that mean we can’t be ourselves anymore?

When I was a small boy, I remember walking through a snowy field in Michigan on a day when I had forgotten to wear my boots. My father solved the problem by walking ahead of me and making footprints large enough in which to step. That worked… for a day. But I did not want to walk in my father’s footsteps forever.

My son, David, on Labor Day turned 32. It is hard to realize that this maturing young man was ever a little boy. Like most parents, I treasure memories of the time when he was small. I recall how he used to like to walk on my feet. He would stand facing me, holding my hands, and the soles of his feet on top of mine. Then, at his command “Walk, Daddy,” we would walk around the room together.

I can’t remember the last time David stood on my feet and said, “Walk, Daddy.” He walks on his own feet now and in his own way. That’s what it means to grow up. And I would not have it otherwise. Yet, surprisingly, this is also what it means to “grow up in Christ.” Following Jesus does not commit us to a lockstep mentality where the only room for our footprints is squarely in the outline of his. As followers of Christ we are called to be ourselves, our true selves. When we do, more and more we will discover who we really are. Most wonderful of all we will discover more and more of who Christ really is. But none of this can happen until we decide to be Christ’s followers. I believe that is what Albert Schweitzer meant in the wonderful final paragraph of his book: “The Quest of the Historical Jesus.”

 “He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake-side; He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word: “Follow thou me!” and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.”