Living like a jade plant

This sermon has a bit of a gap in it in written form because I did some conversation with the congregation during the middle of the sermon. The text for this sermon is Mark 8:27-38

If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

What a cryptic comment from Jesus. In fact all of the gospels and most of the Bible is filled with these cryptic comments, these phrases that make step back and listen to the phrase again, and for some of us we maybe even have to get out a flow chart out to know the difference between group A and group B. These mysterious, puzzling sentences make us scratch our heads and do a listening double take. They are cryptic; however in order to sound more educated, theologians and pastors like to use the terms “juxtaposition” and “paradox:” a side by side comparison or seemingly self-contradictory statement.

If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

If we try to save our life, we will inevitably loose it, and if we let go of our life, we will live on. This seems preposterous. This seems unreal, it seems absurd. We are humans we have that fight or flight response to save our lives by either fighting in the face of danger, or running away from danger, not to just give up and let go.

It is hard for us to deny ourselves, especially in our society, especially in Fairfield County, where there is constantly pressure from ads, from family, from friends, from co-workers, from strangers, to indulge ourselves, to treat ourselves, whether to that bit of chocolate, the trip to the spa, the more expensive meal, the bottle of wine, or even the new luxury SUV. We want to indulge ourselves, to treat ourselves, to pamper our body and mind including all of our senses.

And what does it mean to take up our cross? Haven’t we taken up our cross? I mean how many of us wear one around our neck? Aren’t we already following Jesus? We come to church on Sunday, we say we are Christian, we have been baptized, had our children baptized. Aren’t they all signs of taking up a cross and following Jesus?

Yes I would say these two verses qualify as cryptic, or juxtaposition or paradox or whatever you want to call them.

Maybe we need to look at something outside of human nature in order to understand.

How many of you decorated a pot this morning? Could you bring them forward?

Have you been wondering what the pot is for?

So it is now September and I have started to see some tree start to turn colors. What happens with a leaf once it turns colors?

Well that is not true for all plants. Some plants when their leaves fall off they don’t die but bring about new life. That is true for a Jade plant. If you cut off a leaf before it dies and let it rest on the ground it will become a new plant. All you need is one leaf! Allow it to rest on the ground, maybe slightly buried, and only water a little bit for a few weeks until it starts to look like a plant and not just a leaf. In a few months, with plenty of sunlight, and regular watering, it will be a nice big plant. It becomes new life. The leaf will have given up its life as a leaf in order to bring new life as an entire plant, it becomes the foundation for a whole new plant.

So maybe this is an example of what Jesus meant by saying “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

We can be like a leaf from de-cid-u-ous tree, an ash, oak or maple. Holding on for life, becoming beautiful and vibrant, showing off for all the world our colors, from the bring greens in the spring to the red, yellows and oranges of the fall. But when our life is up we will die returning to the ground.

Or we can be like a leaf from a Jade plant. Not too extraordinary, humble by most measures of leafiness, but by giving up its life, it becomes new, becomes a foundation for others.

Through God’s help we are like a jade plant. Through God’s help we are able to give up our life, in the form of time in service to the community and money in gifts to organizations that do God’s work in the world. By living on a tighter budget so that others might eat, or giving up an hour of our week so that others may hear God’s word, we are giving up our lives and as a result allowing others to live. With God’s help, we are constantly giving up our lives. For when we give up our life and see how others are living, it becomes easier to give up even more of our life.

The key though is not just to donate time and money out of a sense of obligation but to actually see how your gifts, how the gifts of God’s people, are helping others in this world live. Your gift of food to Redding Social Services allows people in our own community to have food on the table who might not have it or the gift of toiletries you have collected while on vacation allows people to better their personal hygiene which betters their health. Your gift of time teaching Sunday School or volunteering at your child’s school allows children to grow in their education and their faith, though sometimes it takes years to see those results. But now the question is what more can you do?

How else can you give up your life? How else can you deny yourself? How else can you take up your cross and follow Jesus? Have you truly denied yourself? Have you taken up the cross in all aspects of your life or are you still hiding the cross when at work or with friends? We have been called by name to follow Christ Jesus. We have all been given the gift of eternal life. Our lives have been saved. And it is because we have been saved, because we have been given eternal life, because Jesus Christ died on the cross for us that we are able to deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow Christ.

It is because of Christ that we are called by name. It is because of Christ that we are able to follow and be changed. It is because of Christ that we are able to let God’s love show through us. It is because of Christ that we are able to let God’s name be known to others. And it is because of Christ that we are able to live.