For the week of February 25 – 2nd Sunday in Lent
Morning prayer: Holy Friend, our God and Saviour, we talk much about faith yet have been slow to take its risks, we laud forgiveness yet have been miserly in giving it, we honour Christ’s Cross yet have avoided our own. By Your Spirit enter the secret caverns of the soul and there expose, judge, counsel, cleanse and reform us. Forgive us repeatedly, we pray, until forgiveness is such a part of us that it may become a way of life as we deal with those around us. In the name of Christ our Redeemer. Amen! (Discipleship Ministries)
Opening Hymn: #295 In the Cross of Christ I Glory
- In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o'er the wrecks of time;
all the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime. - When the woes of life o'ertake me, hopes deceive, and fears annoy,
never shall the cross forsake me. Lo! it glows with peace and joy. - When the sun of bliss is beaming light and love upon my way,
from the cross the radiance streaming adds more luster to the day. - Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, by the cross are sanctified;
peace is there that knows no measure, joys that through all time abide. - In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o'er the wrecks of time;
all the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime.
Psalm 22:22, 24-26a
22 I will declare Your name to my brothers and sisters;
I will praise You in the very center of the congregation!
24 Because He didn’t despise or detest the suffering of the one who suffered—
He didn’t hide His face from me. No, He listened when I cried out to Him for help.
25 I offer praise in the great congregation because of You;
I will fulfill my promises in the presence of those who honor God.
26 Let all those who are suffering eat and be full! Let all who seek the Lord praise Him!
Children’s Time BLUE Exodus 24:10
they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.
Children’s Message
There are some 50 mentions of blue in scripture, primarily contained in the Old Testament. Blue was part of the special offering for decorating the Tabernacle. Blue was needed for the tassels on the priestly garments. The men of Israel are still wearing a prayer garment with blue tassels on the corners.
Jesus would have been wearing such a garment the day He healed the woman suffering from hemorrhaging. She believed if only she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment she would be healed and she was. For Christians, blue is the color of healing and it reminds us of God’s height over us, as the One who gave us the commandments as our foundation for living with each other and how to honor God. God’s domain is as high as the heavens and as deep as the oceans, and both are blue.
Prayers of Intercession: Thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayers for those dear to our hearts. We now pray as You have taught us: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: Remember the two Lenten challenges: Give “30 Pieces of Silver” to finance building a bathhouse for Withrow University College. Pray for the administrators, staff and students of Withrow University College and our scholarship students: Emmanuella and Ebenezer.
Thank you for giving your offering to LUMC. Your offering pays utilities and maintains our buildings.
Offering prayer: God of Boundless Goodness: We have come to this place this day to worship You with our songs, with our words, with our gifts, and with our whole hearts. We are reminded that our discipleship decision involves more than what we bring this day to the altar; it calls us to a place where a cross that is ours alone must be picked up and carried. This, more than anything else, is why we need the community of Your church. Strengthen us, we pray, not just to carry our own cross, but to help sisters and brothers carry their crosses as well. In the name of the one who bore His cross for us. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of preparation #415 Take Up Thy Cross
- “Take up thy cross,” the Savor said, “if thou wouldst My disciple be;
Deny thyself, the world forsake, and humbly follow after me.”
- Take up thy cross, let not its weight fill thy weak spirit with alarm;
His strength shall bear thy spirit up and brace thy heart and nerve thine arm.
- Take up thy cross, nor heed the shame, nor let thy foolish pride rebel;
Thy Lord for thee the cross endured, to save thy soul from death and hell.
- Take up thy cross and follow Christ, nor think till death to lay it down;
For only those who bear the cross may hope to wear the glorious crown.
Message Scripture: Mark 8:31-38
31 Then Jesus began to teach His disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise from the dead.” 32 He said this plainly. But Peter took hold of Jesus and, scolding Him, began to correct Him. 33 Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, then sternly corrected Peter: “Get behind Me, Satan. You are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts.”
34 After calling the crowd together with His disciples, Jesus said to them, “All who want to come after Me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow Me. 35 All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of Me and because of the good news will save them. 36 Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? 37 What will people give in exchange for their lives? 38 Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when He comes in the Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Message: Cross-Eyed with a Bruised Shoulder Pastor Ron
Have you ever said something really dumb? Or said something that came out all wrong? I know I’ve said a lot of dumb things or just plain wrong things. One time I was leading a Bible study about the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. I clearly had Isaac written in my notes, but I called him Isaiah a number of times before a member of the group piped in “I know you mean Isaac, but you keep saying Isaiah.”
I personally think it’s encouraging to know that other people make the same kind of mistakes. It makes me feel more normal and less like a goober, which is probably how Peter was feeling after his encounter with Jesus in today’s passage from the Gospel of Mark. “Then Jesus began to teach His disciples: ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise from the dead.’ He said this plainly. But Peter took hold of Jesus and, scolding Him, began to correct Him. Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, then sternly corrected Peter: ‘Get behind me Satan. You are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts.’” (8:31-33) It’s encouraging to know that someone of Peter’s stature and importance in the early church could walk the walk so well with his foot in his mouth. What we must remember is that Peter was human and even the greatest of humans make mistakes.
Henry Ford changed the world. He changed how things are assembled, marketed and how we travel. But did you know he neglected to put a reverse gear in the first car he invented? Not only that, but he also didn’t have a door wide enough to get the car out of the building he had built it in. If you go to Greenfield Village, you can see where he cut a hole in the wall to get the car out. I give thanks to God that we don’t have to be perfect to experience God’s grace and forgiveness. Nor do we have to be perfect to experience New Life through Christ.
In this passage we hear a pretty scathing rebuke from Jesus to Peter. Jesus had just changed Peter’s name from Simon to Peter. The Rock! The Rock upon whom Jesus would build His church. Peter had to feel like a champion, on top of the world. The future looked so bright and sunny. And then Jesus started talking about going to Jerusalem and being crucified. That bright and sunny world suddenly crumbled right before Peter’s eyes. Peter took Jesus aside, questioned Him and then took Jesus to task for talking like that. Jesus then rebuked Peter in front of all the other disciples. Jesus was Cross-Eyed. He was focused on the cross and gave Peter a Cross-Eyed rebuke. Jesus reminded Peter of the purpose of His ministry. Not comfort, but the salvation of the world and that meant the cross.
So, sisters and brothers, what does this passage from Mark’s Gospel teach us?
How should we apply it to our own lives? Can we keep from making dumb mistakes or saying dumb things? Probably not. But it does teach us some especially important lessons about following Christ and bearing our own crosses.
First it reminds us that we are not the center of the Universe. That is the first thing the cross always reminds us about. And yet, that seems to be the hardest lesson we have to learn. We and our world are eaten up by people who think like that. They are still living in the infancy stage of faith and life. They think the world revolves around them. I believe it was Calvin from the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes” who said: “The whole world is wrong. They think the world revolves around them when everybody knows the world revolves around me.”
The Cross of Christ changes that attitude. The Cross changes us. When we accept the rebuke of Peter as our own and look at the world Cross-Eyed like Jesus, then we become less like the world and more like Jesus. I read that Mother Teresa once heard of a family whose nine members were starving to death. She hurriedly got some rice together, went to the family and gave them enough rice to prepare a meal. But the mother of this family divided the rice into two piles, placed one of the piles in a bag and started to leave. Surprised by this, Mother Teresa asked where she was going. The woman told her she was going to visit a family who she knew was also starving. That, my brothers, and sisters, is living Cross-Eyed. So first, the Cross reminds us we are not the center of the universe.
It also reminds us we’re called to be people of the bruised shoulder. Jesus calls us to a life of discipleship; a life that begins with the empty tomb and responds to the Good News of our salvation by asking us to take up the cross and become people of the bruised shoulder. In Medieval Europe it was common for devout Christians to pray for the marks of the crucifixion of Jesus to appear on their hands and feet. It was known as the stigmata. It was seen as a sign of deep spirituality and special favor from God. One night while praying for such marks, a certain monk had a vision of Christ with another mark on his body. It was a bruise on his shoulder; a bruise from carrying the cross. The monk realized that the bruise was the mark which counted. The shoulder bruised from carrying the cross.
You see, the cost of our discipleship involves cross bearing. Bearing the cross means voluntarily taking on the burdens of others. It means choosing to endure pain and problems for the sake of others and the sake of the Kingdom of God. Sometimes it even means suffering for the sake of Christ, or the Gospel or the church. The Christian faith always begins with the cross and leads to the cross.
It begins with what Christ did for us. And through that sacrifice it leads us to a life of service. It leads us to a life of carrying our own cross. It leads us to a life of the bruised shoulder.
The cross reminds us of whose we are: we belong to Christ. And the cross reminds us of who we are: we are the forgiven, those who have been saved by grace. The cross reminds us that on our own, things will never be perfect. On our own, we will never be whole. On our own, we will never find peace. On our own, we can never know forgiveness, reconciliation, or redemption. The cross reminds us that no matter how hard we try, we just can’t do it on our own. But through the grace and love of God in Christ, as seen in the cross, we can know these things. The cross is the powerful symbol of our salvation and of our relationship with Christ.
It also reminds us that the Gospel changes lives. And we know that is true because it changed our lives. That definitely makes a difference, not only in our lives, but in the lives of others as well. According to research conducted by the Gallup Poll, 12% of Americans are “highly spiritually committed.” They are those who understand what Jesus meant when He said, “All who want to come after Me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow Me.” (34) Gallup says the members of this group are “a breed apart from the rest of the populace in at least four ways:
1] They’re happier.
2] Their families are stronger.
3] They’re more tolerant of people of different races and religions.
4] They’re community minded.
They are involved in service to others. That is cross bearing that really makes a difference.
There is an old story about two brothers. They were likable enough young men, but they had a little bit of a wild side. It got so wild that they became sheep thieves. They earned their money by stealing sheep from the local farmers. As happens to all thieves, one day they were caught. Rather than jail them, the villagers decided to brand the two brothers on the forehead with the letters S T for sheep thief. The action so embarrassed the one brother that he ran off, never to be heard from again. The other brother was so filled with remorse that he chose to stay and try to reconcile himself to the villagers he had wronged. At first the villagers were a little skeptical. Most of them wouldn’t have anything to do with him. But he was determined to make reparation for his offenses.
Whenever there was a sickness, the sheep thief was there to help care for the person. Whenever there was work that needed to be done, the sheep thief showed up to help. It made no difference whether the person was rich or poor, the sheep thief was there to lend a helping hand. Soon he was an integral part of the community, never accepting pay for anything he did. His life was lived for others. And therefore, he grew to be a friend of all and well-respected.
Years later a traveler came through the village. As he sat at a sidewalk café eating his lunch, he noticed a well-respected old man with a strange brand on his forehead, sitting at a table nearby. It seemed like everybody in town stopped to pay their respects or share a kind word. Even the children stopped to play or give and receive an affectionate hug. The stranger’s curiosity was peaked, and he asked the café owner about the old man. “What does the strange brand on his forehead stand for?” he asked. The café owner, a contemporary of the old man, thought for a moment then said, “It happened so long ago that I don’t rightly remember. But I think it stands for Saint.”
The cross of Christ and the Gospel of Christ change lives. They turn sinners into saints when we surrender to God and become people of the bruised shoulder who walk with Christ.
There’s a great story about the artist Rodin, who one day saw a huge, carved crucifix beside the road. He immediately loved the artwork and insisted on having it for himself. He purchased the cross and arranged to have it carted back to his house. But unfortunately, it was too big for the building. So, of all things, he knocked out the walls, raised the roof, and rebuilt his home around the cross.
As God’s forgiven, and as Jesus’ disciples, and as members of this church, that’s what we are called to do. We are called to knock down the walls in our lives and rebuild our lives around the cross of Christ. We are called to stay Cross-Eyed. We are called to let the rebuke of Peter be a reminder that we are not the center of the universe. We are called to be people of the bruised shoulder.
Closing Hymn: #159 Lift High the Cross
Refrain: Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim till all the world adore His sacred name.
- Come, Christians, follow this triumphant sign. The hosts of God in unity combine.
- Each newborn servant of the Crucified bears on the brow the seal of Him who died.
- O Lord, once lifted on the glorious tree, as Thou hast promised, draw the world to Thee.
- So shall our song of triumph ever be: Praise to the Crucified for victory.
Go into your week with the blessings of The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit.
