Daily Office Readings for Wednesday of Proper 13: Year 1
Morning, Psalm 119:97 to 120; Evening, Psalms 81and 82;
2nd Samuel 9:1to 13; Acts 19:1 to 10; Mark 8:34 to 9:1;
“He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me:” (Mark 8:34).
Our Lord Jesus calls those who are far from him, but who want to be like those who are close to him, closer to what’s really important. I don’t know if Jesus actually knew he would die on a Roman cross, but he did know that if he kept up his reflections of the love of God with humanity, jealous humanity would kill him by whatever means necessary, to include the Roman cross.
With this invitation, he opens the door to those out there who may have been yearning for a deeper understanding of truth about God and eternal life. I think the deepest truth is the call to deny one’s self. The cross carrying, is metaphor for any of life’s situations that we must contend with as we journey toward the day we are called to our final home.
The real truth is that most of us (particularly Americans) have far more than we need in terms of what is required for a comfortable life. Most of us have the resources for food, shelter, clothing, communications (phones), and even transportation (public or private). How we choose to use the resources at our disposal is where more self-denial may need to be considered.
I have met people who have come to me for money or food with an expensive hairdo, fancy fingernails, a really nice car, or one with detailed work not necessary for basic transportation, while living well within an established bus route. I fully agree that it is their business about how they spend their money. But when they don’t have money for food, for themselves or their children, I see very little self-denial in these professed Christians. Self-denial is not just about how we can spend less on ourselves. Some of our discretionary spending could be used to help someone in more desperate straits than ourselves. This is the Christian self-denial that Jesus speaks of..
The cross we carry is the pain we suffer as we maintain our faith to the very end. This could be any of various terminal sicknesses, a financial debt that we may never be able to overcome, and even the knowledge that we are falsely convicted of something we know we didn’t do. It could also be something that we did do, but are sorry for, and regret for the rest of our lives. God knows our sorrow and feels the pain that our cross puts on us. We are not to deny our cross, but instead, to take it up and bare it. In all of this, for ourselves, or, against ourselves, we must live to love through it, as Jesus loves us.
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, and our schools.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 