“TAKE UP
YOUR CROSS”
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A sermon preached at the Mint Methodist Church,
Exeter, by the Minister, Readings: Mark
8:27-37 Right: Fr Damien 1888 |
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Hymns: Ye Servants of God (278)
He’s Got the whole wide
world
How deep the Father’s love
for us
From Heaven you came (The Servant
King)
Lord. Thy Church on earth
is seeking (774)
"If
anyone would come after me,
he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.
(Mk 8:34-5)
It has been a joy for us to welcome Damion
in baptism today.
Let me tell you about another Damien –
this Damien was born in 1840 –
he became a Catholic Priest and went to work in Hawaii.
The big problem in Hawaii at that time was
leprosy –
there were many many cases in the islands, and no
known cure.
A brutal solution was implemented by the
government.
In 1868 a leper colony was established
on the remote and inaccessible Hawaian island of
Molokai.
By law Hawaiians suffering from the disease
were forcibly snatched from their families
and sent into exile on this island.
Conditions on the island were horrific.
Patients were literally dumped in the surf
and left to make their own way to the shore,
seek shelter in caves or squalid shacks
Fr Damien went to work on this island.
He set about giving the inhabitants of the
island
a sense of their own dignity and worth.
First he brought dignity back to death and
created a graveyard.
Then he built a Church just leaving the dead
He helped the people build new clean house
The community was transformed
from a desperate staging post on the road to death
into a joyful and positive community.
Fr Damien worked alongside those with leprosy,
identified with them, tended their wounds.
He always spoke not of “you lepers” but “we lepers”
Eventually those words took on a new meaning –
Damien himself inevitably caught leprosy.
He re-doubled his efforts to help his people -
Now he had to stay on the island by law –
and did so until his death there in 1889.
Source:
“All Saints”Robert Ellsberg, Crossroad Publishing New
York 1997
On a day we baptize our Damion,
it seemed a good day to tell the story of this saintly man
who shares his name.
His life really sums up what Jesus is talking about
when he says if you want to be a follower of mine,
you need to be prepared to take up your cross-
When Jesus went to the cross,
he was showing that he loved us so much
that he would stay with us and share with us, whatever it took –
suffering alongside us, even dying with us.
And that is just what Damien of Molokai did.
And Jesus says – if you will really give yourself to others in
love -
if you are prepared to suffer and even if need be die -
then you will find out what it really means to live –
and who knows what God may not do through you then??
This is what Father Damien discovered -
just what God could do through his life of love and self giving.
This of course is a challenge not just for baby Damion,
but for all of us
There has been a lot written this week
about the 5th Anniversary of 9/11.
One article in particular caught my eye.
It talked about the growing number of terrorist cells around the world –
a relatively small number of people without huge material resources,
yet with the potential to influence the whole of world history.
The article went on to comment (as some of us
might)
fairly scathingly about the so called war on terror.
Then it said this –
“But if the terrorists can change the world, why can’t we?
If a small number of dedicated young men can gather
like clandestine home groups to make their plans,
can’t a network of Christ’s followers
plot a disarming campaign in response?
One that is sweeping in its scale, creative in its scope,
daring in its execution and positive in
its effect?”
[The opposite of
terror by Brian Draper]
There isn’t the time here to explore all the politics
of the political response to terrorism –
we’ve done that before and will doubtless do so again -
But is worth noting how much one man could do on Molokai
without a sword or a weapon –
just going in to love people, value them,
give them a sense of their worth, and get alongside them
even if it meant sharing the trials of their life
and the certainly of their death.
When we are baptised we receive God’s blessing
and the power of his Spirit –
that is what God gives baby Damion today.
There really is no limit to what God can do with us in his power
if we will be let him..
But we need to commit ourselves totally.
There is a true story told about Ivan the Great,
who was ruler of the Russian empire
at the end of the 15th Century.
Ivan wanted to marry the daughter of the King of Greece.
But to do this he had to become a Christian.
So it was arranged that Ivan would be baptised
by priests of the Greek Orthodox Church.
But not just Ivan –
he presented himself for baptism with 500 members o
f his Royal Bodyguard, also seeking Christian Baptism.
So this amazing scene was enacted.
The tradition was for baptism in the river by total immersion,
so 500 Priests prepared to go down into the water
to baptize Ivan and his 500 men.
But then there was a last minute hitch.
The soldiers carried their swords,
but the Church said that you had to renounce force and weapons
before being blessed and baptised.
What could be done?
Well after much diplomatic coming and going,
a rather uneasy compromise was reached.
All the 500 soldiers went down into the water to be
baptised,
and the 500 priests went with them to perform the rite.
But just before being plunged under the water,
each soldier drew his sword and held it high above his head,
keeping it out of the water.
Then each soldier was immersed in the water –
everything that is except the fighting arm and the sword,
which remained above the water and unbaptised.
Dr. Wayne Dehoney, Walnut Street Baptist Church, The
Pulpit
I wonder
how many of us when we commit ourselves to God
leave one bit behind – the unbaptised arm, the unbaptised part of our life?
If we
really committed ourselves to love all God’s children,
to get alongside those in need, to give our lives to
help them –
who knows how God might use us?
When we
bring a child for baptism,
we ask for the blessing of God’s Holy Spirit on the child –
and on his parents and godparents
that they may have the strength and love and wisdom to guide the child.
We pray
the God will fill that child with his love
and that that child may become a powerhouse for love and peace and justice….
So we
welcome Damion today.
And pray
that – in his own way - he will change the world
And what
we ask for him, we ask for ourselves –
that we may be filled with the spirit,
committed to do God’s work, and transform the world.
In so doing
we seek to follow in the path
of the Saints who have gone before us.
This Friday we gave special thanks
for the life of Douglas Brown at his funeral service.
We remembered the lives he had touched.
We
read from Romans 8
“For I am sure, that
neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So today
we remember all who have gone before us –
·
Peter
and Andrew and James and John
·
Fr
Damien and all the Saints of old
·
Douglas
and all God’s people we have known here
who have gone on to glory before us
So we
hear God’s call to be one of their number:
Follow
me, and like the Saints before you:
·
I
will give you the power of my Spirit
Follow
me, and like the Saints before you:
·
I
will want you to change the world
Follow
me, and like the Saints before you:
·
I
will give you life eternal.”
I pray
that Damion as he grows,
and each and every one of us,
may answer that call.