Sermon given at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
3rd September 2023
Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
Revd Clare Hayns, College Chaplain
Exodus 3. 3-15; Romans 12. 9-21; Matthew 16. 21-28
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me
Matthew 16.24
A couple of weeks ago I joined a group from the Diocese of Oxford, with some students from ChCh to spend a week in Taizé in France. You may have heard of it? It’s a Christian community near Cluny established as a place of peace and ecumenism after the Second World War. It’s now a place of pilgrimage and prayer for thousands of predominantly young people from across Europe. As Chaplain at Christ Church I joined with a small group from the university.
There was much of what you might imagine from being with several thousand 16 – 25-year olds. Late night singing in the bar, some strange game that looked a little like twister on benches, and lots of intense conversations and discussions about issues such as climate change, the challenges of mental health, and sexuality and gender.
Three times a day a bell sounded out and everyone there stopped what they were doing and gathered in the huge hanger-like chapel, joining in with the beautiful chants that are the communities’ particular charism*, and in the middle of which, for 10 minutes three times per day, we all sat in total silence.
The depth of prayer was palpable and hard to describe. We were on holy ground.
And on the Friday, the cross is taken down and laid on the floor in the centre of the chapel, and hundreds of young people silently lined up and then gathered round it, bowing their heads to the wood of the cross, some staying for a few moments, others for a long time.
It was awe-inspiring to see and unexpected, perhaps because we are so often led to believe that young people aren’t interested in faith any more, that the Christian faith is in decline, and that devotion of this kind is something relegated to past times.
I want to share that with you as we reflect on what it means to follow Jesus, to be a Christian, in the light of this mornings’ readings. If we began with the reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans we might think it’s about being good, decent human beings and loving one another. But is there more to it?
Following God might not be quite what we expect.
Rather than starting with Paul I’d like to look at both Moses and Peter and see what these two men can teach us about what it is to follow God. Both men are called for a particular purpose, both argue with the one that calls them, and both are led to a place they least expect.
For Moses, following God’s call means to first encounter God in the awe and holiness of the burning bush. Just before this passage in Exodus, Moses had fled Pharaoh’s palace after having killed an Egyptian in a fight and is now living as a shepherd in the mountains of Horeb. And it’s here on the mountain that he encounters God who reveals himself within the fire of a burning bush and calls him from within the fire. ‘Moses, Moses’. Moses realises he is on holy ground, takes off his sandals and hides his face in awe. And from that position of worship Moses is called to go the very place he’s fled from. He’s to go Pharaoh, to plead for the freedom of the Israelites and to lead them into that freedom.
His reaction? He reminds God that he’s just a normal human being:
who am I that I should go
Exodus 3.11
He later argues that he’s not eloquent enough, he doesn’t know what to say, and that he won’t be believed. All his pleas are simply answered with:
I will be with you
Exodus 3.12
For Moses, following God’s call was to first encounter God, and to then be prepared to obey the call to lead the Jews into freedom and away from their oppression.
Following God might not be quite what we expect.
For Simon Peter, following Jesus had been going pretty well until this point. In the passage directly before this Peter had been on his own personal mountain-top. He had publicly recognised Jesus to be the Messiah, and as a result Jesus had given him a new name ‘the rock’, a new mission ‘on this rock I will be build my church’, and he had even been promised the keys to the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16. 13-19). He must have been riding high.
And so can blame him that when Jesus starts talking about imminent suffering and death that Peter strongly objects:
God forbid it Lord! This must never happen to you
Matthew 16.22
Suffering and death wasn’t part of Peter’s plan for this Messiah he had found. Surely Jesus was going to save the Jewish people and lead them into freedom from the oppressors of the day. Surely Jesus would be like Moses and would lead them into a promised land.
But this wasn’t God’s plan. And for speaking up like this Peter the rock, had suddenly become Peter the stumbling block. Jesus even calls him a Satan, rebuking him strongly with ‘Get behind me, Satan’. We often think that Jesus here is calling Peter the Devil, but that’s not quite right. A Satan (here it is a noun not a proper name) is better translated as ‘the adversary’. A Satan is someone who opposes, normally an opponent in a court setting. Peter at this time was opposing Jesus. Peter was standing in Jesus’ way, being like the tempter in the desert.
And so for this Jesus rebukes him with ‘get behind me’. In the light of what Jesus then goes on to say about following him I wonder if Jesus’ rebuke to Peter is a reminder to Peter that he needs to follow BEHIND Jesus, rather than from in front of him.
Following God might not be quite what we expect.
For Peter, following Jesus would eventually lead to glory and a promised land, the kingdom of heaven, but the way to that wasn’t what he expected at all. The way was through a Messiah who suffered, who denied self, who was taken through the streets of Jerusalem with a cross on his back, and who was nailed to that cross.
So, what does all this mean for us?
Following God might not be quite what we expect.
I think it’s unlikely any of us will be called like Moses to speak to an oppressive ruler to liberate a captive people. Or will be called, like Peter, to be the foundation of the Church.
So what does following Jesus’ way mean for ordinary people like us, with ordinary lives, ordinary struggles and ordinary challenges that come our way?
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Matthew 16.24
To ‘deny yourself’ doesn’t mean forgetting about yourself, debasing yourself, or being a doormat for others to walk on. But it does mean putting Jesus first which is practice means not putting ourselves at the centre of everything, and putting others’ needs before our own.
One of the nation’s favourite songs for funeral services is Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’. You know the verse:
‘And more, much much more, I did it my way’.
It is the direct opposite of this! We are not called to do it our way, we are called to do it Jesus’ way.
We are not alone. Jesus led the way for us. Jesus denied himself, refused to be tempted by Peter away from his call, and took up his cross, and with it he took all that is painful, sinful, wrong with the world, and it was nailed with him on that cross.
That is what I think I was seeing when I watched all those young people on their knees at the cross in the Taize Chapel. They were connecting their own story with God’s story. And from that place of reverence and awe, they, like each one of us, were sent out to live. To live lives shaped by the cross.
And this is why we end with Romans 12 rather than begin there. Because this passage in Romans is a wonderful description of what denying self, taking up our cross and following God looks like.
It looks like ‘genuine love’, honouring one another, persevering in prayer, and living lives of radical hospitality.
So, when it comes to following God what should we expect?
Like Moses, we should expect God to challenge our view of ourselves in light of His call.
Like Peter, we should be challenged to set aside our own fixed ideas of who Jesus is.
And we should expect to live radical lives of service as a result, in the knowlege that Jesus is with us walking ahead of us on the way.
Amen
* This chant ‘Herre, visa mig vägen’, was a favorite of our group.
Consider the Lilies - Clare Hayns 