I’m going to approach this statement as somewhat of an equation: deny yourself + take up your cross = follow me. That is, deny yourself, and take up your cross, taken together, is what equates to bring a follower of Jesus. We set aside selfish ways and engage in actions that affirm the lives of others, and we challenge those forces in the world that deny the fullness of life to all God’s children. To be a follower of Jesus Christ involves inner work and outward action, and we do so knowing that it’s not going to be easy.
So: the first element of the equation, Deny yourself.
Self-denial has for centuries been central to the penitential season of Lent, and is a central tenet of most world religions. Emulating the story of Jesus’ fasting for forty days in the wilderness, Christians take this time of year to give up luxuries – no sugar, no chocolate, no booze, no movies, no trips, no unnecessary purchases. This year, in many of our households, including ours, it has also been a time of letting go of our reliance on US produced foodstuffs and travel plans and video streaming services in favour of Canadian alternatives, a process which I have found to be both meaningful and exhausting. Though it’s small-scale, an individual’s choice to “give up something for Lent” can be an important opportunity to go deeper with God, as it frees us from our slavish service of materialism. Self-denial, practiced with our hearts open, leads us away from the blaring allure of the world, and closer to the heart of God. The call to let go of self, as a means of stepping out of the busywork of our lives and into the stillness of the holy, opening our hearts to the essence of life. To this end, the Lenten conversations that Shannon is holding, each Thursday in Lent, help participants to let go of attachments and worries within a community that is committed to go deep with God. Times when we let truly let go of our attachments are God moments, for as our preoccupations are released we come to realize our connectedness with others through our shared Spirit. In those moments the separation between me dissolves, and the command to love others as ourselves takes on an entirely new, organic sense. We love others and they love us, because that’s who we are in Christ; the call to deny ourselves frees us to discover who we really are.
That basic move, away from worldly attachments, toward service of others and worship of God is a good thing, but self-denial can have one particularly nasty spin-off. When someone who is already humble, selfless and generous, and maybe of limited financial means, is coerced into further self-denial by someone who holds power over them, the call by Jesus to deny oneself is twisted into something he does not intend.
In the history of the Church, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox alike, we have been guilty, often, of adding to the challenges of the challenged. Generations of already-burdened people, mostly women, often impoverished, have been handed pious reasons to further deny themselves, sold the lie that it’s what Jesus wants them to do. Ministers, priests, pastors, entire Church communities, have pushed vulnerable people to suck it up and not complain about their lot in life, mirroring the actions of abusive partners and feudal lords and plantation masters. The road of self-denial, which can lead to profound self-discovery if taken voluntarily, can be bent into something harmful and demeaning when used to create guilt among people whose lives are already bowed down by the oppressive weight of another. Our calling to let go and let God, must never be weaponized in this way. At its best, the path of self-denial takes us to a deep, divine place where see ourselves in connection to others, and their needs. As we come to know God with greater depth, we come to realize how interconnected we all are, we embrace the spiritual presence of the Holy that lives in me and in you and between us and beyond us. Christ’s call to set aside the stuff I want in order to see what’s really important, changes who I am. A new willingness to turn away from the bright lights of selfishness and consumerism, opens me to go deep with God.
The second element of the equation, is take up your cross.
I hear these difficult words from Jesus to his closest friends and followers, and almost immediately move to a metaphorical interpretation. To “take up my cross,” taken this way, is to face up to something challenging in my life, and deal with it. Taking up my cross, in a metaphorical sense, is to confront and change the most counter-productive aspects of my life, in the same way that Jesus did not shy away from the hardest aspects of his journey. This, I believe, is part of what Jesus intends with these words, as it goes one step further in the process of denying oneself.
But the call to take up our cross is more than just metaphorical. Speaking to his disciples in a situation of mounting instability, Jesus warns/informs them that their faithful discipleship will point them in exactly the same direction that he was heading: that is, toward a point of conflict with the powers that be, with crucifixion a distinct possibility. Yes, I recognize that whenever we come across scriptures where Jesus is talking about crucifixion, or speaking of himself as the Christ, we are likely reading words heavily edited by his first followers, but those same followers were completely committed to taking up their crosses and going the full distance with him. Not only in a metaphorical way, but in a real, literal, fatal sort of way. They were convinced that everything that Jesus said and did on behalf of the poorest of the poor was more important than anything else they could conceive, and they were as willing to give their lives for that, as Jesus had been.
Regardless of how we perceive the claims of Jesus on an academic or theological level two thousand years later, there was something about this travelling preacher that inspired his face-to-face followers to deny their own lives and take up their cross, to physically proclaim freedom and reconciliation in a context that wanted none of it, and the power of the sacrifices of the early Christian martyrs can never be downplayed.
When we commit ourselves to ways of radical forgiveness; when we reach out in love to those we are told to keep our distance from; when we walk hand-in-hand with those targeted by the powerful and the holier-than-thou, we take up the cross and follow Christ AND we will most certainly make enemies with the people and systems who want things to stay safe and predictable and manageable. And yet, that is our calling, as Church. When we do risky and unpopular things in Christ’s name, we prepare to carry the cross: our cross, his cross. To do so is may bring us into harm’s way – as sanctuary Churches in the US are finding these days - and it is clearly defined as the way we find new life in Christ.
So we return to that equation posed earlier in this sermon: Jesus calls us to an equation of fidelity: to deny ourselves + take up our cross = follow him. Jesus invites us to go deep – to release our ego and the goals the world puts in front of us, and to connect with one another at a level of Holy Love. Jesus invites us to go brave – to understand the depth of love required to truly take up a cross and follow him, to reject the falsehood of judgmentalism, spite and one-upmanship in favour of the resurrection life of forgiveness and reconciliation.
And Jesus, who in last Sunday’s lesson sent out the twelve in his name, two by two, does not intend that these actions of denying self and taking up the cross is not something we do on our own. We have one another, we have the risen Christ who goes before us along with the apostles and martyrs, we have God’s unimaginably deep love, and we have our well-placed hopes for the unfolding of God’s glorious Kin-dom. May this path of denying self and taking up the cross, in the name of Christ Jesus and for the sake of the world, be our path as we seek newness of life. Amen.
For further reading:
CIRA: “How to shop and buy Canadian.” https://www.cira.ca/en/resources/news/domains/how-shop-and-buy-canadian/
Rohr, Richard. “Every Viewpoint is a View from a Point”. Center for Action and Contemplation daily email, Wednesday, February 25, 2015.
World Scripture website, web chapter 18, “offering and sacrifice.” http://origin.org/ucs/ws/theme126.cfm
© Rev. Greg Wooley, Osoyoos-Oliver United Church Pastoral Charge, 2025.
When we commit ourselves to ways of radical forgiveness; when we reach out in love to those we are told to keep our distance from; when we walk hand-in-hand with those targeted by the powerful and the holier-than-thou, we take up the cross and follow Christ AND we will most certainly make enemies with the people and systems who want things to stay safe and predictable and manageable. And yet, that is our calling, as Church. When we do risky and unpopular things in Christ’s name, we prepare to carry the cross: our cross, his cross. To do so is may bring us into harm’s way – as sanctuary Churches in the US are finding these days - and it is clearly defined as the way we find new life in Christ.
So we return to that equation posed earlier in this sermon: Jesus calls us to an equation of fidelity: to deny ourselves + take up our cross = follow him. Jesus invites us to go deep – to release our ego and the goals the world puts in front of us, and to connect with one another at a level of Holy Love. Jesus invites us to go brave – to understand the depth of love required to truly take up a cross and follow him, to reject the falsehood of judgmentalism, spite and one-upmanship in favour of the resurrection life of forgiveness and reconciliation.
And Jesus, who in last Sunday’s lesson sent out the twelve in his name, two by two, does not intend that these actions of denying self and taking up the cross is not something we do on our own. We have one another, we have the risen Christ who goes before us along with the apostles and martyrs, we have God’s unimaginably deep love, and we have our well-placed hopes for the unfolding of God’s glorious Kin-dom. May this path of denying self and taking up the cross, in the name of Christ Jesus and for the sake of the world, be our path as we seek newness of life. Amen.
For further reading:
CIRA: “How to shop and buy Canadian.” https://www.cira.ca/en/resources/news/domains/how-shop-and-buy-canadian/
Rohr, Richard. “Every Viewpoint is a View from a Point”. Center for Action and Contemplation daily email, Wednesday, February 25, 2015.
World Scripture website, web chapter 18, “offering and sacrifice.” http://origin.org/ucs/ws/theme126.cfm
© Rev. Greg Wooley, Osoyoos-Oliver United Church Pastoral Charge, 2025.
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