Pentecost 16 - 1 Timothy 1:12-17

God's Patience in Me

I stand before you this morning as nothing more than an example of God's patience and faithfulness. I am a sinner through to the core – sin lives in my body and wants nothing more than to tear me away from the life of faith that God has called me to live. But God has taken me in my sin and washed me clean from my sin. He has robed me in garments of righteousness and he has set me before you to be a pastor in his church. He has sanctified my heart, my mind and my mouth so that I can preach and proclaim God's Holy Word of forgiveness and so that you can know for certain that this forgiveness is for you. The fact that there is a pastor, that there is any pastor, who serves in your church is nothing but by the grace and the mercy and the love of God.

God's Patience in all of us – Our Unworthiness

This is the message today – this day that we place into service our called teachers as well as our contracted teachers. The day that these servants of God and of this congregation pledge themselves to serve your children faithfully and in accord with sound doctrine. This is the message as each one of us considers our service to God and His Holy church here in this place. There is work to be done. There are people to do it. We might be miserable examples of Christian love and faithfulness yet God himself has called us to follow him and each of us in our own way are called to do the work that he has set out before us as examples of God's grace, his faithfulness, his mercy, and his almighty power. Amen.

We are all unfit for God's Service

As we read in our text this morning, this was Paul's message to Timothy the young pastor and protege of the Apostle Paul. Paul was writing to Timothy to encourage him to be faithful in his service as a pastor to the church in Ephesus. The congregation at Ephesus was challenged by false teachers and therefore false doctrines. There were sure to be detractors to Timothy's ministry. There were sure to be those who would try to undermine his authority and undermine his message. These sorts of attacks are likely to cause one's confidence to waiver. “What am I doing here?” Timothy might have thought. “What right do I have to serve? I am not up the task. They should find someone else who is better suited to this job.”

We have all felt this way at some time or another. There are always times that our confidence waivers. There are always times that we feel intimidated by the task laid out before us. There are always times that we look at the abilities of those around us and feel inadequate to the job.

Sometimes this happens in the work place or perhaps at school – you feel less capable than your co-workers or classmates. Sometimes it happens at home: you feel unfit and unqualified as a parent, perhaps to teach and instruct your children in the Christian faith or you feel inept when it comes to getting your children to behave the way you know they should. Sometimes we feel unqualified as husbands and wives – husbands at times feel that they don't have what it takes to provide for their wives. Wives at times feel they can't meet the needs of their husbands.”

Sometimes we feel that way at church. We might say, “I can't serve in any positions at church, I can't be an elder, a chairman of some board. I am not qualified to serve in that position. What do I know? What do I have to contribute?”

And then, sometimes teachers feel that way in their class rooms. Sometimes pastors feel that way in their pulpits.

God's Call – Serve Me by Serving Each Other

Despite how we feel about what we are gifted to accomplish, each one of us has been called by God to his service. Timothy was called to be a pastor. This morning we are highlighting those who have been called to be elementary school teachers. Each one of us have received from God a job to do. A work of service to perform. We carry out that service to each other. Did you know that we serve God by serving each other? After all, If God is truly able to do anything should we think that he needs our help to preach and teach, to paint and vacuum and clean, to attend meetings, to lead meetings, to witness, to teach our children, to make plans and decisions or to meet our annual budget? God is capable of accomplishing these things by himself. God does not need our help. Our neighbors however do. Your children need parents to love them and care for them and teach them. God has given you to them to provide this for them. Union County Ohio needs to hear the true message of Jesus spoken to them so he has created ST Paul Lutheran Church as a place where the residents of Union County and Madison County can come to receive that gift from God. The parents of St Paul Church as well as residents from the surrounding community need a school where they can send their children to learn about the world that God has made so he has given St Paul Lutheran School so that children can come here to learn.

And so that St Paul church and school can exist it needs lights and walls and pews and hymnals and bible heaters and windows not to mention desks and chalkboards and text books and people to care for these things and pay for them and maintain them. It needs people to serve on its boards and committees. It needs teachers to fill its classrooms. It needs a pastor to preach from its pulpit. God has given these tasks to us so that we can serve him by serving each other.

God's Faithfulness demonstrated in Paul

And guess what – each one of us is totally unqualified to do the job. We are unfit to be servants in God's church. That was Paul's message to young Timothy as he was doing his best to scrape by as a pastor thrust into the challenge of pastoring the Christians in Ephesus. He was young. He was inexperienced. He was (of himself) unqualified and unfit for the task given to him. And worse than any of those things Timothy was a sinner. But God gave this task to him and God would support him as he fulfilled this task. Paul knew this to be true – after all he had personally experienced it.

To help Timothy understand God's faithfulness, Paul uses himself as an example. If Timothy considered himself to be unfit – just imagine how much less was Paul fit to serve as an apostle. After all, look at his track record. Paul was at one time a murderer of Christians. He was an sworn enemy to Jesus and to all who professed faith in the name of Jesus. He hunted them down. He arrested them. He threw them into prisons. He beat them. He refers to himself in our text as a “blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent.” “But,” Paul says, “I received mercy. I was ignorant. I was hardened in my sin. I was an enemy of the Gospel of God. But God chose me. God made him his servant. God demonstrated his divine power in that he turned me around. He made me a public spectacle of His mercy when he broke my will and turned it so that I now follow him.”

Paul was fit to be an apostle because Jesus chose him. Jesus selected him when he was still a murderous enemy of His church and Jesus himself came to him and confronted him. Jesus himself knocked Paul to the ground. Jesus humbled him, reducing him to nothing. Jesus rebuilt him. Jesus used him to be the famous apostle who is responsible for evangelizing the Roman empire and writing the better part of the New Testament. This man who accomplished so much as a servant of God was unfit to the task. He was, at his own admission, the chief of sinners. Yet God in his great and unsearchable mercy made Paul into the vessel of honor that produced such a bountiful harvest for the kingdom of God.

That perfect patience that was at work in the apostle Paul is now at work here among us. Here at St Paul Lutheran Church, (the congregation that bears witness to the name of the apostle who was formerly a murderer and blasphemer and enemy of God), right here Jesus is again displaying that perfect patience. He is again displaying that mercy and love. He is again displaying his almighty power.

Jesus has taken you and he has taken me, when we were still in our sin. He called us out of that sin and into a life of faith. Even though you and I are chief of sinners, even though we are miserable failures at leading a life of perfect righteousness, he has redeemed us from those failures and from sin. He with his blood has bought us from the judgment that we deserved. He in his mercy has chosen to look past the many sins and failures that we are responsible for committing. Instead of seeing us as sinners he has counted us as righteous. The sin is gone, the slate is clean and we are ready and prepared to live life as servants of Jesus and as servants to each other.

And having been thus prepared we have been called to serve. We have been called to be fathers and mothers - teachers of the Word of God in our homes. We have been called to be pastor, teachers in a Lutheran Day school, teachers in the local public schools. We have been called to be farmers, factory workers, engineers, managers, accountants, medical assistants, nurses, students. We have been called to be elders, school board members, trustees, out reach or stewardship committee members, treasurers, congregational chairman or vice-chairman, and so on and so forth. Each unfit for the task given to us. But each one equipped and made ready for service to God and to our neighbor through the almighty power of God who loves us and who loves this world that he has created and who cares for this world using our hearts, hands, and voices.

This morning as our teachers pledge themselves to the work that they will do in our classrooms this year. We thank God for them and for their service. As they promise to do their work, we have the opportunity to make that same promise before God. As we are here in His house we can each quietly in our hearts pledge ourselves to serve our God joyfully and gratefully because of how he has s served us. We can devote ourselves to the jobs he has called us to do and understand that as we are serving each other we are ultimately serving the One who has called us to faith and who has sealed us in that faith through the blood of His Son Jesus. We serve in His name, even as he has served us. We will continue to serve God and our neighbor because of the immeasurable grace and patience and love and forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pentecost 15 - Luke 14

In our gospel text Jesus makes the radical statement that unless someone take up his cross and come after him he cannot be a disciple of Jesus. Prior to that statement he mentioned the need to hate your father or mother, your brothers or sisters, your wife and children, even your own life for the sake of Jesus. Immediately following this command to take up your cross he talks about counting the cost to make certain you have the means to fulfill what you set out to do. Clearly the cost of following Jesus, the cost of being his disciple is high. Following Jesus will cost you everything you have. Jesus' message to those who would come after him, to follow him was discipleship was costly. A true believer in Jesus, one who truly walked in the path of Jesus was one who would surrender everything in the name of Jesus, was one who would even lay down her life in the name of Jesus.

These days discipleship, being a follower of Jesus, has been downgraded to a philosophy, it is something that you might adopt or adapt to help you achieve your goals and to be successful. The cross for many today is only a symbol. For some it is an abstract sign for love. For others it means sacrifice. I once worked with a man who was into new age mysticism and he thought that the cross was an astrological symbol in the stars – a symbol of cosmic love and good will. Jesus and his listeners knew nothing of this. They would not have associated the cross with anything like cosmic good will or a symbol for love and acceptance. The only crosses they knew were the ones that were used to execute and murder their countrymen. They saw crosses every day. Every Jew who made his way into Jerusalem would walk by the place of execution. At times there was one or two. At times there were 20. They saw people on those crosses nailed to them, suffering on them, and dying from them. They saw enemies of the Roman state carrying their crosses to their place of execution. For Jesus' audience, for the people who would have been listening to him make this statement, to take up your cross meant that you were choosing the hill that you were going to die on. To them there was no pleasant association for a cross. For them, the cross meant only death.

And here in our Gospel reading Jesus says unless you take up your cross, Jesus says unless you die with me and beside me you will never be my disciple. There is no cheap salvation. There is only the costly and the precious, the expensive. We must renounce everything we have and everything we are. Discipleship. True discipleship would have nothing else.

As disciples of Jesus, we have a cross to bear. We carry the cross of Jesus. Last week we sang the hymn “Lift High the Cross, the Love of Christ Proclaim” we bear the cross to proclaim it. But more than that we bear the cross that requires of us our lives. We bear a cross that will ultimately give us our life more fully than you could ever have it on your own.

There are many crosses that people carry these days. Crosses, after all have become quite popular. You can buy them made out of chocolate to pass out to children. You can buy them on racks of costume jewelry to wear as a statement of fashion. They are printed on t shirts. Hung on thick chains around the necks of musicians. Tattooed on the biceps of pro athletes. This past week I saw a customized motorcycle that had mirrors styled to look like crosses. People have gotten into the habit of taking up crosses – but so often they are crosses that are of their own making.

The cross of Jesus was by no means stylish or hip or even edgy. The cross of Jesus was a cross of death, of punishment and penalty. It was a cross of execution. Jesus took up his cross because he intended to die on it. Jesus intended to die for the sins of the world. The cross of Jesus was a cross of execution and judgment handed down by the almighty God as the penalty for the sins of the entire human race. Our sins were piled high on the shoulders of Jesus and he carried the entire weight with him to that cross so that he could accept the punishment for every last person and so that we could be set free from our guilt and so that the outstanding debt between you and me and God could be paid. Jesus took up his cross in love and in mercy and in grace to spare us from the judgment that we otherwise were destined for. Jesus knew that he was destined for this cross. He willingly took it up and carried its weight every step of the way for you and for me.

And then he called us. Just as he called Peter and John and Andrew and all the others, he came to us and he called us to be his disciples. To sit at his feet and listen to his Word. To hear his voice and follow him where he leads us. We have been called to discipleship and faith. And this discipleship involves a cross. Just as Jesus was on his way to the cross to die for the sins of the world he calls us to follow him to that cross, to be relieved of our sins at His cross, but then to carry the cross that is laid upon each one of us as we follow him. He calls us accept this cross with all of its weight and with all of its indignity and with all of its pain and he simply follow him. The way of the cross is not an easy road to follow.

The way of the cross is a way of sacrifice. All of the things that would get in the way of following Jesus must be stripped away. We can love nothing more than Jesus. Not wealth or power, not pride or sex. Not even your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your wife or husband your son or your daughter. Not even your self. You must surrender even your own life to carry your cross. The way of the cross is the way of death.

This morning young Jackson Burns was set on this way of death. This morning he was set on the way of the cross. In the book of Romans Paul tells us that we are baptized with Jesus into his death. We are baptized into the cross of Jesus. Through baptism we die to ourselves, to our sin, to our former way of life and we are baptized into the new life of holiness and righteousness. This is a path of suffering. This is a path that leads us to die every day.

We don't want to die. We are told that we should not have to die. We are told that whatever impulses and urges we have we should not feel that need to repress these things, we should be allowed to simply be who we are. The trouble however is that who we are is sinful. Our lives, our hearts, our choices and decisions are all filled with sin. We cannot simply be okay with sin. Sin must be laid at the foot of the cross so that it can die with Jesus.

The church at times seems to forget this. There are of course the times that the church begins to agree with the world around it and to excuse sin as natural expressions of God's created order. The church at times will pretend that as long as we show love and acceptance to all people than there are no sinful lifestyles or choices. This is contrary to the word of God. We know that. But there are also times that the church, while it may remember to condemn the sin, it forgets that this sin is to be laid at the feet of Jesus. The church often rails against these sins and condemns those who struggle with them. But the church forgets that it is called to reach out to sinners in love, in forgiveness and in support. So often sinners of different stripes are left to themselves to carry their struggles with sin and temptation and are left to carry by themselves the weight of this burden.

For example, take the young man who struggles with feelings of homosexuality – He may know that these feelings are wrong, he may know that it is sin, but he is bombarded and inundated with messages of acceptance from the world around him, he is pressured to accept himself for who he is and come out, declaring his lifestyle and demanding acceptance. This is a heavy weight to carry. This is a heavy burden to bear. Just as you and I must put to death our own sins so does this young man. Just as you and I need to confess and repent of our sins so does this young man. Just as you and I need to hear that Jesus has died for our sin so does this man. Just as you and I need the help and support of our brothers and sisters in Christ, so does this man.

Or what about the Christian brother or sister who has gone through a divorce. We know that divorce is sin, but why is it that often those who have experienced the pain of a broken relationship have that pain compounded by the feeling that they cannot go to church. Why is it that they fear the judgment and stares of those who should reach out to them in love. Why is it that instead of help and support we offer only advice or criticism.

Yes, to carry our cross means to put to death our sinful flesh. Yes to lift high the cross of Christ is to remember that God takes sin seriously, to remember that God reserves judgment for sin. But to lift high the cross is to remember that all of that judgment has been given to Jesus. All of our sin, that we struggle with, that we are tempted to give into that we are reminded of every time we look in the mirror has been crucified with Christ.

The cross of Christ carried all sin. It put to death all sin. The cross of Christ promised and guaranteed forgiveness for all people from all walks of life in all struggles with all types and all brands of sin. The cross of Christ calls us to repent of our sin. It calls us to a life that moves out of sin and it is a life that calls us to put to death our sinful urges and our sinful judgments. Let us keep in mind that Christ has died for the sins of others just as much as he has died for ours. Let us keep in mind that every one of us would have a cross to die on had it not been for the fact that Jesus got there before we had to.

As we talk about taking up our crosses and following Jesus as his disciples is that with our crosses can be quite heavy. They are in fact too heavy. These crosses that Jesus calls us to take up and carry weigh far more than what we are able to lift. Even when we try. Even when we pick it up, place it on our back and begin to head up the hill with it, it becomes more than what we can handle.

Every Christian who is honest with himself is sure to know this. As hard as we try, as much as we work hard to do what's right, to put to death our sinful selves, to carry our crosses, they slip through our fingers and roll back down the hill. Before you know it we have to head back down, pick it up and start all over again. It just seems like it is so hard to make any progress. It seems like it is so hard to get any better. As we examine ourselves it seems that we see only sin.

But that is the blessed assurance that is ours in the cross of Jesus. In the cross of Jesus it doesn't matter how far we are able to carry our cross. It doesn't matter how high up the hill we can trudge/ with it still in our arms. It doesn't matter how many times we drop it and have to start over again. Our cross is already at the top of the hill. Our hands and our feet are already nailed to it. Our blood is already flowing from our hands and feet and side and scalp and back because Jesus is there for us. We can get so easily discouraged and frustrated as we struggle against our sin and strive for our own righteousness. Yet there is no need. Because of Jesus there is no need.

As we struggle with our crosses, as we drop it yet again and head back down the hill we are not struggling alone. Your brother in Christ is struggling beside you. He is fighting his sin and temptation. You can help him to carry his cross. You can lift up his hands. You can proclaim to him the forgiveness of Jesus.

Your sister in Christ is struggling to drag her cross up one more step, you can carry her burden. Just as Jesus has carried your cross for your, you can carry hers for her. You can reach out to her in love. You can reach out to her in care and support.

Do you have a cross to bear? As one who has been baptized into the death of Jesus, you better believe it. It is a cross that will cost your your life and will make you pay more than what you could even afford. Do you have what it takes to go the distance? Not even close. You will drop your burden. You will misplace your cross you will get waylayed on your way up to the top. But Jesus is already there. He has already paid the price. He has already died your death. Now you go and died that death for your neighbor.

15th Sunday after Pentecost - Luke 14:25ff

In our gospel text Jesus makes the radical statement that unless someone take up his cross and come after him he cannot be a disciple of Jesus. Prior to that statement he mentioned the need to hate your father or mother, your brothers or sisters, your wife and children, even your own life for the sake of Jesus. Immediately following this command to take up your cross he talks about counting the cost to make certain you have the means to fulfill what you set out to do. Clearly the cost of following Jesus, the cost of being his disciple is high. Following Jesus will cost you everything you have. Jesus' message to those who would come after him, to follow him was discipleship was costly. A true believer in Jesus, one who truly walked in the path of Jesus was one who would surrender everything in the name of Jesus, was one who would even lay down her life in the name of Jesus.

These days discipleship, being a follower of Jesus, has been downgraded to a philosophy, it is something that you might adopt or adapt to help you achieve your goals and to be successful. The cross for many today is only a symbol. For some it is an abstract sign for love. For others it means sacrifice. I once worked with a man who was into new age mysticism and he thought that the cross was an astrological symbol in the stars – a symbol of cosmic love and good will. Jesus and his listeners knew nothing of this. They would not have associated the cross with anything like cosmic good will or a symbol for love and acceptance. The only crosses they knew were the ones that were used to execute and murder their countrymen. They saw crosses every day. Every Jew who made his way into Jerusalem would walk by the place of execution. At times there was one or two. At times there were 20. They saw people on those crosses nailed to them, suffering on them, and dying from them. They saw enemies of the Roman state carrying their crosses to their place of execution. For Jesus' audience, for the people who would have been listening to him make this statement, to take up your cross meant that you were choosing the hill that you were going to die on. To them there was no pleasant association for a cross. For them, the cross meant only death.

And here in our Gospel reading Jesus says unless you take up your cross, Jesus says unless you die with me and beside me you will never be my disciple. There is no cheap salvation. There is only the costly and the precious, the expensive. We must renounce everything we have and everything we are. Discipleship. True discipleship would have nothing else.

As disciples of Jesus, we have a cross to bear. We carry the cross of Jesus. Last week we sang the hymn “Lift High the Cross, the Love of Christ Proclaim” we bear the cross to proclaim it. But more than that we bear the cross that requires of us our lives. We bear a cross that will ultimately give us our life more fully than you could ever have it on your own.

There are many crosses that people carry these days. Crosses, after all have become quite popular. You can buy them made out of chocolate to pass out to children. You can buy them on racks of costume jewelry to wear as a statement of fashion. They are printed on t shirts. Hung on thick chains around the necks of musicians. Tattooed on the biceps of pro athletes. This past week I saw a customized motorcycle that had mirrors styled to look like crosses. People have gotten into the habit of taking up crosses – but so often they are crosses that are of their own making.

The cross of Jesus was by no means stylish or hip or even edgy. The cross of Jesus was a cross of death, of punishment and penalty. It was a cross of execution. Jesus took up his cross because he intended to die on it. Jesus intended to die for the sins of the world. The cross of Jesus was a cross of execution and judgment handed down by the almighty God as the penalty for the sins of the entire human race. Our sins were piled high on the shoulders of Jesus and he carried the entire weight with him to that cross so that he could accept the punishment for every last person and so that we could be set free from our guilt and so that the outstanding debt between you and me and God could be paid. Jesus took up his cross in love and in mercy and in grace to spare us from the judgment that we otherwise were destined for. Jesus knew that he was destined for this cross. He willingly took it up and carried its weight every step of the way for you and for me.

And then he called us. Just as he called Peter and John and Andrew and all the others, he came to us and he called us to be his disciples. To sit at his feet and listen to his Word. To hear his voice and follow him where he leads us. We have been called to discipleship and faith. And this discipleship involves a cross. Just as Jesus was on his way to the cross to die for the sins of the world he calls us to follow him to that cross, to be relieved of our sins at His cross, but then to carry the cross that is laid upon each one of us as we follow him. He calls us accept this cross with all of its weight and with all of its indignity and with all of its pain and he simply follow him. The way of the cross is not an easy road to follow.

The way of the cross is a way of sacrifice. All of the things that would get in the way of following Jesus must be stripped away. We can love nothing more than Jesus. Not wealth or power, not pride. Not even your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your wife or husband your son or your daughter. Not even your self. You must surrender even your own life to carry your cross. The way of the cross is the way of death.

This morning young Jackson Burns was set on this way of death. This morning he was set on the way of the cross. In the book of Romans Paul tells us that we are baptized with Jesus into his death. We are baptized into the cross of Jesus. Through baptism we die to ourselves, to our sin, to our former way of life and we are baptized into the new life of holiness and righteousness. This is a path of suffering. This is a path that leads us to die every day.

We don't want to die. We are told that we should not have to die. We are told that whatever impulses and urges we have we should not feel that need to repress these things, we should be allowed to simply be who we are. The trouble however is that who we are is sinful. Our lives, our hearts, our choices and decisions are all filled with sin. We cannot simply be okay with sin. Sin must be laid at the foot of the cross so that it can die with Jesus.

The church at times seems to forget this. There are of course the times that the church begins to agree with the world around it and to excuse sin as natural expressions of God's created order. The church at times will pretend that as long as we show love and acceptance to all people than there are no sinful lifestyles or choices. This is contrary to the word of God. We know that. But there are also times that the church, while it may remember to condemn the sin, it forgets that this sin is to be laid at the feet of Jesus. The church often rails against these sins and condemns those who struggle with them. But the church forgets that it is called to reach out to sinners in love, in forgiveness and in support. So often sinners of different stripes are left to themselves to carry their struggles with sin and temptation and are left to carry by themselves the weight of this burden.

For example, take the young man who struggles with feelings of homosexuality – He may know that these feelings are wrong, he may know that it is sin, but he is bombarded and inundated with messages of acceptance from the world around him, he is pressured to accept himself for who he is and come out, declaring his lifestyle and demanding acceptance. This is a heavy weight to carry. This is a heavy burden to bear. Just as you and I must put to death our own sins so does this young man. Just as you and I need to confess and repent of our sins so does this young man. Just as you and I need to hear that Jesus has died for our sin so does this man. Just as you and I need the help and support of our brothers and sisters in Christ, so does this man.

Or what about the Christian brother or sister who has gone through a divorce. We know that divorce is sin, but why is it that often those who have experienced the pain of a broken relationship have that pain compounded by the feeling that they cannot go to church. Why is it that they fear the judgment and stares of those who should reach out to them in love. Why is it that instead of help and support we offer only advice or criticism.

Yes, to carry our cross means to put to death our sinful flesh. Yes to lift high the cross of Christ is to remember that God takes sin seriously, to remember that God reserves judgment for sin. But to lift high the cross is to remember that all of that judgment has been given to Jesus. All of our sin, that we struggle with, that we are tempted to give into that we are reminded of every time we look in the mirror has been crucified with Christ.

The cross of Christ carried all sin. It put to death all sin. The cross of Christ promised and guaranteed forgiveness for all people from all walks of life in all struggles with all types and all brands of sin. The cross of Christ calls us to repent of our sin. It calls us to a life that moves out of sin and it is a life that calls us to put to death our sinful urges and our sinful judgments. Let us keep in mind that Christ has died for the sins of others just as much as he has died for ours. Let us keep in mind that every one of us would have a cross to die on had it not been for the fact that Jesus got there before we had to.

As we talk about taking up our crosses and following Jesus as his disciples is that with our crosses can be quite heavy. They are in fact too heavy. These crosses that Jesus calls us to take up and carry weigh far more than what we are able to lift. Even when we try. Even when we pick it up, place it on our back and begin to head up the hill with it, it becomes more than what we can handle.

Every Christian who is honest with himself is sure to know this. As hard as we try, as much as we work hard to do what's right, to put to death our sinful selves, to carry our crosses, they slip through our fingers and roll back down the hill. Before you know it we have to head back down, pick it up and start all over again. It just seems like it is so hard to make any progress. It seems like it is so hard to get any better. As we examine ourselves it seems that we see only sin.

But that is the blessed assurance that is ours in the cross of Jesus. In the cross of Jesus it doesn't matter how far we are able to carry our cross. It doesn't matter how high up the hill we can trudge/ with it still in our arms. It doesn't matter how many times we drop it and have to start over again. Our cross is already at the top of the hill. Our hands and our feet are already nailed to it. Our blood is already flowing from our hands and feet and side and scalp and back because Jesus is there for us. We can get so easily discouraged and frustrated as we struggle against our sin and strive for our own righteousness. Yet there is no need. Because of Jesus there is no need.

As we struggle with our crosses, as we drop it yet again and head back down the hill we are not struggling alone. Your brother in Christ is struggling beside you. He is fighting his sin and temptation. You can help him to carry his cross. You can lift up his hands. You can proclaim to him the forgiveness of Jesus.

Your sister in Christ is struggling to drag her cross up one more step, you can carry her burden. Just as Jesus has carried your cross for your, you can carry hers for her. You can reach out to her in love. You can reach out to her in care and support.

Do you have a cross to bear? As one who has been baptized into the death of Jesus, you better believe it. It is a cross that will cost your your life and will make you pay more than what you could even afford. Do you have what it takes to go the distance? Not even close. You will drop your burden. You will misplace your cross you will get waylayed on your way up to the top. But Jesus is already there. He has already paid the price. He has already died your death. Now you go and died that death for your neighbor.

Amen.