“DOWN AND OUT CHRISTIANS”
“Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on holy things but on human things.” 34He 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. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”
– Mark 8:31-35
I’m writing this on Easter Monday. For those who know the Christian story and have taken time to recall the life of Jesus it is easy to conclude…”my… my … my… how things can change so dramatically in just three days!”
The cross is but a memory and the tomb where Jesus was buried is now empty and we share in the amazement of those who went to Jesus’ grave that very first Easter morning only to discover… “God is on the loose!” Faith matters. We all believe in something… so a blessed Easter to you all!
Back in the day when I would meet with Junior High students… to review and deepen our understanding of the Christian faith… using Martin Luther’s catechism… which included responses to the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed… one session we spent some time talking about the 2nd article of the Apostle’s Creed … the part which describes the work of the Son of God… Jesus… who had come down to earth… expressed a fully human life with all the ups and downs you and I experience and that his life and teachings threatened the religious and political leaders of his day and how they colluded together to have him killed… just like he said… and… AND… that very BIG AND of considering the details of crucifixion and how the shape of the cross gave us instruction on how the love of God has come to earth … to each of us… and what we are to do with it…
It was a spirited conversation… as some classes can be better than others… and at this one … as we talked about the shape of the cross… and how the love of God came down to us in Jesus’ life… and how Jesus’ arms were stretched out on that cross to show the world how much he loved each and every one of us… it was noted that the love of God was a love that flowed into us and then out from us… asking questions like “do we keep God’s love to ourselves?” or “what if we close our arms? Does the love of God skip us?” and “what happens when we gather together and collect all the love God has given to all of us and give it away as fast as we can to others?” and “can we ever run out of the love of God?” As I said… this was a spirited group… and one student made this excellent conclusion… saying… “if we were really going to be faithful followers of Jesus… we would need to call ourselves… ‘down and out Christians’…” as the love of God came down to us in Jesus and flowed out from us into the world…
That’s a pretty good theology for a teenager, eh?
It’s Easter Monday… the world was still ablaze. Problems persist. People fight. People die. This is not God’s desire for us. Two thousand years after Easter… too many still have trouble embracing the ways of God and the teachings of Jesus… causing so many to experience a very different kind of “down and out-ness”… yet I remain hopeful.
There are more Jesus followers in the world than ever before … meaning there are more and more people available to pick up their cross and follow in Jesus’ steps embracing a greatness derived from being a servant in whatever corner of God’s kingdom you live…
The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Gigee is a long-time resident of Pearland, having pastored four churches over the last four decades in Texas and Louisiana.
Read more following Brian’s blog ‘murmurings’ at https://briangigee.wordpress.com/. Send comments and/or questions to godworks247365@gmail.com.
