Latest / St. Paul Podcast / Take It Easy 8.30.26

Transcript

Take It Easy 8.30.26 · St. Paul Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone and welcome to the St.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Mark Neethammer, senior pastor at St.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Lutheran Church, located in Davenport, Iowa, part of the Greater Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right here, each week, you will find beautiful music and a message of hope and good news to guide your life.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I am hopeful that this podcast can inspire you and help you on your journey of faith as you grow in love and trust in our God.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard someone say that?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's a reference to the reading we'll hear in just a moment.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells his followers that if any want to really follow him, they must take up their cross and follow.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: For ages this phrase has meant willingly taking on suffering in order to show one's devotion to God.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now we all know that life isn't perfect, nor is it ever really easy, but this notion that we must simply accept suffering for the sake of suffering, or suffering as some sort of virtue, is not a good idea.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a more faithful way to read this passage than simply saying that the hardships of life, all of them, no matter how heinous, are good.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: So take a listen to the story and see what you think.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: From Matthew chapter 16.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, God forbid it, Lord, this must never happen to you.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan, you are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus told his disciples, If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Or what will they give in return for their life?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: For the Son of Man is to come with his angels and glory in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Take up your cross and follow.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is less about simply accepting everything that comes, and instead looking at the shape our lives take, and realize that sometimes we are in fact bearing too much.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: That we have given up too much, that in all of those challenges the grace of God still somehow shows up.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't about suffering, it's about who pulls us out of it.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my sermon then on schedules, ambition, and those days we realize we have nothing left.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: People of God, grace to you and peace in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: At that time of year in my household, I know it is for some of you out there as well, is a time of year where my wife, Molly, and I have to get really serious about calendars.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: The least fun thing to get serious about.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: School schedules are coming out, and we're filling in all of the things that we need to fill in.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: For us, it's band concerts and orchestra concerts, dance performances and recitals, piano lessons, extra dance classes, violin lessons, upcoming basketball practices.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: On and on it goes.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I have to make sure all of my work obligations are on there as well, which I always seem to forget to Molly's chagrin.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And she has her own professional obligations to put on as well.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: As we fill in our calendars, we have realized that, especially this year it seems, we're spread pretty thin.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And there's really no room to add anything else.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we've started to discuss the things that we're going to have to sacrifice to make all of this happen.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: We'll have to sacrifice certain nice-to-have things from our budget so that we can pay for all of these activities.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to have to sacrifice certain family outings because of time.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: This phase of life comes with a lot of beautiful sacrifices.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that we're not unique in any of this.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure all of you can look at your calendars, your budgets, your days, and find the things that have to give in order to make life work.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: This stuff has been on my mind this week because this reading from Matthew really forces us to ask questions about what it is in life that we have to sacrifice.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And these are tough conversations to have to have.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Peter had said out loud what people weren't willing to vocalize yet.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come to save the world.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, someone finally got what Jesus has been talking about.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Peter was finally starting to understand, and his declaration was a huge shift in the gospel narrative.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: But right away, right after Peter names this reality, Jesus tells them what is to come.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where our reading today picked up.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells them that he has to go to Jerusalem and he's going to be rejected, and he's going to suffer, and he will die, and then he will rise again on the third day.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: But this didn't sit well with Peter for good reason.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Peter was still high on the fact that what he thought about Jesus was true, that he was from God and would bring salvation to the world.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he was excited that he finally got it.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So his response is kind of normal in a way.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's as if Peter, hearing all of this information, says, No.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus, you can't do this.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: I will not let you do this.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now that he had found the Savior, he wanted to ride that wave into a new era of peace and stability in his world, which was otherwise overshadowed by occupation, poverty, and tyranny.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus, we can't sacrifice you or us or this movement, not now.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the great movement here.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, in a kind of an odd development, likens Peter to Satan, which is a little odd, and then says those rather famous words If anyone wishes to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, set aside all that you know.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Set aside the power, set aside all the control you have, all of your desire for advancement and self-preservation, and follow.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Give up your need for control and your good efforts and sacrifice.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: It makes me think that Peter and perhaps the rest of the disciples had kind of had it with all of this sacrificing talk.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: They had sacrificed, they had gone without.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: They dropped their lives and their livelihoods to follow.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And they were kind of done, unable to sacrifice more.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: I look around and I see a lot of people, like these disciples, who have given up so much and are tired, who can't give up anymore.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are among them.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: For some, it's a sacrifice of time, like my household.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: There just feels like there's nothing left to give.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's no more time we can sacrifice.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: For some of you, there you may be in a chapter where you are a caretaker, burning the candle at both ends, giving up so much of yourself so you can be present with your loved one who's who's not getting any better or whose recognition is waning.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they can't even say thank you or I love you anymore, but you're there.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Not because it's the right thing to do, because it's the only thing to do.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's a sacrifice.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: For some, it's a time where you are hit especially hard by economic realities, giving up the few nice to have things in your life just so you can buy the food you need to feed your bodies.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And for some, you have sacrificed so much family time to stay late at work, to close one more deal, finish one more project, advance one more rung on the ladder to provide financial security for your household.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: But in doing so, you've missed games and recitals and bedtimes.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: In various ways, so many among us feel sacrificed out that there's nothing left to give.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: So Peter's words make sense to us.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus, not more.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've got nothing left.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Please.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I wonder if today, at this moment in our own history, at this time when the standard response to the question, How are you doing, is I'm busy, we need to take Jesus' words in a way that we may not always take them.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: If we take a step back and think again about what exactly Jesus was taught was going to do, about what he was approaching, we may start to see some grace for ourselves.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was quick to point out that he was going to Jerusalem into a rigged trial, a suffering he didn't deserve, the death of a criminal, which he wasn't, and then he would rise.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he knew, we know that he knew that the love he would pour out when he exited that tomb was, in fact, for the salvation of the world.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not just for the twelve or the crowds who wandered with him, but for people who wouldn't be born for another two thousand years.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: His love was going to pour out for people who would never learn a word of Aramaic, who would never step foot near Jerusalem.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' love and grace were about to pour out for all people of all times and all places.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's the lens we have when it comes to Jesus and his taking up a cross.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: His cross-shaped life.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: The deserving and otherwise, the holy and otherwise the sinners and the saints.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: So perhaps today we need to think about what our lives look like if we took up a cross-shaped life.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: One thing we know for certain is that it wouldn't change our time restrictions or our obligations.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: A cross-shaped life would not necessarily get rid of our need to care for our loved ones.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: A cross-shaped life doesn't change any of that.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't have to.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: For us today in the world we live in, with the obligations we have in the rat race of life and parenting and caregiving and expectations and worry and the fear that we will never measure up, maybe our cross-shaped life is giving up the notion that we were ever supposed to have it all together to begin with.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: That we were supposed to have it all and be it all and do it all.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because let's be honest, we can't.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Our bodies won't let us.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we aren't supposed to.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's hear these words from Jesus about taking up a cross, not as willingly taking up suffering as if it were a virtue, which is often how this passage is interpreted, and instead think about having our arms wide open to receive some much needed grace.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it interesting that or isn't it interesting to think that we are harder on ourselves than God is on us?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: We can open our arms and realize that there are people in this world who love us and support us and would do anything for us.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: We may have to ask, but they're there.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: We can open our arms to this world that feels heavy and worn down and dark and still see the grace of God moving and changing this world and glowing in this place.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: My friends, there is too much on most of our plates.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if yours happens to have a little bit of space, I promise someone close to you is at wit's end.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's too much.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: But we can't fall into the trap of thinking that we have to do this alone.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're not.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Keep going.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Love your families.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Care for the ones who need caring.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Pray always.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Receive God's forgiveness for when you fail and you will, but that's okay.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Pick up your crosses, my friends.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Open your arms and see that you're not alone.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: That God's grace and peace are yours today.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it will be tomorrow, too.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: In finding all in my stores, I think what six days I can also How can I take from city?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Six prices.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Give us today our daily bread, forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us, save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil, for the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: My friends, a cross-shaped life isn't a life of resignation.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's a life where our arms are open to receive the grace of God as it comes through our communities.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: So whatever comes at you this week, whatever you have to sacrifice, know that the love of God is still in fact with you.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you've enjoyed this podcast and thanks for your support of the ministries of St.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Lutheran Church.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Our commitment to endeavors that lend hope to other people stretches across the country and around the world.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: We hope that in a good way you feel a part of that reach.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Tune in next Thursday for another edition of the St.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.