In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the September issue of the magazine Foreign Policy, the American theologian Harvey Cox writes; “This is the age not only of the “cafeteria Catholic,” but also of the cafeteria Buddhist, Baptist and Mormon. More and more people view the world’s religious traditions as a buffet from which to choose.”

Now in this cafeteria or buffet environment, religious hierarchy is crumbling fast and denominational brand loyalty is a thing a thing of the past. Religious leaders who once could command, instruct and expel now must cajole, persuade and compete.

It  raises issues concerning spiritual authenticity because in an effort to compete and be successful in this milieu there is always the danger of simply giving the people what they want (bread and circuses). Meeting buyer preferences may be essential in business, but it can sacrifice the integrity of the religious “product”  Cox goes on to write; “Imagine what the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount might have been if Moses or Christ had poll tested them.

And certainly a variety of bastardized versions of the Christian message, including hateful ones, have been and continue to be communicated in congregations all over the world. We had a classic example this week when the Rev. Pat Robertson called for the assassination Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela. A Christian minister calling for the murder of another human being.
How could this be? Christianity should produce justice and love shouldn’t it?

Robertson’ remarks definitely stand in sharp contrast to our gospel reading from Matthew. For as we heard in our reading Jesus foretold to his disciples about his own suffering and death. “how he must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes and be killed....”

If we have been in the church for any length of time we probably have heard this passage and these words many times before. But each time we hear them we are shocked by the brutal honesty of these words. There are no false promises, no words to buck up morale amongst the disciples.  In fact they are more like a sharp punch to the stomach when Jesus says that he will be rejected and killed!”

Even two thousand years later we can still understand the shocked confusion of the disciples because we still want what they wanted. We want a conquering king rather than a crucified Lord. For the conquering king with the gospel of prosperity, power and success seems to fit better with our modern drive for  happy endings. You have admit everybody loves a winner. Perhaps that is why the Jesus of Palm Sunday is much more popular than the Jesus of Good Friday.

And this popularity has led me to realize that the presence of churches in a country guarantees nothing concerining the presence of the gospel. All the clerical garb and regalia guarantees nothing. All of the schools and seminaries and parish houses guarantee nothing. All of the religious titles and educational degrees-they guarantee nothing for the authentic sign of  the cross is stumbling block which “cannot be loved.”.

But no matter how we try to avoid it the cross still stands over us, it stands over the church, this symbol of both human rejection and divine love ....”If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Rather than climbing the ladder of success we are called by Jesus to climb down instead-to deny ourselves, to lose our lives in order to save them (both individually and as a body of people). This is a difficult thing to understand-this economics of discipleship, this idea of losing oneself in order to profit and find oneself. But as we see in our passage this taking up of the cross involves dying and rising again.

Professor Fred Craddock once said “to give my life for Christ appears glorious, to pour (empty myself) for others... to pay the ultimate price of martyrdom-I’ll do it.”
But then Craddock went on to say; “the reality for most of us isn’t glorious. It’s done in those little acts of love (over a lifetime)

Now this process of dying and rising with Christ may happen in a single intense experience but as Craddock has pointed out it applies for most of us to the microrhythms of daily life. Martin Luther spoke of daily dying and rising with Christ- to decrease so that Christ may increase.

The dailiness of this process fits my spiritual experience. I sometimes become aware that I have become burdened with issues, worries and anxieties and the reason for this is that I have forgotten God. In response I remind myself of the reality of God. I become centered in Christ which allows me to die to my self preoccupation and rise from the burdens of my thoughts.
It  might also mean letting go of our opinions, speculations and preconceived notions concerning Jesus, God and the world itself, thereby opening ourselves to the challenges and promptings of the Holy Spirit. But I think at root it is about ego and how we perceive ourselves in relation to others. To give up controlling and grasping for praise and possessions and to know that in Christ we have everything we need. To know that we are loved deeply by Christ.

The economics of discipleship is a path which is at the heart of not only Christianity but of other religions as well. At the heart of the Buddhist path is “letting go” echoing the words of Lao Tzu who said, “If you want to become full, let yourself be empty; if you want to be reborn, let yourself die.”

And yet in Christianity we find  a wisdom that we cannot attain alone because in the cross we are confronted with a mystery, a paradox which calls into serious question all efforts by the church to be successful in the eyes of the world. Because to follow the way of the cross means becoming Jesus’ suffering friend seeking to humbly serve God’s little ones in the midst of our world.
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.