1,2,3, Eyes on Jesus

2-25-18

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our Lord and savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

By now most of you are well acquainted with the fact that I have some pretty hair-brained ideas sometimes. And… that I don’t always think things all the way through. Thank goodness for our office administrator Veronica for asking me some good follow-up questions when I have a particularly half-baked scheme.

Two years ago, or so ago a group of women pastors I’m a part of met for a retreat at a camp in NJ…for some reason and they put me in charge of doing some kind of creative craft. I was of course very excited and wanted to try something new, so, inspired by someone else’s bright idea, I suggested making crosses… out of  broken pottery, that we would actually be breaking ourselves. I got these wooden crosses and some crazy glue and suggested to the group that everyone in the group bring – not a dish to pass, but a dish to break.

We all brought with us something that was meaningful for us to smash, so that the broken bits might be transformed into something beautiful as part of the cross. Some of us brought dinnerware from previous marriages that ended in broken vows and divorce.  Others brought with them the frustration of situations at their churches that were challenging. Some brought worries about toxic climates at home and in their churches. Some brought personal grief, challenges, and questions. Between all of us, lots of heavy stuff weighed us down.

I had THOUGHT that I had thought through everything. We went outside where we could be messy. I laid down a plastic table cloth to catch all the broken bits for easy clean up. I even brought a hammer so that we didn’t have to do a lot of throwing of pottery (unless we wanted to). But I forgot one thing…Band-Aids. So, of course, one of us ended up bleeding, and it wasn’t even me, much to my surprise. Fortunately, we were able to raid the first aid kit in the health hut.

But despite the bleeding and the extremely big mess we made - with a little crazy glue and some bandages, we were able to make beautiful art out of our brokenness. We exchanged broken bits of our own mess and we created something new on one another’s crosses. Much the same way that God can make something beautiful out of us when we feel too broken for anything more than the trash bin.

As a pastor, I have a LOT of crosses. People seem to want to gift them to me. But this one is probably one of my favorites. It went up on my wall right away when I returned from this retreat with these dear friends. And it was one of the first things that went up on my wall when I moved here to Pennsylvania to take this call.

Just about every cross I own has a story, whether it’s on my wall or I wear it around my neck. One cross necklace I own was created out of Peace Bronze, which is an alloy created from disarmed and recycled American nuclear weapon systems. Another one was given to me by a woman named Irene from my last church, a German woman with a grumpy exterior but underneath loved people deeply and fiercely. She was forcibly conscripted into the German army under Hitler as a youth and bore the scars on her arms until her death a few years ago. It would have been completely understandable for her to spend the rest of her life hiding from that trauma. Somehow, she instead choose to spend the rest of her long life giving herself away to other people.

The cross Irene gave me is very pretty and has gemstones on it, which was so totally NOT her…. She presented it to me without ceremony and totally out of the blue one day. She thought I might like it, I was honored to have it. Every time I wear it, I feel like I am channeling her strength and resilience. Every time I wear it, I feel the weight of carrying her life, which was a life of service and love for her church and for her community.

When Irene died, the sanctuary was almost not big enough to hold all the people who came to celebrate her life - people whom she had helped, taken care of, provided for, and mentored over the years. We also discovered just HOW MUCH Irene was doing for the church behind the scenes… perhaps she had given a little bit TOO much to the church over the years… but no one could deny that this was a woman who had been a follower of Jesus and gave her whole self in caring for her neighbor.

When Irene was baptized, she was marked with the cross of Christ with water. Every year on Ash Wednesday, she would be marked with an ash cross and told to remember that she was dust, and to dust she would return. Over the course of her live, she bore the cross of Jesus until she got to meet him face to face.

Like Irene, we are marked with Jesus’ cross in our baptisms, named and claimed as God’s beloved. At the start of every Lent, we receive the cross of ashes on our foreheads too, to remind us that our lives do not belong to us. We do not belong to ourselves. Our lives belong to God, and to one another.

Our lives are to be spend in the service of the world, not in seeking after all that glitters in it. Our lives are to be spent caring for and carrying one another, especially the suffering, the rejected, and the innocent. Our lives are to be spent walking and living in the way of the cross, which for me, means that I need to set my mind on the things that are important to God, other than get completely caught up in the things that the world sees are important.

Every day, but especially now, need to ask ourselves, as people of God – what will be most important to us? God’s priorities… Or ours? 

What do we see as most important… Our “right” to bear arms, or our call tor one another’s’ burdens? 

Our “rights” to carry weapons that are specifically designed to kill people… Or the right of our children to grow up happy and healthy and free from fear? 

Don’t children have the right to get to grow up AT ALL? My cousin’s wife is going to have a baby this summer…. And yet… my cousin has expressed seriously consider purchasing an AR-15, and clearly defends the right to do so, over the safety of his future child. Hearing and knowing this just about broke my heart, for his future child, and for all children.

I’ve worked with a lot of children over the years, mostly in churches and camps. I even did a – very short - stint as a substitute teacher at one point. Anyone who works in education will tell you that getting the attention of children of any age is challenging. I already a few ways to get attention from squirrely kids from my camp experience, but one I learned during that time went like this – the teacher would say “1, 2, 3, eyes on me.” To which the children SHOULD respond, “1, 2, eyes on you.” This is a little lesson that Peter could have used, right? When Jesus says to his followers something to the effect of “1, 2, 3, eyes on me…. I’m going to suffer and be rejected by the people in power, die, and rise again 3 days later, all for your sake” …. Peter obviously did not take it well. After all, no one wants to follow a loser. No one is too keen on denying themselves and losing their lives. We would rather be winners, and follow a leader who is clearly on the path to success.

Instead of learning from the teacher, Peter tried to do some teaching himself, which got him into some hot water. Like Peter, we all would rather be the leader, or at least have some input in where this Jesus parade is headed. As it turns out, Peter gets it completely wrong sometimes.

But Jesus does not reject Peter outright. Instead, Jesus tells him to “get behind me.” Not necessarily to kick him out of the group or to get out of Jesus’ sight… but get behind Jesus… because you need to be BEHIND the person you are following in order to SEE how to follow them. We can’t walk the way that Jesus would have us walk if we are not looking AT Jesus.

1, 2, 3, eyes on Jesus… and we will see a life lived suffering WITH and for the lost and the least. 1, 2, 3, eyes on Jesus… and we will see a life binding the wounds of those that life has left bleeding and broken. 1, 2, 3, eyes on Jesus… and we will see how God takes an instrument that humanity specifically designed to kill people (holds up cross) and transform it into a symbol of new and abundant life. New and abundant life given to us, and ALL of God’s beloved children.

This is the person we are called to follow, and the life we are called to live. It won’t be easy, but we won’t have to go it alone. The path has even been cleared for the one who has gone on before us, who both leads us and also walks by our side.

1, 2…  eyes, on you, Jesus. Help us bear our baptismal crosses out into the world. Amen.