Christ invites His follows, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” The first step in following Christ into heaven is to deny ourselves. We must learn to get over ourselves if we want to follow Christ. The entire life of the Church is meant to assist us in learning how to deny ourselves, so that we can take up our cross and follow Christ into heaven.

Transcript:

Our salvation, my brothers and sisters, depends upon our willingness to walk with God into heaven. And this is why the invitation of this morning’s gospel is so profound. Christ says very clearly, “Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me.” You see, my brothers and sisters, the first step of our salvation is denying ourselves. The first step in following Christ into heaven is realizing that life is not all about us.

Now, that is a very foreign thing, especially to us Americans. We live in a “me” society. I get to do what I want. No one is going to tell me what to do. No one can tell me what to believe. Our society is about me and I. And how interesting that Christ offers us, the first step is to go beyond ourselves, not just beyond ourselves, but to deny ourselves.

As I wrote in the bulletin, I like to think, and this is just one of my little quirks. There aren’t too many of them, you’ll get to know most of them. But one of my little quirks is that if we were to retranslate this gospel lesson today, Christ, we might have heard said, “Whoever desires to come after me, let him get over himself.” Because we are consumed with ourselves. We are consumed with pleasing ourselves. And until we accept that truth, we’ll never take the second step.

The second step in this morning’s gospel is to pick up our cross. And then Christ goes on, “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it. For what will it benefit a man to gain the entire world to lose his soul?” And so this message of the cross today, we are finishing the celebration that we began last week.

This message of the cross is critical to our salvation. Christ came to ascend the cross. And if we are going to follow him, we must also take up our cross. But I’m here to tell you, in my own life experience, and in the profound privilege of hearing confessions and guiding people these many years, I can assure you that no one will pick up his cross until we get over ourselves.

No one wants to struggle. Who would want, as it says here, to give up our entire life? But this is the key. And so Christ has given us his church. Every aspect of life in the church, from the 40-day blessing until our funeral, every life aspect of the church, my brothers and sisters, has these three steps built into it: deny ourself, take up our cross, and follow Christ into heaven. Denying ourselves this crucial step is accepted through prayer, and fasting, and our charitable work, and the sacraments.

I remember many years ago, I was having a conversation with people about the best time to start the Sunday liturgy. Now here, liturgy starts around 10 o’clock, other cities around nine o’clock, other cities later, other cities earlier. And so we’re having this discussion, what was the best time to start the divine liturgy?

And this person began listing off a whole litany of things that he wanted to do that day, not the least of which was his golf game. And I said,” Stop right there. There’s nothing sinful about golf, although I don’t golf.” I said, “But if we’re going to schedule the liturgy around golf, or look, I grew up in Colorado, around skiing, or going up to our tree stand and hunting season. If we’re going to schedule the services of the church around our social life, I ask you where is the deny yourself in that?”

And so when the church schedules a service and we shape our life around the service, the church is teaching us to get over ourselves. The church is teaching us to deny ourselves so that we can take up our cross and follow Christ into heaven.

The same thing with fasting. When I was a little boy, I remember, very vividly, I gave up ketchup for Lent. I loved ketchup. And of course it was a difficulty of mine, but later in my life I realized by choosing my sacrifice, I wasn’t denying myself. When we choose what to offer, then we are still in total control. But when we allow the church to teach us how to fast, then we learn to deny ourselves. We learn to get over ourselves.

And we know the fasting rules can be very complicated in the church, but I urge you, my brothers and sisters, do not take up fasting in your own rules. When we set up our own rules, whether it is fasting, whether it is our stewardship, whether it is our prayer life, when we make up our own rules, we are avoiding the very first step of our salvation. Allow the church to guide us. Allow the church to tell us how to fast. Allow the church to teach us how to pray. And then, that struggle becomes a true gift of our soul to God.

But so long as we remain in control, we will never pick up the struggle. We will always take what is easier. And I know this, because that has been the human condition ever since Adam and Eve. God gave Adam and Eve a simple rule: do not eat that fruit of that one tree. But Adam and Eve decided to please themselves instead of pleasing God. And from that moment, our human condition, every single sin rests in trying to please ourself.

And so, I invite you this morning, my brothers and sisters, take the first step with me. Let’s make a new fresh commitment, in this season of the Holy Cross, to allow the church to teach us and to guide us and to lead us and let’s stop choosing our own way. And I promise you God will bless the journey. The journey will not always be easy, but the journey will always be blessed so long as we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Christ. And that begins today with the first step. I hope you’ll join me.

I pray that our community continues its faithful commitment and devotion to God. Wherever we were in the past, we have greatness to go. No matter where we’ve been, God is inviting us into heaven. Today we take the first step. Glory to God for all Things.