Not An Option
If I am moving a little slowly today, it is because I have spent the last two days tending to the rose bushes in our yard. At last count, we have twenty-five rose bushes… far more than the average American, I realize. Mom has always loved roses and, in the summer months, we have a rose or two on the table every day. Now, I would love to be able to pick up a rose bush at Wal-Mart, stick it in the ground, and then visit it each morning to cut the day’s harvest. Unfortunately, roses are not designed to grow well in sandy, rocky Texas soil. They fall victim to every fungus and insect that stops by for a visit. And they wilt in the strong summer sun. Anything that encourages roses to thrive also causes weeds to grow. So, I have learned that, if we want roses on our table each day, I will spend time watering and fertilizing… watering and weeding… watering and spraying… watering and pruning… watering and mulching… every single weekend from now until the first frost in the fall. Perhaps this is not the way in which I prefer to spend my time on weekends, but it is not an option if healthy, fragrant roses are the objective.
To me, the most inspiring aspect of the Olympic Games was the human interest stories that were told about the athletes during the Games. There was, of course, the tragedy of the young luge athlete who lost his life before the Games began and the outpouring of support from his village in Georgia. There was the story of Canadian figure skating athlete whose mother died unexpectedly as the competition began… who still went on to compete and take the bronze medal. Woven in between these stories were countless other stories of dreams… desires… and effort that all seemed to have one common thread… hours and hours and hours and hours of training and practice… followed by more training and more practice. For anyone who has fantasies of winning a medal at the Olympic Games, the reality is that the path to the podium includes all the hours of training and practice that are required in order to be the best in the world. The training and practice time is not an option. Read the stories of any prima ballerina… champion bull rider… or Boston Marathon winner and you will read stories of injury… illness… loneliness… defeat… hours spent perfecting their skills… and a single-minded focus on one objective. In those narratives, you will find what the Apostle Paul is speaking of in our text today. If you choose to follow Christ, your focus must be on him… and the cross is not an option. You can’t simply go through the motions… or make a cursory nod toward the symbols of this faith… and expect to end up on the podium. It is only the training we have in how to be a better Christian… and the daily practice of our faith in times and places where no one else is looking… that allows us to participate fully in the worship of God on Sunday… and to partake of the bread and wine that make us one with Christ.
Our objective, as Christians, is to perfectly reflect the life and ministry of Jesus Christ… to show his mercy… to share his wisdom… and to offer his self-sacrificing love… to even the most unlovable of sinners. It is not possible to do that without practice… without training… without putting forth every effort toward this goal. It takes a lifetime to prepare and there are lots of distractions… things we would rather be doing. But, if this is our goal… then, a single-minded objective… the daily practice of our faith… the our willingness to take up the cross… is not an option.
Scot Jackson read the story of James and John vying for a spot on the podium with Jesus. They knew they couldn’t take gold… but they saw silver and bronze as very real possibilities. What did Jesus say in response? "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" And, with total arrogance… or total naïveté… they reply, "We are able." Who were they kidding? When was the last time that you read through the story of Jesus’ betrayal… by one of his own disciples… his trial and the abdication of the judge of any responsibility for what followed… reaction of the fickle crowd that seemed to enjoy his pain… the beatings… the humiliation… and the agonizing death he suffered… all without complaint. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?” I don’t think so. And yet, William Willimon does not believe it is an option. He writes: “On Maundy Thursday, as we take up the cup, we too proclaim that the cross is not optional equipment for Christians. The way of faithfulness invariably leads to Calvary. If we would follow this Lord, we must go his way, not ours. Evil must be confronted rather than masked by grinning platitudes. Injustice… oppression… famine… the everyday big and little cruelties which we inflict upon others… must be fought. Our Lord confronted evil on its own turf. He yoked himself in solidarity with this whole, suffering, sinful mass of dying humanity. He “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant . . . he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7-8). We, like the Corinthians before us, seek to fill ourselves… cure our aches and pains… live forever.” Like James and John, we cannot have a place on the podium unless we have done what it takes to be there. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?”
I would guess that many of us have heard verse thirteen before… probably taken out of context and used in a variety of settings. “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” The Apostle Paul is talking about idolatry… and all the things of this world that can distract us from our objective… the practices of this world that cause us to cheapen our Christian faith… to go through the motions without sincerity of heart. “Do not become idolaters as some of them did,” the Apostle Paul writes, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play." Can we come to the table of our Lord… can we eat the food and drink the cup that makes us one with Christ… and then go on with our lives as though nothing has happened? Yes, it is only bread. Yes, it is only grape juice or wine. But it is a sacrament of our Lord… a sacrament that proclaims us as Christians before the world… a sacrament that demands a single-minded objective… to follow Christ in all that we do… even if it means giving up our lives for him.
That does not make this Table any less a Table of grace. All are welcome at this Table. All are invited to partake of the feast that our Lord has prepared. To all who come, grace is given… in a limitless outpouring of love from our Savior. At the same time, to eat at this Table is to renew our covenant with God… and to recommit ourselves to being… or becoming… disciples of Jesus Christ. As Willimon says, “This meal is not some magical mystery medicine we take to exempt ourselves from the hard facts of life in this world.” The challenge still lies before us: the hours of practice… the discipline of training… and hours more practice… hours that turn into years… years that turn into a lifetime of perfecting what it means to be truly Christian.
According to William Loader, salvation, for the Apostle Paul, is not a matter of getting into heaven and escaping hell. It is a matter of having the right relationship with the right person… the person of Jesus Christ. “That relationship,” he says, “is either intact and growing or it is not. The wedding does not guarantee the marriage.” How strong that relationship is depends on the time we spend working on it… the hours of practice when no one else is looking. Is your relationship with Jesus Christ intact and growing… or is it on life support?
Today, as I do every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, I invite you to share this feast… to partake of the body and the blood of our Savior. My question for each of us today… for you and for me… is this: Are you going through the motions, because this is what Christians do on the first Sunday of the month… or do you understand that the cup of blessing that we bless is a sharing in the blood of Christ… and the bread that we break is a sharing in the body of Christ… that through this feast, we become one with Christ… and the cross is no longer an option?
If our goal is eternal life with our Savior… to stand on the podium with him at the end of time… then our single-minded focus in this life must be Jesus Christ… and nothing else. We cannot drink the cup of the Lord… and the cup of demons. We cannot partake of the table of the Lord… and the table of demons. To stand on the podium with Christ at the center, we must focus on him… and practice daily… to love the unlovable… to serve the ungrateful… to walk the narrow, rocky path that will take us to where we long to be. Amen.
1 Corinthians 10:1-21