August 30, 2026 Take Up Your Cross Matthew 16:21-28

 (This sermon was created for St. John's Lutheran Church in Lyons.  I lead worship there when a month has five Sundays.  It departs from the sermon series on Hebrews that we've had in Victor.)

The way we perceive common things can have a major impact on how we treat those things and also on our entire lives. My colleague, The Rev. Johanna Rehbaum, pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Pittsford, says a prayer every morning when she gets dressed. She prays for the people who made the clothes that she wears.

We don’t usually think about that sort of thing. Almost all the clothing we wear was made in a factory far away oversees. We don’t know the people who actually did the work of cutting the fabric and sewing it together. For us, clothing is a commodity that comes from a rack in a store, or else we have mailed to us. But someone made it. When Johanna prays for the people who made her clothing she is recognizing all of that. She is making a connection between her life and that person’s life.

And if you think about it, our clothing is a large part of what makes us who we are. Clothing is not only functional it is also an expression of fashion and style. Even if you reject all fashion trends as nonsense, the fact that you wear clothes that are not fashionable is still a statement to the world about yourself and your priorities. When we pray for the people who made our clothes we are not only remembering them, we are also recognizing that their work is making a statement about us. And we should want to live a day so as to honor the work of the clothes makers.

Simply saying a prayer for the people who made your clothes is a way to have a very different understanding of a common thing. We do many things on a daily basis that we never pay attention to. Most of us go up to a sink, turn a knob, and we expect water to come out… cold water, hot water, or a mix to our own liking. We didn’t have to walk to a well or a stream with a bucket for water. We didn’t have to hand crank a pump. We didn’t have to put water on a stove to make it hot. It just comes out of a spigot. I believe those living in Lyons probably have given water a bit more thought because of the disruptive and expensive repairs that are needed to the public water system, but that’s not the norm. We grumble about it though, rather than realizing that having hot and cold running water is actually an extravagant luxury.

That goes for much of our lives. We think a home with a central heating system is a basic necessity rather than a wonder of comfort. Having air conditioning should be seen as a lifestyle of opulence, but many consider the lack of it to be a hardship. Some time ago my mother stayed overnight at my house for one night. She said she felt bad that I’d have to wash the sheets after so little use. I knew it would annoy her so I replied, “It doesn’t matter. I don’t wash the sheets.” When she gave me the offended look that I expected her to give because my reply suggested I was a careless housekeeper, I added, “I don’t wash the sheets. I have a machine that does it for me.” She gave me a snarky stare. But it’s true. Rather than giggling with delight at having machines that wash and dry our clothes, we groan at having to do the laundry. Everywhere we turn we humans remove not only the dangers and pains of the natural world from ourselves, but we even seek to eliminate all discomforts and inconveniences.

In Luke 12:15 Jesus warns, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” And let me add… one’s life does not consist in the abundance of conveniences, or in the removal of all discomforts.

The truth is, those things which we value the most and appreciate the most are the ones we’ve worked the hardest to attain. People who inherit great wealth or have a major lottery win do not appreciate the money as much as someone who has earned it and carefully invested.

Harvard professor Arthur Brooks teaches a very popular class on happiness. That’s no surprise. You’d expect a class on happiness to be popular! And what does he teach as the key to true, deep, lasting happiness? Pain and suffering.

We humans can only know happiness and satisfaction in reference to pain and emptiness. That does not mean that we should go out and put ourselves in pain thinking that in some warped way we’re going to feel good about it. But I think all of this does set us up to understand some of what Jesus was getting at in our gospel reading when Jesus told his followers they must take up their cross and follow him. Remember he said, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

If the driving force of our lives is to eliminate all suffering and pain,

-and if we seek to add ever more comforts and conveniences so as to protect ourselves from everything that hurts,

-and if we think that hardship, discipline, uphill battles, painful failures, and the many unfairnesses that happen in daily life are somehow traumatic injustices imposed upon us that shouldn’t happen in a good world,

-then we’ll never know happiness and satisfaction. We’ll spend our entire lifetime on hollow pursuits.

Our gospel reading today was the second part of a scene that began with last week’s gospel reading. I don’t like the way the lectionary texts are chosen so as to split this into two. But in order to understand Peter taking Jesus aside and rebuking him and then Jesus rebuking Peter in return, we need to remember the part of the scene we read last week.

Last week the scene started with Jesus asking the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” After some replies Jesus asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus blesses Peter for that response. He says that that insight as been revealed to Peter by the Father in heaven. Jesus then says Peter is the rock upon which the church will be built. It was all looking good for Peter.

But then this week Jesus tells Peter and the other disciples what being the Messiah really means. Apparently Peter figured the Messiah should have a great life. He figured that if you are the messiah, God’s anointed one, then that means a life of prosperity, triumph, fame, and comfort. Hot and cold running water, central heat, air conditioning, and floors with lush carpets. Who cares if you have a washer and dryer, you’d have servants do your laundry for you! Also, Peter, as a faithful follower of the Messiah you’d expect to be in for the good life too.

How wrong he was. What would our faith be like if Jesus had taught that fullness of life came from an abundance of possessions and conveniences, and having servants, and mansions, and yachts?

What if Jesus had taught that if you do everything right in life you’d be immune from life’s hardships and that God, as a favor to you for being a good person, would be sure to keep you successful and healthy and well-to-do?

That’s what most people want in life, and may even think they deserve in life.

That is a path to misery. It is a path to unfulfillment and pointlessness.

Ironically, it is hard work, pain, and endurance that creates happiness.

That is not to say that as Jesus was dying on the cross he was happy. He certainly was not! He’d prayed to not have to go through with it. But accepting the cross was accepting what he had to do so as to be the fullest, truest, most authentically human ever.

When we read, “Take up your cross,” that can mean many things. I’m not going to stand here and preach specifically what that means or what God may call on you to do or to face. But I do know that if you follow the desires and goals of society it will not bring you happiness. You may get a fleeting bit of pleasure from something, but it will not be happiness.

As I look at many people’s lives I feel like this is their incentive. They get the best paying job that they can in order to buy the best house, the most luxuries, and the most entertainment they can possibly afford. They tell themselves that will make them happy. But it all leads to emptiness and worry.

Take up your cross and follow Jesus is to step away from all of that. It is to turn to what is often the hard work and even pain that God calls us to do. The world may think you’re nuts. They’ll think you’re wasting your energy and talents on things that don’t get kickbacks for you. But you’ll know better.

I doubt you’ll be popular for living a cross lifestyle. But your life and priorities will project a message of satisfaction and true happiness. That is almost an evangelical message proving that God’s ways do truly satisfy.