Sermon at the Sung Eucharist on the Second Sunday of Lent 2018

I wonder before this year’s winter Olympic games started, how many of us would have known the name Lizzy Yarnold. A week ago, Lizzy Yarnold won Skeleton gold and Laura Deas took bronze in the winter Olympics for Team GB. It was Lizzy’s second Olympic gold medal in the sport and the only Brit to win two golds consecutively.

After the race when Lizzy was interviewed she said, "It's a massive, massive honour. It was a big dream to challenge myself to try to defend my title after Sochi … Well, initially I wanted to be world champion and European champion and I managed that with Eric Bernotas, my coach… And now together to win another Olympic title is just awesome."

Although Lizzy was out there alone on her sled during the race, she could not have won on her own, in her interview she acknowledges her coach who helped her. In fact, she was part of a team of 45, athletes, coaches, managers and support staff all training and working together to enable the athletes to perform at their best.

And yet just under three years ago Lizzy was reported telling her skeleton coaches she did not know what to do. After fulfilling her lifetime’s ambition of an Olympic, World and European grand slam, she had grown utterly fed up with the same routine – the same warm-ups, the same mental challenges and the same summer gym work - she had been putting herself through for years. So, she quit!  But soon she missed the sport, her love of the sport was rekindled along with the enthusiasm needed to re-engage, with the same relentless routine she needed in order to be an elite athlete. She still needs to put in the hard work of training and be part of a team, there are no short cuts.

Being a Christian often isn’t easy, we need one another. In our gospel reading today Jesus holds nothing back in telling the disciples just how difficult it will be, to be identified as one of his disciples, his followers. Jesus tells his close disciples that the road ahead will be rocky, he tells them what is going to happen, he is trying to prepare them for his betrayal, death and resurrection. And true to form, Peter is the first to speak – but he really doesn’t understand what Jesus is trying to tell them. Even having been with Jesus all this time, they don’t get it!

Jesus then invites the crowds to join the disciples and again he lays it on the line that being one of his followers – will not be easy. On Palm Sunday and during Holy week we sing hymns that remind us that we need to take up our cross and follow Jesus, for example Charles William Everest’s 19^th century hymn:

Take up your cross, the Saviour said,
if you would my disciple be;
take up your cross with willing heart,
and humbly follow after me.

I think it all sounds a lot more palatable than when Jesus challenged his first followers before his death to take up their cross and follow him.

According to Rowan Williams in his book “God with us’, he says when Jesus was a small boy there was a revolt in Galilee that was brutally suppressed by the Romans. We’re told that there were thousands of crosses by the roads in Galilee.  William’s says, “When in the gospels Jesus speaks of picking up a cross and following him, he is not using a religious metaphor for when things become a bit difficult”.

For the early disciples, the reality was that being a follower of Jesus was dangerous, and death was a real possibility. And yet they still followed him, and we know that after Jesus’ death, they continue to proclaim Jesus’ teachings, and some died for it. We are followers of Jesus today, because through the ages people have continued to proclaim Jesus’ teachings, his life, his death and resurrection.  They did so because they knew that being a Christian started with a promise that God gave to Abraham in the covenant, about having a relationship with humanity, which God reiterated in sending Jesus into the world to build on and renew that relationship with us, human beings. And after Jesus death, God sent this holy spirit to be with us and continue God’s presence with us. The early disciples’ faith knew they followed the living God who loved and care for them and the whole of humanity. The relationship was and is, one built on love, a committed relationship.

Jesus’ ministry was very public, he did not teach, preach or do miracles in private, he was very public about who he spoke to or had dinner with, and often his actions and words put him at odds, with the religious leaders and those in authority – and he came to a sticky end. Some of us are studying Rowan William’s book ‘Meeting God in Mark’ -  and we are discovering the uniqueness and importance of Mark’s gospel, We are reminded that Jesus came preaching that the Kingdom of God is at hand: there will something new, which will alter the climate in which people live, changing the politics and possibilities: it transforms the landscape of social life. Jesus life and teachings are intended bring about change.

As Christians we are called to be followers of Jesus, he challenges us to take up our cross and follow him, today we might not be literally crucified, at least not in this country but life can become uncomfortable when we disagree with those in authority or indeed other Christians.  Just because as Christians we are all followers of Jesus and in same team, it doesn’t stop us from having our disagreements or different views, sometimes we can find this uncomfortable, we need to ask God to help us to see what we can learn from each other, are we in the place where Jesus is?

Christians we are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus - be imitators of him. Jesus ministry was very public.

Miroslav Volf, the Croatian theologian reminds us that, “Christians aren’t Christ’s followers just in their private and communal lives; they are Christ’s followers in their public and work lives as well … because Christ and his spirit are at work, not ``just in our hearts, families and churches, but also in our nations and the entire world’.

If we are committed to following Jesus in the power of the spirit, we are committed to letting him determine the character of our whole lives - no exceptions. We are his disciples in our judgements, words and deeds that affect the common good, just as we are his disciples in every other aspect of our lives.

Just as individual Olympic athletes are not on their own, we are no lone disciples, we are part of a wider team of the Christian community, and Jesus Christ is our mentor and trainer. We are not disciples through ambition or doing the right things, we are first and foremost disciples because we know God loves us and longs for us to love God. The responsibility them follows - how do we serve God in the world? Our worship together on Sunday’s should transform and prepare us to serve God in the rest of the week, working out how we can make a difference to people’s lives, the communities we live in, the places we work – what can we do for the poor, the vulnerable, those who have no voice and those who live in fear. As disciples of Christ we are called imitate him.