Step by step
Readings: Mark 8. 31-38
The most famous of St David’s words are some of his last, spoken in his final sermon; ‘be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things that you heard and seen me do’. The latter part, do the little things, has become something of a saying in some parts of Wales.
And whilst it may not seem it at first glance, these words of St David, these three instructions, serve as a great commentary on today’s Gospel reading and Jesus’ call to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. You’re likely familiar with this passage, it’s well known, it’s from this we get the phrase to bear our cross, we all have our crosses to carry. We also heard a similar passage last summer from Matthew’s Gospel so I’ll try not to repeat what I said then.
So what does it mean to be joyful? Jesus tells us that it’s to deny ourselves. Jesus declares elsewhere that he’s come to bring us fulness of life, life in abundance. But his instructions to us are to deny ourselves, to die to ourselves. That’s what he means when he tells us to take up our cross, it’s not a burden in some generic way. Those carrying that great beam through the streets of Jerusalem we headed to their deaths, their lives were forfeit. So how does this self-denial, this death to self, bring fulness of life? What does it have to do with joy?
The world around us tells us not to deny ourselves doesn’t it. We live in a culture where everything is on offer, everything is available. It might be out of our budgets, but it is available. We’re told by adverts and self help guides and influencers that to be happy we need to gather, gather experiences, relationships, possessions. That to deny ourselves anything we desire is to restrict ourselves and make ourselves miserable. We’re to follow our hearts, follow our desires and then we’ll be happy. So why in this country when everything is available, where so much is on offer, where we can customize everything to suit ourselves from our Subway sandwiches to our streaming services to our social media, why in this world of abundant choice, where we needn’t deny ourselves anything, why is the mental health of our young people suffering so much? Why do we feel unsatisfied? Why in a world where we can have whatever we want do we feel so empty?
It’s because when we don’t need to deny ourselves instead we feed ourselves, and in doing so everything becomes commodified, a means to an end. From relationships, to friendships, to possessions, to influence. Everything becomes a means to try to find satisfaction, to meet our need, to bring us joy, bring us pleasure. How does this benefit me, what do I get from this, how does this get me closer to where I want to be. Now this is the thick end of the wedge, this is the extreme end which some find themselves at where everything is serving them, their needs. But we’re all at the thin end of the wedge, and if we feed our every desire, deny ourselves nothing that’s where that path leads. Step by step by step we’ll get there.
No-one starts there, but through the little things, the little choices, the little compromises, the little moments, we walk that road. You see St David was right. We often assume it’s the big things that will have the biggest impact. If we want to achieve something we need to go big or go home. You know every January gym memberships skyrocket. Everyone signs up to the gym thinking this is the year, this is the year I get in shape, get fitter, stronger, healthier. But within a few months attendance at the gym is back to November levels. Why? They wanted do something and went big, they went along multiple times a week, did all the machines, signed up to a few classes and they burned out, it was too much, it was unsustainable.
We assume the same is true of our faith. We need to do the big things, have those big moments with God, read through the whole Bible in a matter of months, spend a whole night in prayer. It’s those things which will have the impact, those things which will make the difference. But that’s not true, they may have some effect, may prove memorable, but if we keep going like that we’ll burn ourselves out, decide its unsustainable and pack it in. St David was right, far more impact is made through the little things done faithfully, repeatedly and well.
It’s interesting that the metaphor Jesus uses for discipleship is taking up a cross to follow him. How do you carry a cross? Step by step by step. You’re not sprinting with it are you, you’re not making quick progress, with that heavy beam on your shoulders progress is made slowly, step by step by step. Discipleship isn’t about quick fixes, growing in holiness isn’t an overnight transformation, instead it’s a slow, steady walk in one direction. It’s the little things. The praying for a moment when you get up in the mornings. The opening your Bible to read a short section when you have a moment during the day. The coming along to worship and share fellowship here on a Sunday week by week. It’s making that choice to deny yourself something you desire because you know it would be bad for you, know it’s not what God calls us to.
Those little things, faithfully done, repeatedly done, grow in us. We’ll slowly find prayer comes more naturally, that we reach for the Bible when we have a moment without thinking, reach for it when we don’t have a moment. Come to church even when it may not be so convenient. Find it easier to say no to those things which tempt you. It’s the step by step by step which causes the growth. If we wait for the big moment, the moment to resist some major temptation, the moment where we could pack it all in and give up, if we’re just looking for the big things and neglecting at the small we’ll fall at the big. The choice had been made long before, all those little steps you took decided it, step by step by step.
If we don’t deny ourselves, if we pursue everything we’ll find no joy, like being at an all you can eat buffet with no restraint we’ll make ourselves sick. But if we’re doing the little things faithfully to follow Jesus, denying ourselves, taking up the cross we’ll find joy. How? Because we’ve set our eyes on something bigger.
Keep the faith said St David. What is that faith? The reality that his Saviour took up the cross for him, for you. That this same Jesus who calls us to deny ourselves and take up our cross denied himself and took up his cross for your sake. That he, the perfect blameless Son of God, took upon himself all our sins, our wrongdoing and speaking and thinking. That the one who always walked in the right way, bore upon himself our determination to go our own way and plunged it all down into death, into the hell it deserves. For here we see perfectly selfless love, love himself suffocating on a tree out of love for you. Ransoming us from sin and death, taking our punishment, defeating darkness and sin and death. All for you. And he does so so that we can return to him, so that we can come home, so that, no longer separated from God, we can be with him forever.
That’s the secret to our joy, that the things that weigh on our hearts, on our conscience, on our lives, our failures, our self seeking, our deliberate faults, we can hand them over to Jesus and he will joyfully bear them away from us. That we have nothing left to fear for our sin has been dealt with, and our future with him secured, not through anything we have done, but because of what he has done. We need no longer fear even death, for death has now become the way through Jesus to everlasting life. In denying ourselves, in dying to ourselves we find joy, because we find the very fullness of life in Jesus. In who he is and what he has done for us. As I said a few weeks ago, once everything else finds its proper place around him, we are set free to live as he calls us to.
So my brothers and sisters, be joyful. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, who has died for us, for in fixing your eyes on what he has done for you, you will find joy and peace. Keep the faith, place your whole faith and hope and trust in what he has done for you in his death and resurrection. And do the little things, in all you say and do, day by day, step by step by step, walk after our Saviour as he leads in the way of the cross, as he leads us home.
Satisfaction and life is not found in abundance and limitless choice, but in denial and self sacrifice. Use this Lent to build up good habits, that by Easter we may find ourselves more familiar with the way of the cross, with its rhythm and shape, and find ourselves more open to God in Christ Jesus.
Amen.