Lent Week 1 | 02/26/2023 Cross and Ashes | Pastor Sarah Coppernoll

Genesis 3:17-19 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Remember where you came from.

Dirt. Mud. It cakes on our feet, on our boots, on our shoes when we tread in mucky places. It gets in places, among the crevices, on the surface and in the cracks, and then long after the trek, it visits us again. In dried form, it crumbles across the sparkling floor, dust clogging carpet fibers, winding itself into fabrics where it is difficult to remove. The nature of dirt is to follow us where we go in the days and weeks after-- as much as we have cleaned or attempted to clean or actually gotten clean for ourselves. It’s a reminder of where we have been, of who we really are, of the terrain we have traveled, of the times we remember and times we’d rather forget...And then we sweep it away.

In the early chapters of Genesis, we are told a story of dirt. It’s dirt like any other but also like no other. Out of this dirt, the Creator fashions humanity—the epitome of creation, deemed not just ‘good’ but ‘very good.’ Set free to live lives of fulfillment and relationship within boundaries established by God for their own well-being, humanity however chooses otherwise—to follow themselves and their hungers and desires. And so the consequences of their choice orient them back toward the dirt-- to work it with difficulty, to look to it as their sustenance and source of life, lest they die. God shows them the dirt to remind them that regardless of how good they think they are, they will be reminded of where they have come from.

And they will be reminded of the God who is determined to make them more.

Where have you come from? Where have you been? How easy it is to forget. How easy it is to move on, to become self-made, to forget the dirt we’ve trekked through, to look clean on the outside. How easy it is to forget we are not the center of the universe. And how difficult it is to recognize that God is doing something much more, much bigger, in our little corner of it.

Background: …Jesus just before this passage had just spent some time asking the disciples what people thought of him (the people/crowds thought of him as prophet). He then asked the disciples directly, those who followed him closely, he asked them who they thought he was. Peter of course spoke up saying He knew Jesus was the Messiah. The one who was going to save them. But you see Peter was not thinking about Spiritual things in this “saving” he had his mind on military matters. Jesus, the Messiah, was going to build up an army and overthrow Rome and the crooked Jewish leaders…

Jesus took a moment as they were traveling to give them a different look

Mark 8:31-33 New Living Translation (NLT)

31 Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man[a] must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. 32 As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.[b] 33 Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

• Today begins the season of Lent. The Start of a journey to the cross
• This is where Jesus is in this passage. He is moving toward the cross and he has confided in his closest disciple what is soon going to happen to him
• He is about to do the BIG thing he came to do which is die for the sins of the world
• Peter (who always seems to have something to say) speaks to Jesus about this plan of his…
• you see Peter believed that Jesus was the Messiah, he knew that he had come to save the world, but the things Jesus was talking about did not match what Peter had in mind
• Jesus calls Peter Satan which is a strong term!
• the word used here literally means “adversary” or “tempter”
• Because Peter’s mind is on the physical alone rather than the Spiritual he is being an adversary to God’s great plan he is attempting to temp Jesus off of his journey to the cross
• God’s plan was so far beyond the physical world. Sure it was within his power to be a physical ruler, but he desired to save us completely body and soul and that required a greater sacrifice…it required the cross.
• Jesus then address the entire crowd (before he was only speaking with the inner 12) let’s read on and listen, because this is where Jesus talks about that following
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Mark 8:34-38

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?[c] 37 Is anything worth more than your soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Step one: Give up your own way The first step as we desire to follow Jesus closely in our journey to the cross is to give up your own way

• Admit the fact that you are just not good enough
• Your pride that you can somehow do something to earn salvation, to earn eternity with God is just plain folly! It will keep you from being able to follow Jesus, WHY?
• Because you’ll convince yourself you don’t have to follow anyone, that you will make your own way.
• John 14:6 says this “I am the way, the truth, and the life NO ONE comes to the Father except through me!”
• So…to deny yourself is to STOP trying to figure out how you can get good enough to get to God.

Step 2: Take up your cross Secondly we see here we must take up our cross

• The period of Lent is all about journey toward the cross, Jesus cross, but now here this passage is saying we all have to take a cross…let’s explore this for a moment
• Back in this time when Jesus was speaking, the cross was a sign of guilt and punishment and shame and death. People did not want to have to “take up a cross”.
• I think in our time today we have things that we are ashamed to look at within our own life. We have those guilty things we have done, we have those secret sins that we feel shame about
• So to take up our cross is I think to take those things and put them to death, Just as Jesus Christ was put to death
• You see…Jesus did not stay on his cross, (repeat: Jesus did not stay on the cross) he was resurrected! He is alive today! Lent ends on Easter!
• We can spend our days focusing on the guilt of our sin, but Jesus says…take them up, kill them and have life
• During our service today I want to encourage you to lay your sin on the cross.
• ____ is handing out small pieces of paper and pens…and if you would like you can write either your name or perhaps a sin you are struggling with that you want to give us this season of Lent.
• In a moment a song will play and as it does if you would like you can bring up your paper (I will not read what it says) and place it on our cross.
• Afterward I can mark you with ashes on your forehead – a noticeable place.
• The ashes represent the dirt that you have come from and the guilt of your sin,
• These ashes serve to remind you that YES you do deserve a punishment for the wrong that you do…
• It is important to remember the cost of our sin and WHO took that punishment for us`

Step 3: Follow me

• So then the final step here is to FOLLOW “Follow me” Jesus said.
• The understanding of discipleship when Jesus was alive was that disciples walked so closely behind the rabbi that the very dust from the rabbi’s sandals ended up on the disciples’ robes. (Experiencing Lent 2018)
• The final verses here seem to repeat this follow me over and over
• Don’t try to hang on to your life so you can find your true life in following
• Don’t be ashamed to follow
• Let your life be about sharing the Good News for the sake of Christ
• Nothing is worth more than your soul
• Church we need to follow Jesus and we need to follow him closely! (repeat)
• The first step in this is recognizing our own sin...

CONCLUSION: Ask God these questions

• Am I following you closely?
• What is keeping me from becoming closer to you?
• Traditionally Lent is a time when people choose to fast from something
• One meal a day
• Sweet
• Social media
• One day a week giving up something
• We DO NOT fast on Sundays...it is a mini-Easter celebration, remembering that because of Christ and the ability to follow him closely we can live in salvation offered by him
• Fasting is a personal thing between you can God, but I would encourage you if there is something in your life that is keeping you from Following Jesus closely, ask Him to help you give us that thing during the next 40 days. See how it might bring you closer to him
• Remember the guilt of your sin
• Remember how much God loves you and me!