(Jesus said)If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the Gospel will save it.

When I arrived in Bangladesh Sabrina told me I needed to walk on the side of the road. I assured her I was, and she kept insisting that I wasn’t, especially by Bangladesh standards. At one point she switched places with me insisting she walk on the outside closest to traffic. Then she kept herding me further and further off the road to where I was having to step over trash, broken bricks and such. The danger she was saving me from became apparent when at one point she was hit on the back of her arm by a mirror on a passing truck. Danger was all around us. All those cars and trucks had horns which they liberally used to warn you that they were coming.

I quickly associated horns with cars, trucks, and danger, but what took me some time to get use to were the bells on rickshaws and bikes. These bells, ones we might associate with tricycles and little kids, serve a real purpose. They are warning bells, bells you better pay attention to and react to just like a horn if you want to keep from getting run into, run over, or knocked into a ditch with foul-smelling, thick, black water.

It is warning bells that I would like to talk with you about this morning. Jesus is sounding warning bells. Ones that we need to pay attention to or we might lose not only our lives but our souls as well. Let us begin with the 35th verse of our Gospel lesson: For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the Gospel will save it. Jesus is sounding a warning bell. Too many people, I fear, are seeking to save this body and life which are temporary, short-lived, and passing away. Too many people are looking just at the here and now - at the short run. It is the salvation of the soul that is most important. If it is saved, then you have saved it all.

Peter provides a great example of one who is looking at the short run. At the beginning of our lesson (31-33) Jesus begins to plainly lay out what is about to happen: Jesus must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be rejected and killed. Oh yes, by the way after three days be raised again to life. His suffering and death are the price tag set for the forgiveness of sins. With that forgiveness will come life, not just a few more tomorrows but eternal life. But Peter doesn’t get it.He argues with Jesus: no, not death but a renewed “right now” kingdom. Conquer our “right now” enemies, reestablish the kingdom of Israel, give life to the fullest now. It isn’t the cross we need; it is victory over the “here and now.”

Jesus sounds the warning bell. If I do that –rescue you from the “here and now” and I could, you’ll still one day die. Your greatest enemies are not the Romans, not even hunger, unfairness, not even disease, your greatest enemies are sin and death. They are out there. Only in their defeat can you have life that continues beyond the few days you have in this world. Their defeat and your having eternal life in heaven are tied up in the cross.

I wonder how many times we argue with God worrying more about our enemies and struggles of the “here and now” and in the process we lose sight of the greater enemies our sin and death. How many times do we fail to hear the warning bell – apart from the cross there is no lasting victory? How many times are we tempted to exchange our eternity, seemingly selling out our souls for short term relief or earthly gain? To this thinking Jesus sounds the warning bell, What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

I had a parishioner out in Venango, NE who regularly attended Bible study. It was a running joke in our study that this man always walked around with a thick three-ring binder under his arm. He didn’t in any way but I used him as my example, as I often use Wayne or Klaus. I used that visual picture to sound a warning bell. In that binder I accused him of keeping a record of all the good deeds he’d ever done and all the good intentions he’d ever had, even documentation of his sincerities. Yes, he believed that Jesus died for his sins but just in case that wasn’t enough he wanted to be prepared to impress God with all his good works. With a record, a three-ring binder full self-documentation of all of his good works and good intentions he was ready if necessary, to bargain with God, to exchanged his good works for eternal life.

To this thinking Jesus sounds a warning bell. There is nothing sinful man can give to God in exchange for his soul. No tower of three-ring binders a hundred feet high filled with good works or deeds will buy the forgiveness of even one of our sins. But do not despair. God has not abandoned us. Where we were powerless to atone for our sins, God wasn’t. Where we could give nothing in exchange for our souls, God gave His own Son in exchange for our souls! That is what the cross is about.

Our lesson from Romans tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…while we were powerless to save ourselves, to justify ourselves, to make peace with God; when we had nothing with which to impress God, nothing to bargain with, yet even then, Christ died for us. Not only died but He rose again offering eternal life to all who would believe.

That life He gives to us by and through the hearing of the living Word. That life He pours out upon us in baptism along with the Holy Spirit. Now, by and through that Spirit our lives in Christ are nurtured when we gather regularly for fellowship. They grow as His Word is studied and when we gather for prayer. By and through His Word, we come to realize: where we once trusted in all manner of worldly things, now we trust in the cross.

At the cross we see the justice of God –sin must be paid for if we are to have peace with God. At the cross we see the Father and the Son paying that cost. In the aftermath of the cross we find the mercy and grace of the Father and Son, as they freely and fully forgive sinners who ran up such a bill. They forgive you and me.

Pastor, this is nice but what about the cross we are told to take up. What does this mean? Our cross is one of living our lives in Christ, one of losing our lives in His, one of being the hands and feet of Christ to those around us. Ours is one of sounding the warning bell that others might not get hit and run over by a self-absorbed, misguided world. We are called in part to rescue those who have been knocked into sin-filled ditches along the road of life, to lift them up as we have been lifted up. The psalmist writes: He lifted me up out of the slimly pit, out of the muck and mire, he set my feet upon the rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth. (40.2-3) We are sent to do all manner of things for Christ.

Few if any of us will be martyrs in the true sense of the word, but many of us may have to carry crosses of disease, hardship, unfairness, or turmoil. We can take these crosses up and carry them, of course praying that they might even now be taken from us, but if they are not we can live confident that in our weakness- in our situations - we are more than conquerors. Our situations and hardships will pass away but our salvation will not, for we are clothed with Christ and as He was victorious over sin and death for us He freely shares that victory with us.

Others of us with the assistance of the Holy Spirit we can live very differently from those around us. Where the world may worry about the stylishness of their cars, we can strive to give rides to those in need. Where the world may be impressed by well-appointed square houses and fancy neighborhoods, we can provide shelter for those in need and strive to be genuinely helpful neighbors. Where the world chases after ever-changing fashions we can seek to clothe those in need. Where others harbor hurt and nourish hate, we can forgive and seek reconciliation. Where others may seek to speak the ever-changing wisdom of the world, we can speak and teach the timeless message of the Gospel. Where others seek to scramble to the top of the heap, we can minister to those who have fallen and been left discarded along the way.

Oh, to the world it may look as though we’ve lost our lives but truly because of Christ and His cross our lives are full of real purpose and meaning.

Amen.