Imagine we’re involved in a plane crash in the snowy mountains. We survivors on one side of the mountain suspect there are injured passengers on the other. A doctor organizes a search party over the dangerous, blizzardy terrain and says in order to come you’ll have to leave behind your family, your possessions, and realize there are no guarantees of comfort, safety or even survival.

In this scenario it’s not hard to understand Jesus’ terse words to his disciples in this Sunday’s Gospel reading, after all, Jesus is headed to Jerusalem to take on the most important work in the world. He says that in order to follow we must have a willingness to put our families in subordination to the Gospel, a commitment to self-denial by taking up our cross, and then we have to give up all of our possessions. We wince at the idea of following through with this, and we suspect that the vast majority of Christians throughout history haven’t been able to do it either.

Then we remember that the vast majority of Christians haven’t plucked out their eyes or cut off their hands when they’ve sinned either. Yes, there is a fair amount of hyperbole going on here, which, through the years has not been helpful to the Christian cause. It has been fairly argued that the language of cross bearing has been corrupted by overuse. It’s got little to do with severing family ties, willfully seeking out suffering, or seeking to live in squalor. Carrying the cross is what we do voluntarily as a consequence of our commitment to Jesus.

Sure, our everyday life with Christ is not the adventure it was for the early disciples, but, our commitment to voluntarily follow – to offer up all we are and all we do – opens up this same world of possibility. This means mothers and grandmothers who work hard to provide and care for kids and spouses, your dedication to the Christian virtues of devotion, commitment, and loving-kindness do not go unnoticed. On this Labor Day weekend we remind ourselves that our work as accountants, teachers, engineers, salesmen, lawyers, doctors, bus drivers, librarians, musicians and retirees is our way of offering the whole of our lives to Christ, and offer their own unique opportunities for us to carry the cross. How we conduct our everyday lives matters a whole lot to God and makes a difference in the world.

Name the crosses we’re facing in our vocation. In what ways can we bear them as Christ would?


Reading
Genesis – Karen Armstrong
Wild Swans – Jung Chang
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work – Alaine de Botton