Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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Original Manuscript:
To truly understand our reading today, it helps to understand the context for Jesus' speech.
Jesus has just told his disciples that He must die. Peter has tried to hush Him, and Jesus has responded with the famous line "Get behind me Satan!"
Jesus mentioning the cross here in our reading is very important. When Jesus is calling the crowd and the Disciples to follow Him, His death is very much on His mind.
It's not that Jesus is necessarily calling us to the same death that He died. Jesus is calling us to live into what His death meant, mainly Love.
Love is the motivating factor for the crucifixion. Jesus allows Himself to die in order to save us. Jesus dies because He loves us. We are called to live into the same intensity of love, that is we are called to love one another to the point that we would die for one another if need be.
It's a love that calls us to forsake all other things that might get in the way of that love, even ourselves. Just as we were this past Sunday, we are called again by Jesus to make a choice. Are we following in the path of Jesus and His love, or will we choose a different path to take?