<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18812">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=4>...just outside of Caesarea Philippi, a village 25 miles north
of the Sea of Galilee</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>...Peter's heart, fracturing into a thousand shards of
disappointment so loudly that it drowns out Jesus' final promise, "and be raised
on the third day."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>But God employs a different calculus and measures strength not
in terms of might but of love, not by victory but vulnerability, not in
possessions but in sacrifice, not by glory but by the cross.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://day1.org/1434-the_heartbreaking_messiah"><FONT
size=4>http://day1.org/1434-the_heartbreaking_messiah</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The Rev. Dr. David Lose, 2009 </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - - </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>-- Peter was looking for a bailout</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoPlainText><FONT size=4>To take up your cross means that we face
squarely our limitations.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoPlainText><FONT size=4>To take up your cross means that we realize
in the face of sin we are powerless.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoPlainText><FONT size=4>To take up your cross means that we come to
terms with our inability to control, finally, and we face our
powerlessness.</FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://day1.org/1202-was_peter_looking_for_a_bailout"><FONT
size=4>http://day1.org/1202-was_peter_looking_for_a_bailout</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The Rev. Dr. Debra Samuelson, 2009</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Are there individuals in the community today – or in this
congregation – you have a hard time accepting because of things they said or did
years ago? Are there individuals you have a hard time embracing as your brother
or sister in Christ? I don’t mean to step on your toes, but I’m here to tell
you, if there are, you need to get over it. Jesus calls us to forgive and, if
not forget, at least not harbor old grievances from the past. It’s one of the
costs of discipleship, the giving up of old prejudices.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.lectionary.org/Sermons/McLarty/Mark/Mark%2008.34-38,%20Discipleship.htm"><FONT
size=4>http://www.lectionary.org/Sermons/McLarty/Mark/Mark%2008.34-38,%20Discipleship.htm</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Philip W. McLarty, 2003</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>In the last paragraph of his great book entitled Mere
Christianity, C.S. Lewis has these important lines. "The principle runs through
all life, from top to bottom," he says. "Give up yourself and you will find your
real self. Lose life and it will be saved. Submit to death - the death of
ambitions and secret wishes. Keep nothing back. Nothing in us that has not died
will ever be raised from the dead.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://day1.org/1008-christ_and_everything_else_thrown_in"><FONT
size=4>http://day1.org/1008-christ_and_everything_else_thrown_in</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The Rev. Dr. Peter Marty, 2006</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Upon his retirement from the Navy my father received a mantel
clock that chimed, like a ship’s bells, on every quarter hour. For several weeks
we were startled every time it struck, but eventually we grew to where we found
ourselves wondering if it had quit working, because we hadn’t heard it in a long
time. It was still fully functioning; we had simply gotten used to
it.<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.nph.com/nphweb/html/pmol/pastissues/Lent%202006/magmar12.htm"><FONT
size=4>http://www.nph.com/nphweb/html/pmol/pastissues/Lent%202006/magmar12.htm</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Jim Fitzgerald, 2006</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=4>Pastor Jim said, “You got to heaven and there were no other
people. Are you sure it was heaven?”</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>“Well, yeah. It was heaven. I mean Jesus came finally, and he
welcomed me, and I blurted out, I couldn’t think of anything else to say, I
mean, Jesus right there in front of you in heaven, you’d think . . . , you’d
think you could think of something else to say besides, ‘Where is everybody?’
But that’s what I said. I said, ‘Where is everybody?’ </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>And Jesus said something strange to me, he said, ‘You were
expecting other people?’ </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>And I said, ‘Well, yeah. I’d kinda hoped that maybe my family,
you know, or somebody else, anybody else. I mean, am I the only one who made
it?’</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>And Jesus said, ‘No, of course not. Lots of other people. God
loves everyone. I died for all humanity.’</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>‘Well then why am I the only one here?’</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>‘Well, you know your favorite hymn. You sang it nearly every day
of your life, hummed it to yourself, thought about it. “I come to the garden
alone,” you sang, “and He walks with me and talks with me,” but it never
mentioned any other people. And when you talked to other people about your
faith, you claimed me as your personal savior. And there’s nothing wrong with
that but your meaning was private. How you imagined me in life is how you get me
in death. So here I am, and here you are. Isn’t this what you wanted? Isn’t this
what you wanted? Isn’t this what you wanted?....’</FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-8/060917-6-e.html"><FONT
size=4>http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-8/060917-6-e.html</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Rev. Dr. Luke Bouman, 2006 </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>