EGGS CAN'T FLY

      For years I avoided church... and mocked believers as fools and hypocrites. In my view, they were self-righteous pretenders who weren't brave enough to actually embrace Christ... or to give themselves over to their own sins, either one. Christ asked too much of them; the world frightened them... so they joined a church... to hangout with others who were in the same boat.  If they were good at all, they were (to use Twain's phrase) good in the worst sense of the word... because we could all see that they weren't living any differently than we were. They gathered on Sunday, but they worshiped themselves and all of the idols that the rest of us worshiped, and frankly, this was disappointing... because some of us needed a hope that only God could give. Some of us needed a big God- a demanding God- who could give and take life, who would have his way with us, and who could reshape us entirely. Some of us had gotten lost along the way and we were ready, even hoping, to do business with a God who wanted all of us.
      Well, this is the God whom we encounter in Mark 8:31ff today. Rather than being told that we can have our cake and eat it too, we're challenged to make a choice, and rather than encountering a God who only asks for lip service, and a little time now, and (if we feel like it) a little of our spending change, we come face to face with a God who wants all of us. Look, Jesus said, as he called the crowd to gather around, anyone who loses his (or her) life for my sake will find it, and those who cling to their lives... will lose them! What? Yes, you heard it correctly. Anyone who chooses to be a disciple of mine (he said)... must pick up a cross and die to himself! He said this because we are imprisoned to self, and we will never be free... as long as we are bound by our passions, our pride, our possessions, our fears, and our sins (to mention just a few). Our freedom is an illusion because we will never be truly free and fully human until our hearts rest in Christ. Consider the costs, he noted later, and make a choice. I will give you full, meaningful, and eternal life, he promised...IF you die to yourself and give your life to me!
      Come and die. Come and die. When I think of these words I immediately thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who famously said, "When Jesus calls a man, he bids him 'come and die.'" Some men die like the apostles who were called to drop everything and follow Christ. Some men die to self like Luther did, by leaving the monastery and engaging the world... but every man or woman who is called by Christ is called to "come and die to self." And there are no exceptions. Every Christian carries a cross. Every Christian is yoked to Christ. That's what the word "Christian" means and it is what separates Christians from people who aren't. Listen to C.S. Lewis as he describes what Christ wants from us. "Give me all of you! I don't want so much of your time, or your talents or money- I want all of you. I have not come to frustrate the natural man or woman, but to kill it! No half measures will do. I don't want to prune a branch here and a branch there. I want the whole tree out! Hand over... all of your dreams and wishes, your needs and wants. Turn them over to me, and I will make of you a new self... in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you myself. My will shall become your will. My heart shall become your heart!" (Mere Christianity)
      This, then, is the Lenten call to surrender and new life.  This then is the Lenten promise. His heart will be my heart... if I give my heart to him. His will shall be my will, but I must make a choice. Lent is a season for reflections, self-examinations...and choices! Lent is a call to action... but it's not easy! On the contrary, it's counter-intuitive and frightening because no one wants to carry a cross. No one wants to die to self. It's an act of the greatest trust and it's something that the world (nor even your own family members) will never understand. Dying to self... as a means of discovering life... will never be a great church growth slogan, nor will it ever be particularly popular. Indeed, many pastors believe we must lead people from "come and see"... to... "come and die" because it's a decision that requires spiritual maturity.., and even Jesus called us to measure the costs. Let me quote C.S. Lewis again, "The terrible thing- the almost impossible thing- is to hand over your whole self... to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are trying to do instead- which is continue to "be ourselves," to make our own fulfillment and happiness the greatest aim of our life, and at the same time to be good." Look around and see the trail of tears that we have left- all of us and each of us- in an effort to find purpose and happiness without God.
      It can't be done! We will never be fulfilled or free... by trying all the harder and hanging on all the tighter. Never, because we must let go... and besides, surrendered obedience is the stuff that enables us to fly- to soar as Christians. I've told the story before of the little congregation of ducks, who listen to their pastor tell them every Sunday, that they can fly... only to waddle back home again. Well, today, I close with Lewis' observation that eggs can't fly. "It may be hard," he noted. "for an egg to turn into a bird, but it would be a jolly sight harder for a bird to learn to fly while remaining a egg. We are like eggs at the present- (but) you can't go on indefinitely being just an ordinarily decent egg. We must (either) be hatched or go bad." Christ does not give us the choice of opting out- nor making excuses- but instead, he invites us to make a choice- for Him. "Yonder lies your cross. Pick it up... and fly!"