Grace to you and peace from our loving God, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Last Sunday, I asked that you listen to Peter's confession: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." But I also asked you to wait until this Sunday to hear the rest of this story.

Last week the focus was on a superficial confession—a statement of who Christ is without a full recognition of what that means. That confession of Peter certainly needs to become our own—knowing about Jesus is not enough for Christians. Christians are people who know Jesus personally and confess our faith in who Jesus is—the Son of the living God.

Today, we find further depth. We get to see beyond the surface. In the language of politics this week, we get to see beyond the hype—as we have begun to know Senator Barack Obama at a deeper level over the past week, and as we are beginning to get to know Governor Sarah Palin.

This morning, we begin to grasp Christianity from a deeper point of view. Peter, this same Peter who made the confession that had not been revealed to him by flesh and blood but my God, is in these few verses that follow Jesus' praise, now rebuked. Jesus explains to his disciples what must happen to him—that he must die and rise again. Peter then says, "God forbid it, Lord. This must never happen to you!" And then comes the rebuke from Jesus. "Get behind me, Satan!... You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

It's a rather surprising turn in the conversation. The one who made the good and right confession of who this Jesus is now becomes the one who is rebuked for misunderstanding and for being a stumbling block to Jesus' purpose.

I really enjoy the play on the idea of a rock. It's a striking irony, don't you think, that the rock on which Jesus is to build the church is now the rock that is blocking his path. Again, knowing about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus. Peter knew who Jesus was—knew him, mind you, in the flesh and personally; but even that was not enough.

We didn't hear the whole story last week. The remainder of this conversation between Peter and Jesus, given here in Matthew's gospel, completes the picture. It is not enough to know about Jesus. It is not even enough to know Jesus. We are called to follow Jesus. We are invited to be his disciples, living out the relationship of our knowing him by being faithful to the calls that he extends to us. "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

Discipleship too is an essential component of the Christian life. Without it we betray our Lord and give witness that our claims to know the Lord are false. Knowing Jesus changes us; if there is no change, it puts the relationship in question.

Isn't that true of every relationship we have? Having a friend, marrying a spouse, having children, being brother, sister, cousin, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, neighbor—all of these ways of knowing another are also ways of being. They transform us, they lay new claims upon us, call us to sacrifice, to new experiences of being human, to act in response to faithfulness and integrity to the ones we know.

These things are true for our friends and family. How much more true are they, then, for our knowing the Christ and our following Jesus? Peter is rebuked here because he doesn't want to pay the price—or let Jesus pay the price—of discipleship. He doesn't yet fully fathom the meaning of the declaration he made last week: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." In that confession, we might hear also the suffering and death and resurrection that we know were part of Jesus' work of salvation. But for Peter, those events are yet to come. Peter expects and desires an easier way.

I think we can identify. We all want life and faith to be easy. We want to set the agendas and use our time only as we see fit. We don't want talk of crosses to carry or of difficult deeds to be done or of discipleship. But, as has been well said, "Jesus never sought for admirers, but for followers."

Most Christians are only admirers; Jesus calls us to be followers. Jesus calls us to follow him for the sake of the world and with all of the costs involved.

Origen, one of the early church fathers (A.D. 185-251), suggested that when Jesus said, "Get thee behind me, Satan" to Peter, he was saying, "Peter, your place is behind me, not in front of me. It is your place to follow me in the way I choose, not to try to lead me in the way in which you would like me to go." I think that's an important thing for us to hear in a world that fosters independence, personal agency, and self-determination. In our expressions of faith and life, our acts (which may appear to be independent initiatives) are faithful and true only if they are guided by our Lord.

"We Lutherans," wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "have gathered like eagles round the carcass of cheap grace, and there we have drunk of the poison that has killed the life of following Christ... We have given away the Word and sacraments wholesale; we baptized, confirmed, and absolved a whole nation without asking awkward questions or insisting on strict conditions. Our humanitarian sentiment made us give that which was holy to the scornful and unbelieving. We poured forth unending streams of grace. But the call to follow Jesus was hardly ever heard." (Quoted in "Beyond Guilt and Powerlessness," George Johnson)

We know about Jesus. We know Christ Jesus as Lord. But do we also take up our crosses and follow our Lord?

Begin reading in the gospels nearly anywhere and you will likely find Jesus asking someone to follow. Following, being sent into the world, and being guided by our Lord are integral to our faith.

An experienced pastor confesses: "I have been in, with, and around the church for more than 50 years, and no one has ever asked me, 'Are you following Jesus?' Not when I was in the communicants' class, not when I joined the church, not when I became a candidate for the ministry, not when I was ordained, and never in any of my services of installation. Always the questions have dealt with belief: Do you believe in God—Father, Son and Spirit? Do you believe in the veracity of the scriptures and confessions? Do you believe in the unity and purity of the church?"

It is as though we accept the notion that following Jesus was appropriate until the Crucifixion and then became unimportant with the Resurrection, as if we might take up with Jesus on easier terms on the other side of Easter.

The question "Do you believe in Christ?" isn't necessarily that hard to answer. Not if one sees it as calling for an affirmation of traditional propositions about the second person of the Trinity. But when someone asks, "Are you following Jesus?" the answer implies commitment and action. It's expensive. That question gets to the heart—to matters of my lifestyle, my attitudes, my values, my care for and use of God's gifts.

If I'm following Jesus, why am I such a good insurance risk? If I'm following Jesus, why, when I've done my giving, do I have so much left over for myself? Why do my closets bulge when so many are unclothed? Why do I have so much privacy in a world that is starved for love? Why am I tempted to overeat in a world where so many beg for bread? Why am I getting on so well in a world that marked him for death? And why are there so many people who need my help-including the Lost Boys of Sudan we learned about on Wednesday evening at the mission event?

Jesus invites us, along with Peter this morning, to consider whether we are we really taking seriously his call to the cross. Jesus said that his work was to do the will of God. No matter what we do for a living, as Christians our work is to follow Jesus in doing the will of God. As John Ruskin said, "Our greatest reward for our toil is not what we get for it, but what we become by it." As Christians, we are called to become more fully with each passing day followers of Jesus and therefore people of God.

The Quaker theologian D. Elton Trueblood writes: "There is no reason to suppose that God is primarily interested in buildings called churches; [God] is probably far more interested in factories, because people spend more time there. What we are sure of is that it is in the common life—where and how people work—that the Christian cause will be won or lost."

And this work has a particular character. It's all too easy to assume that any burden we bear or good work we do is a response to Jesus' call to take up the cross. There are, in fact, many mistaken ideas about what it means to take up a cross. There are countless things we bear that are irksome, difficult, and discouraging—like a chronic disease, or a crippled leg. There are many chores we do that are boring, monotonous, and frustrating. But these are burdens, not crosses.

We are conscripted to carry burdens. Life lays them on our backs. Burdens are the thousand natural shocks the flesh is heir to; but we volunteer to carry a cross. Jesus said, "Take up." A cross is somebody else's burden we choose to take up.

You might say about yourself, "I have a fierce temper, but I suppose that's my cross to bear." And your friend may rightly reply, "No, that's not your cross; that's your wife's!"

Even Christian ministries and publications can serve to direct people away from the path that Jesus invites us to follow by taking up our cross, away from discipleship.

Ads keep cropping up that demonstrate this. One opens with the words: "How to be a Millionaire, and How To Use The Word of God to Help You Climb." It advertises a seminar scheduled by The National Institute of Believers of Atlanta, Georgia. Here is a sample of topics covered:

-Use God's Word on your Attorney on a daily basis and make him work for you.

-Use God's Word to clear up credit before purchasing a car, home, etc.

-Use God's Word to resolve disputed bills and see them marked "Paid in Full"

-Use God's Word to move into the Millionaire Status. You will never be a millionaire by letting worldly conditions worry you.

Somehow I doubt there was much talk at that program about the cross or about discipleship. I also doubt seriously that Jesus' rebuke of Peter for wanting an easy way got so much as a mention.

There is a cost to our faith. We are at worship here of a God who calls for total commitment and who asks for more than many are willing to give. We practice here a way of life that offers the only viable way of living, but in doing so challenges profoundly the meaningless living that constitutes the call we hear outside these walls. The call of the cross is costly, but the alternatives are costlier still. May God grant us grace, understanding, and will to become ever more faithful followers—disciples. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord unto eternal life. Amen.