Communion Sunday of Labor Day Weekend                                                                                          

   September 2, 2023

Dear Road Church Friends,

“Take up your cross and follow me” is one of the many “Hard Sayings” of Jesus that puzzle believers, and tend to turn people off.” Once Jesus was speaking to a large audience of disciples. He said to them, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. All who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” On hearing this, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching, who can accept it?” And many of them went away and no longer followed him.” (John 6:53-54, 60, 66). On another occasion Jesus said to a group of followers, “You are following me because of the free meals.” The charge to take up a cross is a reminder of the seriousness of our Christian calling. It is not about self-serving but self-denial even unto death.

Many enlist in military service to get training in a career path to see the world. But these are fringe benefits. The military exists to protect and serve a nation by being prepared through hard training for every eventuality, and by a willingness to go anywhere, and to make the ultimate sacrifice if called upon to do so. That is what Jesus did for us. Can we do any less for him? Gather with us Sunday morning at 10 am for Communion and a meditation on carrying our cross.

SERMON:  We Are Soldiers of the Cross

SCRIPTURES

Matthew 16:24-26

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you want to follow me you must leave what you are now on, take up your cross, accept your status as condemned criminals, and line up behind me. If you try to save your life by remaining on the sidelines, you will lose it. If you give your all for me, I will give you eternal life. What is the point of gaining the whole world if you lose your soul? There is nothing more valuable than your life.”

2 Timothy 2:3-4

Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.

A NATION’S STRENGTH

    by Ralph Waldo Emerson

What makes a nation’s pillars high and its foundations strong?

What makes it mighty to defy the foes that round it throng?

It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand go down in battle shock,

Its shafts are laid on sinking sand, not on abiding rock.

Is it the sword? Ask the red dust of empires passed away,

The blood has turned their stones to rust, their glory to decay.

And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown has seemed to nations sweet,

But God has struck its luster down in ashes at his feet.

Not gold but only men can make a people great and strong,

Men who for truth and honor’s sake stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep, who dare while others fly—

They build a nation’s pillars deep and lift them to the sky. 

Blessings to you all, Pastor Norm

This service on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/1rnqtKz9sFo?si=ajB-Z2g6YWB8-u54