While I was thinking about the lessons for today, I kept being distracted. I kept feeling the hair on my head. There’s a picture of me at the beginning of our worship videos of me on the only Sunday I have ever got to worship in the building that Living Faith calls home. In that picture, I had gotten my haircut for the move and had taken pictures from multiple angles so that it could be replicated here in Florida. I started getting my hair cut short over 30 years ago. I do not fear a straight razor on my head. I put sunscreen on my head. So I moved to Florida, (with sunscreen) and boom COVID and quarantine. I put on a hat and I look like the pictures on bubblegum cards of 1970’s baseball players. I can’t keep my hands out of it and it’s very distracting. I guess it’s just my cross to bear… (record scratch sound). No, no no! No it’s not. That phrase gets misused so often without people knowing or thinking, much like crosses get worn or tattooed as merely another symbol with little thought or discernment to what Jesus teaches about the very deep meaning of the call to take up the cross and its impact on one’s life.
I think we have to hop in the WayBac machine and realize that Jesus had not been crucified when he said this. I think you would be hearing that taking up a cross would mean voluntarily carrying the implement of your death through the streets while being cursed at, derided and spit upon by those who were glad that you were going to die, your countrymen and kinsfolk. And think about what engendered that anger. The thing that got Jesus crucified was standing against oppression and the oppressors, for the poor and infirmed, against policies that made lives for some easier on the back of others. I found a really helpful article on the Lutheran Blog, Faith Lens from 2012 by Scott Mims, that summed it up very well. He wrote, “But what does it mean to take up one’s cross? Is it simply to deal with the problems or troubles that come your way with as much patience, determination, and faith as possible? We often hear of “bearing our cross” in terms of such things. Yet Jesus has something else, something deeper in mind than getting through life as best as we can. After all, the cross that awaits Jesus in Jerusalem is not an accidental event or circumstance for him to “get through,” it is a direct result of his own work to confront the powers of sin, evil, and death. Jesus defined Messiah in terms of his identification with the outcasts, the forgotten, and the oppressed, bringing to them in word and deed the promise of God’s coming kingdom. This has important implications for all who would follow Jesus.” and Scott quotes Alan Culpepper, “Taking up the cross means being at work where God is at work in the world to relieve suffering and injustice, to rescue the weak, and to bring peace and justice to bear in the human community.” Because God has gifted each of us with a unique set of gifts, talents, abilities, and experiences, each of us has a unique opportunity to take up our cross and participate in God’s redemptive work in the world.” Thanks, Scott and Alan.
How often do we see crosses in gold and precious metals, encrusted and bedazzled, ornate and expensive. We see them as ornaments, accoutrements, and accessories and more often than not as identifiers, that is a symbol that says that we identify with the Christian faith. But do we stop and consider it. That is what Jesus is having his followers do. Stop and consider discipleship, that is taking up the cross and following him and it’s cost. I saw lots of jewelry crosses over $1000, one for close to $13,000, and some spiritual beads for $45,000, and that’s not counting the ones that go up in churches. This is not the type of sacrifice that Jesus was talking about. We have come to see the cross as a symbol and not an action, ostentatious expression over feeding the hungry. This is not the Cost of Discipleship as Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it. What does taking up the cross look like? I consider myself very fortunate, because I got to see and hear a young man that I would say is the top of my all time hero list for taking up the cross list and I would like to share his story with you as it was told in a biography by Candace Ball.
Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah was born in rural Ghana in 1977 with a missing right tibia, or shin bone. His foot dangled uselessly from the curled up stump of his lower leg. Yeboah told Sports Illustrated that in the deeply superstitious country of Ghana, “when you are a deformed child, people think your mother sinned.” His father, ashamed of the child, abandoned the family soon after Yeboah’s birth. Friends and family urged Yeboah’s mother to abandon or even kill the baby. Comfort Yeboah, a proud woman with a deep sense of human dignity, did neither. Instead she lived up to her name by nurturing her son. “She gave me the idea that I could go to school and become a great man,” Yeboah told Sports Illustrated. Yeboah and his mother lived in a tiny home that lacked electricity and plumbing. His bed was the dirt packed floor. At first she carried him two miles each way to school. Later, when he was old enough to get to school on his own, he recalled to the New York Daily News, “I’d hop on my leg.” Of 240 students, Yeboah was the only disabled child. He was teased by the other children and, of course, sidelined from sports.At the age of 13 Yeboah dropped out of school against his mother’s wishes. She had fallen ill and he decided to travel to Accra, Ghana’s capital, to earn some money shining shoes for $2 a day. After his mother’s death Yeboah returned to Accra. Shining shoes on the streets day after day, he witnessed the resigned desperation of the other disabled people around him. That’s when he had an idea. Yeboah decided he would bike around Ghana to raise awareness of the plight of the disabled. First, he needed to find a bike. A doctor told Yeboah about the California-based Challenged Athlete Foundation (CAF), an organization that supports disabled athletes. Yeboah had never written a letter before, yet he carefully prepared a request to the organization explaining his idea and asking for a bike. Bob Babbit, founder of CAF, was so impressed with Yeboah’s vision that he not only sent over a new mountain bike, but also threw in biking gear and $1,000. Yeboah’s friends were skeptical. “Riding a bicycle 600 kilometers on one leg—who ever heard of that before?” Gordon Abodoe told the New York Daily News. Yeboah tried several times to get a meeting with Ghana’s King Osagyefuo, but was turned away at the palace doors. Disabled people were believed to be too unworthy to step onto royal property. But he kept going. Finally the king agreed to meet Yeboah. It was the first time a disabled person had been allowed entrance to the palace. Yeboah told the king of his plan and the bike he had received from CAF. According to an article on the Orthotics and Prosthetics (OandP) Web site, the king asked, “Why do you want to do such a thing, and what do you want from me?” Yeboah responded, “I want to prove that just because you have a disability does not mean you can’t use your God given gifts, and I need your support.” The king complied. In 2001 Yeboah began his journey. He was 24. Over several months he rode 380 miles through Ghana, wearing a bright red shirt that read “The Pozo,” Ghanaian slang for a disabled person. Along the way he stopped to meet villagers, speak with disabled children, and give speeches to dignitaries, church leaders, and the ever-present media. He was not afraid to speak out against the government’s policy on the disabled, and politely, consistently requested that the disabled be given the same respect as the able-bodied. As a result, Emmanuel became a one-named celebrity in Ghana. CAF officials closely followed Yeboah’s journey and after he finished, they invited him to California to participate in the 2002 Triathlon Challenge, CAF’s primary fundraiser. Yeboah took seven hours to complete the 56-mile bike leg of the event. After the race, Sports Illustrated recalled him saying, “I did not know San Diego was so hilly.” Yeboah’s achievements did not go unnoticed. In 2003, CAF named him the Most Inspirational Athlete of the Year. Actor Robin Williams presented him with the award along with a state-of-the-art running leg. From California he traveled to Oregon and the corporate headquarters of Nike, where he received the prestigious Casey Martin Award, given to honor an athlete who has overcome physical, mental, societal, or cultural challenges to excel in their sport. The Nike award came with a check for $25,000. CAF matched that gift with another $25,000. What did he do with the money? He didn’t buy a $12,000 cross. Yeboah used the money to create the Emmanuel Education Fund in Ghana. “My goal is to make sure that children with disabilities get an education, receive proper medical care, and play sports whenever they want,” He has committed to putting 15 disabled students through school each year and has helped organize the distribution of hundreds of wheelchairs to his countrymen. His actions have won him the respect of fellow Ghanaian, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan as well as King Osagyefuo, who has adopted Yeboah’s cause. The king has provided financial and managerial support for the Emmanuel Education Fund and has arranged academic and athletic training for Yeboah. The king described Yeboah to OandP as “a man who leads by example and who is not driven by self, but driven to help others.”
Taking up the cross is about risking contempt, ridicule and rejection on ourselves for others as Jesus first did for us and we can see how it builds the kingdom of God.
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