April 26th, 2026 - "Double Vision: Following Jesus" - Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris

Matt Nelson: Welcome to the sermon podcast from First United Methodist

Church in downtown Bentonville.

If you have questions related to what you hear today or just want to find

out more about the ministries at First United Methodist Church, please visit us

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Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris: Well, we are still in this series called Double Vision,

and we- the reason we call it Double Vision is because we are looking at the

vision that the Council of Bishops had for us, which we spent the last three weeks

on, and we're looking at the vision that our Arkansas Conference bishop has for us,

which we'll spend the next three weeks on.

And so that's where we find ourselves today.

By the way, my name's Michelle Morris.

I'm the lead pastor here.

So we're starting with following Jesus in looking at this next set of

visions, and I could think of no better passages that succinctly represent what

it means to follow Jesus than these.

So hear now the Word of the Lord

Jesus said to everyone, "All who want to come after me must say no to themselves,

take up their cross daily, and follow me.

All who want to save their lives will lose them, but all who lose their lives

because of me will save them." This is the word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray.

Lord, open our hearts, our minds, and our eyes that we might see and know

the word you have for us this day.

In your holy name we pray, amen.

Leave it to a four-year-old to teach me something about

the cross that I didn't know.

As a pastor, I am frequently gifted crosses.

I have quite a collection of them.

And when I am living in a house, I usually have a display of them.

So when we moved into our house in Plano, I was able to finally get out my crosses

and I put them up, and my four-year-old son saw them and he was so excited.

And he said, "Mama, Mama, Mama, can I have one of those crosses?

Can I have it for a minute?" And I was like, "Sure, baby." Got one of the

crosses down, handed it to him, and he knew exactly what to do with it.

Hyah!

Now, it looks like a sword, but that doesn't mean that it's supposed to

be a sword, which is what I told him.

I said, "No, no, no, we do not use the cross as a sword." And he said,

"But Mama, it's shaped just like one." And I said, "Well, it doesn't matter.

The cross is not a weapon." I spent more than a year teaching him that lesson

There's a lot of people still that need to learn that lesson

There are too many people in our world who want to weaponize Jesus and use the

cross as a reason to justify violence.

Say suffering is good in the name of Jesus.

And they will try to convince people that that is a good, faithful use,

to use the cross to justify violence, to use the cross to justify hate.

They will say it is a good thing, that is what the cross is for

And we do it at national and personal levels and everywhere in between

Too many of us use the cross as a reason to justify violence and abuse.

And I will say that this verse is frequently used to that end.

I have heard too many people, especially people who are in abusive relationships,

stay in places of abuse because they say, "It is my cross to bear."

The abuse is not your cross to bear

The abuse is why the cross was taken up in the first place.

The cross is a location of horrific violence, but the

violence was not the point.

Jesus was not making violence holy when Jesus took up the cross.

What Jesus was doing was saying, "You, Roman Empire and corrupt religious

system, may come at me with violence, but I will not respond in the same way."

Jesus could have, but chose not to

So what does Jesus really mean when Jesus says, "Take up your cross and follow me"?

The scripture gives us the answer.

It says, "Say no to yourself.

Reject selfishness.

Reject self-centeredness.

Reject advantage.

Set aside power." That is what Jesus is saying when Jesus

says, "Say no to yourself.

Put all of that aside because that puts you at the center and does not

allow you to love your neighbor."

And then when Jesus says, "Take up your cross daily and follow me," notice that

Jesus does not say, "I am going to strap a cross to you and make you follow me."

Jesus invites all of those who hear him, I invite you to this, to

take up your cross and follow me.

Just as Jesus chose, chose to take up the cross inflicted upon him.

Chose because he is the creator of the universe.

You think he didn't have other options?

He had other options.

He chose not to answer violence with violence, and he is

extending the same choice to us.

He's extending the same possibility to us.

When there is violence, when there is hate, when there is evil, when

there is death, respond with love and peace and harmony and life.

Choose those instead.

But making that kind of choice in a world like this one will

involve sometimes a choice of life.

It always involves a choice of life, whether it's a choice of your own

comfort or preferences, or it's a choice of actually living or not.

It's still a choice.

It does mean being willing to give of your whole life,

not as senseless sacrifice, but with the goal of liberation and

release and healing of others.

If that is a possibility, take up that cross.

If it is senseless abuse and harm, do not.

That's not the cross.

That's not.

The cross is the result of Jesus' ministry of love and care for others.

Jesus knew it was a likely consequence in the world in which he came to

us, but it is not the point of it.

The point was a more just and loving world, and the only way that Jesus

could respond to the violence is to not perpetuate the violence,

otherwise, he's participating.

He did not answer violence with violence, but with peace.

It's the difference between challenging the status quo and

suffering the effects of it.

He suffered the effects of the status quo, but because he chose

that, he challenged that reality

So what does this mean for us?

I think sometimes when we're trying to learn and we're trying to

apply, Jesus saves the whole world.

How do we translate that down to us?

I think it's helpful to have some examples to hold onto, so I'm gonna give you three.

If you are in an abusive relationship

The abuse is not your cross to bear.

You don't have a choice, and it is for no good that you are suffering abuse

So if you are in an abusive relationship, you are proof that the cross still exists

If you are abusing, taking advantage and manipulating and

hurting someone else for your own benefit, you're building the cross

But if you're working in domestic violence recovery, if you're in law enforcement

and responding when those calls come out, and you are putting yourself

between standing in the breach of the violence, you are bearing the cross.

You have taken up the cross by your own choice

If you are an undocumented immigrant who came to a place to try and find a

better way for your family and you are suffering horrific abuse and beatings

and threats on your life, you are proof that the cross still exists.

If you are beating someone or threatening to kill them who's in that

scenario, you are building the cross.

If you are standing in the middle trying to stop the violence and

doing something that may ultimately cost your own health and safety and

life, you have taken up the cross.

You are bearing the cross by your own choice

If you are living in squalor, in unsafe conditions, if you are disabled and

can no longer leave your home because it is not safe, there's not the right

pathway for you even to get out, you're stuck surrounded by stairs,

you are proof the cross still exists.

If you are a landlord who is charging exorbitant rent and pocketing all of that

money to your own benefit and leaving people living in squalor and in unsafe

conditions, you are building the cross

But if you're a teenager who takes a week out of your summer and goes to

build wheelchair ramps so people who are trapped in their homes can get

out of their homes and get to medical care and have a safer place to live,

you are bearing the cross.

You have taken up the cross of your own choice

Bear the cross, to take up the cross daily and follow Jesus

is sometimes a big, big ask.

Sometimes you're confronting huge injustices or very dangerous situations,

but sometimes it's an everyday thing.

Sometimes someone is hurting and they just need someone to

come alongside them and help.

That's what it means to bear the cross, to give of yourself selflessly

so that someone else benefits.

And we have a thousand opportunities to do that every day

My four-year-old came running into my bedroom one day and found me with my

eyes closed on the bed, and he said, "Mama, I wanna play. Let's play."

And I said, "Oh, honey, I can't. I have a really bad headache. I can't play

with you right now." And he ran off

And then a few minutes later, still with my eyes closed, still on the bed,

I felt a cold compress across my head

And I felt my son's hand tap my arm, and then I felt him lay his head on my arm.

And he said, "It's okay, Mama.

You'll feel better soon.

I'll stay here with you."

Leave it to a four-year-old to teach me something about following Jesus.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Matt Nelson: Thanks for listening to the sermon podcast from First United

Methodist Church in downtown Bentonville.

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