August 30, 2026 - The Rev. Michael Smithson, Deacon

Pick up your cross.

We hear so often that it kind of becomes numb to just any sort of struggle that we have spiritually.

But I think to the disciples, it would have sounded more like you must pick up and carry around an electric chair with which you will be executed.

And even that doesn't convey the full tone.

Because in today's society, we are so far removed from death generally, but especially from executions.

It would have carried this sense of horror, right?

This be prepared to die.

I think Jesus, when he says this, is foreshadowing some of the persecution that the disciples will go to face later on, but I think they could have easily understood it as be prepared to die in battle, prepared to be crucified for fighting against these imperial powers.

And so when Jesus says, get behind me, Satan, you've got your mind on humanly things, not on divine things.

The disciples are thinking about what they've always expected, what they're hoping will happen, and their mind is not open yet to this radical, gratuitous salvation that's coming.

Today, our epistle lesson comes from the book of Romans, and it's a little a shame that we can't read the whole rest of the book, although I wouldn't do that to you.

But the whole first eleven chapters of the book of Romans is Paul trying to get across the sense of just how big a gift this is.

If you've ever been watching TV and heard the little warning at the beginning of a show that says, warning, this show may contain depictions of gratuitous violence.

Take that gratuitous from that sense?

Gratuitous benevolence, gratuitous generosity is what Paul is trying to get across here.

Paul's letter to the Roman is often wielded about in our current society as kind of a we are all terrible, terrible people that can do nothing to it's not really what Paul's trying to get across.

Paul's trying to get across, even when we try our hardest, this is such a big gift, something we could never achieve on our own, that we have no right to.

And yet, God, the creator of the universe, that has made everything, an all-powerful, all-knowing, all seeing God is also all-loving.

And he has adopted us as his own.

That's what Paul's trying to get across in the first eleven chapters of Romans.

And today's epistle reading comes from the twelfth chapter, where he says, Let love be genuine.

For Paul, this is the natural outflow of understanding that gratuitous generosity of God.

When you truly get it, when you can truly affix your mind on the divine things, these are the natural consequences.

I wonder what today the earthly things we get focused on are.

What makes us lose sight of divine things?

In what areas do we struggle to fully comprehend the abundant grace of God and how that should play out in our life that causes us to default to simpler human understandings.

When our criminal justice system deals with criminals, we as a society have decided the right way to deal with that is to punish.

You hear this a lot when people talk about prison reform or criminal justice reform, that punishment is necessary to teach these people a lesson, that they deserve to be punished.

That flies in the face of what Paul has said through the rest of Romans, flies in the face of this divine plan.

As humans, we seek honor and prestige and respect from others.

But Paul tells us to associate with the humble.

Both humble people and humble things.

We get focused on this idea of scarcity in our society.

We become anxious about whether there's going to be enough, whether I'm going to have enough in my retirement to pay the bills, just in general.

And so we come up with this idea of desert that people have to deserve the things that they have.

And we use that to justify what everyone has.

But then when it comes to helping others, we don't just freely give like God has given to us.

We say, What have you done to deserve this gift?

And then we expect them to be thankful for it.

The country music legend Dolly Parton passed away this week.

And as much of the world mourns her passing, I think she's the perfect reflection of a life lived by what Paul is exhorting us to do today.

Many of us know about her charitable work.

Her program that gave books to any parent of a school-aged child that wrote in and asked for one.

The unique thing about Dolly Parton was that her faith was central to everything she did.

And what made her unique in that is that it was never used as a bludgeon.

Like I said, many of us know her charitable works.

Many of us know how she made everyone feel welcome, whether through her music or her own personality.

Prepared one story in a eulogy for her this week that really stood out to me.

Dolly Parton got her start on the um the Porter Wagoneer show.

Porter Wagoneer, another at the time very famous country star.

And she was on his show for several years, but when she decided to break out on her own, Porter was not happy and ended up suing her.

They settled out of court, but Dolly had to pay Dolly Parton had to pay a million dollars for the rights to her own songs.

She said it took every dime that her and her husband had at the time.

And yet, when Porter Wagner was at the end of his life and out of money and needed money for medical care, Dolly Parton offered to buy the rights to all his music just so she could gift those rights right back.

Bless your enemies and do not curse them, right?

Dolly gives us a picture of a life lived, remembering, always remembering the abundant grace and love of God, that gratuitous love.

Love that when we fully understand that divine love, we cannot help but change how we live.

So as we go into this week, and we are tempted by those humanly things to forget the divine things, are for you some words from a song by the late great Saint Dolly.

Go to hell.

Go to hell.

Go back to where you belong.

Get thee behind me, Satan, just leave me the hell alone.

Take your wars and your politics, your lust and your greed.

Take your drugs and your alcohol, your vices and leave.

Take your weapons of mass destruction, terror, and sleaze.

Go to hell in a handbasket.

Cause heaven waits for me.

I'm in.