My God and My Country

The Sunday Sermon

Knowing Nothing But the Cross

by Charles E. Jefferson  (1860-1937)

Edited by R.P. Woitowitz  Sr. 

For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified  - 1 Corinthians 2:2

Preface - by R.P. Woitowitz Sr. 

So often we think upon the Joys of being a Christian. We will live with our heavenly Father and His Son Christ Jesus. We will be victorious in all we do, over-comers, conquerors, joyful and filled with the knowledge that God is for us, and with us at all times. But what do we bring to God’s table? Do we consider the price we pay? How often have we been told that it is a myth, a lie, a concoction of the mind of man? How often have we been accused of being self-righteous, judgmental? How many times have we had to defend our beliefs against the onslaught of a dying world that questions the very existence of God? During the Great Depression of the 1930s, there was a group of people, atheists by self confession, that wrote to our government to forgo the National Day of Thanksgiving. Their reason being; “ how can a merciful and loving God allow so many to suffer?” Many such people make that same claim today in various forms.

So again I ask what do each of us need to bring to the table? Perhaps a better question should be, what should we bring to the table?  Herein below then is one man’s suggestion; that we deny ourselves, and take up the cross.
RPW. Sr.

Let us think about the cross. And when I say "cross " I mean the cross set up on Golgotha. We are in the habit of using the word nowadays with many significations. The cross; what is the cross? It is an architectural decoration, a pretty way of ending a spire. It is a piece of jewelery dangling from a man's watch-chain, or hanging from a woman's neck. It is a figure of speech. Do we not talk about our "little crosses" and smile over them through our tears? But the cross about which I wish to speak is a piece of rough timber with a dying man nailed to it. That hideous spectacle lies at the very centre of our religion.

It is a misfortune of our age that Christianity is surrounded by a golden haze. When seen through this golden haze the religion of the Son of God seems to be a beautiful and ethereal thing. It is a poem whose rhythmic cadences soothe the imagination and satisfy our anesthetic nature. It is a lovely song, to be handed over to the lips of expert singers, and to be interpreted by the great masters of tone. It is a picture, tragic and pathetic, before which we can sit down in our hours of meditation and wonder or cry. It is a philosophy, to be studied and discussed; a learned thing, to be expounded in essays and eloquent orations. It is a dream, beautiful and luminous as the Syrian sky under which it had its birth. And when we speak about "the cross" we mean a certain line in the poem, a verse in the anthem, a color in the picture, an enigma in the philosophy, the central glory of the dream.

But that is not the religion of the Son of God. The Christian life as Jesus lived it was a simple, prosaic, practical thing. "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"( Luke 2:49;) "I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work." (John 9:4;)  "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work."  (John 4:34;) So he said as he labored through the years. He went into society, where men and women were tied round and round with foolish customs and ridiculous fashions, and he defied these fashions by acting as a Son of God ought to act.

Not only was it certain to him that he must move steadily toward the cross, but it was equally clear that every man who would do the work which he was engaged in must also move toward a cross. His experience was not to be exceptional, but it was to be the established rule. ( Luke 9:23;) He could not allow men to follow him unless he was first assured that they understood the condition on which discipleship became possible. Jesus made the cross conspicuous because he knows what is in man.

 -Be a Christian in order that you may help save a world-

When Jesus met those young men on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He said to Peter and Andrew and James and John: "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." (Mark 1:17;) This is to say one should get off of your snug little Sea of Galilee and venture out upon the ocean, where storms are tremendous and vast interests are in danger. And whenever throughout his life he succeeded in getting men to come to him, he immediately said: "Go preach the gospel. I send you like so many sheep into the midst of wolves." (Luke 10:3;) That is what it is to be a Christian: to throw one's self into the hard, rough work of bringing this world back to God. That is the appeal, and the only appeal that goes deep into a man's soul. That is the appeal which Christianity brings to the young men of America. My brethren, be Christians, in order to bring a world back to God.

No one can be a Christian  without risk and loss. We are not in danger now of being cut to pieces by the knives of savages, but words are daggers and cause more suffering than drawn swords do. Bullets kill, but words lacerate and leave the heart bleeding. Popularity is as sweet to-day as it has ever been, but popularity is something we must be ready to part with at any hour. John Greenleaf Whittier once laid his hand on the head of a fifteen-year-old boy and said: "My lad, if you want to win success, identify yourself with some unpopular but noble cause." Whittier when a boy had done just that thing. He had identified himself with the antislavery cause. He had suffered many things because of his convictions, but in his old age he had the joy of seeing the world come round to where he stood. At the end of the day he wore a crown. One may suffer for a little while, but your light affliction is but for a moment. Without such suffering humanity cannot advance, nor can you be a worthy follower of the Son of God. " It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him : if we suffer, we shall also reign with him."  ( 2 Timothy 2:11; Romans 6:8)

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:5-8;) Behold! Down, down, down! Up from the pit of his humiliation there comes the exhortation to "Follow me," and down from the heights of his glory there falls the great promise " To him that over cometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne."  (Revelation 3:21;)

Scripture as used above

Luke 2:49; John 9:4; John 4:34; Luke 9:23; Mark 1:17; Luke 10:3;  2 Timothy 2:11; Romans 6:8; Philippians 2:5-8; Revelation 3:21;