³¹Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³²He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

³⁴He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ³⁸Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” ^9:1And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

Last Wednesday, New England’s favorite baseball team moved one step closer to delivering on a promise that has been left unfulfilled for the last eighty-six years. You see, ever since Babe Ruth, the greatest baseball player of his and many other eras was shipped out of town from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees by the owner of the Red Sox, the team has not won the World Series, the championship of baseball. Until that point in 1918, the Red Sox had won five of the first fifteen World Series championships ever played. For more than three quarters of the last hundred years, since that one awful decision by a cash-strapped baseball club owner, thousands upon thousands of folks have considered it the curse of the Babe the cause that has prevented the Boston Red Sox from winning their next World Series. Last Wednesday something radical and unbelievable happened - something else that had not happened since that fateful autumn of 1918. The Red Sox beat the Yankees on their way to playing in the World Series, last night was the first game of that series and there will be several more during the course of this week and perhaps through next weekend. Many believe that the World Series will come easily and the hardest part of the canceling the curse was put to bed last Wednesday – beating the Yankees.

For more than eight decades, these feats have proven impossible. Many people worried that perhaps this curse, this inability to beat the New York Yankees and win the World Series would last forever. That it would remain impossible forever! The futility of year after year, of 86 years of trying to beat the Yankees and win the World Series was enough to make native New Englanders, who were aficionados of baseball lose their minds. 1948, 1967, 1975, 1986, 1999 were each years which meant defeat and futility and depression and sadness and anger toward the hated Yankees.

Then along came one man who decided he would change all that. Curt Schilling was added to the team during this last year. The only reason he had been added was because he had already done what the Red Sox wanted to do. With another team from the deserts of Arizona, he had both beaten the New York Yankees and he had won the World Series. He really and truly believed that some day the curse would end, that the Red Sox, the snakebit, unlucky, cursed and perennially futile baseball team from Boston would have to beat the Yankees, that this type of crazy trend could not last forever and that the Boston Red Sox would someday have to win it all. So he joined the Red Sox and he donated his prodigious talents to the effort and he began to tell people whenever he had the opportunity a simple message, even making a Tee-shirt out of it and wearing it under his uniform each time he played. His simple message? “Why Not Us?” “Some day, some year, some decade, just by shear dumb luck, the Yankees have to lose and the Red Sox have to win it all,” he would reason. So as a new Red Sox player, he turned to his fellow players and asked them, “Why Nut Us to be the ones to do it?” Huh, “Why Not Us?” His enthusiasm, the enthusiasm and playful gregarious spirit of his teammates have proven to not simply be foolish, frivolous wishful thinking. They’ve made more progress on their hopeful, impossible dream than any Red Sox team since 1918. They’ve beat the Yankees and they’re playing in the World Series.

“Why Not Us?” says Curt Schilling to his teammates. David Ortiz says it to Johnny Damon who says it to Pokey Reese who says it to Kevin Millar and now all New England too believes that the question is a valid one and one that just might be answered with, “you know, you’re right, why not us?”

· of worship that shakes and rattles the windows with new styles of singing and methods of praising God.

· an active and vibrant youth group that equips and energizes young people to serve God and provide leadership for this church for years to come.

· a balanced budget for our church so discussions about its financial future at monthly or annual meetings would never have to be anxious or nervous or contentious again.

· finding new ways to reach out into the community surrounding our church to bring the good news of God’s love and caring to new people in exciting ways that make their lives better, that helps ease their suffering and prompts them to praise God and themselves respond to God’s call to them to join us or another church of Christ to reach out to in effort s to continue to build the heavenly kingdom here in this realm.

In the town of Salem, exist 19 churches. In the state of New Hampshire, 1174. Which of these churches do you think fill their pews each and every Sunday? Which of them has active and vibrant youth groups? Which has a balanced budget and no financial worries at all? Which of these 19 churches in Salem or 1174 in New Hampshire has found new ways to reach out to the community beyond religiousland?

I’m sure many of these churches do many of these some of the time or a few of these things all of the time, but how many churches can do all of these things all of the time?

I’ve seen packed churches and large youth groups and people attending bible studies and balanced budgets out there in the world, and we have seen some of these things here in our church. But if we want to see more, then perhaps we’ve got to ask ourselves and each other the same question Curt Schilling has been asking lately. “

… It is … If we want to follow Christ, if we want to create and fulfill a vision you have that is within God’s will, we’ve got to start in one place, in the Word and words of Christ.

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?

You mean its all a matter of choice? “Take up your cross and follow” Jesus says. Is it that easy? Its surely more difficult than that!

It is more difficult to participate in God’s plan than to participate in the stuff that seems to be what is necessary or what the world or others expects of us. But ultimately, it depends on our priorities. It depends on what is important to you.

Two friends were walking near Times Square in Manhattan. It was during the noon lunch hour and the streets were filled with people. Cars were honking their horns, taxicabs were squealing around corners, sirens were wailing, and the sounds of the city were almost deafening. Suddenly, one of them said, "What an interesting place to hear a cricket."

His friend said, "What? You must be crazy. You couldn’t possibly hear a cricket in all of this noise!"

The man, who thought he had heard a cricket, listened carefully for a moment, and then walked across the street to a big cement planter where some shrubs were growing. He looked into the bushes, beneath the branches, and sure enough, he located a small cricket. His friend was utterly amazed.

"No," said the man who heard the cricket. "My ears are no different from yours. It all depends on what you’re listening for."

"But that can’t be!" said the friend. "I could never hear a cricket in this noise."

"Yes, it’s true," came the reply. "It depends on what is really important to you. Here, let me show you."

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few coins, and discreetly dropped them on the sidewalk. And then, with the noise of the crowded street still blaring in their ears, they noticed every head within twenty feet turn and look to see if the money that tinkled on the pavement was theirs.

"See what I mean?" asked the man who heard the cricket. "It all depends on what’s important to you."[1]

If you want to know where your priorities are, think of where you spend your money, think of where you spend your time, think of where you spend your resources.

What do you want for this church? What do you really want to see happen? Do you want an active youth group? Then you must bring your kids to youth group events. Do you want the membership and attendance of the church to be greater? Then you must bring more people to church. If you want to see a balanced budget, then you must give more or work more for the balancing of that budget. If you want the church to reach out more profoundly to the community with God’s message of Good News and with God’s grace, then you’ve got to reach out yourself somehow.

This is true of you, this is true of me, this is true for every person who claims the church is important to him, who claims God’s vision or plan for his kingdom is important to her.

“Why Not Us?” Asks Curt Schilling. Why not indeed. Because it costs us personally. Do you know that even when Curt Schilling was asking that question of himself, of his teammates, of all the fans of the Boston Red Sox, he had a serious problem with the tendon in his right foot? Did you know that when he played last Tuesday night, they had sown the skin on his ankle so that the displaced tendon of that foot might not flip in and out of place and cause both pain and a loss of strength and that he could play the way the entire nation thought he could? Did you know that as he played last Tuesday night, the blood from this dangerous, experimental and temporary surgery flowed out onto his sock leaving it red and bloody. “Why not us?” Because sometimes the price of getting what we hope for is expensive, the cost of reaching our visions and achieving our goals is too high.

There was a woman once who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart, but she was very frustrated. The world seemed to be falling apart and her personal life wasn't that great either. One day she decided to go shopping, and she went to the mall and walked in to one of the stores. She was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter. She knew it was Jesus because he looked just like the paintings she'd seen in museums and in devotional books. Finally she got up her nerve and asked, "Excuse me, but are you Jesus?" "I am." "Do you work here?" "In a way; I own the store." "Oh, what do you sell here?" "Just about everything," Jesus replied. "Feel free to walk up and down the aisles, make a list, see what it is you want, and then come back and I'll see what I can do for you."

Well, she did just that. She walked up and down the aisles, writing furiously. There was peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty. There was peace in families, harmony, no dissension, no more drugs. There careful use of resources. By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list. Jesus looked over the list, then smiled at her and said, "No problem." And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, and finally stood up, and laid out the packets on the counter. "What are these?" the woman asked. "Seed packets," Jesus answered. "This is a catalog store." "You mean I don't get the finished product?" "No, this is a place of dreams. You come and see what it looks like, and I give you the seeds. You go home and plant the seeds. You water them and nurture them and help them to grow, and someday someone else reaps the benefits." "Oh," she said. And she left the store without buying anything.[2]

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Jesus said to his disciples. Crosses are heavy. Crosses are cumbersome and frightening and difficult to carry. If you saw the movie “the Passion of the Christ,” you’ll remember how brutally grueling it can be to take up a cross and follow in Jesus’ footsteps.

But I ask you today, what are our visions for the future, for our church, for fulfilling God’s call, his mission and doing his will? And “Why not us?” as far as reaching them? Why not indeed, as long as we are willing to pay the price to get where we want to reach, to have what we want for our church and to create the community of Christ that we dream about.

[1] It Depends On What is Important to You Rev. Keenan Kelsey, “Making Choices" Illustrations for October 20, 2002

[2] The Jesus Store Rev. Kenneth C. Landall, Sermon: Billboards for Christ

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