If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
It’s one thing to be told that there is trouble ahead, but another thing altogether to find yourself in the midst of that trouble.
It’s one thing to say there’s paradox to be encountered on the Christian journey, but another thing to come face to face with that paradox.
It’s one thing to say you want to follow Jesus, but another thing to take up your cross and follow him.
It’s one thing to say you want to save your life, but another thing altogether to be willing to lose it for the sake of Jesus and his gospel.
Most of us would rather gain the whole world - or at least a little part of it, and risk losing our life in the process. What would it profit us? Well, could we have a minute to look at the numbers?
When God made a covenant with Abraham that he would be the “ancestor of many nations,” Abraham did not really believe God. After all, if it was not one thing, it was another. It was one thing to be told to leave your home and go wander; but another thing to remain childless, when all you wanted was a child. So uncertain were Abraham and Sarah about the faithfulness of God that they had agreed that Abraham should father a son with another woman, (with Hagar, an Egyptian slave girl), just in case. It’s one thing for God to tell you that you will be the father of many nations, but it’s another thing to believe it, when as yet you have no offspring.
But the thing about the covenant that God had established with Abraham was that it was mostly about God’s promises; not much was required of Abraham: only the commitment to the sign of the covenant (male circumcision), and faith (confidence that God would do as God had promised). Still, it’s one thing to say you want to keep a covenant, but another thing to actually go through with the circumcision, and to do so from generation to generation.
Everybody knows that if it’s not one thing, it’s another. But God calls his people into a covenant of love, and he says, “It’s not one thing or another, it’s just about faithfulness and love: I pledge my faithfulness and love to you, and you pledge your faithfulness and love to me.”
Jesus came into the world with the same mission: to establish God’s covenant of love. But it’s one thing to lead your people to a promised land, and other to bring salvation to all the world. And the thing about the covenant of the Cross is that it, too, is mostly about God’s promises: that you will gain your life if you take up your cross and follow Jesus. Scary as the terms of this covenant sound, in actual practice, Jesus is the only one who ever had to carry a Cross. Jesus is the only one who was ever nailed to a Cross. Jesus is the only one who died on the Cross. It’s really the “following” part that Jesus was asking us to take up.
It’s one thing to tell people they have to carry their cross, but it’s another thing to go to Calvary.
As it turns out, it’s one thing to say you are going to follow Jesus, but another thing to go with him all the way to the end.
It’s one thing to say that he had come to bring life and to bring it abundantly, but another thing to deliver on that promise, especially right there, in shadow of death.
Ironically, faith has often been easier for those who live closer to death, easier for those who have little than it is for those who have much. Turns out, it’s one thing to hope for the promises of heaven when the world isn’t giving you much, but it’s another thing to put your trust in God when you are doing pretty darn well on your own.
Like Abraham and Sarah, often, we don’t really believe that God can save our lives. We are not even sure we need to be saved. It’s one thing to say we want to follow Jesus, but another thing to decide we want to deny ourselves. Is this even healthy psychologically?
It’s one thing to engage in self-denial out of shame, but another thing to put the self aside out of love. Paradoxically, Jesus does not call for a self-denial that springs from shame, which only makes you smaller. He calls for self-denial that springs from love, which makes you grow.
Well, it’s one thing to talk about self-denial, but another thing to do it. It’s one thing to diet, but it’s another thing to fast.
It’s one thing to go to church, and maybe even to quite like doing so, but it’s another thing to let Jesus take over your life.
Jesus said that it’s one thing to turn a profit, but another thing to live a life, and that the two goals are often at odds with one another. Jesus knew, I suppose, that it’s one thing to make a profit, but another thing to share it. And look how hard it is for us to share - even the communists can’t do it very well.
So Jesus said, don’t build your life around the idea of profit. Instead, build your life around the idea of sacrifice. The goal of sacrifice is not to give up something that you would rather not give up. The goal of sacrifice is to make life holy. To make life holy, you end up giving up things that you want to give up, because it is only in giving them up that life turns to holiness; and in holiness there is beauty to be found; there is peace to found; and there is love to be found.
It’s one thing to gather up much for yourself, but it’s another thing to share it with those who are in need.
It’s one thing to serve a feast to your family and friends, but it’s another thing to feed the hungry who live on the streets.
It’s one thing to feed the hungry who live on the streets, but it’s another thing to call them your family, your friends.
You see, if it’s not one thing, it’s another.
We live in a world in which it’s increasingly difficult to know whether something is one thing or another. Very little is what it appears to be anymore, and almost everything disappoints, eventually. Even worse, many things don’t just disappoint, they will hurt you, too.
Before his disciples even knew about the Cross, Jesus began to prepare them to see that it would always be only one thing, even though to them it appeared to be one thing, not another. A cross appeared to be only the way way of death, but his Cross would be the way of life
Paradoxically, the Cross neither disappoints nor hurts us. Easy for me to say. It was one thing for Jesus to go to the Cross, but another thing for us to do so. Because the Cross was an instrument of shame and death for Jesus; but a sign of life and hope for us.
This is what Jesus does: he takes one thing and makes it another.
It’s one thing to say that no man has greater love than to lay down his life for his friends, but it’s another thing to give your life for the salvation of the world.
Yes, it’s one thing to believe that Jesus saved us by the power of his Crucifixion and his Resurrection, but another thing to know or understand exactly how that happened, which is pretty much beyond our ken. There is always a reason not to believe, not to have faith. Just ask Abraham and Sarah. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
Jesus takes one thing and makes it another. He takes my life of sin and turns it into a song of hope.
You already know that, in this life, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. So why not put your trust in the one who turned the Cross into a sign of victory; who took one thing and made it another?
Jesus takes one thing and he makes it another. He took water and turned it into wine. He took the blind and gave them sight; the lame the deaf, the sick, and the sinful, and restored them to health. He took a scant few handfuls of this and that and made it enough to feed a throng. He took one thing and made it another.
He took fishermen and made them apostles. He took outcasts and made them friends. He took the weak and made them strong. He took mourners and made them sing for joy. He took a storm and made it calm.
If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. He took bread and made it his Body. He took wine and made it his Blood.
He took the Cross, which could only ever kill him, and he made it an instrument of life.
And it turns out that it’s not one thing, it’s another, when he says to us, “Take up your cross and follow me.” It’s not a sentence to carry a load that is heavy, painful, and dreary; it’s an invitation to dance.
It was one thing to suffer and die on the Cross, but it was quite another to rise from the dead.
It was one thing to defeat death for himself, but another thing to do it for us too, and to harrow Hell in the process, beating down Satan under his feet.
It was one thing to be among us in resurrected glory for forty days, but it is another thing to reign in heaven, where our true citizenship awaits us, and where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.
It was one thing to carry his Cross through the streets of old Jerusalem, but it is another thing to build a new Jerusalem: the only real city of hope, where a river runs through the streets of the city to make all things new.
If it’s not one thing, it’s another. And that’s the thing about the Cross: it’s not one thing, it’s another; it’s not despair, it’s hope; it’s not darkness, it’s light; it’s not death, it’s life. It’s not one thing, it is very, very much another.
Every day, if it’s not one thing it’s another. But with the Cross before you, following Jesus, it’s not bad news, it’s good news.
Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For 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.” And like the Cross, which looks like one thing, but is quite another, when Jesus is done with it, so too, is this call to lose your life for Jesus’s sake.
How can it be good news, when it sounds so hard, so difficult, so unlikely to get me what I want?
Well, it’s not one thing, it’s another. Thanks be to God!
Preached by Fr. Sean Mullen
28 February 2021
Saint Mark’s, Locust Street, Philadelphia
