Throughout history there have been great leaders who have made great demands of their followers. When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister he told the British people that he had nothing to offer them but "blood, toil, tears, and sweat." The Italian freedom fighter Gerabaldi told his followers that he offered them only hunger and death.

These were demanding leaders, but Jesus is a thousand times more demanding for Jesus demands our lives.

"Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

Jesus calls us to give up our lives. What does that mean?

Some people, throughout the history of the church, have been called to literally give up their lives for Jesus. The blood of the ancient Christian martyrs is said to be the seed of the church. Indeed, thousands of people have been moved to embrace the Christian faith by the sight of the Spirit with which others have died for their faith. But not everyone is called to martyrdom. I have read the ancient writings of Christians who have witnessed martyrs being killed and it is clear that it was a calling and there was no shame in not being called to martyrdom.

So what does this passage mean to the rest of us? To the great major of Christians in this world who are not called to literally give up our lives for Jesus, not called to martyrdom? What does it mean for us to hate our lives in this world?

Hear again Jesus words as in Eugene Peterson's modern translation, The Message: Jesus said, "Anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal." (x2)

A large, rich Anglican Church was talking about its building investment fund. Some of the members suggested taking money out of the endowment fund, which was growing like crazy, and investing a certain amount each year in the building, rather than just letting the endowment continue to grow. The priest suggested another idea. He thought that if the church was going to do that, then perhaps they could take a similar amount, call it the community investment fund, and give it away in the town, because they lived in a poor town.

Parish members looked at him like he was crazy. He was thinking of tithing, taking 10% of their growth each year. They talked him down to $5000 a year. Remember, this was a rich church.

That $5000 caused such a stir. What about the future of the church, many people asked.

The priest encouraged the parish not worry about that because they had $1,500,000. They had done enough for themselves. So they decided to live in the kingdom and started to give some of the money away.

A year later, one of the senior wardens of the church talked about the $5000 again. Initially, he had argued against it, but a year later, he changed his mind. He gave up his old way of living and encouraged the parish to increase the amount it gives away. He now thinks that $5000 isn't enough for a parish that has as much money as they have.

That fear of letting go the old way - that they had to protect the church, protect the building, protect themselves - they had to let that go and let that die in order for something new to take root. Cleansing the heart doesn't always happen quickly.

This is our responsibility: to let go and let God, to give up on the temptations of this world.

Two weeks ago, I talked about temptations. Again, I'd like to talk about temptations but this time, I want to talk about secular temptations and religious temptations.

Secular temptations are the more obvious ones. They are the temptation of thinking that material wealth will make us happy. We think that the big house, the fancy car, the vacations in Arizona every winter or the large bank account will bring us happiness, security and freedom from anxiety. That's a falsehood; that is a temptation.

I knew a young couple, who was in the yuppie rat race in southern Ontario. They had purchased the big house in the suburbs. They were doing the commuting thing. They had the two kids and the dog. They had bought into the secular temptation. But then, they found that they were house poor. They were working all their days and nights to pay for their house. So they decided to sell the large house in the nice middle class neighbourhood to buy a much smaller house in a working class neighbourhood.

They gave up their old life and were surprised to find out that their new working-class neighbourhood was a much, much nicer neighbourhood. They found that their new neighbours were warmer, friendlier, more welcoming, more open, home more often, more interested in building a community, then their old neighbours.

This young couple had given up the old temptations, the old life for a new life that brought with it surprising benefits and happiness.

The second kind of temptation is religious temptation (more of a seduction). Religious temptation is believing that if you are good, you'll go to heaven. (This again is, of course, a falsehood.) So many of us want to go to heaven so we work very hard at being good and at following the rules. But we lose our lives because we are full of guilt when we make mistakes. We lose our lives when we are too afraid of taking risks, too afraid of recklessly loving.

But Jesus says, "If you let your life go, reckless in your love, you'll have real and eternal life."

The father of the Reformation, Martin Luther put it this way. He said, "Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world."

The way of Christ is the way of liberation. Because of the grace of salvation available to all we have the ability to live life recklessly loving.

Martin Luther said, "The 'works of the law' are works done without faith and grace, by the law, which forces them to be done through fear or the enticing promise of temporal advantages. But 'works of faith' are those done in the spirit of liberty, purely out of love to God. And they can be done only by those who are justified by faith."

By faith we are saved. By faith we can die to the old life and be free to live life recklessly loving. "Give up your life," says Jesus. Let go of the old ways. Let go of the secular temptations of false security and the religious temptation of earning our way into heaven. Through faith we are free to live life recklessly loving, through Jesus Christ our liberator. Amen.

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