In the movie, The Little Princess, there is a poignant scene after Sarah is told that her father is missing and presumed dead in combat. The headmistress of the boarding school where Sarah has been staying has stripped Sarah of all her privileges and consigned her to live in the attic where she will be a scullery maid. Lost and alone in the world, Sarah trudges up to the attic where she draws a circle on the floor, lines the circle with candles and then steps into the circle. She then falls asleep in the sanctuary of this "safe place." The circle is where she feels as if nothing can hurt her … in her circle the terror of the world can not touch or wound her any further.

Only the very, very fortunate go through life without the need for such a sanctuary place … a place where we feel as if nothing can get at us, nothing can hurt us any further, nothing can wound us. Life hurts, life is not fair, life throws us some major curve balls. And so we create for ourselves circles of safety. They are the places we retreat to when we feel most vulnerable and alone in the world … we go there when we feel we can not take one more thing happening. How many times have you wanted to crawl into a circle of safety when life has hit hard?

Our circles of safety are fine to a point. Problem is we can't stay in our self-created circles. In the morning Sarah had to wake up to her new life as a scullery maid. We can't stay long in our circles – we have to step out and face the world, we have to take one more trip to the hospital where we have been keeping watch, figure out a way to make ends meet one more time, get in the car and go to the funeral. Our safe places can only keep us for the moment. We need something more than we can obtain on our own.

Safe-keeping – you get an idea of what God has in mind about safety and sanctuary in the texts we read this morning. In contrast to our small places of refuge we find stories that redefine, expand and in some cases turn upside-down what we think about safe-keeping. Our texts do not appear to have anything to do with finding safe places on first reading. In the Genesis text we find Abram and Sarai being told to uproot themselves and set out on a new life. God tells them to leave behind all that they know and get moving, and oh, by the way … you're going to have multitudes of descendents, even at your age. Hardly what we would consider as a safe thing to do, and yet perhaps what God is saying about refuge here is that we need to push the boundaries and make the idea of home even larger … that Abram and Sarai's circle wasn't big enough.

More telling about God's idea of safety and refuge is the gospel text. As Jesus and the disciples get closer to Jerusalem, Jesus continues teaching the disciples what will face them: "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." We can not begin to imagine what how that statement would have struck the disciples and crowds gathered – take up your cross. The cross was THE symbol of state sponsored terror in the Roman Empire. The roads of the empire were dotted with crosses … many still with bodies hanging on them. Death by crucifixion was how Rome dealt with anyone who threatened the empire's domination. And now, the one who is supposed to be the Messiah, the one who is supposed to overthrow the Roman Empire so that people could be safe … this one is telling his followers to willingly take up the cross. Is it any wonder they were confused, even angry at times with what Jesus was asking of them? Take up your cross – how will this free us, how will this make us safe?

A word that has resonated with me in contemplating what God might be calling us towards in this concept of safe-keeping is capacious. It comes from the Latin "to take on," and means capable of containing a great deal. Capacious is what God is saying in the cross. In Jesus, God takes on an instrument of terror and turns that terror into something that becomes a life-giving refuge. Capacious describes for me what God calls us to in the kingdom of God. God says that unless and until all are safe and have refuge, no one is truly safe … for whenever or wherever there are people who are oppressed, people who live in poverty, people who are excluded … then there will be power struggles and violence. Taking up the cross tells me that my safety is not dependent on keeping another down, instead my safety is dependent on making sure that others have safety and refuge.

It is tempting to stay in the confines of our idea of safe-keeping … there we know for the moment we might be okay, sort of. At their worst our concept of a safe place is actually destructive. How many people do you know that take refuge in drugs and alcohol, thinking that in that place they are safe? At the very least our circles are self centered and simply aren't big enough to keep the world at bay. Simply put, our circles can not hold enough.

God's love calls us to true safety. In that we are called to follow Jesus who asks us to take up the cross … to take up whatever symbolizes the worst that the powers of evil can conspire, and to turn that symbol upside-down … to take away the power it holds over people. God's love calls us to turn away from what is destructive and take on the things that will lead us home. And God's love calls us to be ever more inclusive of home and love, reminding us that until all are home, none have truly gotten home.

We are sent out on this journey with Abram and Sarai … to expand what is safe and known. We are sent to take up the cross and follow Jesus towards a way that leads to true life … not only for us, but for all.

In the words of our first hymn: Gather us in, O God … the lost and forsaken, the blind and the lame, the rich and the haughty, the proud and the strong … gather us in and make us your own, gather us in – all peoples together.

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