In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Today, as we conclude this
week of formation, we bring into the midst of
the Church the figure of the life -giving cross
of the Lord. And this practice originates in
the Church of Constantinople when at the beginning
of August, at the beginning of the Dormition
Fast, A large piece of the wood of the cross
was carried from the treasury and placed in the
Church of the Holy Wisdom of Hagia Sophia. And
the liturgical practice at that time was to carry
the cross through the streets of the city in
liturgical procession during the course of the
fast for public veneration. And this was a feature
of the ancient liturgical practice of the Stational
Liturgy, characterized by a procession to a specific
station or church where the liturgy was to be
celebrated that day. And the placing of the cross
in the middle of the church makes visible and
tangible the actual events of the gospel. In
June, I was able to visit the Basilica of Santa
Croce, called Santa Croce of Jerusalem in Rome.
established during the time of the Empress Elena.
And there, the church is laid out as a pilgrimage
site for those unable to travel to Jerusalem
to visit the holy places. In addition to several
pieces of the Holy Cross, there is a piece of
the board, the titulus, on which Pilate wrote
the words, Jesus of Nazareth, King... of the
jews that is placed out for veneration as well
as nail a nail of the cross and thorns from the
crown of thorns the effect is to make present
the event of the crucifixion of our lord and
today on the feast of the procession of the life
-giving cross we read the account of the crucifixion
from the holy gospel according to john And this
passage provides an appropriate time and opportunity
to speak a word on the cross. The gospel passage
begins with this very dramatic encounter, conflict,
between Pontius Pilate and the elders of the
Jews. As he brings Jesus forward to show him
to the people, the chief priests and elders,
incite the multitude to interject their cry,
crucify him, crucify him. And this knowing that
they are attempting to get Pilate to do their
dirty work, Pilate replies, you take him and
crucify him, for I find no fault in him. And
Pilate is unable to de -escalate. what the chief
priests have incited. They accuse Jesus of making
himself the son of God. And this is a very important
point in the gospel narrative, especially in
our time. In their envy, they charge Jesus with
death, stating, we have a law, and according
to our law, he ought to die, because he made
himself the son of God. And in contrast, To modern
skeptics and unbelievers that accuse Christians
of inventing the divinity of Jesus Christ, in
the gospel, the Jewish religious leaders state
for the record how Jesus spoke about himself.
So skeptics and unbelievers, both of yesterday
and today, especially those that had once been
Christians, insist. that Jesus never says that
he is God or that he is the Son of God. And they
push their claim that the divinity of Christ
is a later development of doctrine by Christian
thinkers. Now Paul does not invent exalted claims
about the divinity of Jesus Christ. It is the
chief priests and elders that provide clear testimony
that they are compelling Pontius Pilate. to crucify
Jesus because Jesus himself declares that he
is the Son of God. The chief priests never reveal
any doubt about this. The chief priests know
exactly who Jesus Christ declares himself to
be. And they hear and report exactly what Jesus
says. And so their accusation against Jesus,
that he said he was the Son of God, and later
the accusation placed upon the cross, Jesus of
Nazareth, the King of the Jews. These are things
that the chief priests know, and of which they
accuse Jesus. So Pilate orders these words to
be affixed to the cross, perhaps to mock those
leaders and the populace themselves, whom he
fails to bring into submission or mollify. at
that moment. And the real reason that the elders
of Israel want Jesus to be put to death is that
Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel. And
if he is the promised Messiah of Israel, who
then will they be? What will happen to their
stranglehold on the people of Israel and their
monopoly? on the customs of the temple that they
zealously enforce. So their way of life is simply
incompatible with the coming of the Messiah.
In the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem,
Jesus, the King of Israel, shows the chief priests
to be frauds. And therefore it is no surprise
that they ask Pilate to crucify him. And they
use the pretext of blasphemy. In the third book
of Moses, called Leviticus, it is written, Whoever
blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely
be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly
stone him, the stranger as well as him who is
born in the land. When he blasphemes the name
of the Lord, he shall be put to death. And so
the chief priests appeal to the authority of
Scripture. To support their charge of blasphemy
and the proper punishment for blasphemy. And
their words and threats cause Pilate to return
and question Jesus. He asks, where are you from?
And Jesus makes no answer. And his silence makes
Pilate indignant. He asks Jesus, why are you
not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have
power to crucify you and power to release you?
Pilate simply does not imagine how absurd and
ironic his words are. Standing before the Lord
of the universe, he says, Do you not know that
I have power to crucify you and power to release
you? And earlier in the 10th chapter, of the
same gospel according to John, Jesus says, No
one takes it from me, but I lay it down. I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take
it again. And even today, the well -meaning skeptic
asks, Why didn't Jesus answer him? He had his
chance. Jesus had a chance not to be crucified.
not to take upon himself the death of all human
beings, not to shed his blood for us, and finally,
Jesus had a chance not to ascend the cross. And
these are the exact sentiments of my closest
childhood friend. To the modern mind, the wisest
thing is to avoid death at all costs, especially
such an inglorious death on the cross. And in
response, we read the words of the epistle of
the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians today. Paul
says, The message of the cross is foolishness
to those who are perishing, but to us who are
being saved, it is the power of God. Why is the
message of the cross foolishness to those that
are perishing? Because those that are perishing
want some other way, perhaps some wiser way,
for God to deliver and redeem his people. And
the wise in this world do not want to embrace
the shame, the scourging, the false accusation,
the spitting, the cross, the nails, the gall,
and vinegar, and finally the piercing of his
side. But according... to scripture, there is
no other remedy to heal the serpent's bite. After
leading the people of Israel through the wilderness,
they rebel against God and Moses, saying, Why
have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in
the wilderness? And the Lord sends fiery serpents
among the people. They bite the people, and many
of the people of Israel die. And they turn to
Moses in repentance and ask him to pray to the
Lord to remove the snakes. And the Lord tells
Moses, make a fiery serpent, set it on a pole,
and it shall be that everyone who is bitten,
when he looks at it, shall live. And so Moses
makes a bronze serpent, raises it on a pole,
and whoever has been bitten and looks at the
bronze serpent, Most of us have witnessed the
rite of the raising or exaltation of the cross
by the bishop on the feast of the exaltation
of the cross in September, allowing all at the
service to gaze on the cross. And this visually
illustrates how Moses lifts up the serpent on
a wooden pole at the command of God to heal the
Israelites. of the serpent's bite and venom,
as recorded in the fourth book of Moses, called
Numbers. Everyone that gazes on the bronze serpent
lifted up upon the wood, that is, whoever fixes
his eyes on Jesus, who the apostle calls the
author and finisher of our faith, will find healing
from the serpent's bite. And so today we place...
the cross, and the middle of the church to remind
us of our salvation and to whom we turn in affliction.
The plan of God, however, is not to find the
easy way out. Neither does the church teach us
to find a less painful path or what is the minimum
that we can do to find salvation. Instead, we
are reminded that the good news speaks of Christ
crucified. Jesus comes into the world to demonstrate
how he loves his creation. And through the cross,
we learn to experience the love of God towards
us, and likewise, how he expresses this love
towards us. And this way of love is the model
for us to understand what love truly is. Love
is affection, but is not limited to affection.
Love also embodies pleasure and joy. Yet the
love of Jesus Christ for us is a love transcending
every notion of pleasure. He loves us unto death.
And the message of the cross is that the creator
of all things has become as we are. to embrace
us, to love us, and to pour out his life for
us. And in the Christian tradition, we illustrate
the pelican as a symbol of Jesus Christ. An ancient
legend tells us how a mother pelican, having
no source of food for her dying young, pierces
her own heart with her beak, and the blood pours
forth from her heart on her chicklings and brings
them back to life. We depict the pelican in this
way in liturgical art, both in hymnography, such
as on Holy Saturday, as well as in iconography
and other church arts, such as vestments. This
image illustrates the reality of the cross and
why we venerate the cross. And this is summed
up in the initial words of a hymn that we sang
last night at the vigil service during the veneration
of the cross. Come, O ye faithful, and let us
venerate the life -giving wood on which Christ,
the King of glory, stretch out his hands of his
own will to the ancient blessedness he raised
us up. As we venerate the cross of the Lord,
we confess the love of God that we have experienced.
And this love has transformed and continues to
transform our life. This love, a love unto death,
becomes the model for every relationship that
we form. This healing love transforms the life
of those around us. This love makes blasphemers
into apostles. This love unites Jew and Gentile
as brother and sister. And this love informs
us what is the wisdom and the power of God that
we encounter in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ who offers himself for us. To our Lord,
crucified upon the cross, to him be all glory,
honor, and worship, together with his Father,
who has no beginning, and the all -holy Spirit,
unto the ages of ages. Amen.