WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.740 Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to Jesus Christ. 00:00:04.860 --> 00:00:07.960 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 00:00:07.960 --> 00:00:11.779 of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Dear brothers and sisters, 00:00:12.140 --> 00:00:16.000 I'm so pleased to see you today. It gives me 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:18.719 strength to be together, to worship together, 00:00:18.980 --> 00:00:23.800 to commune together. So pleased also and delighted 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:27.699 to welcome those who are here, perhaps for the 00:00:27.699 --> 00:00:34.340 first time. for the first few times. I hope you 00:00:34.340 --> 00:00:37.060 will join us at our agape meal or lunch later. 00:00:39.479 --> 00:00:43.060 If you were to ask me today, specifically today, 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:46.880 what would be my favorite scripture verse from 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:51.039 St. Paul, from the epistles of St. Paul, I would 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:55.500 probably say that scripture from 2 Corinthians 00:00:55.500 --> 00:01:00.829 chapter 4. deacon read for us so beautifully. 00:01:01.409 --> 00:01:04.329 For it is God who commanded light to shine out 00:01:04.329 --> 00:01:07.849 of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give 00:01:07.849 --> 00:01:10.290 the light of the knowledge of the glory of God 00:01:10.290 --> 00:01:13.489 in the face of Jesus Christ, so that we have 00:01:13.489 --> 00:01:17.469 this treasure in earthen vessels, that the power, 00:01:17.670 --> 00:01:20.849 that the excellence of the power may be of God 00:01:20.849 --> 00:01:26.200 and not of us. Today, at least, it's one of my 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:29.340 favorite verses because it's a verse of promise, 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:34.400 a verse of consolation. It's a message of God's 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:41.200 love and presence with us in our hearts. But 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:44.840 we have a different verse today also, which probably 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:52.319 is mistakenly not appreciated to the same degree. 00:01:54.959 --> 00:01:57.500 Those who wish to save their life will lose it. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:03.519 Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny 00:02:03.519 --> 00:02:09.900 himself, take up his cross, follow me. For whoever 00:02:09.900 --> 00:02:14.000 desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:17.180 loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will 00:02:17.180 --> 00:02:22.580 save it. It's a difficult and challenging message. 00:02:23.370 --> 00:02:26.129 But it is the same message as the verse that 00:02:26.129 --> 00:02:29.870 I told you is my favorite today. It's the same. 00:02:33.830 --> 00:02:38.129 Two weeks ago, we had the Sunday before the cross. 00:02:38.389 --> 00:02:42.229 Last week, we had the Sunday of the cross. Today, 00:02:42.370 --> 00:02:47.860 we have the Sunday after the cross. The message 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:51.879 of the church insisting we pay attention by giving 00:02:51.879 --> 00:02:55.560 it to us three weeks in a row. Just in case we 00:02:55.560 --> 00:02:59.240 missed it or just in case you weren't here. The 00:02:59.240 --> 00:03:02.939 church wants you to know the message of the cross 00:03:02.939 --> 00:03:07.699 is God's love. Father Michael would say the hands 00:03:07.699 --> 00:03:11.379 outstretched on the cross are the embrace of 00:03:11.379 --> 00:03:17.870 the entire world in God's love. I'm going to 00:03:17.870 --> 00:03:20.949 steal some words from a sermon by Bishop Irenae 00:03:20.949 --> 00:03:25.889 of London on this feast day. Some of you have 00:03:25.889 --> 00:03:30.770 heard this before. What he tells us is that with 00:03:30.770 --> 00:03:33.610 the cross here in the midst of the church, week 00:03:33.610 --> 00:03:37.669 one before, week two of, and week three after, 00:03:37.789 --> 00:03:41.229 the church is placing before us and spells out 00:03:41.229 --> 00:03:44.909 in very plain terms the cost of what it means. 00:03:45.449 --> 00:03:51.310 to be a Christian. That there is a price to be 00:03:51.310 --> 00:03:55.009 paid. St. Paul's letter, which he read today, 00:03:55.090 --> 00:03:58.949 tells that the cross is what allows us, that 00:03:58.949 --> 00:04:02.629 allows the life of Jesus to be real, active, 00:04:02.710 --> 00:04:06.030 engaging, and challenging in this, my mortal 00:04:06.030 --> 00:04:09.569 body, my existence on this earth. But that having 00:04:09.569 --> 00:04:13.250 been crucified with Christ, he says, not literally, 00:04:14.189 --> 00:04:18.410 He did not die that way. Peter did. But by baptism 00:04:18.410 --> 00:04:21.949 and by denying himself, which is open to all 00:04:21.949 --> 00:04:26.029 of us, it is no longer St. Paul who lives, no 00:04:26.029 --> 00:04:29.610 longer I who live because of my baptism, but 00:04:29.610 --> 00:04:32.730 Christ lives in me. This is why it's the same 00:04:32.730 --> 00:04:35.389 message, the light of Christ shining in our heart. 00:04:36.310 --> 00:04:40.790 Of course, we follow the same path as the apostles. 00:04:42.469 --> 00:04:47.689 confused and dazed much of the time. We follow 00:04:47.689 --> 00:04:51.589 the path of the Pharisees and the Sadducees who 00:04:51.589 --> 00:04:54.730 want to debate with Jesus and oppose him and 00:04:54.730 --> 00:04:59.470 the message he has. We follow Peter, who on hearing 00:04:59.470 --> 00:05:01.610 this message of the cross says, no, Lord, it 00:05:01.610 --> 00:05:04.709 can't be this way. This will not work for your 00:05:04.709 --> 00:05:16.569 message. You are the Messiah. But I have to listen 00:05:16.569 --> 00:05:20.089 to the Lord because he knows better than I do. 00:05:20.990 --> 00:05:24.649 And Christ spoke explicitly in the gospel. Those 00:05:24.649 --> 00:05:32.790 who wish to save their life will lose it. To 00:05:32.790 --> 00:05:37.189 be a child of Christ, to be a Christian, costs 00:05:37.189 --> 00:05:43.220 one simple thing. Your life. Because, in fact, 00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:47.939 that is all we have to give. Nothing else matters. 00:05:48.459 --> 00:05:51.800 It's our life. We give it. You don't have to 00:05:51.800 --> 00:05:54.079 have wealth. You don't have to have education. 00:05:54.519 --> 00:05:57.339 You don't have to have social standing or power. 00:05:57.639 --> 00:06:00.319 You don't have to have influence. You don't have 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:02.980 to be of a certain age. You don't have to have 00:06:02.980 --> 00:06:06.899 stature or stability. You just have to have a 00:06:06.899 --> 00:06:11.350 life that you are willing to give. Everyone has 00:06:11.350 --> 00:06:19.629 that life. And you and I did not create it. It 00:06:19.629 --> 00:06:24.209 was the gift to us in the beginning anyway. It's 00:06:24.209 --> 00:06:30.430 the universal reality that every human, we all 00:06:30.430 --> 00:06:33.370 have the same thing, we all possess whatever 00:06:33.370 --> 00:06:37.670 else our circumstances might be, whatever injustices, 00:06:38.269 --> 00:06:41.069 A person may have suffered whatever terrible 00:06:41.069 --> 00:06:44.290 circumstance that makes some people weak and 00:06:44.290 --> 00:06:48.129 some people strong in this world. Everyone has 00:06:48.129 --> 00:06:51.589 that which can be given and offered to Jesus 00:06:51.589 --> 00:06:54.449 Christ. No one is deprived of this opportunity. 00:06:55.410 --> 00:06:59.509 But we can't follow the Lord without giving it. 00:07:00.350 --> 00:07:06.089 Paying the price, so to say. And we want to give 00:07:06.089 --> 00:07:09.120 the Lord. Just a little bit of what's in our 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:13.180 wallet. Not all. I don't mean money. I mean our 00:07:13.180 --> 00:07:16.959 life. He who wishes to save his life will lose 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:19.800 it. He does not say. Jesus does not say. Those 00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:24.519 who wish to save their life might lose it. Will. 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:29.480 It's a vain attempt to think that we can work 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:35.279 our way through this life to some kind of balance 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:38.660 with self -help. with all the alternatives out 00:07:38.660 --> 00:07:41.899 there, the billion -dollar so -called health 00:07:41.899 --> 00:07:45.779 and wellness business. That's all about saving 00:07:45.779 --> 00:07:49.680 myself in this life only, wanting to be God and 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:53.459 to control things. True joy, true happiness, 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:57.120 true healing, and the acquisition, the gift of 00:07:57.120 --> 00:07:59.800 God's kingdom, the light of Christ shining in 00:07:59.800 --> 00:08:03.939 our hearts, cannot be acquired by any other means. 00:08:04.540 --> 00:08:08.660 Then... That which Christ lays before us, and 00:08:08.660 --> 00:08:12.899 he does it openly. He tells you this way is death. 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:19.019 It's death, spiritual and bodily. Annihilation, 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:24.019 meaninglessness, and a dead end. This way is 00:08:24.019 --> 00:08:32.379 the life. It's a vain attempt to think we can 00:08:32.379 --> 00:08:35.519 work our way through it. Now look at the cross 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:39.440 here in the middle of the church. We put it in 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:42.820 the middle of the church for a reason. This is 00:08:42.820 --> 00:08:46.240 the way we go. This is the sign of the Christian. 00:08:46.500 --> 00:08:51.200 Now we choose each one freely. There's no compulsion. 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:56.039 God does not force. Whether we follow it or not, 00:08:56.100 --> 00:08:58.919 no one can force us. God himself will stand beside 00:08:58.919 --> 00:09:03.639 you weeping. Like the father waiting for the 00:09:03.639 --> 00:09:09.220 prodigal son, but he even will not force. And 00:09:09.220 --> 00:09:13.320 you cannot be pressured into it. The message 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:17.259 of the cross, this message is foolishness to 00:09:17.259 --> 00:09:20.580 the world. And like the Pharisees in the gospel 00:09:20.580 --> 00:09:23.419 today who thought it was their turn to best Christ 00:09:23.419 --> 00:09:29.559 in a debate, being justified by their law. Jesus 00:09:29.559 --> 00:09:32.940 responds to them by speaking of love, love of 00:09:32.940 --> 00:09:36.600 God and love of neighbor as the absolute highest 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:42.139 thing in which we give all our self to it. But 00:09:42.139 --> 00:09:47.100 we think of self -preservation. And rather than 00:09:47.100 --> 00:09:49.419 grow angry with us and impatient with us and 00:09:49.419 --> 00:09:52.440 frustrated with us and the incredible capacity 00:09:52.440 --> 00:09:56.279 of our human nature to be dense and thick and 00:09:56.279 --> 00:10:02.419 not see what lies before us, the multitude and 00:10:02.419 --> 00:10:05.899 the witness of the saints and the glory of God. 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:12.299 Our Lord, in his infinite patience and his infinite 00:10:12.299 --> 00:10:17.639 love, places again and again and again before 00:10:17.639 --> 00:10:22.179 us the signs of redemption. Every illness, every 00:10:22.179 --> 00:10:26.360 struggle, every sorrow, every difficulty, every 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:30.080 obstacle. In your life. When you don't know what 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:34.600 you're doing. You have the cross. And the Lord 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:40.100 is there. Helping. This is the second message. 00:10:40.179 --> 00:10:43.240 Of the message of the cross. That it is not just 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:46.519 us. Denying ourselves. And giving it all the 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:48.899 way. But we're giving it to the one who gives 00:10:48.899 --> 00:10:52.840 us life. And who is love. So here in the midst 00:10:52.840 --> 00:11:00.110 is the cross. But not just the cross, but one 00:11:00.110 --> 00:11:03.649 that is decorated beautifully with branches and 00:11:03.649 --> 00:11:09.809 leaves and flowers so that it is beautiful. So 00:11:09.809 --> 00:11:12.429 that when you look at the cross, you see the 00:11:12.429 --> 00:11:16.409 power of the cross to create beauty and new life, 00:11:16.590 --> 00:11:21.269 fragrance. These are the signs of life, these 00:11:21.269 --> 00:11:25.669 flowers and plants. Sign of birth. and newness. 00:11:27.490 --> 00:11:29.730 So this is why we don't look at the cross as 00:11:29.730 --> 00:11:33.350 the thing of grief and sorrow or despair, but 00:11:33.350 --> 00:11:35.950 we look at it so that we might be reminded that 00:11:35.950 --> 00:11:38.450 through the cross, my brothers and sisters, joy 00:11:38.450 --> 00:11:43.370 comes into the world if you will let it. How? 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:47.200 How? How is this joy? We sing about it at Matins 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:49.559 every Saturday night when we do that service. 00:11:49.679 --> 00:11:52.159 Because the cross of Christ, and your crosses 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:58.840 too, it is the testimony of God's love. The experience 00:11:58.840 --> 00:12:04.799 of God's presence when it seems that he has abandoned 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:11.419 us. He hasn't. He cannot. He has gone to the 00:12:11.419 --> 00:12:18.460 grave in Hades for us. Yes, his presence. We 00:12:18.460 --> 00:12:21.539 call it a life -giving cross. We call it the 00:12:21.539 --> 00:12:24.460 tree of life. And what was the source of pain 00:12:24.460 --> 00:12:29.679 and death becomes the source of joy and healing, 00:12:29.720 --> 00:12:33.080 the source of understanding. But we have to listen 00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:35.379 to ourselves. You know, we like to go everywhere, 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:42.539 but inside ourselves. And we prevent that from 00:12:42.539 --> 00:12:46.440 happening to discover the cross that the Lord 00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:50.500 has planted in our heart by all the noise, the 00:12:50.500 --> 00:12:55.700 TV, the radio, all the blah blah we do, all the 00:12:55.700 --> 00:12:58.919 defensiveness, all the justification. We need 00:12:58.919 --> 00:13:02.120 to take a trip into our heart to see what's really 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:05.220 there so that the cross of Christ can pull us 00:13:05.220 --> 00:13:09.889 out of that despair. Our Lord Jesus Christ who 00:13:09.889 --> 00:13:12.750 sits at the right hand of the Father making his 00:13:12.750 --> 00:13:17.450 and our enemies, the devil and sin, his footstool. 00:13:18.429 --> 00:13:22.450 That's the message of the cross. Let's not be 00:13:22.450 --> 00:13:27.769 like the thief on the other side who rejected 00:13:27.769 --> 00:13:31.590 the cross, who blamed God for his problems and 00:13:31.590 --> 00:13:35.590 spoke abusively to Christ. and like the Pharisees, 00:13:35.590 --> 00:13:40.049 wanted to debate and interrogate the Lord. But 00:13:40.049 --> 00:13:43.669 let us imitate the grateful thief and acknowledge, 00:13:43.909 --> 00:13:48.669 like he did, the justice and the wisdom of God. 00:13:49.470 --> 00:13:53.289 And because we are never closer to Christ than 00:13:53.289 --> 00:13:57.350 when we are on a cross in our moments of difficulty 00:13:57.350 --> 00:14:01.299 and pain and sorrow, let's speak to him. And 00:14:01.299 --> 00:14:04.980 let us ask him to remember us so that we too 00:14:04.980 --> 00:14:07.960 may hear him say, today you will be with me in 00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:13.480 paradise. For all things, says St. Paul, are 00:14:13.480 --> 00:14:17.539 for your sake, that grace through the cross, 00:14:17.779 --> 00:14:21.379 having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving 00:14:21.379 --> 00:14:25.240 to abound to the glory of God. Amen.