Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to Jesus Christ.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Dear brothers and sisters,
I'm so pleased to see you today. It gives me
strength to be together, to worship together,
to commune together. So pleased also and delighted
to welcome those who are here, perhaps for the
first time. for the first few times. I hope you
will join us at our agape meal or lunch later.
If you were to ask me today, specifically today,
what would be my favorite scripture verse from
St. Paul, from the epistles of St. Paul, I would
probably say that scripture from 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. deacon read for us so beautifully.
For it is God who commanded light to shine out
of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ, so that we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, that the power,
that the excellence of the power may be of God
and not of us. Today, at least, it's one of my
favorite verses because it's a verse of promise,
a verse of consolation. It's a message of God's
love and presence with us in our hearts. But
we have a different verse today also, which probably
is mistakenly not appreciated to the same degree.
Those who wish to save their life will lose it.
Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny
himself, take up his cross, follow me. For whoever
desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever
loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will
save it. It's a difficult and challenging message.
But it is the same message as the verse that
I told you is my favorite today. It's the same.
Two weeks ago, we had the Sunday before the cross.
Last week, we had the Sunday of the cross. Today,
we have the Sunday after the cross. The message
of the church insisting we pay attention by giving
it to us three weeks in a row. Just in case we
missed it or just in case you weren't here. The
church wants you to know the message of the cross
is God's love. Father Michael would say the hands
outstretched on the cross are the embrace of
the entire world in God's love. I'm going to
steal some words from a sermon by Bishop Irenae
of London on this feast day. Some of you have
heard this before. What he tells us is that with
the cross here in the midst of the church, week
one before, week two of, and week three after,
the church is placing before us and spells out
in very plain terms the cost of what it means.
to be a Christian. That there is a price to be
paid. St. Paul's letter, which he read today,
tells that the cross is what allows us, that
allows the life of Jesus to be real, active,
engaging, and challenging in this, my mortal
body, my existence on this earth. But that having
been crucified with Christ, he says, not literally,
He did not die that way. Peter did. But by baptism
and by denying himself, which is open to all
of us, it is no longer St. Paul who lives, no
longer I who live because of my baptism, but
Christ lives in me. This is why it's the same
message, the light of Christ shining in our heart.
Of course, we follow the same path as the apostles.
confused and dazed much of the time. We follow
the path of the Pharisees and the Sadducees who
want to debate with Jesus and oppose him and
the message he has. We follow Peter, who on hearing
this message of the cross says, no, Lord, it
can't be this way. This will not work for your
message. You are the Messiah. But I have to listen
to the Lord because he knows better than I do.
And Christ spoke explicitly in the gospel. Those
who wish to save their life will lose it. To
be a child of Christ, to be a Christian, costs
one simple thing. Your life. Because, in fact,
that is all we have to give. Nothing else matters.
It's our life. We give it. You don't have to
have wealth. You don't have to have education.
You don't have to have social standing or power.
You don't have to have influence. You don't have
to be of a certain age. You don't have to have
stature or stability. You just have to have a
life that you are willing to give. Everyone has
that life. And you and I did not create it. It
was the gift to us in the beginning anyway. It's
the universal reality that every human, we all
have the same thing, we all possess whatever
else our circumstances might be, whatever injustices,
A person may have suffered whatever terrible
circumstance that makes some people weak and
some people strong in this world. Everyone has
that which can be given and offered to Jesus
Christ. No one is deprived of this opportunity.
But we can't follow the Lord without giving it.
Paying the price, so to say. And we want to give
the Lord. Just a little bit of what's in our
wallet. Not all. I don't mean money. I mean our
life. He who wishes to save his life will lose
it. He does not say. Jesus does not say. Those
who wish to save their life might lose it. Will.
It's a vain attempt to think that we can work
our way through this life to some kind of balance
with self -help. with all the alternatives out
there, the billion -dollar so -called health
and wellness business. That's all about saving
myself in this life only, wanting to be God and
to control things. True joy, true happiness,
true healing, and the acquisition, the gift of
God's kingdom, the light of Christ shining in
our hearts, cannot be acquired by any other means.
Then... That which Christ lays before us, and
he does it openly. He tells you this way is death.
It's death, spiritual and bodily. Annihilation,
meaninglessness, and a dead end. This way is
the life. It's a vain attempt to think we can
work our way through it. Now look at the cross
here in the middle of the church. We put it in
the middle of the church for a reason. This is
the way we go. This is the sign of the Christian.
Now we choose each one freely. There's no compulsion.
God does not force. Whether we follow it or not,
no one can force us. God himself will stand beside
you weeping. Like the father waiting for the
prodigal son, but he even will not force. And
you cannot be pressured into it. The message
of the cross, this message is foolishness to
the world. And like the Pharisees in the gospel
today who thought it was their turn to best Christ
in a debate, being justified by their law. Jesus
responds to them by speaking of love, love of
God and love of neighbor as the absolute highest
thing in which we give all our self to it. But
we think of self -preservation. And rather than
grow angry with us and impatient with us and
frustrated with us and the incredible capacity
of our human nature to be dense and thick and
not see what lies before us, the multitude and
the witness of the saints and the glory of God.
Our Lord, in his infinite patience and his infinite
love, places again and again and again before
us the signs of redemption. Every illness, every
struggle, every sorrow, every difficulty, every
obstacle. In your life. When you don't know what
you're doing. You have the cross. And the Lord
is there. Helping. This is the second message.
Of the message of the cross. That it is not just
us. Denying ourselves. And giving it all the
way. But we're giving it to the one who gives
us life. And who is love. So here in the midst
is the cross. But not just the cross, but one
that is decorated beautifully with branches and
leaves and flowers so that it is beautiful. So
that when you look at the cross, you see the
power of the cross to create beauty and new life,
fragrance. These are the signs of life, these
flowers and plants. Sign of birth. and newness.
So this is why we don't look at the cross as
the thing of grief and sorrow or despair, but
we look at it so that we might be reminded that
through the cross, my brothers and sisters, joy
comes into the world if you will let it. How?
How? How is this joy? We sing about it at Matins
every Saturday night when we do that service.
Because the cross of Christ, and your crosses
too, it is the testimony of God's love. The experience
of God's presence when it seems that he has abandoned
us. He hasn't. He cannot. He has gone to the
grave in Hades for us. Yes, his presence. We
call it a life -giving cross. We call it the
tree of life. And what was the source of pain
and death becomes the source of joy and healing,
the source of understanding. But we have to listen
to ourselves. You know, we like to go everywhere,
but inside ourselves. And we prevent that from
happening to discover the cross that the Lord
has planted in our heart by all the noise, the
TV, the radio, all the blah blah we do, all the
defensiveness, all the justification. We need
to take a trip into our heart to see what's really
there so that the cross of Christ can pull us
out of that despair. Our Lord Jesus Christ who
sits at the right hand of the Father making his
and our enemies, the devil and sin, his footstool.
That's the message of the cross. Let's not be
like the thief on the other side who rejected
the cross, who blamed God for his problems and
spoke abusively to Christ. and like the Pharisees,
wanted to debate and interrogate the Lord. But
let us imitate the grateful thief and acknowledge,
like he did, the justice and the wisdom of God.
And because we are never closer to Christ than
when we are on a cross in our moments of difficulty
and pain and sorrow, let's speak to him. And
let us ask him to remember us so that we too
may hear him say, today you will be with me in
paradise. For all things, says St. Paul, are
for your sake, that grace through the cross,
having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving
to abound to the glory of God. Amen.