In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. The long services this week
were not made so that our feet and legs would
hurt. I could go to the gym, get a personal trainer
to do that for me. Our presence at these services
It's not merely so that we can have an experience,
beautiful aesthetic experience, or an emotional
response, although that could be part of it,
and that's okay. But it has to be deeper. Otherwise,
we're just reminiscing. And that won't help us.
We stand and kneel before this fearsome, awesome
cross of suffering, and of life, a cross of hatred
and violence, a cross of God's humility and love,
both are united somehow. And we must somehow
figure out for ourselves that this is real. This
is the reality of our life. This is the most
real thing we might ever know. Because on this
day, there's no superficial religion. If it's
superficial and aesthetic, it won't help us.
For 40 days, the church has attempted during
Lent and Holy Week, if we were willing, the church
has attempted, if we were willing to let go of
some things, to help me see something. Am I prepared
for this moment today, now, tonight, tomorrow?
Am I prepared to see that the fashion of this
world is passing away and our life every day
is closer to our death? And is it a death that's
going to be a life -giving death, a death that
will be transformed before we die? Or is it going
to be... Just a miserable, terrible thing. Am
I prepared for that? And prepared how? Prepared
how? How do we prepare? And this is the judgment
that the light of Christ has come into the world.
And men love the darkness rather than the light.
Which is why there's a crucifixion. Because their
deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates
the light. and does not come to the light, lest
his deed should be exposed. But he who does what
is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly
seen. The 40 days and Holy Week is so that we
can be exposed to the light of God without shame.
All these days have been for us to know the power
of the cross of Christ, not to reminisce. And
all these days have been for us to see that it
is, A day with two sides, as I've already indicated.
A day of darkness and a day of triumph. A day
of hatred and a day of God's surpassing love.
Our Lord's death, the cross, is the ultimate,
the ultimate sign, the ultimate revelation of
man's hatred and the loving of the darkness.
But it's also the ultimate revelation of God's
compassion and love. And the cross is here in
this place before us to show us that Jesus, the
word of God, God's son, the one who is eternal
in his love, eternal in his forgiveness, eternal
in his goodness, the one who holds all things
in his hand, who became a man in all ways except...
for sin which is an illness which he came to
heal that it is he who suffered for on the cross
for all and died for all his death embrace embraces
all things meaning what meaning all the sufferings
of the world all the deaths everything is present
in the moment of the lord's crucifixion The utter
and complete emptiness of the grave, the forsakenness,
the threat of non -being, meaninglessness, the
absurdity of suffering and injured innocence,
crosses not a stranger to cruelty or any form
of mockery and perverted delight. Everything
is here and on the cross because Christ is eternal.
And the power of it is eternal, not just then,
but always. So in him, on this cross today, the
power of that transforming glory of God to change
what is absurd and foolish into what is glorious.
It's all here. It's also the fullness of paradise,
this cross. The complete joy of existence. The
ecstasy, as somebody wrote, of transcendent love.
Everything is there. Light shines in the darkness
of the grave and death. Life is promised to all.
Eternal, boundless life. We come before this
cross and we kneel to receive that. The cross
is God's single point of ingathering. All things
are gathered together into one in Christ Jesus.
Wrote St. Paul. Unbelief too. Unbelief too. Lack
of belief too. It's also there. Because it's
a sin of the wounded heart. A disease of perception.
A disease of lack of vision. Healed by the presence
of the cross. Throughout the whole passion of
Christ. It is he who triumphs. Evil. can do nothing
against him writes father alexander schmemann
for it cannot make christ who is truth except
evil as truth we read in the gospel today how
at the cross there was only the lord's mother
and his beloved disciple john and other women
all the other people there were mocking making
fun of Jesus, and the disciples scattered in
fear. But since the resurrection, there have
been countless millions of believers over the
centuries, knowing the power of the cross and
the resurrection, who are not afraid to stand
at the cross and to pick it up and to carry it
and to proclaim it. Because they know that they
will have the gift of the body being raised in
glory like Christ. Beyond glorious. They did
not scatter when they were faced with persecution
or hatred or torture. I'm not speaking of the
great saints that we see on the walls. I'm speaking
of ordinary parish members. Christians. They
knew that the message of the cross is foolishness
to those who are perishing. We heard today. But
to us? who are being saved, it is the power of
God. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Because Christ endures everything we
heard today. That horrible treatment, the spitting,
the brutality. He endured everything in order
to bring each of us. He came not to save all
in a general sense, but each person in a particular
sense. To make us what we are intended to be.
So we will stop fighting what God has planned
for us. What he has made us to be. He wants us
to be absolutely free. Little Christs. Called
to be gods. With a lower G. And our God is so
humble that this is the way he has chosen it.
And there was no other way. Except this brutality
of blood and suffering. and the shame of the
cross, because the foolishness of God is wiser
than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. Therefore, brothers, sisters, Reverend
Father, the Reverend Fathers, let us unite our
cross, our sorrows, our wounds, our fears, disappointments,
ignorance, anxieties, illnesses, betrayals, And
especially our life and death as our life begins
to pass away. Let us unite our cross with his
cross and then expect healing and miracles within.
May I suggest that after these services today,
as we wait for the matins at 6 p .m., we try
to remain silent. We don't go outside and start.
conversations. Yes, we should be joyful, but
we're thinking about this right now. The sorrow
and the devastating loss that the apostles felt
at that moment when we thought it would be he
that would redeem Israel is killed from our standpoint
where we know that he was raised. and what he
has done for us. How could something like this,
so many thousands of years, still be so powerful
unless it is absolutely real? Knowing all that,
we should be even more horrified than they were
at what our Lord endured. And then we keep silence
and meditate on this great sacrifice that we
have. Don't lose the grace of the services, but
keep Christ before your spiritual eyes, in the
tomb with the body, in Hades with his soul, though
he is God, in paradise with the thief, and on
the throne with the Father and the Spirit, O
Christ, boundless Christ, filling all things.
Amen.