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Holy Cross 2024
There are many things in this world that I don’t understand; like how wifi works, or why bread falls butter side down or why my dad tells such terrible jokes. But I’m ok with that because somethings you can just accept in ignorance…
Knowing that’s just the way it is… my dad’s told the same jokes for over forty years…they were never funny, they will never be funny…but they’ve have become kinda reassuring.
There are many things in our lives that we have come to depend upon, big things and small, that we, too often they are taken for granted. That is until things are turned upside down.
In our first reading today, we find the Israelites complaining, a common occurrence in their journey through the wilderness. After all, the journey was long, challenging, and not at all what they expected. So, on this particular day we find them complaining about the abysmal food they are forced to eat day after day, especially as they recalled and compared it to the many and various fruits, vegetables and meats which they had in Egypt. They reminisced, waned nostalgic and their current fare paled in comparison.
What we remember however is that the food that they were complaining about was the Manna God sent each day. That miraculous bread from heaven that kept them from starvation in the midst of the desert wilderness.
But it had kept them from starvation for quite a while now and something that happens every single day begins to seem less miraculous, and more monotonous. The manna from heaven had been around long enough to be taken for granted.
It’s a common enough occurrence, after all it’s not like the Israelites were particularly whiny or ill tempered, we all take things for granted.
Take us in the church here for instance. There is so much that we celebrate each week that we take for granted, such prayers answered and miracles taking place, which since they occur weekly, we cease to notice them. It was not so long ago we didn’t have a choir. We will start coffee hour this week and for many we simply assume it will resume as per usual. Then there are the prayers, blessings, sacraments and absolution we simply assume and expect to happen each week.
One of the more significant things we tend to take for granted is Christ’s death on the cross…the fact he opted to die…horribly, on a cross. We forget that the piece of jewelry we wear was an instrument of torture.
Holy Cross day is a celebration which brings our attention back to the Cross on which Christ died. It is a feast day which has several names throughout the Christian world…the exultation of the cross, the triumph of the cross…the feast of the raising aloft of the honoured and life giving cross… you get the idea.
According to legend back in 326 AD Saint Helena, mother of the Roman emperor Constantine found the True Cross in Jerusalem …the original cross that Christ died on, and commissioned the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to be built on that very spot and the day the church was dedicated the Cross of Christ was brought out for every one to see and be in awe of. Hence, Holy Cross Day.
Every week we gather and acknowledge the miraculous blessing that has come from the tortuous cross, but despite the weekly remind and despite the celebration of Holy Cross day … I think it is taken for granted.
We, as Anglican’s favour an ‘empty’ cross, that is a cross that doesn’t have Jesus being crucified on it…that’s a crucifix. We tend to focus on the resurrection and the fact that Jesus came down from the cross and rose again.
There is some very good theology around that, but I think it makes it easy to forget the centrality of the cross in our faith… what it really was, how it was used and the terrible way Christ died on it.
And I think we take for granted as well how unlikely the cross is as a focal point of worship. Like the Israelites and the manna, it’s just been around too long to be seen as exceptional anymore.
We forget the cross was a Roman version of capital punishment and criminal dissuasion. I think we forget how horrific a death that would have been and how the first followers of Jesus would have witnessed Christ’s death been traumatized and despaired.
The closest we come is Good Friday when we walk the way of the cross in the parish hall and see the stations of the Cross. Every other day we focus on Christ resurrected, a picture of God as strong and powerful. This is what the followers of Jesus expected from the Messiah, a commander able and willing to rout the romans and take back Jerusalem for Israel.
I think as well, it is often what we expect too in a way. A powerful God that will prosper me and mine, give those who are against me what ‘they deserve’ and to smite down any illness, bad luck or inconvenience that comes my way.
I think we forget the cross. That the way Christ showed his power and might, was to let it go and die…humbly, pitifully and without mercy. It is counter-intuitive…both then and now; To win by losing, to live by dying, to be fully God and die as a terrorist.
Paul writes in his letter to those living in Corinth that ‘Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling bock to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles….” People in Jesus time had expectations of what a God would do… preform miracles, grant wisdom and understanding…and we too, individually, have unspoken assumptions of what God is supposed to be like.
Health, wealth and salvation for all who believe in God. There are some who preach that message. It is a message that follows the wisdom of this world beautifully…you get what you deserve, if you work hard you will succeed, the good should be rewarded and the bad should be punished.
Yet...we read Paul telling us that “in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation to save those who believe.” The wisdom of the cross. Christ’s great reversal. That first will be last and last will be first. That if you wish to save your life you will lose it, but if you lose your life for me you will save it. It is confusing, disturbing and doesn’t follow anything else we were taught. Pure foolishness.
In a world that is focused on self interest, the cross speaks of self sacrifice. Where technology creates a false sense of intimacy and increases isolation, Christ teaches community and deep honest relationships. In a time when the crucifixion of God is so distant and the context so foreign, we forget the impact the cross once had, God speaks of faith and trust grounded in relationship.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, … gave up brutally…so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. A familiar passage I’m sure and a challenging one in many ways.
That everyone who believes…the word believe here…isn’t a passive and intellectual assent, a formula declared and forgotten, another word in worship spoken with little thought.
But the word believe in the Greek means…grounded in relationship.
Relationship with God, with Christ, with the cross and all it encompasses. The relationship spoken of here is not a card at Christmas, or a like on facebook relationship, but the kind of relationship which keeps you grounded.
Who ever believes… God came down…lived and died…to create the basis for an ongoing relationship which is brutally honest, deeply intimate and as full of the contradictions of joy and pain as the cross. A real relationship that exists in the midst of all the messes of the world… like the snake Moses lifted in the wilderness.
Wilderness life was a mess, faith and trust was gone…disaster struck… life took a turn. And however that disaster came to be…God was in the midst of it. Not taking the problems away, but residing in the midst of them… providing a grounding point for people to focus on and bringing healing in the wilderness.
The cross is firmly planted in the midst of our lives… whether we remember it’s there or not, God’s relationship with us is such that, there God stands to ground us, heal us, uplift us and sustain us. The cross which bore the sins of the world, because God loved us so very, very much.
What we often expect is that if God loved us so much, then God should simply get rid of all the badness. War would cease, pain would end, sadness would be no more. And I daresay that is the long term plan…but for now…. the wisdom of the world says ‘what kind of God would let bad things happen to good people.’ The wisdom of the cross says… when bad things happen…to any and all people…I am with you. Look to me, focus on Christ, let my relationship with you give you strength…you are not alone.
It may sound like foolishness to those who seek strength, it may be a stumbling block to those who desire knowledge, but for those who experience it …the cross is life changing.
As we gather here today we come together we welcome many back from the cabins and enjoy coffee hour once more. But we are called to remember that although the good relationships and wonderful social aspects of church are parts of strong and healthy community in Christ…we are here to get strengthened to be Christ in the world and walk the way of the cross. Bringing faith, trust, strength and our own brand of foolishness into the mess of daily living.
we carry that cross with us everyday and that’s something we shouldn’t take for granted. Amen