Sermon; Holy Cross

Today is the Feast of the Holy Cross.  The short story is that Empress Helena, Emperor Constantine’s mother, oversaw the building of a church on the site of what is now the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  During the excavation she supposedly found a relic of the cross of Jesus’ crucifixion.  The building was dedicated on September 14, 335, what was then the seventh month of the Roman calendar, and coinciding with Solomon’s temple being dedicated in the seventh month of the Jewish calendar.

But, like a lot of pious traditions, we don’t necessarily want to examine them too closely.  And, like with stories in the bible, we need to discern between small “t” true and Big “T” Truth.  For instance, there are two stories of creation in Genesis and neither one of them are factually true.  That said, both of those stories point to the Truth that God created.  So it is with the Holy Cross – what Helena found was/is probably not part of the true cross.  But the Truth of the cross goes beyond a piece of wood.

The Truth of the cross is that Christ willingly submitted to torture and death in order to render torture and death powerless.

The act of crucifixion was used by Rome as warning to the rest of the population.  If you opposed Rome, you would end up hanging from a cross.  Torture and crucifixion served to create isolated bodies which would then, in turn, create a fearful and docile population.  The cross of Rome created victims.

Christians, however, see the cross differently.  What was used as a tool of death has become the way of life.  What was once a symbol of terror has become a symbol of hope.  What was once used as a tool of division and hatred has become a tool of unity and love.  The Holy Cross of Christ creates witnesses.

Through the cross, God has turned everything upside down.  Through Jesus’ willful submission, what the world sees as weakness is actually incredible strength.  The world will see victims, or A Victim,.  We see witnesses, or The Witness, to the power of God.  The cross and Christ’s willful submission to crucifixion turns everything we know about power upside down.  That’s important to know and understand as a people who claim to follow Christ.

There are plenty of examples out there of those who promote a manly or muscular Christianity.  These are people who fantasize about a Christ who beats his enemies into submission.  If they had had their way, Jesus would have reversed the tables and nailed Pilate, Herod, and all who dared oppose him to a cross in order to show how powerful he really was.  That belief bleeds down into pastors who promote ideas that leaders (always men) are not to be questioned, women are not to speak, and husbands and fathers rule through fear.  But that is using power of empire and not the power of the cross.

The power of the cross is the lunch counter sit-ins and march to Selma of the Civil Rights era.  The power of the cross is Jackie Robinson not fighting back against racist actions and slurs hurled at him.  The power of the cross is women and/or the lgbtq+ community speaking up for equal rights in the face of physical and verbal opposition.  The power of the cross is St. Timothy’s in Bandon, Oregon, who continued to feed the hungry of that community in the face of political pressure and fines levied to make them stop.  The power of the cross is anywhere systems of inequality, injustice, and worldly power are challenged.

We hear over and over again in Scripture that God has a special concern for the weak, the marginalized, and the victimized.  God chose the least of all peoples to be his people.  The power of God is found in his suffering servant.  God has a heart for the oppressed, the hungry, and the prisoner.  Jesus himself exemplifies this when he welcomes the humble and outcast, and when he brings the good news of the kingdom of God to the poor, the sick, the lame, and others on the margins.  And all of this is shown most powerfully with Christ’s suffering on the cross.

The cross presents us with two images.  On the one hand, it represents the image of terror and death while giving us victims.  On the other hand, it represents the image of hope and life while giving us witnesses.

St. Paul, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Vincent dePaul (and probably others) have put forth the idea that Christians are to see the face of Christ in all others.  St. Teresa of Avila famously said, “Christ has no body but yours.”  Putting all this together, we are the body of Christ who sees others with the same love and compassion which Christ saw.

What all of this means is that the cross presents us with a choice.

If we choose to side with those who persecute the poor, the marginalized, the sick, the lame, the outsider, or anyone “not normal,” then we have sided with Rome.  We have sided with those who crucified Christ and will continue to crucify Christ.  We have sided with those who use the cross as an instrument of terror and death which produces victims.

If, however, we side with the marginalized, the voiceless, the sick, the lame, the outsider, and anyone “not normal,” then we will have sided with Christ.  We will have sided with those whom God calls us to serve.  We will have sided with Christ crucified.  We will have sided with the One who uses the Holy Cross as an instrument of hope and life, giving the world witnesses to the power of Christ.

One cross.  Two choices.  How will you choose?

Amen.