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 St. John 12:32-33 – Holy Cross Day 2008
St. Mark Lutheran Church
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This sermon was preached to fifty of my members who made it to church Sunday after Hurricane Ike. We set up an altar in the Fellowship Hall using the HT processional cross (pictured). We just got our phones back online today. We are still without power as I post this powered by Sophia's generator.
Props for the sermon go to Jesus (pictured), Luther, Nagel, and Hurricane Ike. If I seem rattled, could being robbed up in all the heat and how beautiful the whole event was... I just wish I had delivered it better.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen. The great myth...335 A.D., Pious St. Helen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine found the “true” cross. She found all three crosses. How to tell which one's Jesus? She couldn't!
Well, a miracle! Someone touched the true cross and was healed! And the cross was placed in the church placed on the site of the crucifixion, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on September the 14th.
In 630 A.D., the Emperor Heraclius returned the true Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Muslims had conquerer Jerusalem and taken the cross away. The celebration of the return of that cross was said to have taken place on...you guessed it, September 14th.
That's the myths... none of which save. Nor do they make today, this September 14, post Hurricane Ike, any cooler or better for us in Conroe, TX in the year of our Lord 2008.
So, why the big deal about Holy Cross day? Because the Cross, dear Saints of God, is the center of our theology. Or as Dr. Luther put it, crux sola nostra theologie.
Now, we've have Latin for the Sunday, “The Cross alone is our theology.”
You see, the the cross. Jesus is lifted up. For you. For me. That Cross saves us. The Cross alone saves – not us, not what we do, or what we don't do.
No, we are saved solely by the faithfulness of the Son of God and His suffering for our unfaithfulness on the Cross.
All of Scripture proclaims this Gospel. It is the center of the Old Testament. In fact, the whole of the Old Testament points to Jesus' death on the cross.
From the promise made to Adam and Eve in the Garden that God would fix their sin by someone who would crush the head of the serpent. That Someone, that enmity between Eve's seed and Satan's seed – is Christ. He crushes the serpent by dying.
And when the children of Israel despised God and His servant Moses in today's Old Testament lesson, when they cried out against Him, the Lord sent fiery serpents into the camp who called them.
The Israelites then cried out to the Lord. The Lord God had mercy on them and commanded Moses to construct a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. Whoever looked on the lifted up serpent, would be saved.
Jesus tells us today – the same way that serpent was lifted up that whoever would look on it would be saved, Jesus is lifted up on the cross that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For when He is lifted up – on the cross – He draws all, atracks all to Himself.
The Cross is why Jesus came into the World. The Cross is how He is glorified. The Cross is where Jesus shows us the Father's glory – that the Father loves us this way – He gives up His Son to die for us.
The cross – that's how you read the Old Testament. Looking for Jesus crucified for you. The Cross is also how you read the New Testament !
St. Paul tells the Corinthians that when He was among them, He desired to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
The Cross. The Cross. The Cross. That is what saves us. The Cross is why Jesus' sacrifice is accept to the Father.
And the resurrection? The Good News about Easter is that the One who died rose again for us. The Cross is what makes Easter so joyful! And in Him, we shall rise.
The sin for us is to get aroudn the cross, diminish it, think it to be not important. TO get rapped up in our feelings, thoughts, or likes , or what we do. To think religion and faith is about ... us.. and not Jesus Crucified for us.
When you saw it was Holy Cross day, did you think, “That is just what I needed. All that hurricane stuff... I needed to hear about the God who saved me by the Cross.”
Or did you think of something else? Some other message – something you wanted to hear... like something about Ike. A religion centered on you. About you, what you do for God. What you feel. What you think about God.
Jesus calls that religion - loving your life. Loving you. And the one who loves His life will loses it.
Beware that religion, dear Saints of God. Turn from it. Lose your life, deny yourself, turn from you, hate that religion, and you will find eternal life.
Eternal life outside yourself in the Cross of Jesus Christ alone.
Which makes today, September 14, 2008, with limited power, in the wake of a hurricane a wonderful day. Today, Jesus once again directs us back to His Cross, where He is lifted up for us. Once again, He draws us to Himself – to the Lamb of God slain for sinners.
Each day, begun in Jesus' Cross. Each day started in His Cross. His Name put on you in Baptism – in the name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Each day ended in His Name. The sign of the Cross – to remember what He did for you on the Cross and delivered to you in the water.
Die with Jesus daily on the Cross. Rise with Him to new life. Bear Jesus' Cross daily – confess Him alone as your Savior. Live then the life He gives you for your neighbor.
No mythical crosses today. No splinter. No Pious Helena or Heraclius.
Jesus. His Cross. His Salvation. His forgiveness. His life.
The cross alone is our theology. Jesus' Cross – for me, for you, for all.
Truly, this day... it as we sung.. "Praise the One who breaks the darkness with a liberating light!' Jesus, His Cross, breaks into our darkness. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Edited on: September 15th, 2008 12:49 am
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