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A Sermon by Dean Charles Tyrrell QSO
Nelson Cathedral
Sunday, 14 September 2008
Today is Holy Cross day. For a few moments I want to add my thoughts to those brought to us by Yvonne this morning who reminded us that it was on this day, 14th September in 335AD that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was dedicated. An earlier church on the site had been reduced to rubble and it was here that Helena, mother of the Holy Roman Emperor Constantine had found what she believed were relics of the true cross. So on this day we are reminded of the extent of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
In my mind, that’s not a bad thing. Some may say that we do all our remembrance of the crucifixion on Good Friday, and that’s enough. The extent of Christ’s sacrifice is so great that we do well to remember it daily. It’s not about developing a blood-lust theology but more remembering to apply the lessons of the cross today, here and now.
I would just like to slip in here a quotation from the Epistle to the Romans. Paul wrote:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
This word ‘sacrifice’ is often used in relation to Christ on the cross. Remember, the authors of the gospels were seeped in the theology of the Old Testament where animal sacrifices in the temple were acceptable means of dealing with sin. This morning Yvonne stated clearly one of the classic ways to understand the theory that God allowed his son to die so that we might live. I would like add to that by saying this. We worship and serve a God who is known to us as love and therefore I am more convinced that Jesus died as a result of the sinful machinations of the rulers of the day than by the impotent hand of a God who could not even save his son.
So, was the cross a necessary evil? Was it a foregone conclusion that Jesus would die that way he did? I don’t see the cross as a necessary evil but by the content of what Jesus was teaching and by his healing ministry, Jesus found himself on a collision course with authority, both religious and civil. If Jesus were alive today, I doubt civil and religious authority would deal with him by killing him but by locking him up and throwing away the key. Either that or by discrediting him and his teaching with clever argument. The fact is that Jesus was alive at a time when death was the easy punishment meted out for crime. To kill the criminal in such a public way was regarded as the best deterrent against the teaching taking hold and growing in the community. Today we would use the ballot box, then it was execution.
Please don’t fall into the trap that sacrifice is an outmoded concept. Today people the world over feel the sharp edge of sacrifice in their lives. Just think on these stark images from Dafur on the south transept wall. I allowed Christian World Service to display the images not to decorate the walls but to bring before us the sacrifices being made by the innocent people of Darfur, even today.
The information on the
CWS website is very troubling.
The UN describes Darfur as the world′s worst humanitarian crisis. Now in its sixth year, the ethnic conflict in Sudan′s western province is taking a terrible toll on the civilian population. At least 400,000 people have died from violence, disease or starvation since the conflict began in 2003. Another 2.5 million people (one third of the entire population of Darfur – a region of Sudan that’s the size of France) are currently living in displacement camps, forced to flee from their homes to save their lives.
Yes, there are people in need over the face of the globe, but this humanitarian crisis is mind-blowing. So I thought that on the Holy Cross Day when we are reminded of the sacrifice Jesus made, and before these images come down tomorrow, that we ought to see these holy innocents sharing the injustice of the cross. It means that Jesus of the cross is at one with each and every person who suffers even though they didn’t bring it on themselves. If you like (and to employ Catholic terminology) at the centre of the crisis is the bleeding heart of Jesus, torn by the suffering of his beloved ones. The power of the cross is here and now and that fact alone makes this Holy Cross Day relevant and pertinent for us modern Christians.
I have just finished reading a book of sermons put together by my friend Bishop Richard Randerson. The book called A Word in Season is very helpful and I have asked Carol Hurd to get some copies for sale on the bookstall. In a Good Friday address, Richard quoted the Priest/ prayer-writer and poet Michel Quoist. This brief quote simply but effectively sums up my words this evening, and with them I close.
‘Thus, Lord, I must gather my body, my heart, my spirit
And stretch myself at full length on the Cross of the present moment.’
Amen.
This sermon was written and delivered by Dean Charles Tyrrell QSO at Nelson Cathedral on Sunday, 14 September 2008 at 6pm
