OUR CROSS TO BEAR

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON SEPTEMBER 9th, 2007

Luke 14:27 "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple."

All the readings today present us with the challenge of discipleship, and its cost. In the first reading (Deuteronomy 30) Moses tells the people of Israel to make a choice. Though it is hardly a choice: God and life, or evil and death. The Psalm encourages us in the way of righteousness, and says that by doing so we will be blessed. When we come to the Epistle - Paul's letter to Philemon - we are presented with a particular and relevant circumstance.

Onesimus was a slave who had become a Christian. He had become a worker and disciple of Saint Paul, and as part of his Christian discipleship Saint Paul returns him to his owner - Philemon. A very difficult thing for the slave to do I would imagine. Philemon, on the other hand, must welcome him back as more than a slave - as a brother in Christ. Both of these roles must have been particularly hard on both men.

But if we think that is hard, then we get to the Gospel. I'm sure all of us find Jesus' use of the word hate difficult, perhaps incomprehensible. Surely he is not encouraging us to hate our families and those who we love? It seems too much to ask - as also the last verse of the Gospel reading: "Whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” In that case, the only Christians would be monks and nuns!

When we look at the two examples Jesus tells in this Gospel reading we get a clue. We can see that Jesus is using extreme language to make a serious point. He does this from time to time…..you are perhaps familiar with the passage where he says if our eye causes us to sin, we should cut it out. But I've yet to see a congregation with one eyed sinners! So the message is subtle, and yet it is obvious: Christianity is hard and requires 100% commitment - it is not just for an hour on Sunday.

As if to underline the whole point, Jesus throws in a reference to the Cross: "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple." This is not the first time that Jesus has referred to us carrying our cross - and we know that for Jesus carrying the Cross was the ultimate commitment. So we understand why there is this oblique reference in his challenge to discipleship. Easily said - but what do we think it means for us to carry our cross?

Mostly when we talk about our “cross to bear” we refer to our troubles and difficulties - whether it is continual sickness, underserved suffering, family problems, or our own personal difficulties and trials. Whatever it is, we think this is what has been sent to test us - to test our faith and our discipleship. And so the phrase carrying our cross means a test of faith.

Surely this is way off the mark? The cross was not a test for Jesus. The cross was, and remains, the means of grace and the hope of glory. The trouble is we cannot clearly see that, thanks to theological words that are applied to the Cross.

Those of you raised as Baptists, will be familiar with the term "penal substitution". It is one of the great protestant doctrines of the Cross, which teaches us that Jesus died on our behalf. Being without sin, he took upon himself our sins. When he was nailed to the Cross, they were nailed there too. Think of all those hymns we know about Jesus dying for me. What is wrong with this doctrine is that it portrays an angry God, who demands death and satisfaction.

A more biblical understanding of the Cross is captured by the word "redemption". Redemption means that through Jesus' free-offering of himself on the Cross, we have been delivered from what Moses called the choice of evil and death. But even the term redemption suggests a God that needs appeasing in some way. A better word might be the well known reformation word "justification". Justification is the language of the law courts, whereby we are treated as if all our sins were taken away.

The problem with these three terms is that the Cross becomes a sacrifice in which God gives his Son with one hand and takes him away with the other. How sinister does that make God look - giving us his only Son, just to kill him? And so as we come today to the reference by Jesus to the Cross in the context of discipleship, we understand that we must be part of the action of the cross - not passive recipients. Therefore I suggest a better word for describing the Cross and its effect is "reconciliation".

Jesus offers himself on the Cross - but it is us who are reconciled. And to be reconciled we must respond. Closely aligned with the word reconciliation is propitiation", which comes from the language of the Temple in the Old Testament. Jesus is the new sacrifice of God. Here we come in the words of the temple sacrifice to the heart of the Cross and its meaning. For in the context of today's Gospel, Jesus' Cross is part of this theme of giving all as a follower of Jesus. Yes, he suffered and died and he gave his all, and it was a free-offering of himself to the Father on our behalf, and for our salvation. And so we also must make a free offering of our lives as Christian disciples.

And yet, the free-offering of Jesus is an irony. To the disciples the Cross seemed like the end - the wreck of Jesus' mission. They had thought of him as the King who could never be overthrown - and they finished up as the companions of an executed criminal. Jesus' death was both ugly and profane - but in the context of its meaning the reality is that it was worship. It was a liturgy not in the temple, but on the Cross. Before the eyes of the world, and before the face of God himself. Jesus' arms outstretched on the Cross are the ultimate worship offered to God - for there on the Cross his blood becomes the concrete expression of his love, and the means of reconciliation.

As we come at every Mass to celebrate this central fact of our faith, so we understand the Eucharist is both a celebration and an offering. For in every Eucharist we not only celebrate the Cross as victory and reconciliation, but through the Eucharist we enter into the mystery of the Cross. The Cross is the means whereby the world is reconciled.

So let me conclude by quoting words of the current Pope Benedict: "The hour of the Cross is the cosmic day of reconciliation, the true and final feast of reconciliation. There is no other kind of worship, and no other priest but he who accomplished it: Jesus Christ."

And that is why at every Mass we say:

"Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast".