LIVING
OUT THE CROSS
SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON SEPTEMBER 24, 2006
James 3.17: "The wisdom from above, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity."
Thus does St. James describe the Holy Spirit - and particularly as the Holy Spirit comes to us and produces those fruits in our lives.
You might be thinking it is a far cry from the first reading, the Book of Wisdom, which seems a contrast - until we get to the last sentence. Then we realize that this is a prophecy of the sufferings of Jesus on Good Friday. Once again, like last week, we see the centrality of the cross and the death and resurrection of Christ. All today’s readings are leading us through that theme again, but with new and subtle twists.
We also see a new theme from St. James of Wisdom. This is also taken up by the gospel, where it says “But they did not understand the saying” - lack of wisdom. Jesus had just said once again to the apostles that He was going to die and rise again, and they did not understand. Last week St. Peter protested: "Lord this must not happen to you." Today what they do is engage in a conversation about who is the greatest. Last week Jesus said that all who follow him must take up the cross. And what they wanted to take up was who was to be the most popular and most important. The church hasn't changed!
All that was in Chapter 8, and today in Mark 9 it goes a little bit further. Their response to Jesus is so silly - and Jesus then turns them all on their heads by bringing a challenge into their midst. If you want to talk about who is the greatest, he says, learn from a child.
It was the same with the church to which St. James was writing. He says they need the wisdom from above. And he writes very sternly to these Christians of the first century, accusing them of being more interested in the world's agenda then God's. The result of this is jealousy, disorder and selfish ambition. St. James and St. Mark are both continuing this theme of the centrality of the cross.
Last week in chapter 3 St. James said that our works show our faith. Today the opposite. In James 3 the disorder reveals how their faith has gone hay-wire. It is all about demonstrating what sort of God you believe in. What St. James is talking about is a church that was divided. It is tempting to see this as an analogy of our own Episcopal church. It is certainly a warning that the church should never follow the world's agenda - and sometimes we do think that our church is more interested in the world's agenda than God's.
So it is important for us to see both scriptures in a clear light. Both St. James' epistle and St. Mark's gospel today are addressing a lack of understanding. The apostles did not understand what Jesus was saying about his death and resurrection. And the church that St. James wrote to didn't understand how necessary the peace of the Holy Spirit was. The response in both cases is a direct and personal challenge.
St. James is saying to Christians: "get off your high horse." Jesus is more subtle. By placing the child in the midst of the twelve he stops them and makes them think about how stupid they were.
So if we are concerned about problems personal, or problems in the church's divisions, the direction of our church, or the actions of the hierarchy, both Jesus in the gospel and St. James in the epistle ask us to look at ourselves. It is all about last week's theme of living out the cross. Today Jesus says it's about serving. The church must serve and Christians must serve. St. James says it's about the peace that comes from the Holy Spirit.
These two readings shed light on a difficult passage in the New Testament is connected to our theme, and the concept of our taking up the cross. I am referring to Col 1:24 where St. Paul says these words: "I complete what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, the church." St Paul was referring to his sufferings. We don't know what they could have been – physical, emotional, mental - but he said that through suffering he makes up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, for the sake of his body the church. This has always seemed strange. Because there is nothing lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Christ's death was a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice - nothing lacking at all. But in the context of Jesus challenge to us to take up the cross, St. Paul feels that his physical, mental and emotional sufferings were his taking up of the cross. Not in self pity, but in a positive way, in a prayerful way. He could see that what he was called to endure was some small way in which he could take up the cross, as Jesus commanded him.
St. Paul thought that if we do this and offer these things prayerfully, we can assist the body of Christ in his sufferings - and of course the body of Christ is the church. Who amongst us hasn't had a time when it seems like we were close to the cross? What St. Paul was saying was right - that when we do suffer we make up for the stupidity and the willfulness of the church.
So if the church ruins itself by dissention and disorder, or just by the human failings of its clergy and lay people, then the church itself is displaying the very wounds of Christ, whose body it is.
So for us who are members of the church, who make up the body of Christ in the world, the response must be to live as St. James says: by the spirit of God, not of the world. And display the fruits of the spirit: peace, gentleness, reason, and mercy. If we do this, no matter what is coming upon us or upon our church, then All Saints will be a furnace of love that will provoke that ancient comment: See how these Christians love one another.
In today's gospel Jesus places before us the reality of his death and resurrection, as he did last week. And he bids us live it out in our lives. The apostles did not understand what he was talking about. The cross has always been, as St. Paul says, a stumbling block.
Yet when we reflect on the cross, it is all about God changing things. The cross was a sign of death and defeat - a gallows actually - and became a sign of victory and resurrection. And by it God changed the whole way in which he deals with men and women. From then on forgiveness was what God had to offer, not condemnation. Eventually the twelve, through their association with the loving Savior, came to understand this and joyfully embraced whatever crosses came their way. That is our vocation and challenge.
I conclude with words written by a famous Anglo-catholic priest of the 19 century, Fr. Stanton, who was on the staff of St. Alban's Holborn for 50 years.
"Let us remember that our religion is a religion of a personal Savior:
It is not a system of ethics;
It is not a scheme of philosophy;
It is not a conclusion of science;
But it is a personal love to a personal, living Savior,
That is our religion."