Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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Last year when we celebrated Holy Cross Day, you may remember I spoke of the reason behind the day: the setting aside of the land for the Holy Sepulchre, our chief church in Christendom housing the location of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, and the supposed discovery by Helena of the true cross.
On this day, though, our Gospel reading is not from the Crucifixion or even the Resurrection. It comes from the final moment in the Gospel according to John that we see Jesus in His public ministry. After this, we hear His Final Discourse with His Disciples before they go to Gethsemane and He is taken away to be tried and hung on the Cross.
In this time, the people once again try to get at who Jesus is. Jesus points them instead to what His death means. His death is meant to draw all to Himself. His death is meant to help us live in light instead of walking in darkness.
Jesus is trying to light the way back to our wholeness. Jesus is trying to bring us back to Him.
That is what our Faith is really about. It’s not about the joining of our belief with imperial rule or finding which cross is the True Cross Jesus was nailed to. It is about what that God is trying to work in the world. It’s about what God is trying to work in us, and for that gift of wholeness and light we should be glad indeed.