Sermon Delivered on Feast of the Holy Cross 2007: St. Gregorios Tampa, Fl

Sermon Delivered on Feast of the Holy Cross 2007: St. Gregorios Tampa, Fl - the Advocate

Glory be the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…the one triune God forever and ever…Amen.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing O Lord.
Respected Achen, distinguished elders, my brothers and sisters in Christ….

Death is never a subject that’s ever pleasant to talk about. Nobody wants to talk about their own mortality….it is something that is hard to deal with it whether it’s someone we know…or someone we don’t know. Death is an even worse subject in the context of murder…when one human being takes the life of another. Much of the repulsion that we Christians feel in regards to the idea of murder is due to the unique perspective we have on life. We believe that there is an immeasurable value on life because we believe that life is the most important gift that God himself has bestowed upon any of us.

But just for a moment if we could, let’s use our minds to go to that dark place ….and imagine the unthinkable. Imagine that someone we knew…had their life taken away from them by someone else.

How many of us…if someone we loved were killed because of clogged arteries….who would then take a jar of saturated fats…and place it in a prominent place above our fireplace?

How many of us…if a loved one were murdered by stabbing…would then take the same knife…and hang it from the wall of our home for all of our guests to see?

Finally, how many of us…if a loved one was shot…would take a single bullet…string it upon a gold necklace…and wear it upon our necks?All of these things seem strange if not crazy…because it goes against our most basic feelings on life.

That is to say that life itself is to be respected. One would think that if someone we cared about were killed…not only would we be grief stricken…but whatever it was that caused that death would become an object to be feared and avoided.

In my example….that means if a person we loved died of cardiac arrest….we ourselves would probably avoid eating unhealthy foods. If a person we loved was murdered with a knife...it might developing an apprehension around sharp objects. And in the case of our loved one being shot…it might mean that we would become adamantly opposed to guns.

That’s what one would expect…that is what we would call normal thinking. So why then as Christians…do we….so proudly hang the cross from our walls. Why do we wear crosses on our necklaces…and why would we make the sign of the cross so many times at church…when this is the same cross which tortured and killed our Lord Jesus Christ?The answer might seem simple to us…but for the non-believer…it’s a bit strange.

From the perspective of the world…this cross is a torture device used by the Roman Empire to persecute thousands. But from our perspective…we embrace the cross…we venerate the cross…and we worship before the same cross because of what it means. Can we expect those who are non-believers to understand this? Not really. Even in the time of Paul there were issues with this…and so he wrote in his letter to the Corinthians:

"18The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate"

Paraphrased…that means that to those without faith…the message of the cross is foolish…but to those who believe it is everything.

The difference between the believer and non-believer in terms of the cross is that for us….we believe that the cross didn’t win. We believe that when Jesus hung on the cross…that the cross itself became the manner in which he died…but ultimately the instrument through which he defeated death. To the Christian…the cross is not a symbol of dying….but a sign of living and a sign of victory….a sanctified trophy that was won in the battle for our salvation. And that is why the cross is so prominently used and displayed by believers today. The cross did not defeat Christ…but Christ defeated death through the cross.

Last time I preached, I spoke about the connection between the old testament tree of life and the cross which is the new tree of life. I don’t wish to go much into that today.

But it’s enough to say that there is a reason behind my speaking about the cross. Do any of the youngsters know what is the significance of this day within the Church calendar?

Can someone tell me one thing that makes the service different this Sunday…than last Sunday? Kymtha -> Sleeba

Whereas kymtha is the worship of the risen Christ …sleeba is the worship of the Holy Cross…and the hopeful world.

Today we remember the feast day of the Holy Cross. It is the day in which we believe and remember that Emperess Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine…found the actual wooden cross used to crucify Jesus. Upon finding the cross, just touching it healed a deathly ill woman. After which, the patriarch of Jerusalem lifted it with both hands so that all the gathered peoples could see….and in response to the sight, the multitudes shouted “Lord have mercy upon us”.This particular event is the origin of the worship service we use on every major feast day…on Christmas and Easter…we venerate the cross blessing the four quarters of the earth in the same manner. It is through this service of the Holy Cross we not only celebrate the historical event….but we also remember how this instrument of shame was used to overcome death and all enemies…in order to bring eternal life and salvation.

After this day, Christianity..which was once viewed by the known world as a minor religion…became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Ironically, the same Roman Empire which persecuted and martyred the early faithful of our Church….soon adorned the Holy Cross on all its flags, uniforms and shields. Through the help of St. Helena, her son Constantine not only converted to become a Christian…but became the man behind the initial ecumenical synods which our church still recognizes today.

I can only hope that everytime we see or make the sign of a cross…that we take a moment to reflect and remember the sacrafices of our holy martyrs and Jesus himself in giving this sign of victory to us through the Church.

May the mercies of God the great be upon us and our Church from ages unto ages. Amen