[Propertalk] Part 2 - Homily for Sept. 13 - Proper 19 B

[Joe Parrish]

Part 2


Here's my first draft for Sunday. 



From
Robert P Morrison robertpmorrison at charter.net

Bob Morrison



THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY            
THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
PROVERBS 1:20-33                                                                                                             


PROPER 19 b
JAMES 3:1-12                                                                                                                            
PSALM 19
MARK 8:27-38                                                                                                        


13th SEPTEMBER, 2015




           “Hagia Sophia, or Holy Wisdom, was dedicated in 360 CE. The largest church in Christendom for almost 1000 years, the current structure was erected in 532. The church became a mosque after the Ottoman Turks conquered the city in 1453, and in 1935 it became a museum. Hagia Sophia’s design heavily influenced the development of Christian architecture, art, and worship.
            “’..the architecture of Hagia Sophia was meant to transform the ceremonies it housed, to place them on a level different from common existence, transforming them into more symbolic, heavenly drama.’” 2
            The whole building leads one to reflect on and experience the majesty of God, working as the Holy Spirit, lifting us to God, but keeping us firmly connected with life on earth. The building is the biggest single structure of which I know that helps us to acknowledge the power and the importance of the Third Person of the Trinity, without whom our lives are so much more empty and dangerous – whether we’re shopping, or voting, or trying to make a decision about property or relationships. Yet as Wisdom is quoted in the Book of Proverbs, She stretched out Her hand and people have not heeded.
            So often God as Wisdom stands to guide and comfort, but we charge ahead, thinking we know how to cope.
            Wasn’t that the problem that Peter faced? Yes, he must have been in touch with Wisdom to have been able to confess that Jesus is the Christ.
            It’s actually a common dichotomy. Peter knew who Jesus was, but he didn’t like what that entailed. WEknow, or are led to know, what life is supposed to be all about, and how we can try to fulfil our destiny as brothers and sister of Jesus. But we may start t draw back when we see and hear what may lie ahead for us.
            Peter, I’m sure, just like the others who lived in Jesus’ time, knew all about crosses and crucifixion, The Romans
made sure that those tortured were kept in the public eye. After all, what good is a threat is there’s nothing to prey on human imagination. It must have horrified and terrified the people from Galilee, especially if those executed were known to them.
            Peter couldn’t imagine the possibility of Jesus ending up like that. But that was precisely what Jesus was getting at. Discipleship – TRUE discipleship – comes at a cost. It’s not simply a nice thing about which to read, and to shake one’s head in pity. Following Jesus as a disciple means making the cross central to our own lives.
            We all have our own images of the cross, of course. We can scarcely avoid them. Just about every Christian building has one somewhere, and many of them have crucifixes, crosses with the crucified Jesus on them.
            Now THAT can make some people really uncomfortable. I remember the strong verbal sparring that went on among my father’s congregation when he wanted to out a simple cross – no Body of Christ – above the pulpit and Communion Table. You’d have thought he wanted to sacrifice live chickens every week the way some people erupted.
            Yes, crosses can make us SO uncomfortable. But that’s part of their purpose: to be led by the Spirit, by Wisdom, to see that Jesus didn’t shrink from any pain so that He could free us from everything that draws us from the love of God.
            Suzanne Guthrie wrote last week, “The cross, an instrument of torture, represents shame, torture, death, and, (at the same time,) paradoxically, transformation, triumph, and the throne of glory.
            “Desiring continual proximity to the sign, Christians wear crosses around their necks, and place them in houses and churches and gardens.” 3 So what do we make of them? Why do we do it?
            I’ve noticed people touching the cross round their necks, sort of running it through their fingers. Are they checking to be sure that the love shown on the cross is still there? Is it a subconscious move on the part of some, a reassurance of the extent to which God loves them? Is it a way in which people are led to identify with Jesus as He struggled, and as we struggle?
            “The sign of the cross reminds us, with its suggestive inward direction, that we are internalizing the life of Jesus, his incarnation, passion, and resurrection. … The summation of the life of Jesus in the symbol and sign of the cross is not meant so much as an act of ‘taking up’ the cross, as it is of ‘taking the cross inside’. The direction of the cross is inward, which suggests embracing and internalizing the life of Jesus. … we live these events here and now … as we become one with the timeless Christ.” 4
            It can be SO difficult for us, sometimes, when we face so many challenges. We need to be lifted up, not necessarily on to a cross, but with our crosses to be lifted up so that we can get a clearer perspective on what we’re called to be. That wonderful Lent and Holy Week collect talks of Jesus extending His arms on the hard wood of the cross so that all of us may be drawn into His saving embrace. THAT’S where we meet the love of Jesus, when He’s identifying to closely with us in our struggles and difficulties. From the house of His agony we see Him looking at us and lifting us up beside Him so that He and we may share our pain.
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