Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross 2022

Byzantine Catholic Homilies • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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It is not the identity markers of our nation, clan, tribe, or denomination that are important, but the turning of one's back on that an identifying with the cross of Christ - accepting the shame and rejection it may entail - that is all important.

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Ambon Prayer 47

Dismissal: “May Christ our true God, risen from the dead have mercy on us and save us, through the prayers of his most holy Mother, by the power of the honorable and life-creating Cross, whose universal exaltation we gloriously celebrate . . .”

Our Venerable Father Eumenius the Wonder-worker, Bishop of Gortyna

Title

Identification with Christ is all

Outline

Human beings want to be judged righteous

It may not be by God, but at least by other people

It may not be on the basis of deeds, but at least by association with the deeds of others

It may in fact be on the basis of a type of ethnic identity

In Paul’s day it was “I am a Jew, a member of God’s chosen people”

Today it may be “I am this or that type of Christian - I have the right identity markers”

Our texts teach us that none of this is at all helpful

Paul tells us it is not the identity markers of Judaism, but commitment to Jesus

The “works of the law” are the identity markers of Judaism: circumcision, dietary laws, and keeping festivals, especially the Sabbath. They marked one off from pagan society and marked one as an insider in Jewish society. One was a member of God’s people

Identification with Christ put the whole desire to have status in this age behind one, for Christ in his crucifixion did that and we are made one with him. So for the Christian it is allegiance to or loyalty to or commitment to Christ that is all that matters - one is dead to what the world around us thinks.

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Jesus puts it more directly, for he is in a Jewish context

“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

To take up the cross is to go to one’s shameful death. One follows Christ, taking his shame on one, and one puts the status and belonging values of the world behind one.

One is either ashamed of Christ, including denying what he taught, or one acknowledges Christ as Lord, as the center of one’s identification and values.

So the cross is a strong call to us.

It is a call to so identify with Christ that any titles, positions, belongings, and identity one has in this age one is dead to. One cannot be allured by wealth, for Christ died naked, despising the shame. One cannot be allured by status, for Christ died at the lowest status possible.

The issue is that we often forget this, that we slip from our true identity, that we turn back bit by bit to what the world around us wants.

The call is, then, to remember the cross, to hold up the cross before us, and when we find ourselves slipping to turn back to the cross.

That is what the exaltation of the cross should mean for us.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 9-18-2022: Sunday after Holy Cross

EPISTLE

Galatians 2:16–20

16 yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! 18 But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 9-18-2022: Sunday after Holy Cross

GOSPEL

Mark 8:34–9:1

34 And he called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? 37 For what can a man give in return for his life? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” 9 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 9-18-2022: Sunday after Holy Cross

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2022 | ELEVATION OF THE HOLY CROSS

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 9-18-2022: Sunday after Holy Cross

SUNDAY AFTER HOLY CROSS

Dark Vestments

Epistle Galatians 2:16–20

Gospel Mark 8:34–9:1

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