nothing but the blood
“He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die”. I shall speak of death, and of the cross. You may be seated.
Instead of Proper 19C for today, this morning we have the Collect & Bible readings for yesterday, September 14th, Holy Cross Day, and I like that Holy Cross Day is my birthday. Even though in my mind I’m 17, I turned 84, nearly the oldest person I know, but I’m not the only one getting older, so are you, it applies to you as well: “Time like an ever-rolling stream bears all of us” … along, and (my friends, life is short) all too soon … “away”.
If you live as long as I (wishing you long years), you will experience that Time takes more and more of those around you, until you wonder “What’s up, why not me? how long, Lord?”
Classmates, friends and dear ones die all around us. Two weeks ago, Eleanor, age 83, a lifelong friend. This week a 26 year old beloved former student, and frankly the pain of it was so great, and I'd loved Richard so as a student that I would rather have taken his place - - you also have been in that position between life and death, but creation is not substitutionary like that or none of our loved ones would ever die, we would do it for them again, and again, and again.
Though we dislike talking about it, death is the most natural part of life, more natural than eating, more natural than sex, more natural than bathroom, and we do not have to fear the subject, or think it morbid, because death comes - - and what then, What happens, What comes after this, What awaits us, What does the Church teach, What does Faith hold? Well, that’s easy:
One Eucharistic Preface says “to your faithful people, O Lord, life is changed, not ended; and when our mortal body lies in death, there is prepared for us a dwelling place eternal in the heavens”.
In the Nicene Creed, “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come”.
In Prayers of the People … “we bless thy holy Name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear, beseeching thee to grant them continual growth in thy love and service; and to grant us grace so to follow the good examples of all thy saints, that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom”.
“For all who have died in the communion of your Church, and those whose faith is known to you alone, that, with all the saints, they may have rest in that place where there is no pain or grief, but life eternal, we pray to you, O Lord”.
In our burial office “Give courage and faith to those who are bereaved, that we may have strength to meet the days ahead, in the comfort of a reasonable and holy hope, in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those we love”.
Bible-based Christians, we are living and moving and having our Being not on certainty but on faith, that the Bible defines at Hebrews 11:1, “faith is confidence in what we hope for, assurance about what we do not see.”
Faith is the “turn it over to God” confidence that enables us to go on living in Jesus without worry about what comes after this, because
Jesus said “Let not your hearts be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. … In my Father’s house are many mansions, many rooms, many dwelling places. … I go to prepare a place for you; and … I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am there ye may be also”.
We are standing on the promises of God.
Besides death and eternal life, my other thing in mind is the Cross, we preach Christ Crucified. “Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the Cross” and as we close “Lift high the Cross”. But things change, ideas evolve, people move along; theology shifts with culture. When I was a boy, we emphasized the Cross, heard more about Christ Crucified than we hear anymore. It was the sensibility the church stirred, at least since the Middle Ages, of us sinners needing the Cross, Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary for the remission of our sins. But Atonement theology that sin demands sacrifice for redemption has faded, hasn’t it. If I, we, preach about sin and blood atonement, you get uncomfortable and stop coming, or choose another church where they do not afflict the comfortable, nothing about human need for self-examination, repentance, and redemption in the blood of Jesus. Even in Lent, “Bless the Lord, who forgiveth all our sins” is about as deep as we are willing to venture.
Yet that’s what the Cross over the Altar, and high on the wall behind you, signifies: Christ has died, Christ is risen … Happy Easter, Jesus loves you, Happy Easter.
But (maybe trite to keep saying) there’s no Easter without Good Friday, and Christ on Calvary is not for fun, it’s for you. Yes the Bread and Wine of Holy Communion mean Jesus loves you, but “take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you” - “drink this in remembrance that Christ’s blood was shed for you”. That Church, religion and faith shy away from the Cross because creation, sin, judgment, repentance and redemption have become unfashionable as a theological formula absolves nothing but a conscience focused on self, that comes to church “to be fed” (God help us). “Ye who do truly and earnestly repent ye of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbors, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God and walking from henceforth in his holy ways, draw near with faith, and take this holy sacrament to your comfort, and make your humble confession to Almighty God”, is not liturgical rote, it’s the Day of the Lord come to your moment of Salvation. And, squirmy as you may feel, what can take away your sin? nothing but the blood of Jesus.
We do not presume to come to this thy table, O Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies.
We do not presume to come to this thy table, O Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies.
What can take away my sin? Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
Go in peace: the Lord has put away your sin. Not because you mutter, “we are truly sorry and we humbly repent”, but because everything that was ever wrong with you is washed away in the Blood of the Cross.
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Holy Cross Day sermon/homily preached in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida on Sunday, September 15, 2019. The Rev Tom Weller. Text John 12:31-36a: