Sermon begins at 30:25
The first thing that I notice when I look around the church this morning is how many of you have in the past, or continue to ignore the Bible.
Or, maybe – if we’re being charitable - you’ve just sided with Martin Luther of 15th century reformation fame.
Are you confused?
I’m being purposefully obtuse, it’s a habit, I apologize.
Look how many of you decided to become teachers, when St. James clearly told you it was a bad idea.
But chief among sinners in this area are preachers.
We’re a brazen bunch.
I once knew a preacher, who “loved preaching,” and boasted to me that they had never taken a preaching class.
I heard that person preach many many times, and guess what…
I would have paid for them to take a preaching class.
Lord, if you can get me through this time of tribulation, I promise I’ll be a better person. I’ll say the rosary, I’ll put my all into the Nicene Creed when this is over, I’ll chant the penitential order … daily, I’ll do all three…
“Good Lord, deliver us”
But that’s not what I came here to preach about today.
God will forgive us for being teachers and preachers.
What I really want to talk about today is pizza … and the Holy Cross of Jesus.
Did you know that yesterday was the Feast of the Holy Cross?
The ancient church historian Eusebius, who wrote the Life of Constantine.
Tells us that the Emperor Constantine, the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire, decided that a basilica complex ought to be constructed on the Hill of Calvary to commemorate the crucifixion.
Constantine lived in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries.
He is the reason we had a Council of Nicaea and eventually the Nicene Creed, into which (parenthetically) I still put my all.
Emperor Constantine wanted a complex – and I quote - “on a scale of imperial magnificence” to be set forth “as an object of attraction and veneration to all, the blessed place of our Savior’s resurrection.”
He put his mother, Helena, in charge of the construction project.
The first thing that Helena had to do, however, before anything could be built was to have the workers remove all of the garbage and refuse from Calvary,
Because after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the Roman occupation of the city of Jerusalem,
Calvary had become a dumping ground for the occupiers.
It was in this rubble that the laborers found pieces of wood that were given to Helena and venerated as the True Cross.
The basilica complex was completed on September 14th in 335 CE, which is why we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Cross on that day.
The complex had the main basilica church, which is where pilgrims and church-goers would pray and hear the Liturgy of the Word.
After that part of the liturgy, the part where we do the Peace, the congregation would walk outside into a courtyard, where the Hill of Calvary was visible, and then into a second, smaller church.
This church was called “The Resurrection,” because it was thought that it’s altar was placed on the tomb.
It was in this church that the Liturgy of the Table would be celebrated.
Now, just like today, when they moved to the celebration of the Eucharist, they did not sing, “Celebrate good times come on! Celebration….”
That was and probably still is a wise liturgical decision.
On Good Friday, every year, the basilica complex became the focal point of pilgrimage and worship of our crucified savior.
Believers would ascend the hill and venerate the cross in the courtyard between the churches.
And that is how the Feast of the Holy Cross began.
In the intervening centuries, the significance of the Cross of Jesus has rightly been one of the major focal points for our theological understanding of suffering, perseverence, forgiveness, justice, and atonement among many others.
It is one of our richest sites of memory and theological metaphor.
The reason for the Cross’ significance is because when Jesus told us to take up our cross and follow him, he made it plain that to be Christian is inherently to be a people of the cross.
Theologians throughout the centuries have told us that the cross is a sacrificial altar that replaces the destroyed temple, where the lamb of atonement was sacrificed.
St. John of the Cross said that the Cross of Christ was our cane to steady us on our pilgrim’s way.
St. Padre Pio says that if Jesus had not nailed him to his own cross, he likely would have abandoned it during hardship, and so he gives thanks because “beneath the cross, on learns love.”
James Cohn told us that the Cross was like the Lynching Tree in order to remind us that Jesus’ death is a condemnation of all systems of injustice.
In the medieval church, the cross was called a Rood, which is a germanic word for tree.
It’s where we get the name for those ornate wooden archways that exist in some churches between the nave, where you are sitting and the chancel, where the altar is.
And actually, if you look at the picture of Old St. Andrew’s on 8th and Mound, that church had what is called a Rood Screen.
And so the cross is sometimes referred to as a tree.
And there are so many more that could be shared, but given our reading from the Book of James and my promise that I would talk about pizza…
I just want to share one more,
This time from St. Theodore of Studitis,
Theodore took the idea of the cross as a tree, though he certainly wasn’t the first, and connected it to the Tree in the Garden of Eden.
Here is what he said, “How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise but opens the way for our return”
Isn’t that beautiful?
There is no mingling of good and evil in the cross or in its fruit; it is pure good.
The tree of paradise brought a recognition of mortality, of death.
The tree of crucifixion brought knowledge of eternal life and the wisdom to find the Way to get there.
In juxtaposing these two trees, the one that got us cast out and the one that reopens the door to paradise, Theodore tells us that this tree is beautiful to look at and that its fruit is good to taste.
Far from the forbidden fruit, the Body and Blood of Jesus – the fruit of the second tree - are recommended as the ultimate way to turn back toward God;
The ultimate form of repentance.
We turn from one tree that is about our desire to become like God, to take God’s power into ourselves,
And we turn to the second tree, take up our cross, and realize that God’s power is not to be taken from God, but given by them.
Isn’t that something?
To take up your cross is to have a taste of the good fruit that leads to eternal life.
Which leads me to my final point; Pizza.
Have you ever burnt your mouth on Pizza?
It’s the worst.
Usually it happens, when you’re impatient.
The pizza has just come out and it looks great; the layer of melted cheese, the smell of bread.
But under the calm surface of cheese and whatever your favorite toppings are lies a hidden layer of molten tomato sauce hotter than the magma in the core of the earth that your kindergarten teacher taught you about.
What happens when you take that first bite of pizza?
The tomato sauce comes up through the cheese and burns the inside of your mouth.
It burns the roof of your mouth, it might even burn your tongue.
This is not only extremely painful in the moment, but it can continue to hurt for days.
It also, and this is the crucial point, keeps you from being able to taste anything for the next few days.
As St. James says, “the tongue is a fire.”
Now I may be turning and bending St. James’ metaphor like a Stretch Armstrong toy, but I think it is apt.
If you burn your tongue, then the taste of the good fruit will be lost to you.
I’ve been running into a lot of people, and I include myself in this sometimes, who think that we can go around with tongues of fire and still receive the benefits of good fruit.
I have an acquaintance who continues to demonize our Jewish brothers and sisters over the war in Gaza with extreme and personal attacks on members of our interfaith community.
Now, I agree with him about the necessity of a ceasefire, but I worry about the blazing fire of their words, not only for the safety of the people being personally attacked,
But also because fire starters never have control over the blazes they set, either in their own hearts or in the hearts of those who hear them.
Sometimes we feel so righteous in our anger that we don’t care who we scorch with the heat of our rage.
And I have been realizing more and more as we come closer to the election.
This is a good lesson for all of us as we look to the Holy Cross.
It’s so easy to mindlessly ignore wisdom and give into the fire, when we can broadcast our every thought to the world in an instant online.
And, if you’re like me and have ever posted something that you immediately regret putting out into the world,
You know that sometimes it’s a good idea to wait for the pizza to cool down.
The reason that it’s so hard to find good fruit and to taste and see that the Lord is good is because we are constantly enticed to speak with a flaming tongue.
I want to suggest to you today that if the Holy Cross of Christ has fruit that is good to taste, then taking up your cross might mean waiting for the pizza to cool;
Considering how to effectively express your sorrows, fears, angers, and righteous indignations.
Ultimately, for us, everything lies in the hands, the feet, and the side of Jesus.
What we say matters, whether we pay attention to wisdom standing at the gate matters, whether we pay attention to human or divine things matters.
Our world has burned its mouth on pizza that is way too hot, it’s time for us to remind everyone we know that you can’t taste the goodness of life with a burnt tongue.
Amen.
Wonderful! I miss you and your sermons, Father Chris.