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A sermon preached in Salisbury Cathedral on Monday 14 September 2009 by Canon Mark Bonney, Treasurer
"HOLY CROSS DAY"
“Christ Jesus, being found in human form, humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a Cross.” (Philippians 2:6ff)
Today is not another celebration of Good Friday – though we must never forget that first Good Friday when a young Galilean preacher was just one among thousands crucified during a 65 year period of Roman occupation. One among thousands who suffered a death that was common and disgraceful – but one that was very different from all the rest.
Today’s feast appeared in the 4th once Christians had emerged from the time of persecution. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine had supposedly discovered the wood of the true cross Two churches in Jerusalem were built side by side and dedicated on 13 Sept 335: built on the places where Jesus was supposedly crucified and buried. The first church was called the Martyrium (place of witness) and the second the Anastasis (resurrection). On 14 September the relic of the True Cross was brought from one of the churches for people to venerate. This relic was captured by the Persians in 615 when they invaded Jerusalem but returned 12 years later and from that year 14 September the day after dedication festival in Jerusalem, was kept as the feast of the exaltation of the cross. In the CofE following Reformation, the feast day survived in name only in the BCP, but it has returned to prominence in recent liturgical revisions, now with the status of a Festival.
The Cross continues to inspire painters, musicians sculptors and writers in a multitude of ways. There have been artistic representations that have created scandal either through their too accurate representation, or by treating the subject in a way that some have interpreted as blasphemy. It is fascinating listening to the reactions people have towards the Colonna crucifix that hangs on the southern column of the spire crossing as you enter the Quire – some people appreciate it, others hate it – a breadth of reaction I suspect that wouldn’t be accorded the silver crucifix that we carry in procession this evening.
We need to keep the extremes of these two images in creative tension – and perhaps I might do that by offering you two very different reflections on the Cross.
First of all some words from a Japanese theologian Kazah Kitamori who died ten years ago and wrote this in 1966
“God has died! If this does not startle us, what will? The Church must keep this astonishment alive. The Church ceases to exist when she loses this astonishment. Theology, the precise understanding of the gospel, must be seized by this astonishment more than anyone else.”
In the second letter to the Corinthians Paul says that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. – on the cross, in Christ God was crucified. The stark Colonna type crucifixes perhaps remind us a little of that.
Alongside that I would like to place a prayer I sometimes use here on Fridays when at Evensong we always recall the Passion. It is a prayer to be said before a crucifix – it just falls short of being saccharine, I think, because its petitions are so needed, if slightly archaically expressed – it might be akin to our processional cross:
Lord by the sweet and saving Sign,
Defend us from our foes and thine
Jesus, by thy wounded feet,
Direct our path aright:
Jesu, by thy nail-ed hands,
Move ours to deeds of love:
Jesu, by thy pierc-ed side,
Cleanse our desires:
Jesu, by thy crown of thorns,
Annihilate our pride:
Jesu, by thy silence,
Shame our complaints:
Jesus, by thy parch-ed lips
Curb our cruel speech:
Jesu, by thy closing eyes,
Look on our sin no ore:
Jesus, by thy broken heart,
Knit ours to thee.
Yea, by this sweet and saving Sign
Lord, draw us to our peace and thine.
For over 2000 years Christians have worshipped a God who was crucified, who suffered – a God put to death that we might live. The varieties of images of the crucifixion, the varieties of writing that it has inspired all emanate from the fact that the cross is at the heart of Christian experience , preaching and prayer. It is foolish, it is glorious, it is scandalous – it reveals the love of God and so as we will soon sing
Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Amen.
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Today is not another celebration of Good Friday – though we must never forget that first Good Friday when a young Galilean preacher was just one among thousands crucified during a 65 year period of Roman occupation. One among thousands who suffered a death that was common and disgraceful – but one that was very different from all the rest.
Today’s feast appeared in the 4th once Christians had emerged from the time of persecution. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine had supposedly discovered the wood of the true cross Two churches in Jerusalem were built side by side and dedicated on 13 Sept 335: built on the places where Jesus was supposedly crucified and buried. The first church was called the Martyrium (place of witness) and the second the Anastasis (resurrection). On 14 September the relic of the True Cross was brought from one of the churches for people to venerate. This relic was captured by the Persians in 615 when they invaded Jerusalem but returned 12 years later and from that year 14 September the day after dedication festival in Jerusalem, was kept as the feast of the exaltation of the cross. In the CofE following Reformation, the feast day survived in name only in the BCP, but it has returned to prominence in recent liturgical revisions, now with the status of a Festival.
The Cross continues to inspire painters, musicians sculptors and writers in a multitude of ways. There have been artistic representations that have created scandal either through their too accurate representation, or by treating the subject in a way that some have interpreted as blasphemy. It is fascinating listening to the reactions people have towards the Colonna crucifix that hangs on the southern column of the spire crossing as you enter the Quire – some people appreciate it, others hate it – a breadth of reaction I suspect that wouldn’t be accorded the silver crucifix that we carry in procession this evening.
We need to keep the extremes of these two images in creative tension – and perhaps I might do that by offering you two very different reflections on the Cross.
First of all some words from a Japanese theologian Kazah Kitamori who died ten years ago and wrote this in 1966
“God has died! If this does not startle us, what will? The Church must keep this astonishment alive. The Church ceases to exist when she loses this astonishment. Theology, the precise understanding of the gospel, must be seized by this astonishment more than anyone else.”
In the second letter to the Corinthians Paul says that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. – on the cross, in Christ God was crucified. The stark Colonna type crucifixes perhaps remind us a little of that.
Alongside that I would like to place a prayer I sometimes use here on Fridays when at Evensong we always recall the Passion. It is a prayer to be said before a crucifix – it just falls short of being saccharine, I think, because its petitions are so needed, if slightly archaically expressed – it might be akin to our processional cross:
Lord by the sweet and saving Sign,
Defend us from our foes and thine
Jesus, by thy wounded feet,
Direct our path aright:
Jesu, by thy nail-ed hands,
Move ours to deeds of love:
Jesu, by thy pierc-ed side,
Cleanse our desires:
Jesu, by thy crown of thorns,
Annihilate our pride:
Jesu, by thy silence,
Shame our complaints:
Jesus, by thy parch-ed lips
Curb our cruel speech:
Jesu, by thy closing eyes,
Look on our sin no ore:
Jesus, by thy broken heart,
Knit ours to thee.
Yea, by this sweet and saving Sign
Lord, draw us to our peace and thine.
For over 2000 years Christians have worshipped a God who was crucified, who suffered – a God put to death that we might live. The varieties of images of the crucifixion, the varieties of writing that it has inspired all emanate from the fact that the cross is at the heart of Christian experience , preaching and prayer. It is foolish, it is glorious, it is scandalous – it reveals the love of God and so as we will soon sing
Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Amen.