The Weapon of Peace

Welcome to Hill Country Homilies. Weekly homilies from Holy Nunciation

Orthodox Church in Liberty Hill, Texas. Holy Annunciation is an

old calendar Orthodox church sharing the faith of the Apostles

and the love of Christ with all who seek His truth. Now,

let's listen to this week's homily, and then the.

Father and the Son the Holy Spirit Court of Jesus Christ.

Have a seat if you like, and where you can.

It's fine. For is fine if you'd like to sit

on the floor. We're not offended by that either.

Yesterday we celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the Feasts of

the Universal Exaltation of the Cross. On that feast and

through the after feast, we him our Lord's self willed

offering of himself on the cross in fulfillment of his

Father's divine economy for our salvation. We call the cross

his invincible trophy. We call it the weapon of peace.

We fall down before it in veneration. We understand that

in this material world, our Lord, who himself bore our

same material flesh, conquered death through the wood of the cross.

But today we hear a different gospel reading.

Yesterday we heard the.

Sentencing of Christ by Pilot his journey to Golgatha, has

assent on to the cross. But today we hear the

words of Christ. And when he had called the people

to him with his disciples, also he said unto them,

whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and

take up his cross and follow me. Yesterday we're called

to humble ourselves on our faces before the.

Wood of the cross.

But today we're told that we must take up that

same cross ourselves. Not only that we must first deny

ourselves and then take up the cross. Now there are

two important things to remember here. The first, the most obvious,

should be that this requirement is entirely upon us Christ.

God does not compel us to do this. It's Saint

John Christism notes it's as if Christ is saying, I

force no one, I compel no one, but each one

I make lord of his own choice. So I say,

whosoever will come after me. Christ is acknowledging that there

will be troubles and tribulations along the way for those

who follow him, So that choice must be of our

own accord, a choice of love, not an act under compulsion.

And the second thing is this, there is an order

to how God has made us. Love of self was

the ruin of the first man. If Adam had placed

his desires over God's commands, right, if he had not

loved himself in the wrong order, if he would have

been willing to be subject to God, if he would

have preferred God to himself. Christ reminds us of this

same priority. Man follows God. Man does not dictate to

God the terms of his obedience. Rather, this is a

free choice that we are asked to make, to turn

away from our own desires and to take up the

cross and to follow Christ. Saint Cesaius of Ours has

provided us with one the simplest explanations of what it

means to take up one's cross, which is to bear

with whatever is troublesome, that is, to patiently endure all

that comes at us as we attempt to follow Christ.

And you know, it's incredible the timeless wisdom that the

church fathers possessed, because sat Csari has lived in the

sixth century, but he gave this example of how the

people that make the decision to follow Christ will be troubled.

He says, when man has begun to follow Christ according

to his teachings and precepts, he will find many people

contradicting him and standing in his way, many of whom

may not only deride him, but even persecute him. Now

we may hear this more today than many centuries. It's

less of a persecution. But there are.

Clearly non believers.

Who will mock and attack those who choose to fall Christ.

They'll make fun of those who adopt the traditional beliefs

of the Church, and they'll even mock God in the

process of doing it. But the atheists and the pagans

that take that position aren't the only.

Groups that thanks serious warned of.

He even warned of those in the Church, or at

least those who visibly appear to be in the Church

but are actually outside of it because of the perversity.

Of their deeds.

He says, these glory in the title of Christians, but

they continually harass faithful Christians. And this is true as well,

especially in the days of the Internet. They're all over it.

They're all over the place, whether it's self proclaimed Christians

who reject the Apostolic faith, or it's the holy tradition

that they attack. There are those who call themselves Christians

but attack others. And these people we know by their fruits.

Their objective is not building up the body of Christ.

But it's not humble obedience to God. Rather, it's tearing

down others and making themselves the center of all things.

That's the purpose of their attacks, is to make themselves central.

But they've failed in that first command. They can't deny themselves.

Saint Cisaria says, if you wish to follow Christ, do

not delay in carrying his cross. Tolerate sinners, but don't

yield to them. Don't let the false happiness of the

wicked corrupt you. You'll do well to despise all things

for the sake of Christ, in order that you may

be fit for his companionship. This path to following Christ

is more than a call than.

Just bearing our own afflictions, and.

The Orthodox tradition taking up our cross calls us to

actually be participants in Christ's self emptying love. Christ loves

so much that he raised himself up on the cross

for his salva. We too, are called to accept the

path of humility, of sacrificing, of obedience. We're called to

die to our old self, to put to death our

selfish desires, our pride, the passions that beset us. We're

called to not be ashamed of living the Gospel, no

matter what the cost socially or materially is, and to

remember the Cross, as mighty as it is, is not

the end of itself, because it leads us to the

empty tomb, and it leads us to that time of

resurrection the Sunday after the Feast of the Cross builds.

On the feast, we proclaim the cross as Christ of victory.

But Christ tells us it's not just his weapon, but

it is ours to bear.

Now, what bearing your cross looks like in.

Daily life, Well, that's a difficult question, and really it's

a question that varies so widely from person to person.

Look around the room.

You don't know what cross someone else is bearing unless

they choose to share it. You know, we never compare

our cross to someone else's cross. We don't know what

their cross is, we don't know how deep it is.

But we're called to bear it joyfully without complaint, whether

it's enduring illness, whether it's forgiving people that have hurt us,

whether it's following the fast or just being in the

church on a day when you don't really feel like

being there. When we lay down our old self in

exchange for life and Christ. That is that is burying

our cross. We bear our cross whenever we live our

faith in public, whether it's making the sign of the cross,

maybe it's saying the prayers over the meal of the restaurant,

speaking the.

Truth of the Gospel as marked.

There are many, many ways that each of us may

be called on to bear our cross on.

A given day.

In fact, there's scarcely going to be a day that

passes in this world where we're not called on, in

one way or another to deny ourselves and carry our cross.

It's not just a Sunday thing. It's not just an

in church thing. It is an imperative of Christian living.

And if we constantly deny ourselves, we're cultivating humility. If

we bear our cross, we cultivate even more. We cultivate worship,

We cultivate obedience, we cultivate maybe even the preaching of

the gospel from our own mouths and proclaim.

The good News.

So, brothers and sisters, as we move from the feast

of the exaltation of the Cross to the after feast,

we move from adoring the cross to carrying it.

We move from bowing.

Before it, to wielding that weapon of peace in our

own fight against sin and darkness. May Christ, our True God,

permit us to follow him in faith and humility, that

we may be made worthy of His kingdom. Maybe the

Father and Son the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Thanks for listening to Hill Country homilies. For more information,

visit Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church at www dot Denunciation, tx

dot com, and please join us again next week