August 1 Feast Bishop Gerasim

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Today, as we conclude this

week of formation, we bring into the midst of

the Church the figure of the life -giving cross

of the Lord. And this practice originates in

the Church of Constantinople when at the beginning

of August, at the beginning of the Dormition

Fast, A large piece of the wood of the cross

was carried from the treasury and placed in the

Church of the Holy Wisdom of Hagia Sophia. And

the liturgical practice at that time was to carry

the cross through the streets of the city in

liturgical procession during the course of the

fast for public veneration. And this was a feature

of the ancient liturgical practice of the Stational

Liturgy, characterized by a procession to a specific

station or church where the liturgy was to be

celebrated that day. And the placing of the cross

in the middle of the church makes visible and

tangible the actual events of the gospel. In

June, I was able to visit the Basilica of Santa

Croce, called Santa Croce of Jerusalem in Rome.

established during the time of the Empress Elena.

And there, the church is laid out as a pilgrimage

site for those unable to travel to Jerusalem

to visit the holy places. In addition to several

pieces of the Holy Cross, there is a piece of

the board, the titulus, on which Pilate wrote

the words, Jesus of Nazareth, King... of the

jews that is placed out for veneration as well

as nail a nail of the cross and thorns from the

crown of thorns the effect is to make present

the event of the crucifixion of our lord and

today on the feast of the procession of the life

-giving cross we read the account of the crucifixion

from the holy gospel according to john And this

passage provides an appropriate time and opportunity

to speak a word on the cross. The gospel passage

begins with this very dramatic encounter, conflict,

between Pontius Pilate and the elders of the

Jews. As he brings Jesus forward to show him

to the people, the chief priests and elders,

incite the multitude to interject their cry,

crucify him, crucify him. And this knowing that

they are attempting to get Pilate to do their

dirty work, Pilate replies, you take him and

crucify him, for I find no fault in him. And

Pilate is unable to de -escalate. what the chief

priests have incited. They accuse Jesus of making

himself the son of God. And this is a very important

point in the gospel narrative, especially in

our time. In their envy, they charge Jesus with

death, stating, we have a law, and according

to our law, he ought to die, because he made

himself the son of God. And in contrast, To modern

skeptics and unbelievers that accuse Christians

of inventing the divinity of Jesus Christ, in

the gospel, the Jewish religious leaders state

for the record how Jesus spoke about himself.

So skeptics and unbelievers, both of yesterday

and today, especially those that had once been

Christians, insist. that Jesus never says that

he is God or that he is the Son of God. And they

push their claim that the divinity of Christ

is a later development of doctrine by Christian

thinkers. Now Paul does not invent exalted claims

about the divinity of Jesus Christ. It is the

chief priests and elders that provide clear testimony

that they are compelling Pontius Pilate. to crucify

Jesus because Jesus himself declares that he

is the Son of God. The chief priests never reveal

any doubt about this. The chief priests know

exactly who Jesus Christ declares himself to

be. And they hear and report exactly what Jesus

says. And so their accusation against Jesus,

that he said he was the Son of God, and later

the accusation placed upon the cross, Jesus of

Nazareth, the King of the Jews. These are things

that the chief priests know, and of which they

accuse Jesus. So Pilate orders these words to

be affixed to the cross, perhaps to mock those

leaders and the populace themselves, whom he

fails to bring into submission or mollify. at

that moment. And the real reason that the elders

of Israel want Jesus to be put to death is that

Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel. And

if he is the promised Messiah of Israel, who

then will they be? What will happen to their

stranglehold on the people of Israel and their

monopoly? on the customs of the temple that they

zealously enforce. So their way of life is simply

incompatible with the coming of the Messiah.

In the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem,

Jesus, the King of Israel, shows the chief priests

to be frauds. And therefore it is no surprise

that they ask Pilate to crucify him. And they

use the pretext of blasphemy. In the third book

of Moses, called Leviticus, it is written, Whoever

blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely

be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly

stone him, the stranger as well as him who is

born in the land. When he blasphemes the name

of the Lord, he shall be put to death. And so

the chief priests appeal to the authority of

Scripture. To support their charge of blasphemy

and the proper punishment for blasphemy. And

their words and threats cause Pilate to return

and question Jesus. He asks, where are you from?

And Jesus makes no answer. And his silence makes

Pilate indignant. He asks Jesus, why are you

not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have

power to crucify you and power to release you?

Pilate simply does not imagine how absurd and

ironic his words are. Standing before the Lord

of the universe, he says, Do you not know that

I have power to crucify you and power to release

you? And earlier in the 10th chapter, of the

same gospel according to John, Jesus says, No

one takes it from me, but I lay it down. I have

power to lay it down, and I have power to take

it again. And even today, the well -meaning skeptic

asks, Why didn't Jesus answer him? He had his

chance. Jesus had a chance not to be crucified.

not to take upon himself the death of all human

beings, not to shed his blood for us, and finally,

Jesus had a chance not to ascend the cross. And

these are the exact sentiments of my closest

childhood friend. To the modern mind, the wisest

thing is to avoid death at all costs, especially

such an inglorious death on the cross. And in

response, we read the words of the epistle of

the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians today. Paul

says, The message of the cross is foolishness

to those who are perishing, but to us who are

being saved, it is the power of God. Why is the

message of the cross foolishness to those that

are perishing? Because those that are perishing

want some other way, perhaps some wiser way,

for God to deliver and redeem his people. And

the wise in this world do not want to embrace

the shame, the scourging, the false accusation,

the spitting, the cross, the nails, the gall,

and vinegar, and finally the piercing of his

side. But according... to scripture, there is

no other remedy to heal the serpent's bite. After

leading the people of Israel through the wilderness,

they rebel against God and Moses, saying, Why

have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in

the wilderness? And the Lord sends fiery serpents

among the people. They bite the people, and many

of the people of Israel die. And they turn to

Moses in repentance and ask him to pray to the

Lord to remove the snakes. And the Lord tells

Moses, make a fiery serpent, set it on a pole,

and it shall be that everyone who is bitten,

when he looks at it, shall live. And so Moses

makes a bronze serpent, raises it on a pole,

and whoever has been bitten and looks at the

bronze serpent, Most of us have witnessed the

rite of the raising or exaltation of the cross

by the bishop on the feast of the exaltation

of the cross in September, allowing all at the

service to gaze on the cross. And this visually

illustrates how Moses lifts up the serpent on

a wooden pole at the command of God to heal the

Israelites. of the serpent's bite and venom,

as recorded in the fourth book of Moses, called

Numbers. Everyone that gazes on the bronze serpent

lifted up upon the wood, that is, whoever fixes

his eyes on Jesus, who the apostle calls the

author and finisher of our faith, will find healing

from the serpent's bite. And so today we place...

the cross, and the middle of the church to remind

us of our salvation and to whom we turn in affliction.

The plan of God, however, is not to find the

easy way out. Neither does the church teach us

to find a less painful path or what is the minimum

that we can do to find salvation. Instead, we

are reminded that the good news speaks of Christ

crucified. Jesus comes into the world to demonstrate

how he loves his creation. And through the cross,

we learn to experience the love of God towards

us, and likewise, how he expresses this love

towards us. And this way of love is the model

for us to understand what love truly is. Love

is affection, but is not limited to affection.

Love also embodies pleasure and joy. Yet the

love of Jesus Christ for us is a love transcending

every notion of pleasure. He loves us unto death.

And the message of the cross is that the creator

of all things has become as we are. to embrace

us, to love us, and to pour out his life for

us. And in the Christian tradition, we illustrate

the pelican as a symbol of Jesus Christ. An ancient

legend tells us how a mother pelican, having

no source of food for her dying young, pierces

her own heart with her beak, and the blood pours

forth from her heart on her chicklings and brings

them back to life. We depict the pelican in this

way in liturgical art, both in hymnography, such

as on Holy Saturday, as well as in iconography

and other church arts, such as vestments. This

image illustrates the reality of the cross and

why we venerate the cross. And this is summed

up in the initial words of a hymn that we sang

last night at the vigil service during the veneration

of the cross. Come, O ye faithful, and let us

venerate the life -giving wood on which Christ,

the King of glory, stretch out his hands of his

own will to the ancient blessedness he raised

us up. As we venerate the cross of the Lord,

we confess the love of God that we have experienced.

And this love has transformed and continues to

transform our life. This love, a love unto death,

becomes the model for every relationship that

we form. This healing love transforms the life

of those around us. This love makes blasphemers

into apostles. This love unites Jew and Gentile

as brother and sister. And this love informs

us what is the wisdom and the power of God that

we encounter in the person of our Lord Jesus

Christ who offers himself for us. To our Lord,

crucified upon the cross, to him be all glory,

honor, and worship, together with his Father,

who has no beginning, and the all -holy Spirit,

unto the ages of ages. Amen.