Sunday before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross 2023

Postfestive Day of the Birth of the Theotokos

The Holy Martyr Menodora, Mitrodora and Nymphodora

Ambon Prayer 45 (Slavic) or 46 (Greek)

Dismissal: "May Christ our true God, risen from the head, have mercy on us and save us, through the prayers of his moth pure Mother whose Nativity we gloriously celebrate today . . ."

Title

Following Jesus in Suffering

Outline

Every Divine Liturgy we hear of divine suffering

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” You may recognize that this comes right before the consecration.

He gave, gave to suffer and die for us, gave for the life of the world. Jesus suffered in his death, the separation of his human soul from his human body, and in his torture and shaming. The Father suffered too: “God was in Christ” in that event. Why did the Father endure that suffering that came from his oneness with his Son? “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” It was to rescue us.

John puts in his typical play on words and his typical divine irony: “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Moses was told to take an image of that which bit and killed them and put it on a pole so that all those had been bitten who trusted in it, who looked at it in trust, would live. Jesus’ glory was the greatest shame the world could invent, so that all who put their trust in him - trust in what looks like a dying criminal - will have, not death, but the life of the age to come. This is the height of irony, something only God could do.

The human problem is that we do not want divine glory but human glory

Paul faced critics within the church who wanted to force believers to be circumcised, to become Jews, so that the might avoid shame, avoid persecution, by other Jews for accepting Gentiles as children of Abraham. They want glory, but not the glory of Christ; they want the glory of human approval.

Paul says, “far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Cultural approval, human approval by human standards is on the other side of the cross from Paul. He seeks the glory of Jesus. To the rest he is as indifferent as if he were a crucified man, who has no honor, power, pleasure, or wealth.

Paul’s other way of putting this is “I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” Whether these were stigmata or not, there were marks he bore out of love for Jesus: five beatings by Jews, three times beaten with rods by lictors, once stoned and left for dead and more. There is rejection, shame, insult, and injury, even if Paul were not dead yet, and he counts them, not as marks of shame, but as “the marks of Jesus,” perhaps the marks a slave might receive to indicate his owner, his identity.

When we look on the cross it may seem to us just a relic of an event in history, but it is the mystery of the crushing of the snake by the lifting up of Jesus, the mystery of the marks of shame being in the realer real world of God the marks of glory. And it is those marks we long to bear, perhaps on our hearts and emotions, perhaps on our bodies, as we identify with Christ, put the values of this age on the other side of the cross, and receive those marks, that brand on us as we travel forward to glory.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 9-10-2023: Sunday before Holy Cross

EPISTLE

Galatians 6:11–18

11 See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. 12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that would compel you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For even those who receive circumcision do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. 14 But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God.

17 Henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 9-10-2023: Sunday before Holy Cross

GOSPEL

John 3:13–17

13 No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 9-10-2023: Sunday before Holy Cross

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2023 | ELEVATION OF THE HOLY CROSS

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 9-10-2023: Sunday before Holy Cross

SUNDAY BEFORE HOLY CROSS

Epistle Galatians 6:11–18

Gospel John 3:13–17