Death To Life

I have said this before but for some reason, St. George is very popular among Christians in the Middle East. When I visited Iraq, I noticed nearly every village I went to had a church or a shrine dedicated to St. George. Many of the villages have him as a patron saint because he is known to be a protector of Christians in the time of danger and war. Today we celebrate the Memorial of St. George the Illustrious Martyr thanking God for his example and the miracles that were performed through his intercession.

There is great danger that surrounds Christians. Christ himself came to answer the cries of Christians in this danger that surrounds us. When we look at the Sanctuary Hymn (Onitha d’Qankeh) for this Sunday, it gives us an answer. Christ, the Messiah, on the cross and EXTINGUISHED/QTILLEH sin which had our race. In killing sin, he extinguishes the two enemies we have in the human race: death & satan. killed

He’s saying is the enemy. That sin has KILLED us.sin

Killed? He doesn’t say he merely injures us. But we have been killed. The killers are:

Satan, Death & Sin.

Satan the tempter and accuser

Death which decays our life —the wages, the final word of the old creation

A dead person can’t revive himself. Corpse has no initiative. No merit. Cannot bargain.

What if we don’t feel dead? What if we still feel alive when we’re dead.

But Jesus gives consolation from the Gospel saying he will depart. Tells them they will be sorrowful and weep and lament. He does ignore the grief but he enters it. Says the cross is coming. Death is coming. He comes to those who are dead. Jesus going in the grave.

In the Qankeh, the angels in heaven looked in wonder because they had never seen this before. The creator and giver of life was voluntarily dead and goes in the tomb.

Jesus says your SORROW will be TURNED into joy. Not replaces but turned.

Paul tells us that Christ did this EVEN WHEN WE WERE DEAD. Because the dead can only accept God to be able to live. He loved us at our worst and while we were most dead.

He did not love us when we cleaned ourselves up.

Not when we showed potential.

He loved us EVEN WHEN WE WERE DEAD.

The person who sits in the pew thinking they sinned too big — even when you were dead.

The person who returned to confession fro the same sin — even when you were dead.

The person who feels nothing in prayer — even when you were dead.

The condition that should have disqualified us is the very condition in which grace arrived.