Holy Cross Day 2015

Holy Cross Day 2015 (John 12:31-36)

“If I be lifted up.”

Jesus is God the Father’s Plan of Salvation.

Most people perceive salvation in terms of what we must do to gain God’s favor and avoid God’s wrath. We create Law based, belief based and knowledge based forms of religion to earn salvation. We asset our right to eternal life based on our beliefs and behaviors.

Jesus reminds us that salvation is not about rewards and punishments. Salvation is not even about lists of beliefs and behaviors. No human being can claim a right to divine favor. God is universal unconditional love. God loves everyone already because that is who God is. You have no right to salvation. Salvation is a gift God offers everyone in Jesus Christ. The problem Jesus addresses is not defined by placating divine judgement, condemnation and wrath. The problem lies within the human soul. The problem, with all of its manifold consequences in our lives and societies, is the choice we as a species made to separate from God.

The Plan of salvation is first the reunification of humanity and divinity. At the Annunciation, the archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will conceive a unique child. He will be fully human. And, he will be fully divine. Reunification begins with the Incarnation. The incarnation begins when all human life begins. It begins at conception.

Jesus is the second Adam. Jesus resets the original pattern of humanity to unfold in the categories of love, holiness and compassion. The incarnation is the first part of salvation that makes the second part possible.

The second part is the cross.

Jesus dies on the cross falsely accused of blasphemy and treason. The religious court convicts him of blasphemy for claiming to be God. He wasn’t condemned for his actions or his teachings. He was condemned for acknowledging his true identity. The religious establishment of the time would not and could not accept this truth. To do so would have meant acknowledging they were fundamentally wrong about the nature of God, the nature of humanity and the role of religion. Religious pride sent Jesus to the cross.

Pontus Pilate condemned Jesus to death for treason against the state. Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent. But, he would not and could not accept the consequences of releasing Jesus. Pilate embraced a convenient lie to remove an inconvenient truth. Pilate’s fear killed Jesus.

Human created religion and politics are designed by the lost to perpetuate separation from God. Through pride the lost refuse to receive the gift of God. Through fear, the lost accept a lie to avoid the truth. Through the assertion of the human will to power the lost slander, condemn and kill to preserve their separation.

Why?

Moses gave the answer millennial ago. The answer is power. Our species chose separation in order to become like God. But, we identified the divine nature with only two of God’s many attributes. We separated from God in order to acquire the supposed secret knowledge of God and the ruling  power of God.

Jesus reminds us that God is love. In our self-indulgent and sentimental culture that statement seems very benign. Benign but largely meaningless. The various cultures of Jesus’ day heard this claim from a very different perspective. Unlike modern people, they did not pay lip service to the truth Jesus proclaimed. They rejected it outright through pride, fear and self-will. Jesus knew this would happen. It was the only way he could deal with the problem of separation.

On the cross Jesus offered himself as the one pure perfect and final sacrifice for sin. Since he was fully human he could experience sin and death on the cross. He could enter into that place of separation which is the abomination of desolation and for three hours fulfill the law of cause and effect by taking upon himself the consequences of separation.

Because Jesus is fully divine he could stand in the place of desolation, embrace the sin and death of every human being who has ever lived and will ever live, and in the infinite ocean of divine love transform separation back into reunification for all of us and for each of us. He took into himself all of our petty sins and transformed them back into their original virtues. He experienced the death of every human being and swallowed up death to transform death back into life by the real presence of his own eternal life.

Since Jesus died on the cross and rose again there are now two ways of being human. There is the way of Adam and Eve which is the way of separation. And, there is the way of Jesus, the second Adam, who resets human nature by his transformative sacrifice on the cross.

There are now also two ways for you to be you. You can follow the way of Adam through pride, self-will and fear. You can wander with the lost who do not want to be found. You can hide from the inconvenient truth of Jesus Christ in a multitude of convenient lies. Or, you can make the one real choice Jesus won for us on the cross.

Before Jesus died on the cross there was only one way to be human- the way of separation, sin and death. Since Jesus died and rose again we have a choice. We, collectively as a species, have a second chance to say “yes” to God, “yes” to universal unconditional love.

There are now two patterns you can use to create your personal identity. There are now two paths for you to follow through this universe of matter, energy, time and space. There are now two yous waiting to unfold in this world and in the next world.

The choice is yours. Jesus did all of the hard work on the cross. Jesus offers the new pattern in the resurrection sacraments of baptism and holy communion as gifts.

Heaven is not a reward. Hell is not a punishment. Salvation is a gift we can chose to receive in Jesus Christ. That choice enters into the world of cause and effect and begins to produce a result.

If we choose to ignore or reject Jesus we chose to remain lost in separation. That choice enters into the world of cause and effect. The consequences are all around us in conflicts, condemnation, pride and despair.

If we choose to receive the gift of reunification in Jesus we suddenly discover that where we were lost we are now found. It is not that God has been hiding from us. It is not that we have in any meaningful way been searching for a God who does not want to be found. We are the ones who are lost. Jesus is the one who finds us.

As we allow ourselves to be found in Jesus we begin to grow into the new way of being human and the new way of being the unique person God designed you to become.

On the cross, Jesus drew the fullness of the human species into himself. On the cross Jesus embraced the Adamic nature of separation, sin and death. On the cross, Jesus met and held every human being in our unique fears and despair. On the cross, Jesus allowed the lost to cast him out, torture him and lift him up to die. And, as he we was lifted up to die Jesus embraced death, both universally and personally, for each of us and all of us.

In the sacrament of resurrection here at the altar of sacrificial love, Jesus offers us and all who heed the call to worship, the gift of a new life and a new way of living. It is the way of reunification and transformation in universal unconditional love.