Septemer14, 2008, Holy Cross Day. All Souls' Episcopal Church

The Cross is our Motivation
John 12: 20 – 33

From the pages of our history books, do we not note that many times tragedy and apparent defeat become the very things that motivate people…….motivate them to battles, overcome hardships, explore new worlds, achieve new successes and dream bigger and bigger dreams.  For example, the courage of heroes at places such as Valley Forge, the Alamo, Gettysburg, Verdun and Iwo Jima spurred their contemporaries to fighting harder.  Out of the tragedies such as the sinking of the Lusitania prior to World War I or the bombing of Pearl Harbor initiating World War II, the aftermath of 9/11, and today, the war against terrorism …….there arose and there arises the passions of a people eager to stop the killing but also to take away the oppressors’ power to destroy.

Then there are those great figures of history whose lives—and sometimes tragic deaths—have contributed much to motivating people to the building of a better world in which we live.  I am thinking of people such as Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, and William Wilberforce whose willingness to give of themselves filled others with an overwhelming desire to end racism and injustice.  Or men such as Washington, Wilson, Roosevelt and Churchill whose lives still stand as motivating monuments of courage. …………(Pause)

 But history records one event which motivates and which stands above all events…one symbol which overshadows all symbols…one Man with whom no other human being can be compared.  The event:  an EXECUTION!  The symbol: a CROSS!  The Man:  JESUS CHRIST! And even though there will always be those people who seem to live life with “blinders” on, the kernel of truth is that No event has ever been as crucial to humanity as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  No symbol has ever carried with it as much meaning as has the Cross of Jesus Christ.  No life has served to change as many other lives as has the life of Jesus Christ.

 Today is Holy Cross Day in the church calendar, so today, we celebrate and I will speak on the simple theme “The Cross”. For it is the Cross that brings both the Man and the Event before the eyes of a watching world.  It is the Cross that has always served to spur the People of God onward and upward to new heights, to new adventures, moving ahead in faith, proclaiming the Good News of Christ with courage and endurance, building great churches, and seeking to bring to the world the very Kingdom of God.

 I am going to offer you a rather detailed life story of a Christian who dramatically answered the Call of the Cross all through his lifetime. His name was Dietrick Bonhoeffer….author, pastor, theologian, martyr. We will use his story as an inspiration and a testimony to the power of the Cross.  Bonhoeffer was born in Germany in l906.  He died there in l945, executed by special order of Heinrich Himmler, who was the head of Hitler’s S.S.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer grew up near Berlin.  He was a strong athletic youth who came from a closely-knit Christian family.   At the age of l6, he first felt the Call of the Cross………he  decided to study theology.  His teachers were some of the greatest theological minds of the 20^th century.  By the time he was 21, he had already written the thesis for his doctorate degree.  He then set out on a career that took him from Berlin to New York City—preaching, teaching, and writing.

Then came the fateful year of 1933.  Adolf Hitler was fast on his way to power.  In February of 1933, the 27 year-old Bonhoeffer embarked upon a fatal course of activities.  He delivered a speech over Berlin radio severely castigating his fellow Germans for following Hitler.  The broadcast was cut off before he could finish.  As soon as there was no doubt that Hitler would succeed, Bonhoeffer fled to England.  He would have no part in the German “Christian” compromise with the Nazi regime.

Then, in l935, Bonhoeffer again felt the Call of the Cross to return to Germany.  He assumed the leadership of an underground seminary that was illegally engaged in the task of training young men for the ministry. By this time there was little doubt in anyone’s mind but that Bonhoeffer would continue to be a thorn in the side of Adolf Hitler.  Bonhoeffer made one last trip out of Germany in l939.  He went to New York where his friends urged him and pleated with him to stay.  But he refused.  His work for Christ was in Germany.  Hitler must be defeated.  So once again he felt the Call of the Cross and he returned to his native land, fully aware of the dangers awaiting him there

 On April 5, l943, the Secret Police finally caught up to Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  For the next 2 years he would be shoved from one Gestapo prison to another until his last day came on April 8, l945.  Listen to the account of a fellow prisoner who witnessed Bonheffer’s final hours:

 “On Sunday, Pastor Bonhoeffer conducted a little service of worship and spoke to us in a way that went to the heart of all of us.  He found just the right words to express the spirit of our imprisonment, the thoughts and the resolutions it had brought us.  He had hardly ended his last prayer when the door opened and two civilians entered.  They said, ‘Prisoner Bonhoeffer, come with us.’  That had only one meaning for all prisoners—the gallows.  We said good-bye to him.  He took me aside:  “This is the end, but for me it is the beginning of life.’  The next day he was hanged in Flossenburg.”  Ironically, the Bible passage Dietrich Bonhoeffer based that last sermon upon included these words:  “With his stripes we are healed.”

 What is it that moves and motivates people such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Becket, Alfred the Great, Martin Luther, Florence Nightingale, St. Augustine of Canterbury, Evelyn Underhill to such lives of courage?  What is it about the Cross and the man Jesus that has served to motivate people to great heights for 2,000 years now.

 My first thought is that I think the Cross Command’s a Person Attention!. It's simplicity…..it’s starkness….The Cross stands out boldly against a Palestinian sky or an Oklahoma sunset. To the Christian, the cross shouts a message: “Listen my friends,  I have something to say to you that is important, yet simple…..urgent, yet timeless! God Loves You!  With his whole heart, God loves you!” God wants to fill you with His Grace. At the Cross, we hear also the Apostle Paul’s words when he reminds us, “While we were sinners, Christ died for us.”  That kind of message commands our attention.  It has to.  There is no other message like it in the world.

A second thought………The cross, in its silent starkness, demands a person’s response. The Cross is a radical statement of God’s radical love—radical  because it cost God the very life of his Son.  Such a radical statement demands a person’s response.  It demands that we either bow at the Cross, believe its message, and follow the Savior OR that we walk away from it in disbelief, disdain, disobedience or worst of all: indifference!

The God of the Cross does not scream at us shaking His fist to “tow the line”, but He might better be compared to a person who stoops down in the stench and filth of a skid-row gutter to pick up a man He doesn’t even know. The God of the Cross comes knocking on the door of your heart and my heart and in a gentle but firm voice, He invites us to the Banquet of His Presence. Of course, this is RSVP……… Do we accept or send our “regrets”? You see, the cross demands a response!

  Another thought, and perhaps the most important, the cross frees us! The message of the Cross breaks the bonds of guilt….it shatters the shackles of shame….it cuts through the chains of failure.  The Cross offers forgiveness in the place of guilt…renewed self-esteem in the place of shame…healing instead of pain….and hope instead of despair.  Because of the Cross none of us need remain slaves to the past…to past mistakes and past blunders, past failures and past sins.  Kneeling at the foot of the Cross,  one cannot help but be drawn to the look of love in His eyes.  It is a look that says again and again, “I care! 

My friends, the power of the cross frees our spirits. It is a power that sets things right and transforms lives.  When we are gripped by the depth and breath of God’s love, then and only then do we know what it means to have our spirit set truly free—free from the burdens of yesterday, free from worrying about tomorrow, free to enjoy what today may bring.

And most importantly, please remember that He is risen from the cross and the tomb in which they placed Him is empty. As the symbol of God’s Grace and eternal love, the cross beckons….it lures…it entices…it magnetizes.  Jesus Christ is alive and well.  He calls us…men and women of all ages, people of every race and nationality.  Jesus needs us to unite for the purpose of telling others about Him…about His Cross and His love….we are here this morning to encounter the Risen Lord. From that encounter, my friends, we experience the Hope of Eternal Life that is only available through Him……… because of the cross.  

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost