Sermon Epiphany 5: Christ and Him Crucified

Text: Matthew 5:13-20 and 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

“You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.”

I have always been struck by the way St Andrew’s calls itself a “beacon of light on 1^st and G.”

Epiphany, this season following Christmas, is a time we talk about light. The word, epiphany, means appearing, specifically the appearing of God, of the divine into our midst. It speaks of the in-breaking of God into our world, the revelation of God to us.

We, as the people of God, are supposed to reflect that light. That is what Jesus tells us in our gospel passage this morning. “You are the light of the world.” We are a people so touched and so transformed by the presence of God among us that we reflect it to the world around us.

It sounds like a pretty glorious mission, doesn’t it? It sounds powerful. It sounds important. We are light of the world. Whole empires have been built based on the belief that they offer light to the world.

Is that what Jesus means? You are the light of the world? You have all the answers? You are powerful and everyone should look up to you?

Paul, in our reading from 1 Corinthians, doesn’t think so. We don’t always get around to Paul’s writing in the lectionary or spend as much time with it. But he is probably the greatest Christian theologian who ever lived. He writes this letter—a series of letters in fact-- to the churches he has founded in Corinth, that great Greek city sitting on the Mediterranean. And there is a problem in Corinth. There is all sorts of jostling for power. All sorts of infighting.

And Paul says, no, no, no. You want to know what my message, what the Christian message is all about? You want to know what is truly important to God?

Look to the cross. I have determined, Paul says, to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Look to the cross. Now, what do you think about when you think of a cross? Now, in our churches, the cross is revered. We have gold plated crosses all over the place. All well and good, but do you know that for the first three centuries of Christianity, the cross was never pictured or drawn in Christian art? Do you know why?

Because saying that the one you worshipped was crucified was saying that he was executed for treason in the worst way possible. It was like saying—yeah, we worship that guy that was sent to the electric chair. To Jesus’ own people in Palestine, the cross was a symbol of torture and despair, a reminder of the thousands of crosses that lined the roads at that time. To the urban and cultured Greeks of Corinth, the cross was a symbol of shame, of criminality, something that only happened to low lifes and criminals and ne'er do wells.

But Paul says I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. He goes on and explains that what seems foolish to us, what seems foolish to the cultured and refined Greeks of Corinth is actually wisdom to God. What seems powerless and weak to us, to the world, is where God’s power lies.

God came to us in the person of Jesus Christ, not as a wealthy and wise ruler, but as a poor and crucified carpenter. What’s more, the Epiphany of God came in a barn, on a lonely hillside, on a cross to a lonely and forgotten people in a bunch of two bit towns. And finally, in a garden tomb. The Epiphany of God, the Light of God was revealed in weakness. On a cross. God died, in the person of Jesus Christ, at the hands of an executioner. Can you imagine the powerlessness and the shame of that?

Why? Why did God come to us, not in earthly power, but in weakness and shame? Why did God choose to come to us like that?

So that, every one of us who feels alone
who feels ashamed
 who confronts death
 who experiences death and loss
who is ignored
who feels lost or powerless
 who has lost everything…

 would know that God was with us. In solidarity with us.

So, what does that mean for us? What does this mean to be a beacon of light on first and G? It sounds a little less romantic now, doesn’t it? What does it mean for us to follow a crucified God? What does it mean for us?

It means we are a people, not great and good people so much, as people who have experienced the grace of God. We are, all of us, broken people called to follow a crucified master, and live in the light, in the revealing, in the Epiphany of the grace of God.

We are in a time of transition, a time that makes us feel powerless, that makes us feel uncomfortable, that sometimes makes us feel foolish. We are struggling to remember who we are.

If nothing else, let us remember this. We are a people marked by grace. The light we reflect is only the light of the Grace of God in our own lives. We don’t build God’s work. We only reflect God’s grace, we only live in the light of God’s grace.

I had a dear man teach me something about this. I went down under the bridge on Christmas Day—I was with Bonnie Campbell, the priest from Montesano, and there were only a few folks there. We sat down and talked, looking over the river. He said; “You know, Christmas is all about grace. God comes to us and we share with each other and we care for our neighbors and we find grace.” What is foolish to the world is the wisdom of God. In the places we believe are powerless, the power of God is found.

We don’t know what will come next for us here at St Andrews. But I invite you, just for a moment to lay aside your worries and your uncertainties. Trust in the one we follow, this Christ and him crucified. Learn from this wise man I met. Know that in our weakness, God’s power is made manifest. In our foolishness and our mistakes, God’s wisdom is made known.

Trust in grace. Live in the light of grace. Reflect the light of this grace. Because, you are the light of the world.