The senior sermon of Carissa Baldwin, Class of 2007 from the Diocese of Texas, given on September 15, 2006, in Christ Chapel

Holy Cross Day

On this Feast Day that is Holy Cross Day, I share these words from Melito of Sardis, 2 nd century, Asia minor:

And so he was raised on a cross, and a title was fixed, indicating who it was who was being executed. Painful it is to say, but more terrible not to say . . . He who suspended the earth is suspended; he who fixed the heavens is fixed; he who fastened all things is fastened to the wood; the Master is outraged; God is murdered.

The Master is outraged. God is murdered. And our lives begin. On this Feast of the Holy Cross we have the nerve to pray for grace to take up our cross and follow in these footsteps of the Master who was murdered. Now who is the world would want to do that? I mean really, it just doesn’t make sense. If you haven’t been going to church for decades, it just sounds plain wrong.

Who is interested in the cross? I can tell you who. I am. About two-thirds of the way through my summer chaplaincy at Seton Hospital. After about eight weeks of sitting with people who were scared and hurting, about to die, just watched their loved ones die. About that time. On approximately that day. A crisis was upon me. If there is one thing CPE taught me, it is that I too am going to die. Maybe today. Maybe forty years from now. But the end of my life is inevitable. And this was a crisis, because I could not come up with one thing to show or tell me what my life had been for. Thirty-four-and-a-quarter years of life, for what? My resume didn’t impress me. My progeny is not so great. I mean, let’s face it. Two neurotic cats, a ball python snake and the food my snake wouldn’t eat, which is now my pet rat JJ. I love them dearly. They make my life better, but they don’t exactly resolve the issue of life’s meaning

I think if I had been a CEO and had a spouse and beautiful children, I’d still be asking the same question. So the people that I would say are interested in the cross are mortals. Mortal people are interested in the cross. Even the Geekie mortals are interested in the cross. They know their Greek and they understand that when Christ said he would be lifted up from the earth his words mean elevation and being raised and they also had nuances of crucifixion. But the Greek-loving geek who has faced his mortality has already accepted that at some time he is to die. The woman who has acknowledged that her body is the fine line between life and death has already accepted the crucifixion. What intrigues her about the cross is the possibility of elevation. The possibility of being drawn unto God.

That is WHO might want to take up the cross. WHAT IS it to take up the cross? According to today’s gospel to take up the cross is to become light.

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What came into his being was life, and his life was the light of ALL people.” “I am the light of the world,.” Says Jesus. “Follow me, while you still have me. Become children of the light. Follow me”

Jesus became light. So to take up our cross is to follow suit. I know you want to know how, and I’ll get to that in a minute. But I want to share something with you. I don’t do a lot of science, so I did not know that after the cosmic event referred to as the Big Bang there were 200 million years of dark in the universe. And out of those 200 million years of dark – which astronomers call the “Dark Ages” -- God extracted galaxies and stars which had light. Imagine: out of a vast expanse of cool and endless came something firey and full, which spat off driblets of vitality and luxury and pain and remembrance. Imagine: all of those things are all of us. It’s like SO much better than Six Flags.

How do we become light as part of taking up our cross? The gospel says we become light by believing. Not just here*, but here*. Not just by accepting a truth. But also by loving and praying. We say Ghandi – greatest leader of the 20 th century who brought more peace and less war to the Indian continent. OR we say Ghandiji and we are speaking now of someone familiar, someone much loved, someone who draws us. We say Jesus, Rabbi, Teacher – savior of humanity who died on a cross. OR like Mary, we say Rabouni and we have heart, reverence, and respect for someone both holy and real. We become light when our head and our heart take up residence in our soul and they agree to let in the light of God.

I know some of you thought I was going to get up here today and tell you that if join today your local chapter of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship here on campus today, you can consider yourself a card-carrying, cross-bearing, follower of the Son of Man. And, of course, you all should join our local chapter of EPF. But taking up the cross is not simply a matter of social justice as Dean Turner pointed out yesterday. Taking up the cross requires prayer. Not the kind of prayer that gets you a seat in God’s movie theater in the sky. That doesn’t qualify as prayer for taking up the cross, because that is not what Jesus meant when he said, “No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.” If you know me here *. If you know me in your soul and light lives there, then you will know my Father. Then you shall be God’s children. We are to pray for the light.

WHEN do we take up the cross? We take it up now. “Now is the judgment of this world,” Says Jesus. “Now the ruler of this world will be taken out.” Any day that we call today, is the day we take up the cross. Any time that we call now, that is the time.

WHERE do we take up the cross? We take it up where we are. We take up the cross in the vague place that defies science. We take up the cross in the place we live, which is some dimension or space that simultaneously is of the earth and of God. We are both dust and light. So in this place where we are both soil and spirit we take up our cross. We help each other. We Friday feed. We visit the sick and the widowed. We walk with the dying. And, hopefully, when we are not doing these things, hopefully we pray. Where we take up the cross is in this gritty, mortal world, and where we take up the cross is in eternal sacred silence.

“When the soul”, says St. Macarius, “is counted worthy to enjoy communion with the Spirit of the light of God, and when God shines upon the soul with the beauty of his ineffable glory . . . she becomes all light, all face, all eye; and there is no part of her that is not full of the spiritual eyes of light. There is no part of her that is in darkness, but she is made wholly and in every part light and spirit.”

WHY become light and spirit? Because if Jesus came into the world as light in order to save the world, then maybe just maybe, if we become of light and spirit then this world, our world, on this day will be saved. Maybe tomorrow, if we pray, if we allow ourselves to be drawn and to be filled in every part with light and spirit. Maybe tomorrow this world will be saved. We are a church divided. We are a globe at war. May we be the light that shines the difference. Let us pray:

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world to himself: Mercifully grant that we, who glory in the mystery of our redemption, may have grace to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.