Rector's Message for September 2024

The second week of September brings us to Holy Cross Day when we give focus to the instrument upon which our Lord was killed. The Cross is also the universal symbol of the Christian faith. So this festival provides us with an opportunity to consider the theology of the Cross.

If humankind had accepted Jesus’ teaching and applied this to the building of a New World, there would have been no necessity for the death of Christ? If we had not fallen from our original innocence into greed and strife, when Christ came as good fruit and symbol of life, we would have accepted both him and his teaching. Jesus died because of our sins, not for them. God did not demand that his Son be offered as a blood sacrifice. But rather that Jesus gave his life as a ransom for many, as a soldier would die for his country. Jesus was prepared to go all the way for us.

Jesus came to show us that although we have turned away from God: God has not turned away from us. There is a barrier between God and us, but it is one that we have put there. Once we see that at our request, God will come and make his home with us, then that barrier falls. But it still remains standing for those who have not eyes to see, or ears to hear.

In Jesus as an individual, the universal consequences of sin were annulled. His humanity hurt, the wounds were real, and he still bears the scars today. But his divinity was enough to stop the chain of cause and effect, the chain of sin and death. And so, our proclamation of his death and our faith in his Resurrection tells us that our powers and our decisions do not have the last word. It tells us that God is underwriting the universe with redeeming, restoring love.

So God calls us urgently today, as he has always called. And what response does he want? God is no dictator but an inviter. He says, see I have shown you the way. You are free to come. I do have work for you and joy for you to look forward to. There is purpose and reason and effectiveness in your being alive, come, please come. Yes, God wants us in all the frailty of our human freedom that leads to so many crocked choices. He wants us to turn to him and to return the invitation, to say YES in answer to his call. The same YES that Jesus said despite his dying anguish. That profoundly radical and fundamental YES to life.

Your Friend and Rector

Father David