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SERMONS

The Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
November 18, 2001

By David Christian

We have a treasure here, here at the Chapel of the Cross. This building and these grounds are exceptional. They are unique. They are holy. This is hallowed ground. This is a place to which people have come faithfully to worship God, month after month, year after year. This is a place where people have felt themselves to be in the presence of God. And it is a place where, in God's presence and through God's action, we have been formed into a community. When I meet people from around the diocese and tell them what church I am associated with, they frequently say, "Oh, that is the most beautiful little church up there.'' For one hundred and fifty years now this place has housed a community of faith.

It should be easy for us to imagine, then, the importance of the temple in Jerusalem for the people of Israel. The temple, as you are aware, was first built by Solomon about nine hundred years before the birth of Christ. It was the center of the worship of God; in fact, it was the only place in which sacrifice could be made to God. At the time of Christ Jews from throughout the Roman Empire paid taxes for the support of the temple. They would make pilgrimages to Jerusalem to worship there. John's account of the gospel recounts three trips of Jesus to Jerusalem in order to participate in its worship. Much care over centuries had gone into its buildings, and it must have been glorious. It is not surprising that the people of Jerusalem took pride in that place.

Think of this place, and think of how important this place is to us. Think of how shocked, how shaken, we would all be if it were destroyed. Think of the temple, where God had been worshipped for almost one thousand years. The only place in which the ritual worship of God could take place. Now imagine the shock of the Jews when, in the year 70, the Roman armies destroyed that temple. The walls and buildings were torn down; the high altar was overthrown; not one stone was left upon another. The temple was no more.

It is a measure of the faith of the Jews, the people of the Old Covenant, that they were able to survive such a blow. The center of worship of their faith had been destroyed. Yet they were able to retain their faith; they were able to develop new forms through which to worship God; they were able to go on.

For while the temple had been an important place in their life as a people of faith, it did not ultimately define who they were. What defined them was their relationship with God. They were, and are, the people of the covenant. And that relationship--that covenant--was not destroyed with the destruction of the temple.

In the same way this parish-the Chapel of the Cross-is not a building. It is not a place. It is a people, a community. Place is important, and this place is important. This is a place where Christians have been made through the waters of baptism; a place where Christians have been fed with the Body and Blood of Christ; a place where the passing of Christians has been mourned and their earthly bodies laid to rest. This is a place where God has chosen to reveal God's self to us.

But we are not defined by this place. We are defined by a relationship; a relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And a relationship with one another through Christ. And we are called together as a community through the power of God's Holy Spirit. That is who we are.

We are a pilgrim people. We are the people of the Way. We are the community of faith in this particular time and place. We come here to be nourished, to be fed, through the Word and through the Body and the Blood. But then we are sent back out to be the Church. To take the bread of life to a starving world. To show a world in need the love of God. That is who we are. That is who you are.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

David Christian
The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi

Proper 28C
Malachi 3.13-4.2a
2 Thessalonians 3.6-13
Luke 21.5-19