When I was a new Episcopalian, I was a parishioner at St. Paul’s Cathedral Church in San Diego. I have many wonderful memories of my time there, some of which have helped me to become the priest that I am today. Something that I didn’t really think about when I was there, but have thought about many times since, was the logo of the cathedral. The words of the logo were “we preach Christ crucified” which is taken from our Epistle this morning, Paul’s letter to the Church in Corinth. What I have come to appreciate about my former church home’s logo, and about this part of Paul’s letter, is that it sums up for us our mission as disciples of Jesus… to “preach Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”When I was a new Episcopalian, I was a parishioner at St. Paul’s Cathedral Church in San Diego. I have many wonderful memories of my time there, some of which have helped me to become the priest that I am today. Something that I didn’t really think about when I was there, but have thought about many times since, was the logo of the cathedral. The words of the logo were “we preach Christ crucified” which is taken from our Epistle this morning, Paul’s letter to the Church in Corinth. What I have come to appreciate about my former church home’s logo, and about this part of Paul’s letter, is that it sums up for us our mission as disciples of Jesus… to “preach Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
It’s a simple thing, really, although perhaps not easy. Paul speaks of “having the mind of Christ”, and in our gospel, Jesus speaks of being salt and light to the world; both of which seem to me to echo the words of Paul in our Epistle. What might that look like?
I think, first, before we can begin to think about what it might look like to have the mind of Christ, we have to realize that for Paul, preaching Christ crucified is everything to him. Everything that Paul says and does, he does because for him, Christ crucified is the most important event in Paul’s life. Remember, that Paul’s conversion was rather dramatic; literally, his conversion was an event that transformed his life in an instant. It doesn’t really happen for most of us that way; conversion for most of us, is a lifelong process of getting to know Jesus; the faith that we had as teens isn’t the same as it is now; hopefully for each of us, our faith and our knowledge of Jesus grows deeper throughout our life. Paul, near as we can tell anyway, never seemed to waiver in his faith and in his purpose of proclaiming the gospel; even when faced with persecution and possible death, he continued to preach Christ crucified and raised from the dead.
Paul’s telling of the story is definitely something to be inspired by, but again, it doesn’t always work that way for most of us… if we were to look at a graphic of our own faith story, it would look like a large tangle of yarn, with several pieces knotted together to keep it from coming apart… at least mine would. But here’s the thing… (My family would tell you, if I say, “here’s the thing”, you should probably run. You’ve been warned.) No matter what our story is, or how it looks, our vocation as disciples has the same purpose. Like Paul, we are also to preach Christ crucified; we are to be light, to be a beacon of safety to others… The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the reason for everything we do. When we engage the world, it is through that experience; Jesus should be so ingrained in us, that all we can do, is preach him. The light that we are called to be isn’t about us, but it is about Jesus, and it comes from Jesus. If you and I are who we say we are, then the life, death and resurrection of Jesus becomes for us the most important event in the history of humankind. Paul tells us it is the Holy Spirit working in us, given to us by God that allows us to see and act in the world as those who think and see with the mind of Christ. And the good news, is that there doesn’t need to be a certain level of education or knowledge or skill. When we worship God, when we love our neighbors, when we come to be fed at Jesus’ table, when we listen to scripture… these are some of the ways that we deepen our relationship to God: and they are the foundation upon which our own preaching in word and deed is built.
It isn’t always easy to live and breathe Jesus… We all know there are struggles all along the way that threaten to weaken our faith and cause us to move away from God. It happens to all of us, and even though Paul seldom speaks of it, I would be willing to bet that he had his struggles too. None of us is perfect, none of us have magic answers to life’s problems, except for the one answer, Jesus. Maybe we feel somewhat inadequate to be salt and light, but let us remember that we are only salt and light because Jesus has made it so. May we all rejoice in the relationship we have with our Lord. May the light of Christ, that resides in all of us, be a beacon to those who need it. May everything we do, be done with the mind of Christ in us. May we go forth from this place and preach with our words and our actions nothing but Jesus, and him crucified and raised again.