Luke 2: 22-32
THE CRADLE AND CROSS OF CHRIST
(The C m C of C)
The Story of Concordia Memorial College is the Story of the Cradle and Cross of Christ!
I wish to leave you with the clear imprint today that the heart of CMC is the Cradle and Cross of Christ!
We are all growing older, CMC too...! Yet the old building still stands!
Some of us have wondered what has become of each other. Others of us have wondered what we have become. We may not like it!
There are the famous and infamous students of the past and present: politicians, CEOs, lawyers, activists (.........); sporting greats and “could-have-beens”; the ordinary doctors and the extraordinary mothers and fathers; the mundane pastors and those pastors and laypeople alike who built this institution from scratch with their own money and sweat, possibly unequaled in zealous faith by our generations, followed up by those teachers who impacted the lives of their students in simple and influential ways.
We all love to tell stories about our teachers. I promise that I never tried to take A J (a teacher)out on the Aussie Rules field, but one of my team mates, a sturdy 6 foot 4 inch Queensland basket-baller had many a go, as had one of my class mates. He was a wonderful chap!
We all carry a history. We have memories of CMC; claims to fame and infamy in the history of CMC – ours or our siblings or ancestors. We reflect on our achievements (1st & maybe only day head prefect) and non-achievements (failed and repeated yr 11); our stories; those of others. There is so much to tell - most of it good for a laugh, but not to be taken too seriously since none it will get us to heaven.
I wonder if anyone could have more relatives who went to CMC than my family and I: Ritter, Kowald, Croft, Schultz, Uebergang, Noller, Kessler, Altus, Noack, Buck, Janetski…
I better stop before anyone realizes how inbred CMC’s history is.
If CMC sold indulgences to get but a small percentage of any of these souls out of purgatory it would not need to charge fees.
There are sad stories of the past – multiple memories of deaths....... some with great lessons of eternal hope and restored beauty at the loss of limb and life(Pastor H’s daughter), or the assurance that our College football heroes would live to be men again. Hoopman
There is the incredible: N. N - absolutely amazing A Grade tennis and cricket feats on one leg. He leapt more stairs in one bound than any human alive!
The records…
The underachievers…
The comedians…
The magical…
The beautiful and the…
I had better leave it at that! After all it is not about you! It is not about me! It is not even about Concordia Memorial College!
It is about Christ, His Cradle and His Cross!
We can tell stories till the cows come home. I had the sacred privilege of nursing elderly folk who were on the happier side of senility. The mother of one of Australia’s most famous authors would wake at any time ready to milk the cows. We male nurses were her boys. We would love to see her sleep in so we always had the cows milked and hot Milo on the stove. Another would look out the window and want to chase children out of the cow paddock otherwise called a vacant block of land. Others were tortured souls: octogenarians and a centenarian awarded and MBE guilt ridden with memories of shameful acts.
My wife and I vividly recall the elderly saint tortured by a stroke, unable to utter a sentence, yet who could recite creed and psalm and hymn with us. That is the heritage of hope Concordia gave me as it prepared me to articulate my faith. When all else is gone there will be Christ with His Cradle and His Cross.
The story of Concordia Memorial College is the story of the Cradle “M” Cross of Christ told in the lives of every student and staff member!
In the words of Simeon, “My eyes have seen your salvation…the glory of your people, Israel”.
Glory in the Cradle and Cross of Christ
In the film “Gladiator” the emperor asks Russell Crowe, “What is the glory of Rome?” He answered his own question with the remark “It is an idea”.
They say that you can tell a lot about people by the things that they boast about. What do you glory in? What is your pride and glory? What do you treasure most? What are your best trophies? What would you consider your crowning glory? What would the crowning glory of Concordia be?
Concordia has a lot to be proud of and a lot to boast over in its history and concerning its teachers and students. Concordia’s list of achievers is long and impressive.
In my time at Concordia there were a number of students that had the ability to take out national or world records. Does the fact that they were not motivated that way make them any less of a person or a failure? Does the fact that some accomplished so much make them any better people, or you and me less of persons? For that matter, what really makes Concordia or you and me successful?
What are you likely to be remembered for? Will it be your achievements? Could it be for your aches and pains? Actually, for some of us that might be all that we have to boast about. So we ask others of you to listen with patience, and why not? Each of our stories is sacred. Everyone’s story is holy, no matter how well told it is, how interesting or boring, how seemingly successful, or how full of suffering. Our stories portray how the image of God has shaped and been soiled in our lives. In the middle of telling our stories we need remember that there is not one of us who has not needed forgiveness from someone else, not to mention God!
I wonder what Kerry Packer will be remembered for in time to come? Will it be his famous last words, “There is no heaven or hell”? It is an interesting thought that a media mogul would come to the end of his days and for all the words ever broadcast from his empire and all of his words ever put into print these may be his most famous.
The words of Simeon contrast with Kerry Packer’s famous last words,
“Now Lord let your servant depart in peace,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
a light for revelation to the gentiles
and for the glory of your people Israel.”
“Israel”, that is us! We are God’s people. My collegiates in Christ, the glory of Concordia is more than an idea. Your glory and mine is more than an idea. It is Christ and His Cradle and His Cross!
Build your Life around the Cradle and Cross of Christ
You can build your life around the Cradle and Cross of Christ. When Simeon spoke the words of our text he had spent a life-time living for his God and was now ready to die in peace. He said, “Now Lord let your servant depart in peace”. I do not believe that we are meant to embrace death as much as enter it victoriously. That is a question of how you live. You are not prepared to die until you have first learned how to live. Death is not the door to eternal life. Jesus made that claim of Himself. He said, “I am the door… no one comes to the Father except through me”. Simeon cradled Jesus as God’s gift of life to humanity. Jesus was the foundation for all the hopes of God’s people on which they were to build their lives. We either use Jesus as the foundation stone of our lives or we stumble over Him to our detriment. Hence,
“Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: ‘This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.’
The Cradle and Cross of Christ Light up the World
The Cradle and Cross of Christ Light up the World with hope, love, justice, and a future.
Can you picture the last scene in the movie “The Lion King”? Samba, the Lion King, lifts up his new born cub as his pride and glory. He is the future, the basis for hope, comfort and celebration. He is the assurance that there will be righteous law and order in the jungle.
Simeon did a similar thing when he lifted up Jesus. He had such a warm, spirit-filled faith. His hope in God was vigilant and unshakeable. He had reached his old age. He had spent his life yearning for God’s People to be comforted. God had promised him that “he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah”, that is until he had seen the one who would comfort and rule over God’s people in righteousness. The day came when the baby Jesus had been presented to him in the temple. You can imagine that as he took Jesus in his arms and he lifted Him up then he said,
“Now Lord let your servant depart in peace,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
a light for revelation to the gentiles
and for the glory of your people Israel.”
We have no special claim over Jesus. We are merely those who hold Him up to the world as the light of their salvation. The fact is that we are equal in life and we are equal in death. Yet some are more gracious than others. What makes them stand out is that they seem to bring more of Christ into our lives. We do not scorn them unless we have become enemies of Christ. We admire them. We want to be like them. They bring something to us that we need. I have seen these qualities in people. I spent Christmas telling others what some of these people meant to me – people like Alan, Eric, Ora, Ruth: all who walked the love of God into my life. I pray that I will be remembered in this way too! That is how I feel about Simeon in our text from Luke 2. As we graciously hold up the Cradle and Cross of Christ He will light up the world.
Communing in the Light of Christ’s Cradle and His Cross
Light provides a rallying point in the dark. It provides hope and gives direction.
For a moment picture where you stand in relation to God by picturing where you stand in relation to this Chapel or perhaps another place of Christian worship.
Do you see yourself far away? Hanging around the fence perhaps mocking or longing? Are you gathered at the gate? Around the sides of the building, perhaps huddled in groups talking? Is it a fellowship of love, a fellowship of gossip and judgment of others? Are you at the front door, waiting, expectant?
Are you seated inside having thoughts about who is here, who is not and why? Are you seated at the back reflecting on your past, present and future, feeling unworthy, beating your breast, crying for forgiveness?
Have you found a seat of meditation, a place where you can make your prayers in thanksgiving?
Can you see yourself coming to that place in worship where others join you to remember the great acts of God down through history by which He would eventually unite us in the most sacred meal of reconciliation and forgiveness the world could imagine?
Simeon found himself in the temple waiting for the time God had promised he would see. It is my prayer that you take your place of worship among God’s people where you can go to for refuge and comfort – not a place of worship that you invent, but one that God creates around word and sacrament.
Drawing Comfort from the Cradle and Cross of Christ
The coming of Christ in Cradle and Cross and Communion provides us with rock solid Comfort. This is not a man-made or imaginary comfort. Make no mistake, you and I do not need another self-proclaimed messiah who has not done the hard yards. Only Christ came from heaven to earth and retained the capacity to offer Himself as an untainted, sinless sacrifice by which to unite earth with heaven in eternal harmony. It is not in Christ’s nature to offer cheap comfort.
One of my children asked why I seemed to like that expression ‘the Cradle and Cross of Christ’. I explained that it summed up the text of Luke 2: 23-32. Simeon said,
“this [child] is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yes, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
The Cradle sums up the need for ‘God to enter our world, take on human flesh, become one of us, to bring meaningful hope and comfort into the middle of our every day existence.
The Cross reminds us that Christ had to experience temptation, go through blood sweating trials and persecution then die as our substitute. It also reminds us that many would reject Him precisely because of that. To them He would become a stumbling stone. Certainly His crucifixion pierced His mother Mary’s heat with great anguish.
Simeon had heartfelt yearnings for the comfort of Christ for God’s people. His meditation on the Word of God and the speaking of the Holy Spirit within him told him that the comfort that God would provide would be no cheap comfort. It would not be cheap and nasty. It would not be cheap and easy to come by, like the hollow words of a shallow friend! Not cheap and inexpensive, gotten for the price of any book on religion or even the price of travel to sit at the feet of a mystic guru! It would be expensive and painful, gotten “not with silver or gold, but with (Christ’s) precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.”
The Comfort Christ gives fortifies us against the tide of unrighteous living. It is given to fill you with righteous hope that God will establish His purposes in your life. It will increase in you a joyful expectation that God will accomplish His will in your life. It will assure you of God’s favour in your life.
Meditating on the Cradle and the Cross of Christ
These are worthy hopes and yearnings to set your heart on. Jesus said that out of the heart flow people’s thoughts. People’s thoughts flow from the heart. No wonder God promised, in the Old Testament, to give His people a heart transplant. He promised that He would take out the heart of stone, a hard heart, and give us a new and soft heart.
The Cradle and Cross of Christ do not by pass our need that God should have entered our reality. There would be no peace, no comfort, no hope, no forgiveness, no redemption, no reconciliation, no healing, no salvation, no life beyond the grave without the Cradle and the Cross of Christ.
These yearnings arise out of trust that God would fulfill His (Covenant) Promises.
To help remember and speak out these words in faith the Church has incorporated them into its liturgies of evening worship and of Holy Communion. When we stretch out our hands to take the body and blood of Christ we too get to cradle the crucified and glorious Christ in our hands. And there in that moment our crowning glory is being held up for others to see.
The “M” in CMC is a memorial “M”. It stands for “meditate’ and for “remember”. It invites us to reflect on how our life has been impacted by the Cradle and Cross of Christ. Have you been cradled in the loving hands of God, surrounded by his protection, or been drawn near to His suffering through your own?
Concordia will continue to do its job as you meditate upon the Cradle and Cross of Christ. While you are at it, why not tell an old classmate or past teacher what the Cradle “M” Cross of Christ means to you.
As I printed my first drafts of this message on recycled paper, I noted on the reverse side of one page the following prose entitled:
The Cross of Christ
To many the cross is an ornament to be worn around the neck.
To the architect it is a symbol adorning churches.
To the scholar it is a goad, driving one on to intellectual pursuits.
To the preacher it is a sermon, filling the need of the hour and of eternity.
To the skeptic it is a superstition, clouding the human mind.
To the Roman it was an instrument of execution, obnoxious and hated.
To Constantine it was a sign b which to conquer, turning defeat into victory.
To Paul it was a symbol of glory pointing the way to heaven.
To Mary it was a memory of agony, piercing her soul.
To the motley mob on Golgotha it was a holiday, carnal and horrible. To one thief it was the door to perdition, horrible and cursed.
To the other thief it was the gate to paradise, wondrous beyond the work of mortals or angels.
To Christ it was a bier and a throne, a paradox of time, the way back to the Father.
To multiplied millions of storm tossed people it is a symbol of hope, and a means of love!
Trinity Calling
You could try writing your own meditation on the Cradle and the Cross of Christ.
Now,
May God grant you such grace
to prepare you for eternity.
May His light shine in you with such wonder
so as to light up the lives of others.
May the Cradle and Cross of Christ
be your Crowning Glory.
Sermon not preached - written for the love or ego of it on the 60th anniversary of CMC
