Unexpected Glory - Sermon for Holy Cross Day, September 14th, A+D 2025

Holy Cross Day
September 14^th, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Unexpected Glory 
Number 21:4-9, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, John 12:20-33

Audio of the Sermon can be found HERE. 

In the Name of Jesus, the Crucified One.  

   Do you have a glory problem?    

   Speaking for myself, I have at least one glory problem.  They are pretty common.  I’ve got one with church buildings.    

   The first time we lived in Spain, back in the 90s, at the request of the Marine Corps, I may have spent a lot of time visiting churches.  Shelee will attest that I could not get enough of seeing those marvelous structures, often built in tiny villages.  Hundreds of little pueblos in Spain boast tall church buildings that we simply couldn’t build today, imposing stone sanctuaries built four, five or more centuries ago, erected by a slightly-above-subsistence society, working with crude tools, lifting with block and tackle.  It was, to me, endlessly glorious to wander about and contemplate those edifices.    

 

  My mother Agnes came and visited us in Spain, and I enthusiastically dragged her to see any number of Spanish churches, including the Cathedral in Sevilla.  The Seville Cathedral is the largest Gothic style cathedral in the world, and overall one of the largest church buildings ever built, by any metric.  It is immense.  And full of gold and silver, mostly from Peru.  It is a phenomenal space, with flying buttresses, and stone pillars as thick as California Redwoods, which soar into vaulted arches.  There is jewel encrusted artwork in every corner.  I eagerly showed Mom around, pointing out the architecture, the gigantic rose windows, the statuary: quite a place.  My southern-Minnesota German Lutheran mother, with uncharacteristic quiet, patiently took in my tour.  At the end she stopped me for a moment and asked: “But don’t you think it’s a bit much?” 

   Agnes of course, was right. It is a bit much.  I am definitely not against beautiful church buildings, nor am I against the people of God investing money, even significant sums, into beautiful things to adorn the worship of Christ.  But sadly, the Cathedral in Sevilla belongs to Mary, and only secondarily to her Son.  And the Gospel in Spain, the land of the Counter Reformation, has long been and continues to be buried under layers of works righteousness and mystic superstition. 

     The Seville cathedral is filled with fantastically valuable processional crosses.  But it’s hard to argue that it truly glorified the Holy Cross of Jesus to pour out the vast sums of wealth that were spent building the Sevilla Cathedral.   Because the true Gospel is only rarely proclaimed there, if ever.  And that is the thing, really:  If we aren’t proclaiming the truth of the Holy Cross, then nothing else we do has any real value.     

   I am tempted to fall too much in love with church art and architecture.  But we here at OSLC/ORLC don’t seem likely to face the temptation of too much gold and silver coming our way, leading us to glorify ourselves in our building, and remove the true Holy Cross of Jesus from the center of our proclamation.  Still, we certainly have our own temptations to find glory in all the wrong things.  We inherited the tendency to see the wondrous things of God’s creation, or the impressive products of human innovation, and fixate on them.  We can end up worshiping these created things.  But, in Christ we are called and we are taught to rejoice in the gifts of this creation, and worship and thank the God who gave them to us.   

     It’s not that the Lord does not want us to enjoy the creation, or share in His glory.  He created us precisely to share these things with us.  But not at the expense of sharing Himself with us, which is ultimately the nub of the problem:  If we seek glory in anything else but the Lord, we are cutting ourselves off from Him. 

     What glorious things tempt you to put them before God?  Men often are drawn to seek glory in the love of a beautiful woman, and women in the affection of a handsome man.  Both are good gifts, to be received with thanksgiving from the God who made us men and women, in order to complete, love and serve one another.  Marriage and family are glorious, when they are understood and received as one of God’s highest gifts.  But if our pursuit of such glory leads us to corrupt God’s plan for sex and marriage and family, if what God made to be the primary place of service to another we instead turn into a tool for self-serving and lust, then the glory of marriage and family can quickly turn to dust. 

   A hard-earned profit, gained by offering goods and services to others, and done to provide for one’s family and community, this is a God-pleasing pursuit.  But of course, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Rich and poor alike are prone to seek glory in wealth, and so forfeit the riches of Christ. 

    Academic success, physical prowess, beauty, style, musical talent: name the area of useful human endeavor and you can quickly identify ways we corrupt it by seeking our own glory.  High-achievers are especially at risk: the fear of failure and rejection and the lust for glory are the opposite sides of the same coin.  Do not be afraid to seek excellence, to pursue success, only do it as a wise child of God.  Pursue excellence as one who knows the Source of every good, and who wisely stays connected to that Source daily, so that you never forget where your true glory is found.    

   All of this is to say nothing of the human capacity for seeking glory in evil, in depravity, in perverting the natural order of things, and calling it good.  Finding personal satisfaction and an ugly glory in abusing, hurting and even killing others.  Such evils are the opposite of God’s glory, but that does not stop us human beings from believing in these opposites. 

    And, while the world has always worked to put such tempting evils before our eyes, our day is especially evil in that every depraved thing is constantly available to our eyes, through those screens that are never far away.  God grant us wisdom to fill our eyes and ears with good and godly things, and avoid the images of evil that constantly surround us every day.     

   For us, gathered together here today, perhaps the strangest, and most dangerous temptation to self-glory is to glory in our Chirstian piety, to seek to display our holiness and good works, as a means of convincing ourselves and others that we are pleasing to God because of all the good we have done.  Fighting against this particular false way of glory was a primary focus for Jesus when He visibly walked the earth.  He was always pointing out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and calling them, and everyone, to the way of repentance for sin, and trust in God’s grace, the true way of the Gospel.          

   It is completely and typically human to seek glory in all the wrong places, to get puffed up when things go well, and forget the God who is the Giver of every good gift.  This is normal, typical, and hard to change, so hard we may just give up and give in. 

   But the Lord doesn’t care about what is normal and typical with us.  He wants us to find glory, in Him.  He wants us to recognize our foolishness, and His strange mercy.  Why else would God declare a sculpture of a bronze snake on a pole to be the salvation of rebellious sinners, who themselves have been bitten by fiery serpents as punishment for their sins? 

   Who else would disregard, no, who else would intentionally offend the piety and the intelligence of the elite of society, in a foolish attempt to save them with a scandalous story?  Who would declare God’s glory to be found in a horrible, shameful death, a naked body nailed to a Roman cross?  Who else would cap His salvation plan by allowing Himself to be displayed as utterly degraded and defeated, , the Snake on a pole who gives eternal life?  

   Your Savior would.  And He has.  Because this is what it takes to truly love you, to love you to death, and to a new and glorious life.  God does want to give you glory, true glory, so that your sins be washed away, and your eternal death sentence be vacated, once and for all. 

   It stings to have impressive people scorn you, and we will struggle to the end of this earthly life with the natural desire to be considered great and impressive now in the eyes of the world.   But keep your eyes on the Cross of Jesus.  Keep your eyes on Jesus, dying and rising for you, by keeping your ears full of His Word.  From Genesis to Revelation, the Cross of Jesus is the heart and center of the whole Bible, because it is there that the Lord has revealed His glory.  For the Bible teaches us that God’s glory and joy is to save us from ourselves, through the shedding of His own blood.  Keep your eyes on Jesus, by kneeling at His altar, to receive the glorious fruit of His Holy Cross, His true Body and Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of all your sins. 

     This is the drama of the Holy Cross, the remarkable struggle that started the day the serpent beguiled the woman, and continues on until the Father determines that the time has come to bring His plan to its eternal conclusion. 

     You were drawn into this drama when you first heard the Word of Christ, and when you were washed in the Triune Name.  In this drama, you and I are still part of the problem, with our misguided glory seeking.  But you are also part of God’s victorious plan, for the believer in you is truly seeking good things, for the sake of God’s glory, and the good of your neighbor.  The glorious drama of the Holy Cross cuts through our lives, confronting us, redeeming us, changing us, and flowing through our lives into the lives of others. 

     The light and momentary afflictions we are called to face today do not compare with the glory of knowing that Jesus is still seeking and serving you.  The struggles of Christian life are nothing compared to the wonder and joy of having a ringside seat as the Holy Spirit recreates a sinner.  The Giver of Life does His saving work with the most unlikely story, the story of God bringing glory out of shame, and life out of death.  

     And so, since this God is for you, what can the world do to you?  Nothing, really, because you know that the uncomfortable work the Lord continues to do for unbelievers, drawing them to Jesus, He also continues to do for you, day by repentant day, bringing to completion the good work He has begun in you. 

   True joy and peace are found in this strange plan of the Lord, who took the most despicable executioner’s tool and turned it into the Holy Cross, the sign of forgiveness, life and salvation, delivered to you, by the blood of Jesus.   Rest in His glorious peace, speak about His mercy amongst yourselves every day, and be ready to give the reason for the hope that that is in you, speaking of God’s true glory, with humility and respect. to anyone who asks. 

In the Name of Jesus, Amen.