Augustine, First Archbishop of Canterbury and Missionary,605

Augustine was prior of a monastery in Rome when Gregory the Great sent him to re-establish the church in England after the Anglo-Saxon invasions of that country. He was so frightened by the reports he received of the savagery of the heathen English that he determined to turn back while still in France. However, with the encouragement and support of Gregory, he reached England in 597 and established himself at Canterbury. Augustine was less successful in his dealings with the Celtic Christians who had survived the Anglo-Saxon assault. He was honored as a co-founder of the Christian Church in England. It is of interest to note that he landed in England in the same year that Columba (9 June) died in Iona, AD 597. 

Collect

God our Father you called us out of darkness into your marvelous light and you gave us your servant Augustine to shine as a light in the world; shine in our hearts and enable us to proclaim your love; through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Eucharist Readings:

Acts 20:17-27                      Psalm 68:7-20                       John 17:1-11a

Dear friends, for Jesus, life had a climax, and that was the cross. To him, the cross was the glory of life and the way to the glory of eternity. “The hour has come” he said, “for the son of man to be glorified”

What did Jesus mean when he repeatedly spoke of the cross as his glory and his glorification? I guess there would be more than one answer to this question,

It is one of the facts of history that again and again it was in the death that the great ones found their glory. It was when they died, and how they died, which showed people what and who they really were.

They were misunderstood, undervalued, or condemned as criminals in their lives, but their deaths showed their true place in the scheme of things. Again, and again a martyr’s majesty has appeared in death. It was so with Jesus, for even the centurion at the foot of the cross was left saying: “Truly this man was Gods son” (Matthew 27:54)

The cross was the glory of Jesus because he was never more majestic than in his death. The cross was his glory because its magnet drew people to him in a way that even his life had never done- and still it is so.

Further, the cross was the glory of Jesus because it was the completion of his work. “I have accomplished the work”, he said which you gave me to do” For Jesus to have stopped short of the cross would have been to leave his task uncompleted. By going to the cross, Jesus showed that there was nothing that the love of God was not prepared to do and suffer for men and women, that there was no limit to it.

Dear friends how often do we find ourselves misunderstood, undervalued, or condemned during our life’s as Jesus was misunderstood, undervalued, and condemned. Despite all his critics and persecutors, Jesus persevered and was obedient to God even to death on the cross. Jesus denied himself in the process of his obedience to God. 

Maybe it is time that we too surrender our own ambitions and become obedient to Christ. This should not come as a surprise. Jesus told us to take up our cross daily -to die daily-and follow him (Luke 9:23) Paul writes of being crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:19) Why would our ambitions not being included in that crucifixion?

Maybe someone would also one day say, truly this woman, this man was a disciple of the living God, and maybe you and I would be able to say – I have delivered my message, just as Jesus delivered his message by going to the cross.