Through the Cross

There is a power in the cross that we can’t totally understand. Certainly, there is love in the cross, forgiveness, hope, and a promise that love is bigger than evil and greater than the worst thing we can imagine. But there’s something else about the cross. The cross beckons us, calls us; a call that is so deep, often it creates this ongoing battle of wills. Jesus said it this way: “deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me.” And then Jesus tags on that weird sentence: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” What is it about the cross that calls us to deny ourselves, to live differently on this side of the cross?

There’s a remarkable cross that graces the auditorium in an Old Greenwich, Connecticut church. What makes this cross significant? Not its height; about ten feet. Not its weight; lifting the cross out of its place would be challenging but not impossible. Not its composition or appearance; no one has hammered this cross out of some gleaming, precious metal. Not its location; it does not loom from the building’s spire, nor does it form the pinnacle of its steeple.

This cross has been constructed from two pieces of raw, untreated wood. It is rugged, sturdy, hard, and bare, and most of all, IN THE WAY. This cross stands bolted into the concrete floor between the pews where the people sit and the chancel, where the pastor customarily stands. Picture it: A ten-foot cross of raw wood stands between the pastor and the people. It is in the middle of everything: weddings, funerals, concerts, baptisms, and Sunday morning worship services.
It cannot be moved.

Everything the pastor says to the congregation must pass through the cross. The praises the people offer and the prayers they pray must pass, symbolically, through the cross. How unusual! And, yet, how appropriate! I kind of like it. A cross right in the center of our worship… a cross to remind us of God’s grace – and what it cost.

Imagine what our lives would look like, what our world could be like, if we saw everything through the cross; that it impaired our vision so much that we would never speak a harsh word without remembering that day when Jesus hung on the cross and never uttered a harsh word, but rather said: “Father forgive them.” That we would never pass another in need without hearing Jesus say: “when you do it unto the least of these you do it unto me.” Imagine what the world could be like if the cross marked our every action. Surely, we would be closer to the kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. That’s really the call and a most important thing about the cross.

Rev. Linda Harker, Pastor of Connections