A Sufficient Cross

It was a five pound hammer. As Les drove it into the large block of wood at the back of the Nave, I not only heard the deep report of metal on wood, but FELT the front pew, my pew, leap with each determined strike.

I began to weep. I wasn't the only one.

I'm ashamed. Sitting through those pounding sounds I couldn't avoid the truth of it. I hate the cross. I hate what it represents. My sin...one blow upon the other on the body of Jesus. My wounds; his wounds. My pain; his pain. My fault; his punishment.

It's just too real there at his trembling feet. And I just feel to naked to my own brokenness in the LIGHT cast by that ghastly symbol of my freedom. But that's not all. As each blow landed, I could feel in myself a rebellion...a refusal to accept this basic tenet of the orthodox Christian faith. It only took one cross. No other cross since has been necessary. No other cross or life given in all of creation's history can suffice or even needs to.

One cross was sufficient. His cross was/is sufficient. Jesus' cross is sufficient.

Which seems so ludicrous. Mostly because I act as if I am my own god, in power of my own life, in control of my own decisions, and guiding my own behaviors, perfectly free to accept and reject the stuff of life. But he deconstructs all of this; him and his cross. Because at the foot of the cross I simply can't escape the fact that someone else has decided for me; someone else has acted on my behalf, and no matter what I try and think I might be able to accomplish, that cross thing is just, simply, completely, totally beyond me.

And I resent that. And am also so desperate for the truth of it...because I know that in the shadow of that cross and the empty tomb intimated in the horizon beyond it is a freedom and reconciliation and redemption and healing that sets me and my very broken world to rights.

And that, let me tell you, I LONG for...

Tonight, on this Good Friday, removed by two millenia and way to much discourse and preaching, God is still acting, and his cross is still freeing me, and you, and "those" people, whoever they are.

I want to treat that cross as "virtual," efficacious only on my own power and through my own choice. But I thank God that he didn't consult me on his son's work. I not only thank him, I PRAISE him. Because he IS sufficient. And I am not.

Because of him, I have a future, and a hope, and so do you.

I am including below the prayers we prayed tonight for the world, the church, and ourselves...all in light of the cross. Tonight, they are my prayers for all of you as well.

PRAYERS OF THE CROSS

L: Let us pray for our world, held captive by the shape of the cross,
and blind to the reality that it has been overcome.

{A brief silence}

P: Lord Jesus, you promised that even as you are lifted up, you will draw all people to yourself. Draw our senseless world with its confused priorities and its lavish investments in false hopes, and put it to death in your death that it might know the power of your life.
C: Lord, your work is reconciling.

L: We pray for your broken body the Church…

{A brief silence}

P: Gather your members together Lord, the hand that argues with the foot over doctrine, and the brain that argues with the gut over who is welcome at your table of salvation and reconciliation. Mend and re-unite usthat we might tell the world with ONE voice, that as you are lifted up, you transcend all of our divisions and decisions and draw ALL to yourself.
C: Lord, your work is uniting.

L: Lord, we pray for the poor and exploited and those cast away…

{A brief silence}

P: Precious Jesus, your heart resides with the poor and accused, the thrown away and the societally useless. It is in your cross that we see this most clearly...where it is you stand and how far it is you are willing to go to restore what is yours. May we who have everything learn to see as you see, and learn to stand where and as you stand.
C: Lord, your work gives dignity.

L: Lord, we pray for ourselves, we who are trying furiously to save ourselves…

{A brief silence}

P: In our sinfulness and frailty, and our narcissism and deceit, we work night and day to turn the finished work of your cross and resurrection into a virtual work that is contingent upon our decision. But we and our work and even our decisions are broken and not sufficient.
C: Lord, you and your cross-shaped work ARE sufficient. Amen