Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Cross Reflection

Lent Day 29.

For the word
          the account
          the story
                          of the cross
IS
     FOLLY
                   to those who are perishing
                                                    lost
                                                         separated from God 
                                                                          and on their way to destruction.
BUT,
         to us who are being saved
                                               made whole
                                                          rescued from spiritual disease 
                                                                         and on their way to heaven,
IT IS
       THE POWER OF GOD!
(1 Corinthians 1:18 - Peg's Amplified Translation)



The cross.
An executioner's greatest, most excruciating tool...
Used to silence insurrectionists.

But, even in death -
The Jesus-story would not be silenced...
Carried on through history.

So, with a hope of shutting it down -
And shutting up believers - 
The cross became a mockery.

But, alas -
Even foolishness sat down...


...And, a new tactic stood up.
Make it decor.
Jewelry.
Cover it in precious metal, or gems, and, minimize it's rough, splintery, obnoxious cruelty.

Even still, there's no way to beautify an instrument of torture.
Try doing that with a guillotine...
From King Henry the VIII's London Tower.


It was a cross!
An emblem of suffering and shame...

We may try to keep it on a hill far away,
Or relegate it to a far wall of a church,
Or place it out of sight atop a steeple...
But, over the course of our #lentenjourney, it is time to re-visit the cross...
To stand in its shadow.


There, under its resurrected memory,
On that hill far away...
There is still power
                      for those
                                who are on the way, hell-bent to destruction
                                            to make a course correction
                                                        and be made whole (!)
                                                                    fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.



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