Sunday April 6, 2014 Each of our crosses is a different size and shape, and each has a different meaning. Today at the early service (8:30) I preach the cross of Christ, tomorrow I take on my own with this new round of radiation and chemo. The passage I’ll use this day is from I Corinthians 1:23f, and speaks of the cross as an insult to some, a stumbling block to others, and downright proof that Jesus is cursed by his death on a cross. (Deuteronomy 21:23) But to few men and women, the cross is something one does for others that makes all the difference now and later. Let me say again that our several attempts to explain and interpret the cross take away from its power. We use terms like ‘substitutionary’ and ‘the need to satisfy God,’ and more, and each falls short. The old: “Jesus died on a cross to save us from our sins” isn’t quite as hollow as you may think. When the willingness of Jesus to go to his death on the cross for others, including us, is preached and heard, often the experience of the cross touches and saves. “That it works, is of far greater significance than how it works, or why it had to happen,” said Dr. Boone Bowen, one of our professors at Candler where I went to seminary in Atlanta. This is not easy write---but take the worse means of execution known in that time, and the one that was reserved for the worse kinds of criminals, and see it now as a symbol of victory over selfishness, sin, and death, and you cannot deny the tremendous power of the cross any more than you or I, or anyone else can explain it. “In the cross of Christ, I glory, towering o’er the wreaks of time.” The song speaks God’s truth. My ‘chemo-bemo,’ (that’s how Tonya Ball, our cancer support gal summarized the new treatment experience beginning Monday (with a smile that we needed,) That is another story. It’s the one that asks how shall we take on and deal with the crosses that come our way. Crosses are not things sought after, they are experiences that we must bear in life. To look for suffering is unhealthy; to bear it as well as you can is what’s hard. A great difference between the cross of Christ and ours is that we have more people caring and praying for us then he did at the time of his death. Remember how few were at the foot of the cross? How his own denied him, and played it safe? As we were returning from our very good time with the grandsons and Gumbo the dog, I looked across the car to our son. Driving along, listening to music with his special sun glasses on, taking care of us all—including the dog!-- in loving ways, I thought, “Dear God, Anthony is twenty seven years older than Jesus was when he died,” and rode in silence for a very long time. To think that someone working for three years, and dying that young that way would change the course of human history is to acknowledge the power God in the person of Jesus Christ. I’ll write a bit tomorrow, and I pray on Tuesday too. New radiation (boy this mask is tight!), and a different chemo calls for a ‘wait and see’ response, but your prayers have lifted us all so much before, and no doubt will again. “I like life, the ‘sun’ part, but ain’t too much of the no- fun part.” Where that came from and who said it, I have no idea. But you know what? It doesn’t seem as silly today as when I first heard it. Each of our crosses is different in size and shape. His in some mysterious way, gives meaning to ours, as well as a certain kind of strength to deal. Bless you with yours, and thank God for Jesus and his! Always love, always, Keith
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 12:56:10 +0000
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