Close Encounters

This week in Contemplating the Cross is devoted to the crucifixion; seven days of looking intently and intensely at something most unpleasant. And yet I know it is here that I find mercy, grace...LIFE. So I press on...

"There is a strange dichotomy between the Cross of Christ and the cross of Christian culture. We wear it in beautiful chains around our necks -- Christ wore it in bloody stakes through His hands and feet. We display it on bumper stickers and posters with pride, but shame consumed the One who hung there for hours. We hold it close and sense heaven -- Christ embraced it and encountered hell. Our sanctuaries display a cleansed version of the Cross -- no blood, no struggle, no filth of sin -- solely a monument to resurrection power. We celebrate the passion of Christ once a year, but for most of us the journey from Good Friday to Easter is a short one."

Ouch...quite an indictment. Of the church...of me. For years I wore a lovely gold cross with an amethyst in the middle as reminder of His royalty and His sacrifice. I'd often finger it in times of stress, say a prayer and move on. How easy to reduce the cross to some kind of talisman instead of the instrument of capital punishment that it was.

And so this week, I want to not only meditate on His crucifixion but also on how I can more fully live a cross-centered life here in California in the 21st century.

I guess you could say I'm praying for some close encounters of the cruciform kind.