A cross to bear!

As Easter and the Lenten season begins to recede for another year and we are in the forty days before Jesus’ ascension back into the heavens, it might be well to dwell on the great burden that he took on as he bore that cross to Golgotha where he was so cruelly hung from it to bear the burden of all mankind’s sins.

The cross is a symbol of all Christianity and has been for many centuries now. But it was not always that way. In the early Christian church, the cross was a hated thing because many persecuted Christians were hung from it as they took up their own cross and followed their master to their own destiny. It has been noted in the Christian Bible that those who wish to attain heaven must follow in the masters footsteps and those footsteps have so often led to brutal and untimely deaths. In the modern world, it is a more rare thing for a Christian to die for their faith but it still goes on each and every year somewhere in our very large and diverse world. One of the great places for persecution these days is in communist China where they produce many Bibles for export but keep a close and repressive eye on their Christian populations.

It has been said that Christ will not return until all of the world has been exposed to his promise and to his teachings but there are many who mock both him and that statement as they follow a secular and worldly life that features no promise for a life after death. We wonder as they grow older if anything changes but it has been said that the great atheist Christopher Hitchens never renounced his lack of faith right up to the very end of his life. It is interesting to note that Christianity provides an avenue for redemption even on ones deathbed and that the symbols such as sprinkling or total emersion baptism do not have to be used to achieve a state of grace. Anytime that one wants to reach out for God’s love, it will be there! It is the promise offered and the promise fulfilled!

There are many symbols such as the cross in the Christian faith but they are interpreted differently depending on which faith one embraces.

We were on a guided tour of an old Catholic church in a neighboring state recently and we were fascinated by all of the symbols and relics that it claimed to have contained within its walls. Relics are deemed to be important to the oldest Christian faith and this particular church has small slivers of four saints, including St. Peter and St. Paul, encased in concrete at the alter in front of the church. In the church, they also had visible a small sampling from the body of a prior pope, Pius the tenth, under glass in a display case in the back. There are many of the protestant persuasion who would take issue with relics as so many of their faiths do not use any sort of thing like that as a symbol of their faith. The probable reason for that is the fact that their faiths, many dating from Martin Luther’s time, did not have custody of any remnants to pass out to the many churches as the Catholics, due to their long tenure, seem to have. We were a bit skeptical about the whole idea but we did find it interesting and a bit comforting to think that we might be in the presence of some actual part of a person such as Paul who has helped to guide our biblical faith for so many years now. Perhaps they follow the new testament tradition of the Last Supper where Jesus said that his body was broken for them. And it is perhaps good that a faith cares enough about its followers that it would choose to share things as precious as the relics that it distributes to be in the presence of the faithful. There are those who believe that Catholics worship the relics but we did not get that feeling when we were in their presence.

We do not know that there are any remnants of the actual wooden cross used to crucify Jesus but we do know that crosses are a mainstay in both Catholic and protestant churches, with one difference. Catholic churches feature Christ hanging on many of their crosses while the protestant faiths never seem to need to use this sort of symbolism. The guide on our tour asked a Baptist minister who was with us why it was that protestant churches never featured Christ on their crosses and he promptly replied that was because that Christ was risen and was not there any longer. There is little debate among the faithful that Christ overcame the cross if one is not Jewish but we have always found wonder and comfort every time that we have visited a Catholic church and seen this display.. The protestant faith likes to remember this every Easter but we feel that they all too often forget it across the rest of the year. The crucifix display that we saw hanging from a wall in this church was very moving and had a great del of detail to it including down to the point of showing Jesus knees with blood and bruises on them from stumbling several times on his way to the cross before someone else was enlisted to bear his burden for him. If these displays do nothing else, they further religious artistry in a way that is very affecting to those who create them and those who get to view them through the years. The facilitator of our Sunday school Bible study class likes to remind us all from time to time that in the real crucifixion Christ was most likely stark naked as that was part of the Roman embarrassment to those that they chose to put to death in this way.

The church that we saw that day has many beautiful displays in it and among them were the stations of the cross depicting Christ’s journey to his death. The Catholics were very proud of their church and told us in great detail about it age--dating from 1852--and the great sacrifices that had been made to keep it relevant to the current faith through various renovations.. It reminded us of the oldest church that we have ever been in, Bruton Parish church, an Episcopal structure in Williamsburg, Virginia dating from 1715 that we have enjoyed worshiping in on our trips to the east coast on many Christmases of our life.

Perhaps the church that we have felt closest to in so many respects was torn down in Vienna, Illinois a few years ago after it had deteriorated due to neglect. When we were a child there was a black community segregated from the town by a bridge which crossed a creek. Every Sunday for generations the inhabitants would cross the creek and go to a small white clapboard structure with a small steeple within Vienna proper where they would worship in the classic negro fashion, singing loudly their spirituals in their so very special way. The negro community was burned to the ground in 1954 after an incident but that small white church remained to remind everyone that the people who had used it wanted nothing more than to worship their God among the white folks that they were forbidden to have any residence among at any other time of their lives. It still reminds us of Moses not being allowed to cross the Jordon and enter the promised land. Those segregated from white Vienna were allowed to cross it once a week to worship as long as they retreated to their “place� in life when they were done. We wonder sometimes where so many of them are almost sixty years later and what happened to the souls of those who treated them so badly when their innocence was not in question. It has been said that God will forgive almost anything if one asks him to do so. We often wonder how much forgiveness was offered among those so mistreated and if any of the offenders ever asked for any themselves.

They say that a church, wherever or whatever it might be, is a place we go to see and be seen by God and we have no problem feeling close to him wherever we might worship, be it a tent or a cathedral.

IOVHO,

Regards,

Joe

To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.