Experiencing the Cross

The Cross. A symbol that is known all over the world. Two lines intersecting at one point. Simple. Yet packed with meaning. Like the yin yang, the sickle, the Star of David, and the swoosh, The cross as an icon that tells a story.

Today we are going to experience the Cross.

I want to take you back in time. To the birth of a symbol. At this point it has the same meaning as the electric chair, the gallows, the guillotine, the lethal injection. You look up to the hillside as the sun is setting and you see against the dimming red light, silhouettes of those being punished by your government. The government that tolerates you expressing yourself, like your own belief in God, yet despises your practices. You see political revolutionaries nailed to wood and slowly suffocate on these two beams. Blood drips down their arms and legs as they squirm to find a breath. You only need to be told to know what happens on that hill. You begin justifying it as a result of living in civilized society. Thieves, murderers, and people who deserve it are up on that hill. The cross is a means to cleanse those wrongdoers of our world.

Jesus of Nazereth. A political revolutionary. A man who found himself in the crosshairs of two pieces of wood.  This man experienced the raw form of this symbol. Though his judge Pontius Pilot deemed him innocent, Jesus of Nazereth was executed because of the words and symbolic acts that he was representing. The message he was executed for? The effective presence of the God who was only available to those who were the right birth class, or exclusive to the correct scholarship. The God who was only available to those who paid the high price of reconciliation in the temple. That God who blessed only particularly rich families. THAT GOD, Jesus’ Father was actually available to all. To the leper, to the blind, to those that found themselves estranged from the devine.  Jesus of Nazereth said to those that couldn’t afford the dove for sacrifice at the temple. For You… Forgiveness is as available to you as Jordan Water.

Wake up… feel the cleansing water that is as real as God’s forgiveness for you. The Kingdom of God is at hand. What God is doing, can be available even to YOU!

It was this message and expression of Gods availability that put Jesus of Nazereth on the cross.

Torture, Murder, Being stabbed, nailed, not being able to breathe. We would think that these would be the main elements that were what made this a painful experience. And if this was the run of the mill execution it probably would be. But Jesus was not the run of the mill guy. Sure he experienced the full onslaught of physical pain that came from the damage to his body. However, if you listen to his words you will hear the REAL challenges of the cross. Listen… Listen…

Father Forgive them for they know not what they do…

You are innocent. You are spreading the message of God’s availability to all. You are doing that symbolically by having God work through you and people who have never been able to receive such a message of hope are now hearing and believing it.  They are finding joy in such a message. They are FINDING themselves in your message. Freedom in a life with an available God. What’s this? Here come some assholes that want to take that away from these  people? They want to stop this hope that people are finding? They want to put an end to you and your message. If they take you out, they can resume the political and social status quo. They can become top dog again. So they fix a trial. They lie about you. They gossip about you. They go out of their way to destroy you. AND They get your friends to betray you. They win. You are here, on the cross. The injustice is too much to bear. The cross is telling you let your rage seethe. Let your bitterness take hold. Let your anger damn them all to HELL. The cross is asking you to succumb. Yield it says… become broken by me. Yet you say Father Forgive them for they know not what they do…

Challenge #1:Think to yourself three people who have treated you unjustly. They hurt you. They betrayed you. Do you have your three. I would like you to attempt to extend the same forgiveness that Jesus gave to his murderers. Say this/
THE PERSON’S NAME Father Forgive them for they know not what they do.

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Are you ready for the next challenge? Now the cross is not only killing you but there is someone on either side of you. They are murderers, criminals and thieves. You see one of them, and sure enough he did what he was executed for. He knows you didn’t do anything to deserve being put to death. You didn’t do what he did. The cross is telling you that others are lower than you. You don’t deserve this… THEY do. The cross is telling the thief that he IS a thief… HE deserves this! The cross is telling you to give into the temptation to elevate yourself above someone else. The Cross is telling you you are something that you truly aren’t. Is the cross convincing you. Are you better than the guy next to you. Are you a criminal. Do you deserve this? Do they deserve this? You break free of the thrumming sleepy song of betterment. For you see yourself as God sees you. You see others as God sees you. And you communicate to the person next to you: This day you will be with me in paradise

Challenge#2: I would like you to consider how God sees you. On the piece of paper, write down “I am a treasure to God.” Then describe why or what God treasures about you.

Post it in the comments below if you wish.

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Oh but the Cross is full of challenges! As if torture, forgiving, and moral escalation weren’t enough… Now in the middle of our own termination, we are faced with social issues. Before you is someone you have been given the responsibility to care for. You’re dying! Shouldn’t they have compassion? Shouldn’t they let you off the hook? As you are facing your own expiration, you are overwhelmed with the responsibilities that you are leaving behind. Your friend is there. But he is a busy man. He would be the person who you would pick to take care of your responsibilities, but you don’t want to burden him with more responsibility. The Cross says… Don’t ask. Just die and let things sort out. The Cross says you are dying, you don’t need to impose the responsibility of your mother onto your friend. Just let it be. Yet you say to your Mom and your friend Behold your son, behold your mother.

Challenge#3: What circumstances have made your responsibilities something that you cannot take care of? On your piece of paper write down one responsibility that you haven’t been able to take care of due to circumstances. Now name one person that could possibly help you with that responsibility. Your task this week is to reach out to that person and ask them for help.

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Well now the cross has become real y’all.

How does it feel to experience anti-love? You now know that YOU are rejected. You are rejected by those that have placed you here for your displayed death. And you are rejected by the God who didn’t save you. You contemplate where you are, and why you are there. And realize that you are there because God placed you there. It was God’s message of availability. It was God’s circumstances that you knew you were aligning with. Yet where is God now? The Cross says this is what you deserve for  aligning with this political endeavor. That this is a result of God not being present in what you stand for. The cross tries to convince you that you were wrong. That the reason for your punishment is because of God’s justice. You are confused. The cross is taking hold. Saying “Be silent. Whimper and die Rejected because you deserve it.” Yet your lungs fill with music as you repeat a psalm “My god My god why have YOU forsaken me? “ psalm 22. Your heart cries in the midst of rejection. And you shriek in anguish, sing for wisdom as you experience rejection from Man and your own God.

Challenge#4: On your piece of paper think of a moment that you felt rejected by God, Are you allowed to think about that? Where have you felt that distance from God. I want you to write 8 words that describe that time.

Now link them with filler words. (the, I was, and the I) consider sharing these words to someone who won’t be interested in “fixing” you. Post your poem in comments below if you wish

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Well we’ve now entered the time of the cross where we need to say our announcements.
Get your Bible On at Gaston’s, Beer and Hymns this Friday.

Actually the cross has an announcement…. Uh Oh… that pesky Cross. It’s trying to get us to do something again… Listen… don’t do it… Don’t do it… Let’s think…. what usually happens  during announcements? Oh yeah…. Offering… Why does the cross not want us to do offering? You made wine out of water…. You made loaves and fishes. Surely you don’t need to ask these people for financial compensation. OH I see cross. You are saying that we should be self sufficient without the help of others. your resources come from yourself. You don’t need help you don’t need to take the offering. Yet you say I thirst. I thirst.

Challenge#5: tell the cross who’s boss by knowing that we must have humility to find our resources in God and others. Participate in asking of your community. Also Participate in giving to your community. When we Give, we also share in that community of humility.

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Challenge#6: Well the Cross still has a couple tricks up its sleeve. We’ve battled the pain… its still killing us, we’ve forgiven our torturers, we’ve fought moral ascendancy, we’ve dealt with our responsibilities, we’ve done art in the face of rejection, we have adopted the humility to accept resources outside of ourselves. But that cross still gives us a punch. “LIVE LIVE LIVE”. Well that’s new… Interesting that something bent on killing us wants us to get up. I think this has to do with something a lot bigger than us. A long time ago in the infancy of Man. Something happened to break  our relationship with God. You being here today on the cross, allows you to say to that severed relationship It is finished.

Explore for yourself what you think is finished. Come up with one new idea that you have never seen before about the breach that occurred back in the days of the garden.

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Well its been quite a ride. One more curveball we are given. The cross is singing your song. The song of brokenness. The song of rejection from Challenge #4. The cross is saying what are you going to do if you die? Where will you go? What will happen. If your God truly rejected you. You are screwed! You notice that you do have to reconcile a little bit. The cross is right. Can you hold onto a grudge that holds God responsible for rejecting you? It would feel good to keep it up. Yet instead you say: into your hands I commit my spirit.

Challenge#7: Attempt to reconcile to those who have rejected you. Write down three ways you can be poised to make things right with those that have cut you off.