The Cross

Thursday, September 14, 2006 -- Week of Proper 18 (HOLY CROSS DAY)

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

Today's Readings for the Daily Office

either the readings for Thursday or Proper 19 (p. 983)
Psalm 119:49-72 (morning) // 49, [53] (evening)
Job 29:1, 30:1-2, 16-31
Acts 14:19-28
John 11:1-16

or the readings for Holy Cross Day (p. 999)
Morning: Psalm 99; Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:11-17
Evening: Psalm 118; Genesis 3:1-15; 1 Peter 3:17-22

The Cross

Before the less "sanitary" practice of lethal injections, executions of capital criminals more typically was handled in the electric chair. When I was a kid and parents were less squeamish about these things, the visitor tours of state government sites included access to the electric chair, or at least the window where witnesses observed executions. School textbooks often included a picture of a chair with its straps and wires. It was an object of fascination for vivid elementary imaginations.

In Fort Smith we have the gallows where criminals from the Indian lands faced judgment in the process of taming the West. Town squares were the sites for occasional public hangings. I know where a temporary gallows was set up on the square in my home town. I heard the story of the last hanging. People brought picnic baskets, some dressed up, there were concessions, speeches, music.

After a spate of executions in Mississippi, I asked in a sermon what reaction might it bring for to see someone wearing a gold electric chair around a chain on their neck, finely bejeweled and elegantly wrought. (One of my court reporter members wore a t-shirt the next Sunday reading "How do you like yours? Regular or extra crispy?" There was an electric chair under the words.)

Such is the scandal of the cross. It was an instrument of public execution. Its design is such that death is slow, painful, public and certain. That is the primary symbol of our faith.

Though we have masked its horror with familiarity and art, the cross is a powerful symbol of what we say about God. The image of an innocent person experiencing such fatal torment is an image of how bad it can get. Anyone who has ever suffered profoundly can relate somehow to the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

We say, look carefully at the cross. Look carefully at every situation that bears a likeness to the cross. If you have eyes to see, you will see God present. This is where God is. In and with and under the deepest sorrow and suffering of humanity. God in Jesus embraces the cross. God in Jesus embraces our suffering. Even unto death.

What God brings forth from such horror is resurrection. New life explodes out of such horror. That's what God is up to.

In every place and time, any suffering, injustice and pain can be nailed to the cross and offered to God with the prayer that God will use this grief to bring resurrection and new life to a suffering world. God can use your pain and mine just like God used Jesus cross. There is nothing God does better. It is who God is -- the One who brings life out of death.

Lowell
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The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR