Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim
Lift high. I think of
when we lift things up, when things are held aloft and displayed for all to
see. For the most part, we lift things up in victory: trophies, the winning
ball, the successful paper. A high-five is lifted up, again often in situation
of success or victory, when we are celebrating big events or even small moments.
The cross. Here’s
where our hymn of the day (Lift High the Cross) gets a
little odd. We’ve established that we usually lift things up in victory, but
the cross is a difficult thing to see as “victorious.” Well, perhaps not for us
today. As Christians in a very Christian-friendly society, talking about the
cross as victory is common. It appears in so many hymns and in so many places.
But think of those early Christians. Think of Jesus’ followers for whom the
cross was the method by which their leader, their teacher, their rabbi, their
friend, their Lord, was crucified:
tortured until he died. Death isn’t supposed to be the victory.
The Love of Christ. And
yet, as Paul tells us in our reading from 1 Corinthians today, “the message
about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are
being saved it is the power of God.” It is
foolishness. It is completely foolish to look for God in one who was put to
death by the state. It is completely foolish to look for God on the cross, to
look for God in one being punished in the way of criminals. And yet, not only
is this where we look, this is where we find God. God in Christ died on the
cross. And yet, through God’s love and power we know that God didn’t stay on the
cross, but rose again. It’s why in Lutheran churches it is rare to find a
crucifix (a cross with the body of Christ on it), but instead we have empty
crosses: reminders that Christ rose from dead, and that, indeed, death is not
where the victory lies. It is God’s love, Christ’s love, that takes the
foolishness of the cross and turns it into a sign of love and power and victory.
Proclaim. And so what do we do with this knowledge? What do we do now
that we know that Christ’s love is more powerful than even death? What do we do
when we know that we do not have to do anything in order to get God’s love but
that it has already been given to us by the one who died on the cross and did
not stay there? We respond. We respond with love God and all that God loves. We
respond with love for the world. We respond by telling the world about God’s
love, proclaiming the joy and grace that has been given to us. We lift high the
cross, the beautifully empty cross, proclaiming Christ’s victory for all the
world to hear. With a message such as this, how can we keep silent?
Thanks be to
God.
Amen.
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