Bumping Into the Cross

       Agnes was 99 and a half when I became her pastor early in my ministry.  I have never forgotten one of the first times I brought her communion.  I did the prayer and the psalm for the day and then I read a lesson from Paul which was the basis of my sermon that day.  I was still new enough to the ministry that I was sure I had learned a great deal in seminary and had a lot to share.  I had studied hard that week and I wanted to share some of my wisdom, even in a shortened form.
       Agnes was a very short and petite woman, usually very quiet and polite.  However, as I began to expound my "wisdom", she interrupted me.  "Pastor, I know I only have a third grade education but I've been reading Paul for over ninety years.  Let me tell you what I think Paul means."
        Gently and quietly, she began to share from her study and prayer of over ninety years.  I learned that day, that degrees and textbooks are no match for a lifetime of faithful living.  From Agnes I began to learn that my greatest education comes not from books but from the people I have come to serve.  Agnes had come across Kansas in a covered wagon long before it was a state, lived in a sod hut, and gave birth (at 15-16) to her first child there alone with no one for miles around her.  But she had brought her Bible with her and her faith grew through both the tragedies and the triumphs.
       I was privileged to be her pastor for 5 years and I learned a great deal from her.  She was always apologetic that she "only had a third grade education" but she was never apologetic about her faith.
       Easter morning at Halstad, I came up to the altar and came face-to-face with the large wooden cross that had been carried up on Good Friday.  It had been moved to the side but I nearly ran into it moving to my seat on the side.  Then I nearly ran into again when I came up to do the welcome.  I kept bumping into the cross.  It was in my way, so I soon moved it to the side.
       People are always bumping into the cross and there are people that would really rather do without it.  There are pastors who are convinced it is too off-putting; that it is so gross that it scares new people away.  They are convinced that all this talk about Jesus dying on the cross, body and blood, wounds and death will just drive people away so they focus on Easter and the resurrection and try to put the cross out of the way, as if it doesn't matter any more.  Except of course, it really does.
       It is an old argument that goes back to the beginning of the church.  In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes about the foolishness of the cross.  He acknowledges that it is a foolish, crazy idea to talk about a God that choses to die.  People value power, wisdom, miracles coming from powerful, charismatic, charming people.  But Paul writes that God has instead chosen what is foolish, weak, and despised in the world to spread the good news of God's love.  There is no way to God except through the cross.  We can try setting the cross to one side and getting it out of our way but faith always brings us back up against it.
       The cross is necessary because it is a reminder that this is something we cannot accomplish on our own.  We are forgiven and restored to God by grace, as a gift.  We cannot rely on our own wisdom or power to save us.  And that is good news because no matter how smart we are, we eventually find out how much we don't really know or understand and we come up against things that are beyond our control and abilities.  Sometimes that is what it takes for us to learn that the cross is not something to avoid but instead is the sign of how much God loves us and how much God is willing to do for us.  Read 1 Corinthians 1:18-29.