Scared of the Cross

       One of my favorite parts of worship happens when we celebrate communion and the children of the congregation come forward.
       To encourage children and parents to come together for worship, the children come to worship and stay until after the children's sermon when they are dismissed for Sunday School.  They come back as a group during communion and those not communing receive a blessing.  Most of them come up to me smiling and lift their faces to me to receive a cross with the words of blessing.  But this week was different.  They came in the middle of the week.
       It was Ash Wednesday, a special day in itself and the beginning of the church season of Lent.  The season of Lent, is a time for the kind of reflection, discipline, study, and prayer that helps our faith to grow stronger.  The day of Ash Wednesday is set aside for worship that includes confession and holy communion.  Those who wish to take part can come forward and receive a cross of ashes on their forehead.
       The cross is a repetition of the cross made in baptism and so is a reminder of our baptism.  On the day of baptism, the cross is made with scented oil and the words are spoken, "you are marked with the cross of Christ forever".
       The ashes are from palm leaves from last year's Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter).  I buy ashes from my local church supply store because they are finer and blacker that any I can create (they are burned at a higher temperature).  This night, the words are, "Dust you are and to dust you shall return".
       When the time came, I invited everyone to come forward to receive the ashes.  It was a smaller and more somber crew than a regular Sunday but the children came with their parents.  It was fine until one of the younger children hid behind her mom.  She held tight to her mother's hand and refused to receive her ashes.  It was obvious to me that she was scared.
       After worship, I thought to myself, we should all be scared of receiving those ashes.  They are a reminder of the new and eternal life we have in baptism but they are also a sign of our brokenness and mortality; of the death that is all we have without God's love.
       I remember the words of a professor at seminary who said that he dreaded doing ashes on Ash Wednesday because he would see each member eye-to-eye and know that he would be doing a funeral for one or more of them in the next year.  Now I know what he meant.
       Why do Lutherans cling so to the cross and its shadow of death?  There are plenty of pastors and churches that chose to elevate only the glory, the love, and the positive.  Those who will talk about the bread and cup of love or life but not the body and blood of our Lord Jesus.  I knew a pastor who changed the words of this night to "dust you are and from dust Jesus saves you".  Why do we insist on scary stuff?
       For me, it lies in this truth: I cannot save myself.  It is only by the death and resurrection of the Savior, through Jesus taking my place and paying the price that I or any of us have hope.  We no longer have to question if we are good enough, if we have made the right choice, or if we have done enough.  God has done the doing.  God has done the choosing.  God begins the loving.
       My little parishioner may have been frightened of the ashes, but she came gladly and confidently to receive her blessing and the cross on her forehead during the time of communion.  The power of the cross of Christ may seem foolish and hard to understand but it is our hope and salvation.  Read 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Flying Above the Fray

       This summer I was able to do something I've never done before.  We went to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota and I got the chance to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a live bald eagle for a photo op.  There was no barrier between the eagle and myself, although one of the staff of the center was right there, handling the eagle.
       I've seen eagles in the air, soaring high in the sky or sitting perched up high on a tree or pole.  Even from far away, they are big, majestic and beautiful birds.  But up so close, there was something more.
       Standing inches away from a full-grown, strong eagle, I could see the power in the talons and the beak.  That was also reinforced by the fact that I had sat through a lecture not long before and learned about the power of the birds.  We heard that there are eye-witness accounts of eagles taking down an adult deer.  I found myself unwilling to stare eye-to-eye with the bird.  It's stare was too other, too alien, and so challenging.
       I have never really had a feeling for the way some of the older translations and languages of the bible talk about God.  They talk about fearing God and being awestruck by God. Even Luther in the Small Catechism (which he wrote to teach children) writes in his explanations that we are to "fear and love God".
       I came closer so understanding what that fear might mean while meeting the eagle face-to-face.  I was definitely in "awe" of the eagle.
       We sing songs about God being "an awesome God" but I think the usual understanding is a more casual feeling of God being "cool" or "great".
       Certainly the Old Testament understanding of the awesomeness of God is more akin to the eagle, raw power and beautiful and yet beyond our control; not tame.  To "fear" God is not the same fear that children might have of monsters or like the fear of snakes or spiders.  Instead, to fear God is to take seriously the power and otherness of God.  It is to be in awe before God.
       Why do we need this "awesome" God?
       Because we live in a broken world where evil is real and bad things happen to good people.  Things happen all the time that are beyond our understanding and control from large scale disasters to personal tragedies.  Even the relationships with the people we love can become strained.  Sometimes the circumstances of our lives can leave us drained and discouraged.
        At these times, we can find comfort in the words of the prophet Isaiah.  Like the eagle, God is able to lift us up, give us strength and courage, and even more, holds us in such love and mercy that is stronger than anything anywhere.  God has not left us alone but is with us, giving us new life and comfort.  God helps us to soar again even when we cannot   Read the words of Isaiah 40:28-31.