Dunblane Cathedral Magazine March 2008
6 pages
Published by
Dunblane Cathedral
Copyright :
All rights reserved
No.
197 MARCH 2008
FROM THE ASSOCIATE MINISTER
http://www.
dunblanecathedral.
org.
ukADDRESS
LIFTED HIGH ON YOUR CROSS
THIS morning the leaders of
the Beginner Sunday school
askedmeifIcouldrecommend
some age-appropriate stories
for...
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No.
197 MARCH 2008
FROM THE ASSOCIATE MINISTER
http://www.
dunblanecathedral.
org.
ukADDRESS
LIFTED HIGH ON YOUR CROSS
THIS morning the leaders of
the Beginner Sunday school
askedmeifIcouldrecommend
some age-appropriate stories
for Easter.
They are wise folk
and realise that it mightn’t be
as simple as skipping over the
unpleasant business of Holy
Week, going straight from
waving palm branches to
shouting “Christ is Risen!”
Smarter
Children, unfortunately, are
smarter than that and tend
to insert awkward questions
when we skirt round issues.
It is a question that must
have been grappled with a lot
over the years because this
is a hard, dark story – and
parts of it show humankind
at its very worst.
It is a story
that asks a lot of its hearers,
and for the very young, I
believe we owe a great deal of
consideration as to how and
when we help them begin to
unpack this pivotal story.
I didn’t give the teachers
an immediate response, but
will go away and try to find
resources that will really help.
But it made me think again
about the Easter story and
especially about the Cross
(which was obviously the
bugbear for the Beginners).
Why this symbol? It seems
strange that we would choose
this as the pivotal, enduring
image of our faith when to
outsiders it must represent
the saddest moment of our
collective history.
Why do
we lift this up – carve them
into our pulpits and encase
them in stained glass, wear
them in gold around our
necks? Surely, we could
have come up with another
symbol to front our faith, the
stone rolled away – Christ
ascending to God (that’s a
beautiful image), the baby
in the manger, the king on
the donkey… why the cross?
Why would we want this
image always in front of us?
Why do we have this image
as a representation of what
we believe, of what ultimately
saves us? It is a question that
deserves careful revisiting
because we are followers of
the Christ who died on this
cross because He loved us.
So, what does this ancient
symbol have to say now?
What was the man who hung
from it trying to say all those
centuries ago?
Resuscitation or
Resurrection?
I think a great deal of how you
interpret this image depends
on how you interpret another
deeply complex theological
issue – the resurrection.
The
Christian community has, for
a long time, been divided as to
the proper way to understand
Christ’s being raised from the
dead.
Must it be understood
as a literal occurrence – a
historical event, rooted in
time, or can it be seen as
something deeper and more
theological at its core?
This debate has and will
go on, but I’m not sure that
it truly is the crux of the
matter.
Theologian Marcus
Borg once wrote: “Whatever
happened at Easter, it was not
resuscitation.
Easter does not
mean that Jesus resumed his
previouslifeasafiniteperson.
Rather, resurrection means
that he entered another kind
and level of existence, ‘raised
to the right hand of God.
’”
Whatever the resurrection
was and is, it has to live in
and through us.
Christ is
resurrected in the hearts and
minds and spirits and lives of
the ones who understand the
cross; when we understand
that He had something to
give the world that was not
defeated – even by death.
He calls us to resurrection
– not resuscitation of our
old life a little better, but
resurrection to an entirely
new way.
We are called into
death with him – death to
all that holds us down or
keeps us apart, death to our
meaningless life clinging to
that which will crumble and
fall.
We are called to new life
through Jesus Christ who
died forgiving and lives on
with that message still living
– because you are a changed,
new creation through Him.
Why do we lift up the cross?
Surely, we could have come up
with another symbol to front
our faith, like the stone rolled
away, Christ ascending to
God, the baby in the manger,
the king on the donkey …
why the cross? Maybe because
we need this image always in
front of us, maybe because we
need this image to remind us
every day of what we believe,
of what ultimately saves us.
Maybe it is because we are
resurrected and the cross has
no power to hold us.
Maybe
that is the paradox of our
enduring symbol.
Peace,
Sally
Easter Reflections: “Alter-Images”
April 1 and 22 at 7.
30pm
Led by The Reverend Sally Foster-Fulton
This year’s Easter Reflections will focus on the re-awakening of
common images in the Easter story.
We will look with “new eyes” at
these themes and ask them different questions.
This ancient sacred
story always has new things to tell us – if we are ready to listen.
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