Letter from the Pastor – March 2024
Dear Church,
During Lent of 2021 I served a church in Illinois that brought out a big, wooden cross every Easter. So, after the Palm Sunday service that year the youth pastor and I went up into storage and brought the cross down, with the intention of putting it up in the front lawn. That Sunday was a very windy day, and it didn’t take long to realize that the cross would not stay standing on its own. So, at first, we tried tying it to something sturdy nearby. By Monday, however, I realized this wasn’t working. Unfortunately, the youth pastor wasn’t around during the week. So, by myself, I untied the cross, lifted it onto my shoulder and brought it back inside. On Thursday, I moved the cross again, to get it into position for the Maundy Thursday service. Then, on Friday, I hoisted the cross again and carried it back outside, this time to the garden in the back, for the Good Friday prayer service. After that service, I moved the cross back into the sanctuary for Sunday. It was moved outside again after Easter Sunday for pictures. Monday, I moved it back inside. On Tuesday, I stripped it of its decorations and, finally, moved it back upstairs to storage for another year.
So, I spent a lot of time that Holy Week carrying around a large, wooden cross. Naturally, my mind went to thoughts of Jesus, carrying what I imagine was a much larger, much heavier cross through the streets of Jerusalem, as soldiers whipped him, and on-lookers shouted and harassed him. I also thought about the crosses that we all bear as we move through life. I thought about how we move them around our lives. How they can be difficult to maneuver upstairs and through doorways. About how just when we think we can leave them somewhere we have to pick them up and take them somewhere else.
When we think of the phrase “my cross to bear,” we may think of struggle, perhaps even a sense of martyrdom, like the “cross” has been imposed on us rather than just being something that happened. As followers of Christ, we all bear a cross, and it is a cross we choose to bear. Because if we choose to follow Christ, we are following one who calls us to witness to a way of life that is counterintuitive to the messages we get from society. It is about sharing gifts rather than hoarding them. It is about caring for the least of these rather than taking advantage of needs. We carry this cross, because it is ours to bear, but not ours alone. Look around and you will surely find others who carry it as well. We carry the cross, as Jesus did, for each other. We carry the cross because we believe that to walk with Jesus, and to follow his example, is to move toward a world of hope and the promise of new life.
Bearing all things together,
Pastor Zach