Pastor Craig - April 2019

 I remember as a young camper at Bible Camp, the director explained the cross in a very simple straight forward way. He stood in front of the group with a 1 by 4 board. He held it up, pointed to the top of the board moved his hand to the bottom and said “This was Jesus coming down from heaven to us.” You could not see it but there was a nail with a board behind this one that he then moved, so that it formed a cross. He went on to say that “This was how much God loved us, that he stretched out his hands for our forgiveness, so that we would not have to suffer.”

 I grew up looking at the cross. At my home congregation, there it was. I had been looking at it since I was 3 years old. It was just part of the front of the church, placed above the altar. It was plain looking. Nothing fancy, it looked, as I think about it like two 6in by 10in planks that had been fastened together many years ago. (at that point the congregation was 80 years old) Yet, did I really know what it meant or was it just part of the furnishings.

 Down through the years, I have come to rely on that cross in the front of Bethany Lutheran Church. I have grown up with and have grown older with it. In front of that cross, my family has had 4 baptisms, 6 confirmations, 3 weddings, 3 funerals and 1 ordination. That is just my family, think of the countless others who have through the decades experienced God’s grace and presence through that simply cross and it boggles the mind.

 As I write this article, I can so visualize that symbol and sign of God’s tremendous love for his children.

 Each of us have those memories of church. Perhaps the cross at your congregation was ornate, made of wood or metal, sculptured or plain, large or not so large, maybe it was just on cloth on the altar or emblazoned on a pulpit, perhaps it was placed in a stained glass window, maybe it had Jesus on it or was empty. The one thing I have come to know is that whatever it looked like, it meant one thing. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, God’s Son, died so that we might know forgiveness, love and the gift of everlasting life.

 When the newsletter comes out, we have over 3 weeks before we are able to announce and proclaim that He is Risen. So I won’t, short change our contemplation of the cross and race to the empty tomb. We need to see and experience the cross. To sit at its foot and remember.

 It was a simple illustration that the camp director made. It was not complicated. He did not use big theological words. But his words touched me. For me, I was able to look a little bit differently at this cross that did and continues to be so important in my life.

 I share this so that as you gaze on the cross next to the altar in the front of Mount Zion, you are able to know that it more than just one of the church furnishing. It is there for you.

 In Christ,

Pastor Craig