The Scandalous Cross (Newsletter)

Dear Friends,

       On the last Sunday of February—in the 24^th year of the 21^st century—the sermon had to do with the symbolism of the cross. For 1^st-century Jews in Jerusalem, the cross represented everything evil and authoritarian in the world. And for good reason. Rome used the cross as an instrument of public torture and execution. The cross was Power’s exceptionally ruthless means of shocking and even panicking subjects into compliance with both laws and Power’s status quo. And it had its effect—but as with all violence, only in the short run. When Jesus showed up, and was accused of claiming to be the king of the Jews, few Romans would have thought twice about crucifying him.

       You know the story—most of it, anyway. Since Power continues to use brutality and bullying to achieve political and economic ends, the story is far from over.

If you are reading this congregational newsletter, you probably trust that the mystery of the resurrection is as real as the fact of crucifixion. No doubt you also are familiar with the cross as an unmistakable symbol of our faith tradition. Is the cross still, as the apostle Paul wrote, a “scandal” to us, though? In that February sermon, we acknowledged that the cross has been, for many, sanitized into little more than a popular piece of jewelry. And in January of 2021, during a violent attack on our own nation, a tall, white cross was militarized by being paraded around the US capitol as if to say that Jesus blessed the idolatrous violence.

       In February 2001, NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt died when his car hit the wall on the last lap of the Daytona 500. I was living in Mebane, NC at that time, and a day or two after Earnhardt’s death, a local newspaper published a front-page, close-up photograph of items left outside the Richard Childress Racing headquarters. Nestled in among all the flowers, letters, NASCAR hats, mirrored sunglasses, and photographs of “The Intimidator’s” familiar, black #3 Chevrolet lay a white, wooden cross. Painted on the cross, in large, black letters were the words, “IN DALE WE TRUST.”

       Like the use of crucifixion as a means of crowd control, those words on that cross were an obscenity.

Now, of course, Dale Earnhardt’s death was horrific tragedy for him, his family, and for racing itself, but neither his life nor his death has divine redemptive power. He will not and cannot be trusted to restore broken relationships with God and one another. NASCAR fans may find this reflection a bit dramatic, but I think that that de-scandalized cross represents a deep and destructive offense in the suggestion that the unfortunate and untimely death of a sporting icon compares in any way to that of Jesus, the Christ.

       As Lent continues and Easter approaches, I encourage us all to look deeply at ourselves. How and where might we forsake Jesus for more immediate, gratifying, and less scandalous lords? Then, through humility and repentance, let’s prepare ourselves to celebrate and receive God’s trustworthy salvation as it comes to us in the gracious life, the scandalous death, and the death-defeating power of resurrection.

 

Peace,

       Pastor Allen