 | The New England Church PulpitNew England Congregational Church UCC |
THE CROOKED CROSS | John 5.1-9 | March 24, 2002 |
Today we call them heal spas, and curative mineral springs are a natural part of many such spas. Particularly in Europe and the Middle East these natural springs have been sources of healing for many ailments. Soothing to both mind and body, they provide a chance for some relief for those suffering.
It is curious in this biblical story that the spring must first bubble, or be troubled by God, as they would say, and even more so that it is only the first person who was immersed in the water after this troubling that was cured. Regardless, it is the troubled water that intrigues me.
Troubled waters bring healing. It isn’t in complacency that we mature; it isn’t in the status quo that we are challenged to a new life. It is in the troubled waters of the daily bump and grind that God strengthens us and heals us. It is in the troubled waters of unrest deep within our souls that prompts us on a journey to inner peace. It is in the churning waters of a disagreement with another that we often speak the most truthfully, and thereby find reconciliation. It is in the troubled society of racial tension that we find ways to eke out equality for all.
In a speech by Martin Marty, noted church historian and theologian, at IMSA last week, he noted that the churning and heaving of good and evil has always been thus. We will never find a society that isn’t struggling in some way to find a better pathway. It is those who are troubled, and those who are left out, and those who are hurting that stir up the waters of social injustice to call for something better. It is this process that always keeps us on our toes, that forces us kicking and screaming to a better life for everyone. Society is always dynamic, always moving, always churning its way to a future which always eludes us, but arriving is not the answer; jumping into troubled waters is the action that saves us.
Jesus heals the man, and by this very act troubles the social waters that ultimately prompt the authorities to kill him. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing, not that he wanted to die for it. But in the realm of human choice Jesus would rather take the risk of rocking the boat of society’s list of who is accepted and who is not than let people be eaten alive by the system. He challenged that system at every point on behalf of those who were being abused by it; it was not a way to make friends of the establishment. Jesus himself stirred the political waters with a love that is only known in justice; Truth so often becomes a troublesome boiling point.
Several years ago, while sitting in the sanctuary admiring the beautiful Tiffany rose window that has become the symbol of our church, I noticed that the cross was crooked. Not by much, but it nonetheless tilted a bit to the right. Only a compulsive-obsessive, neurotic mind-wanderer would notice such a thing, but what can I say. There is some consolation in the fact that the Jobbins family who donated the window used to spend Sundays from time to time debating whether the cross was crooked, so I’m in good company. When it was releaded and replaced a few years ago, the crooked cross was set straight.
But I’ve always liked that image. It is the nature of crosses to be crooked, for they are symbols of a death that redeemed death. Every pathway to resurrection is going to be through a cross. Every Easter Sunday has it’s corresponding Good Friday. The easy way out doesn’t have a resurrection; it is only a continual hell.
We will never resolve the complicated issues of life with easy, trite, neat answers. The cross that carries the weight of the world on its shoulders is always crooked, tilting toward resurrection.
As we enter another Holy Week, may we do so to face the crosses of life, not avoid them. May we learn to take the more difficult way that risks failure and loss in the name of the One who made of the difficult pathway a new life. Amen.
–Gary L. McCann
| Copyright © 2002 by Gary L. McCann. All rights reserved. |