The Cross We Carry

Last Sunday in Part I of this episode in Matthew 16:13-28 we learned that the answer to the question, “Who do you say that I am?’ is in the question itself: the christos or Christ of God is one and the same as the voice from the burning bush who announces to Moses when aske, “Who are you? Who should I say is sending me to Pharaoh and my people?” is “I am.” “I am who I am.” That’s all we need to know. That’s all there is to know, as Moses leads the people out of bondage into a new life of freedom. Once safe across the Red Sea, his sister Miriam and the rest of the women get out their tambourines and lead the people in dancing and singing their way to a new life with the inscrutable I Am. Now Christos says that we who choose to follow him must pick up our cross.

 

At my first baptism at Christ Church, Winnetka, IL. A little girl named Eleanor, and her mother Francis who had never been baptized. Everyone said some version of, “Awwww, this is so sweet!” Afterwards, we were invited back to their home for brunch. There I was, standing talking with someone, with a plate of quiche in one hand, and a glass of wine in the other. Suddenly, there was a tug on the back of my pants leg. I turned around, and there was Eleanor. “Can you still see the cross on my forehead?” she asked. Meaning the cross traced with oil blessed by our bishop, sealing her as Christ’s own forever, and marking her as fully incorporated into the Body of Christ.

 

Eleanor was about five. When asked if everything she does and everything she says will proclaim the Good News of God in Christ, she said, “I will with God’s help.” Same when asked if she will seek and serve Christ in all people, loving her neighbor as herself, and will she strive for justice and peace for all people, respecting the dignity of every human being. All this flashed through my mind before saying, “Yes, Eleanor, we can still see the cross on your forehead!” And the smile on her face lit up as she skipped off utterly pleased with herself!

 

I thought, wow, that’s a great question. We should all be asking ourselves, Can people see the cross on my forehead? This is the cross we carry as a sign of who we are and whose we are. But then I went back to eating quiche and drinking wine and talking with other people. All the next week I forgot that question. The next Sunday I was vesting for church. There was a tug on the back of my alb. It was Eleanor again. Pointing to her forehead, she asked, “Can still see the cross on my forehead?” A week later she still knew what had happened to her. The question remains, can people still see the cross we carry on our foreheads?

 

There are people in our communities and in our country who have never heard the Good News of Jesus. Jesus, who in his first sermon in his hometown synagogue announced, after reading from the prophet Isaiah, that he comes to bring Good News to the poor, to release prisoners and to help those who are blind to see. There are people in the streets every day trying to help us all to see things that happen every day to black and brown people to which most of us are blind. We hear every day about the pipeline from high school to prison in many cities, with people serving sentences for relatively minor infractions that are far too long. And it has been a very long time, if ever, that poor people have heard any kind of good news. Homeless people too. People with addictions of all kinds. The list goes on, there being no shortage of people in need of our love and care.

 

One of the things we have learned Monday through Friday at Noon listening to Black and Brown American voices is that minority peoples often feel invisible at best to the rest of us. We have no idea what it is like to live as a Black or Brown person in America We have no idea how many times a month or a year non-white people get pulled over by police for minor or even fabricated infractions such as the well-known “driving while Black.” How do we begin to wear the cross of Jesus on our foreheads when fellow citizens of this great country of ours are not being respected with dignity? How do we begin to wear the cross of Jesus on our foreheads when it is rare, if ever, that we strive – defined as to make great efforts to achieve or obtain something, to struggle or fight vigorously – for justice for all people and peace for all people? Do we really believe that there is something of the Christ of God in all people, let alone seek and serve that which is of God in all people? Does everything we say and do proclaim the Good News of Jesus? To all people – Black, White, Brown, Straight, LGBTQ, Rich, Poor, Homeless and in Prison? These questions are front and center in what it means to be baptized into the Body of Christ. How will people see the cross on our foreheads, which our opening prayers says ought to issue forth in good works.

 

The heart of the Good News is that you are God’s Beloved. And not only that, but that God is well pleased with you. And that our God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Just ask the group of slaves who escaped Egypt for a new home and a new life if this is true. Once across the Red Sea, Miriam, Mose’s sister, and the rest of the women got out their tambourines and led the entire cohort of 650,000 escapees in dancing and singing their way to freedom! That is some real striving for justice and peace! We are all meant to be dancing and singing the Good News of Jesus Christ the Son of God together and with all people. All people.

 

I am forever grateful that early in my ministry, a young girl opened my eyes to even begin to understand what it means to pick up my cross and follow Jesus when she asked, “Can you still see the Cross on my forehead?”