Which Side is the Cross On?

Good morning and God bless you. In our Church’s Historic Examination for Admission into Full Connection for pastors, this is Question 14: “Will you diligently instruct the children in every place?" (The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2012, Paragraph 336).

I married a gifted teacher of children. Beverly’s ministry with children is engaging, creative, fun, and based on trusting the faith of children to learn. I, on the other hand, am nervous about each Children's Message in worship. I don't feel creative. I think I am too abstract most of the time. So, I am thrilled when an image or object comes to mind. And then there is the graceful experience of the teacher learning in the moment…

The 9/21/14 worship theme was Peace as the Fruit of the Spirit, part of our September-October worship series. For the Children's Message I got the folding changing pad from the Nursery and used it as a dividing wall between the children in the center in front of the altar table. I told them to look only on their side of the church as if it was the whole church; and not to look at the other side because they did not belong. I asked them if that was really a good way to think about the Church. Then I looked up from the altar table with its gold cross to the large wooden cross on the front wall, and in that moment (not before, mind you), I asked, which side is the cross on?

We had divided up quite evenly down the center aisle, but the cross disrupted that view. It was on neither side. Or was it on all sides? In that moment, telling the children that Jesus breaks down the dividing wall between us and unites us took on a much deeper meaning. We could literally see that the Cross was on the side of the whole world.

In the sermon we considered the walls of the church building, especially the sanctuary. Are they walls behind which we hide and learn to hate by more precisely defining our enemies? In Christ, God reminds us that dividing walls of hostility are not load-bearing walls in the household of God.

Faith is not supported by investing in separation. Rather, we gather within the sanctuary walls to build trust in God who in Christ is reconciling the world to God-self and breaking down walls. With a global awareness of peace (God reconciling the world) we have local opportunities to practice it. On this spiritual journey, God is always creating more room to live together.