What do you see when you look at our cross outside of the sanctuary? On Palm Sunday, we covered it with palms. They lasted all week. Then they withered and fell. On Good Friday, we stripped it and then draped with a black cloth to symbolize our mourning. It was there two days. On Easter, everyone brought flowers from home and we covered it with the beauty God had provided. They lasted a while, but eventually they also faded. And then, on the weeks following Easter until Pentecost, it was draped with a white cloth to symbolize Jesus’ resurrection. This year for some reason we could not find the white cloth. At the last minute I grabbed a white towel from home (with Kim’s permission, of course!) and draped the cross. When I got to the church later in the week I found that it had slipped down on one side and was just hanging there – But something about it made me think of Jesus’ last night with His disciples, when He wore a towel and washed the disciple’s feet. I realized that a fancy satin or silk cloth on the cross wouldn’t really be appropriate. Maybe the simple, rough fabric of an ordinary towel is a better symbol for Christ. Jesus didn’t come to get us to fall at His feet and worship Him; Jesus came to love us and serve us. The palms wilted. The black drape was only up for 2 days. The flowers were beautiful, but they also faded away. But serving others – the towel, the humble attitude of bending down to attend to someone else’s needs – that lasts. That’s the kind of Savior Jesus was. That is the God that we serve. Jesus takes the ordinary things of our lives and transforms them into something new. Bread becomes new life. Stones become our own sins. Simple fishermen become world-changing leaders. Fish and loaves become more than enough. May your service and mine bring hope and compassion to those whom God puts in our path – |
This week’s note from Rev. Bill
