Sermon: The Cross Crossover
Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
When you enter this space, our sanctuary space, what is the first thing that catches your eye? It really depends on the time you enter: if it is before a fundraising event and you are here to set up tables and chairs, the first thing that stands out for you may be that the space is empty and open. If you are someone who is attracted to art, beauty, and creativity - “Even amidst devastations of wartime proportions ,humans create life and art. It is also resistance to reinvent and recreate humanity.” (Emma LaRocque), some of our banners might appear to you first. So much depends on who you are, when you see the space and what you are looking for. If the cross has a special meaning in your faith and spiritual journey, it would not take long to find this large, wooden cross at the centre of our space. When I first became the minister here at Immanuel, someone told me that when we turn on the lights in the chancel area, the light that hits the cross makes three thin shadows, as if three crosses stand on the hill of Golgotha. For me, when we gather like this on Sunday, or for the services to celebrate the life of someone dear to us, what I see is the community of people, and the spirit of love, care and concern like breath in the air, which connects us and binds us in unity through diversity.
This is a picture I cherish.
Here, I look like a young adult, but I was a newlywed at the time; it was taken during our honeymoon trip, when we visited La Verna, Italy. (La Verna is an isolated mountain of 4,209 ft situated in the centre of the Tuscan Apennines, rising above central Italy. La Verna is known for its association with St. Francis of Assisi where he received the stigmata. In this picture, I am kneeling down in deep faith and a spirit of submission in front of a wooden cross left leaning on the rock by an unknown visitor. There’s no symbolism there, just myself and the humble expression of faith which I cherished in my heart when I was in my twenties.
To me, at that time, the cross represented the intention of purity and integrity in all I do, say, and feel. I can lovingly recall memories of the spaces where young Christians gathered before the cross, which appeared in various creative forms, made by the hands of diverse Korean artists, communicating messages like hope from despair, liberation from oppression, the humble birth of Christ, Min Jung ( in Korean, that means grassroot people), the earth, or the land, especially in the retreat spaces or on the street for protest. In my memory, these crosses awoke different emotions than the ones I feel when I see the cross being abused as a symbol of dominance, based on hierarchal and patriarchal theology.
That cross, the dominant cross, has been used to crush the spirit of the oppressed, women and the poor, the indigenous people of the lands, and other non-conforming groups in order to gain wealth and power by coercing or forcing submission to the institutionalized and colonizing rules of Christianity.
According to Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire, during the first millennium, Christians filled their sanctuaries with image of Christ as a living presence - as a shepherd, teacher, healer. He is serene and surrounded by lush green earth, depictions of this world as paradise, than Jesus on the cross, Jesus in crucifixion, “as if dying was virtually all Jesus seemed able to do”, and paradise disappeared from the earth. Only since the second millennium, the cross has been the central image and expression of faith in church history and Institutionalized Christianity, through the right way of its use for justice and healing, but also through the abuse of power and violence. In our third millennium, today, we may not have had enough time for ourselves, individually and together, to truly ponder what the cross means for us, in our cultural and historical context, and in our faith development and spiritual nurture. I encourage you to spend some time in reflection and share with someone who you can trust.
For Paul, who wrote the letter to the Corinthians which Debbie just read for us, the cross redefines what is God’s wisdom, in terms of the “weakness of the cross”.
When Paul wrote this letter there was conflict among the Corinthians. There seemed to be factions within the community, set along lines of social status. Paul describes the conflict in Corinth in terms of “wisdom” versus “folly/foolishness.” According to Paul, some of the Corinthians praised and understood wisdom in terms of spiritual power. For example, these boasted their "speech and knowledge": how they spoke, how they possessed knowledge, and how they exercised their deemed spiritual gifts - as more superior, as better, as more sophisticated than their counterparts. What’s interesting is that some scholars find that those who laid claim to ‘wisdom’ seemed to be the social elite in Corinth, since it is these who would have been able to invite a philosopher into their home. While the exact relation of social status to wisdom remains uncertain, it is quite clear that those who claimed that they manifested the kind of wisdom: wisdom of spiritual power (which is associated with their higher social status) was of Paul’s deep concern. So Paul upheld the “weakness of the cross” as the true wisdom of God, even though others may see it as foolishness or a stumbling block. Paul says in verse 16, in the letter to the Corinthians “not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” And he declares, it is not through power, status, or wisdom that God is made known in the world, but through ‘what is low and despised… so that no one might boast in the presence of God.” (1.28-29).
It may be true that Paul saw in the cross a reflection of his own loss of power and status. Loss became the means for God’s power to be revealed in his life. And yet for many of the Corinthians, it is possible that they had the opposite experience. Those who were previously not powerful, not of noble birth, not considered wise, might have initially seen in the crucified Christ a mirror of their own life experience, then have experienced a rise in status, beginning with the cross and ending in the power of Christ’s resurrection.
If I am asked what I think of the cross, I would say, TODAY, (because our definition of things can change with time) for me, the cross is crossover. The cross, such a beloved, central and controversial symbol of our Christian faith, is like a drum. You may touch it, and play it, and the rhythm, the culture, the use, the purpose, the sound, the effect that each player intends can be different. It can play deeply moving rhythms and vibrate with soul-searching tunes like a global-music/Jazz crossover album. But a drum can also be thumped in the battle field to threaten the enemy. The unmistakable heartbeat in Paul’s pastoral urging in this letter is that any spiritual gift, if it is true, should be used for building up the community of faith, the body of Christ, and done through the spirit of co-operation which he identifies with love. If we sum up Paul’s message in various places, it all consummates in the pastoral urging of love. He emphasizes interdependence, working for all and the benefit of the community, in the spirit of love, through celebration of diversity, opposing any kind of hierarchy, and challenging the status quo. It is a great challenge. A wonderful challenge that grows us. Paul says, “Prophecy and knowledge will end, and speaking in tongues will cease, but love, which is patient, kind, not envious, irritable, or resentful, and which does not insist on its own way, will endure.” (13.8, 4-6)
The cross as the crossover work is still the work we must do - - how shall we continue sharing the Gospel in our homes and in the world across the lines of difference - - especially in our time of calls for respect and renewing treaties? What does ‘cross’ mean for you, in your faith, in your life? When the light illuminates your cross, what will be the first thing that other people see?
Ha Na Park
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