BEAM me up Scotty!

 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For
anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love
God, whom he has not seen. —1 John 4:20

 

…and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me… —Matthew 10:38

The cross is a picture of violence, yet the key to peace, a picture of suffering, yet the key to healing,
a picture of death, yet the key to life. —David Watson

The cross is not only imposed upon the saints as their burden, but bequeathed unto them as their legacy.

It is given unto them as an honor and privilege.  – Richard Alleine

 

Before one can walk as Christ walked, and talk as He talked, he must first begin to think as Christ thought. –A.A. Allen

Salt, when dissolved in water, may disappear, but it does not cease to exist.

We can be sure of its presence by tasting the water. Likewise, the indwelling Christ, though unseen,

will be made evident to others from the love which he imparts to us. –Sadhu Sundar Singh

 

Christianity is not a formula, but the Person of Jesus Himself. Never think that Christianity is a matter of adjusting behavior,

but rather, of letting Christ live through us in His strength and power. –Malcolm Smith

 

The cross.  To many, it’s a powerful image.  To others, it’s just a hunk of wood (or whatever it happens to be made of).  For some, it’s the essence of our faith; we wear it around our necks; we hang it on our walls.  For others, it brings about anger; it brings back memories of hypocrisy; it makes you run the other way.  The cross. 

When I go to Mass, I almost always make a point to reflect on the crucifix hanging up above.  Though I take the time to reflect on it, I almost always find my thoughts simply return to that of thanksgiving.  This week, however, something the priest said forced my mind a different way.  He reminded me of a concept I had heard of once or twice before-a different way of looking at the cross.  While obviously the meaning behind the cross is the death and resurrection of Christ, I feel like it can remind us of more than that.  After all, the cross is a pretty popular image-wouldn’t it be great if it could remind us of the teachings of Christ, as well as His death?  Like the ones He spoke in Matthew 22:37-39, for example, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”  What I’m getting at here are the beams of the cross and what they represent. 

The vertical beam.  The vertical beam can be seen as representative of one’s relationship with God.  As Martin Luther said, “Learn to know Christ and him crucified. Learn to sing to him, and say, ‘Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and given me what is yours. You have become what you were not so that I might become what I was not.'”  This beam can be seen as that personal relationship with God.  Things that can foster this relationship include doing devotions, delving into His Word, engaging in worship, and so on.

The horizontal beam.  The horizontal beam can be seen as representative of one’s relationship with God’s people.  Jacquelyn K. Heasley explains this in a simple, yet still profound way, “Jesus lived His life for you-then he gave His life to you. Now He wants to live His life through you!”  In other words, our lives must be an extension of Christ in us.  This beam can be seen as the way we serve our fellow brothers and sisters as the way we serve God through our service to them.  After all, Jesus did tell us, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).  In his book Common Spirit, Common Ground, author Michael Strange explains a bit more about this horizontal beam, or horizontal theology as he calls it.  “This kind of theology helps us see and touch what is there around us.  Horizontal theology helps us establish links with what is around us, including human beings, animals, vegetables, and minerals.  Our daily practice should help us get in touch with these beings, animate or inanimate, because by getting in touch with them, we will be able to get in touch with God.”  In other words, this is one way that we can physically love God-by loving His people.  Things that can foster this relationship include working in a soup kitchen, tutoring your neighbor in math, volunteering at VBS, and so on.

It’s tempting to want to pick a beam and simply focus on that, but that’s the beauty of the cross-you can’t.  Almost every cross I’ve seen (well, every fine-crafted cross) is made from one piece of wood; the beams are interconnected.  You simply cannot have one without the other.  An article on urbanministry.org explains this a bit better than I can.

You can’t truly love and serve people unless you love God. And you can’t truly love God without loving others. Our relationship with the Lord and our relationships with other people are inseparable (Mark 12:29–31).

“We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). We are incapable of loving and serving others (family, friends or enemies) if we do not first receive God’s generous, gracious, unconditional, and unmatchable love for us. The Spirit is calling for us to stay still and enjoy God’s love. Spending time soaking in God’s loving presence is like the difference between taking a quick shower and a long, hot, sudsy bath. When we rest in God’s love for us, we can’t help but radiate that love to others.

Mother Theresa has a truly beautiful quote that helps drive this idea home a bit as well.  When asked about her call to serve the poor, she said, “My call is not to serve the poor. My call is to follow Jesus. I have followed him to the poor.”

Serving others is so intertwined with loving God that it can merely be seen as extending out hands outward to praise Him instead of upward.  It is just as essential to have this beam of the cross or we’d have no cross at all.  I want to share with you one person’s take on this.  His name is Matt Patch and he is one of my brothers in Christ making this World Race journey with me.  On his leg, Patch has a pretty sweet tattoo.  When asked what it meant, this is what he said, 

Horizontally Vertical… the wrong way.   It means that God would rather us reach our arms out to praise him rather than up to Him.  NOT that there is anything wrong with praising God like that.  But God would want us to show His love by helping and loving others as his instrument.  Vertical is Gods love… and it’s going across meaning to reach out.  Horizontally is up and that is by reaching out others will see God.