This Christmas, I received the gift of two crosses. Mike and Nancy gave me a Russian cross of intricately carved wood. Jeff and Jenny gave me a brass cross, hammered out of a spent artillery shell from the fourteenyear civil war in Liberia.
These were strange, yet beguiling Christmas presents. Taken together, they became more than friendship “gifts”— they are messages sent by God to remind me of spiritual truths I am to share with the world this new year.
Mike and Nancy’s gift currently sits on my mantel. It reminds me of the richness of the Russian Orthodox Church: its liturgy, its chants, its icons, its mystical theology and its incense. I was a child during the Cold War years and was taught to believe that the Soviet Union was a country of godless Communists who longed to drop a bomb on our nation. We practiced “duck and cover” exercises in the classroom, hiding our heads beneath our crossed arms, lest a nuclear explosion break a window and nick our faces with flying glass. The notion that there might be Christians of faith and goodwill in Russia gathering in churches like our own was never part of the discussion.
Some years ago, my friend Francie went to the Soviet Union on a peace delegation. One of the most profound experiences she had during her visit was the opportunity to encounter countless people of faith who wanted peace as much as we Americans.
The Russian cross also stirs up some feelings of sadness within me as I reflect on our human tendency to dehumanize those who live in nations with whom we are having conflict. Entire generations of Americans have been denied the opportunity to develop peaceful relationships with those who live on the other side of dividing walls of hostility.
In my generation, we missed the opportunity to know the people of Russia, Cuba, Vietnam, East Germany, and other societies with whom we were engaging in ideological war.
Today, my children and grandchildren are missing a similar opportunity to connect with the people of the Middle East. This new year, Mike and Nancy’s gift of the Russian cross moves me to pray, “In Christ there is not east or west, in Christ no north or south; but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.”
Jeff and Jenny’s gift is more unsettling. A cross made out of a bullet is an explosive symbol. It says to me, Christ continues to be crucified whenever wars erupt between God’s children. The Liberian cross also prods me to remember that one basic expression of my discipleship remains the task of turning weapons of destruction into implements of peace.
It has sometimes been suggested that the cross can be understood as the intersection of time and space. Christ is at the center, transforming human life by offering us a way of life that is more compassionate, loving and just.
In mid-October of the past year, the Roman Catholic Church of San Cristobal de las Casas Church in Chiapas, Mexico circulated an open letter to members and friends of the diocese. They noted that, “the world is in crisis, caused by the failure of the neo-liberal economic system.”
This is the system of globalization that generates wealth for a tiny minority of multinational corporations at the expense of the poor, while promising that the enormous profits being generated will trickle down to the average woman and man in the form of jobs. Our mission partners in the diocese point out that the actual effect of neoliberalism has been to systematically impoverish the people, increase unemployment and hunger, create forced displacement of campesinos from their family farms, encourage migration, and cause a breakdown of Mexican health and educational institutions in Mexico.
The leaders of the diocese say that they are being called by the Holy Spirit to respond to this crisis by walking with the poor, who suffer most from the social consequences of neoliberalism. They are making this witness to bring the ministry of Jesus and the prophet Isaiah to life, who both said to their generation, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me. God has called me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to all captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and proclaim the year of God’s grace.”
This New Year, may we all be similarly inspired by the power of God’s love to lend a hand constructing God’s reign on earth.
Each month a member of the
Cook County Ministerium will
offer Spiritual Reflections. For
January, our contributor is
Reverend Peter R. Monkres of
the First Congregational Church
– United Church of Christ, Grand
Marais, a Just Peace church.
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