This Journey to Easter is a wonderful event for our community and I am honored to be here. When, after all, does a bald white Episcopalian get to preach in a black Baptist Church? Now you all can say “Amen” and whatever, since my church is just now learning how to do that. Since you all might not know each other please take a minute to turn to someone you don’t know and welcome them here. Tell them “I am glad you are here.”

 At this stage in our journey to Easter we need to come to grips with two things:

1. The true nature of the cross

2. How we use the cross to cause harm to others

Although the cross is mentioned a number of times in the Bible, we tend to glorify the cross thinking of it as the image of our salvation. We sing hymns to “Lift High the Cross”, calling it the “glorious tree.” In Holy Week many churches leave a plain wooden cross in the sanctuary and then on Easter cover it with flowers symbolizing the resurrection.

But I have always been uncomfortable with this language and the flowers-on-the-cross practice. It obscures the original purpose, violence and brutality of the cross. The flowers of resurrection literally hide the true nature of the cross from our eyes. Do we cover it over and sing nice hymns to it in order to submerge the uncomfortable truth of the cross from our tender hearts?

The cross was an ancient means of public execution and humiliation practiced by the Romans and other cultures of the ancient Near East. It was a public display so that the victim would become an example for others not to follow in that path. Without breaking their legs, victims often hung on the cross for days before drawing their last breath. As we walk the final steps of our journey in Holy Week and we contemplate the agony that Jesus suffered, it might be helpful for us to get rid of all language and all images of the cross of glory, substituting them with what the cross really is – a violent, brutal means of execution.

So the next time you sing “Lift High the Cross,” you should make a substitution. Try singing “Lift High the Electric Chair.” … That’s right. “Lift High the Electric Chair” It makes it hard to think of the glory of the electric chair or the electric chair as a symbol of our salvation doesn’t it?

But that gets us around to the second concern – how we sometimes use the cross to cause harm to others. In my twelve years as a priest and pastor, I cannot tell you the number of times people from other churches have come to my church for counseling. I will never forget the woman who came to my office with bruises on her face saying that the pastor of her church told her that she should submit to her husband and endure the pain because Jesus suffered on the cross for her.

Yes, Jesus suffered a violent, brutal agonizing death on the cross. You can take that fact home with you. No one will dispute it. But in spite of our good intentions, can we stop causing more pain in the name of the cross. One act of violence is enough.