windows on the cross

contemplate. reflect. engage. wonder. question. look again. confess. give thanks.

'windows on the cross' is completed.  Yesterday evening saw my team beginning setting up, while in room next door we got some young artists to do some fantastic artwork for us.  From 12-3pm today the church was open for people to come and walk the way of the cross.  We had different stations like others are doing.  The 1st was called echoes of the cross which look at some of the echoes of the old testament scriptures in the passion narratives.  The most obvious being psalm 22.  Tom Wright says 'the psalms has obviously coloured the story of the passion in other ways (Mk 15:24; Jn 19:24 = Ps 22:18; Mk 15:29 = Ps 22:7; Matt 27:43 = Ps 22:8) and these are best explained on the assumption that Jesus really did utter Ps 22:1 on the cross.' (JVG, p.601, n.217). 

Then we had a space for people to do their own artwork and an area where we had Jesus of Nazareth and The Miracle Maker playing on tvs.  In the centre of the room we had a giant cross. This was linked
to the 2nd station confessing the one cross which was based on chapter one of Tom Smail's book Once and for All. Tom writes: 'Just as it is impossible to look directly at the sun, so it is impossible to grasp completely what Christ is doing on the cross.' The cross will always be a mystery. I then stuck in a great sentence from Stanley Hauerwas little book Cross-Shattered Christ, where he says “Mystery” here does not name a puzzle that cannot be solved. Rather, “mystery” names that which we know, but the more we know, the more we are forced to rethink everything we think we know' (p.15). The cross leads to three confessions: the confession of faith, the confession of sin and the confession of praise.

The 3rd station was facing the cross-shattered christ which was based on David Ford's Self and Salvation.  I took part of the opening chapter where he talks about the face, before linking it to how do
we picture the face of Jesus? And how do we imagine the dead face of Christ?

The 4th and final station  was  called the journey into darkness.  We built a tunnel which led down in the empty and nearly covered baptistry.  I really wanted to
emphasise after reading Sarah Breuer's sermon from good friday last year that the cross is a dark place and in the person of Jesus, God comes to that dark and narrow place and that today is a dark place we visit.

Finally I need to note the excellent music my brother steve composed especially. You can listen to it here. The people who came responded well, which was encouraging and several people said they found it moving.  Those in the team who helped plan and worked with me all agreed that it was a positive time, which helped people connect with the events of good friday. We learnt a lot as well for next time.  I've put some other photos in an album (see on the left).