Intersect

A few weeks ago, as we were trying to keep the sanctuary straight through all this construction mess, we were moving the cross from the information table to the coffee table. When we went to move it, we noticed it was pretty scarred. Someone said, “This cross really needs cleaning!” I almost agreed out of rote, until I looked at the cross, and for some reason, it just struck me as appropriately dirty. You know? Our cross is silver, so it’s now all tarnished and fingerprinted. We’ve been in the middle of remodeling our new space for about a year. During that time, we’ve had to move the altar, the band, the chairs, slide projectors and sound equipment nearly every week. To be honest, over the course of remodeling we’ve neglected our cross a bit. I hadn’t thought about the cross in such a long time, that seeing it now, all messed up, kind of bloodied, gave it a meaning I’d never considered before: The Cross is supposed to be dirty. Now, I’ve struggled to identify with...

God of mystery and majesty, as you give voice to the bittersweet melodies of the bluebird on the window sill and the haunting, ancient songs of the blue whale in the ocean depths, I pray you also give voice to me. Speak love through me. Calm the anger that bubbles uncontrollably within me; caused by a world full of lies, half-truths, intentional misleading, violence, and hatred of others we are too dim-witted to see as ourselves, as reflections of you. Open my heart, my arms, my doors, my borders, to anyone in need and everyone in hope. Give us all strength to witness to love in a world that is unbearable to watch, but to which we must testify from and to your unconditional love. We confess the current situation has filled us with negativity. Like Jeremiah, Jesus, and the other prophets of old, we find ourselves lashing out, warnings falling on deaf ears as we overturn the tables in the temple out of sheer frustration. We pray, dear Lord, that you transform our negative energy into p...