For some people a church is a place to escape from the demands, the strains even the anguish of daily life. They say that a church is a place where they can pull themselves together and get some assurance that God is listening to heal and strengthen them. This is true enough. But the cross we see each time we go to church is a reminder that this worship place is not a refuge from the world, it is not an antiseptic room where things are pure and clean, it is not a place free from human struggle and pain. Instead, in the midst of beautiful paintings and images, the pressed altar cloths and sacred vessels, there is also the symbol of the cross - the cross of pain that ended Christ’s life. At this liturgy today in this beautiful church, surrounded by stain glass, glowing candles, the images of past heroes, our saints, we sometimes have the very opposite feelings from those suggested by our surroundings. If we are in pain, discouragement and life is messy, we might feel like aliens, tempted to think that we don’t belong in this space of such beauty and order...until we look at the cross.

When we make the sign of the cross upon entering and leaving the church - at the beginning and the end of each Mass, when we look at the cross that leads the procession in and out of church, we have a vivid reminder that we do not have to leave our pain, our confusion, our mistakes, even our sins at the door. Because of the cross, all parts of our lives are welcome here at this worship, especially when there is pain, failure and endings. The cross anchors us in this place. It assures us that God has not been a cold and distant observer of our lives from someplace on high, but has walked among us and joined us, from the very first breath of air that Jesus took in Bethlehem, to being a refugee with his parents fleeing the hostile emperor Herod, to working at a daily trade and experiencing the routine and boredom of hard work, to making and loving friends, enjoying food, drink and table companions, to abandonment by those who swore they would stay by him, to rejection by religious leaders who should have embraced him, to being handed over by one of his own to be killed, to being mocked, tortured and put to death.

If we should wonder where God is in the mess of our lives or whether we should be in this lovely and orderly worship service - if we are questioning, then all we have to do is look at the cross and know that this is our home. The cross was a cruel instrument of torture and death meant to intimidate. It was the form of death reserved for slaves and traitors. The cross was horrible for the victim and it was awful for witnesses to watch. The cross reminded a captive people that they could be abused and tossed aside as trash if Rome thought they were insubordinate or troublemakers - like Jesus.

Jesus was a threat to the empire because he talked about a kingdom without boundaries and guarded borders, where people were equal, not a society of a few privileged citizens and the rest treated as underdogs. He spoke of a kingdom where diversity was valued, where power was not the instrument to exert the will of a few, but love and service would be the hallmark. Jesus called it the Kingdom of God, but his enemies just heard it as a rival to their own religious and political kingdoms, so they eliminated the competition.

The scriptures tell us that God used power in a different way - to love us and to show us that love by taking on the role of a servant. “For God so loved the world...,” that God held nothing back to show us that love, not even the beloved Son. God wanted Jesus’ message and example of love to be embraced by all, including the religious and political leaders. But instead, they were threatened by Jesus and they decided to stop him and crush his message. But Jesus stayed with the message - God so loved us, St. John tells us, that God let Jesus be scooped up, crushed and put to death. Jesus was so convinced of God’s love for us that he went to his death proclaiming that love. Now, anyone looking on the cross would know God’s determination to show us how much God loves us. Even from the cross Jesus continued to proclaim God’s love for sinners when he forgave the thief crucified next to him and his executioners.

When the cross was over and Jesus dead, the evil and disruptive forces seemed to have the final victory - as they still seem to do. People’s hopes were crushed. It looked like nothing would change the patterns of darkness and evil. People again seemed caught in the downward spiral of despair. Then at the very lowest point in their lives, his followers huddled in fear, Jesus appeared, raised from the dead and offered what he promises today, “that everyone who believes in the Son might not perish but might have eternal life.” Jesus is calling us to trust in the Father’s love - to break away from the greed and darkness of this world and be ‘born again’ - to embrace a God whose love is limitless, complete and unconditional for all his children. To respond to such love demands of us a heart transformed by humility and gratitude. God demands of us a heart that is constantly aware that all we have been given by God, has been given to us not out of any merits of ours but out of God’s unimaginable love. If we have any doubts about how much God is reaching out to us in love, we only have to look up, for it is found in the cross held high.