CROSS WALK

Tonight I walked meditatively through FBC's Cross Walk, which is a labyrinth with candles and beautiful music and five stations of the cross. It was an unusual experience to have at a Baptist church, I think, and I found it very moving. When I got home, I read these thoughts from a Christianity Today article about the variety of ways God reveals himself to us.

Mary Magdalene, weeping outside the empty tomb, has to be called by name before she recognizes Christ. Before that, she thought he was a gardener.

Ten disciples, gathered in a room in sorrow and fear, need Christ to breathe his peace on them before they recognize him. Before that, they thought he was a ghost.

Two travelers from Emmaus walked with Christ and talked with him about salvation history all the way to their city, but recognized him only when he held up some bread and blessed it. Before that, they thought he was simply a learned traveler.

Thomas, the great doubter, wanted to put his fingers in the nail holes of the Cross and his hand in the pierced side of Christ before accepting him. Prior to that, he thought Christ was a fraud.

And Peter recognized Christ only after he performed the miracle of filling Peter's nets with fish. Later Peter had to sit through a threefold cross-examination as to whether he really believed in the resurrected Lord whom he had just denied: "Simon, do you love me?" "Do you love me?" "Do you love me?"

There is a little bit of Mary Magdalene in all of us: times when we swoon with pain and grief and need God's call to comfort us.

There is a little bit of the Emmaus travelers in all of us: times when we talk idly about divine matters but see God only in the sublime simplicity of the sacrament.

There is a little bit of the huddled disciples in all of us: times when our faith puts us in jeopardy and fear, and we need God's peace to be breathed on us.

There is a little bit of Thomas in all of us: times that we are so overcome by doubt and skepticism that we need God's touch to assure and anchor us.

And there is a little bit of Peter in all of us: times when we deny and betray our Lord and need a miracle to remind us of God's majesty or a divine conversation to move us to confess our faith unflinchingly.

Thank you, Lord, for revealing yourself in a diversity of ways! And thank you, Spring and Mark, for all the work you did to give us a new way to encounter him!