I ate breakfast with my friend, Nathan, this morning at the Marlborough. John served us both sausage and two on brown, over easy. I'm becoming a regular - I don't even have to say my order anymore.
As we ate, we were discussing the cross, and something Nathan's said really made me sit up and pay attention. He said that 50 years after Christ was crucified, people went to be crucified in the name of Christ praising God. Just read Foxe's book of Martyrs or other historical accounts. Nathan continued, so why did Christ struggle so much with going to the cross, when mere followers of His went with joy to this form of death, happy in the knowledge they would share in the suffering and death of their Lord?

Did Christ just have a low pain threshold?
Why did Christ say, in Matthew 26:28, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death"? Why did He struggle so much with the cup that His Father had given Him to drink? Why did He plead with God to take away this cup from Him (Matthew 26:42)? Sure, crucifixion was a brutal death, but thousands of other people experienced this form of torture...and Jesus was God! Did He just have a low pain threshold, or perhaps He was just having a bad day...

A physical manifestation
Or was there something more to it than that? Nathan said to me that it wasn't the physical suffering on the cross that Christ was sorrowing to the point of death over. The cross was just the physical manifestation of the suffering occurring in the spiritual realm at that time. Whatever was happening to Jesus physically (the nails through His wrists and ankles, the crown of thorns rammed on His head, the spitting and mocking, the scourging, the beating) was nothing compared to what was going on in the spiritual realm. You've seen the Passion of the Christ? Great movie, but even if what was shown in that R-rated movie was accurate, it pales in comparison to the suffering of Christ's soul. I'm not a fan of creating a false division between the spiritual and the physical (which was a Greek construct), but for this it serves my purpose.

The cross was the easy part
As we were talking I wondered whether it was something like baptism - the physical act of submersion beneath, and rising from, water is symbolic of a far greater truth of death to self and rising again to new life in Christ. Nathan and I agreed that this metaphor falls short - the cross wasn't just symbolic; as previously mentioned Christ's physical torture was the physical manifestation of the spiritual suffering. It was the visible tip of the entire iceberg of pain that Christ was enduring. As I glibly titled this blog: the (physical) cross was the easy part.

Nails through hands means something to me
What we're dealing with here transcends human comprehension. We don't know what it is like to be a perfect, whole and holy God in three persons, and then to have one of those Persons abandoned by one of the other Persons ("My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?") So we need the physical suffering of Christ to gain some purchase to begin understanding the spiritual world of pain He was enduring. Nails through hands means something to me. The eternal Trinity temporarily divided is so big it risks becoming meaningless.

Bending our imagination
But dare we limit our gratitude to the physical suffering of Christ? If we were allowed a glimpse of the holy Christ becoming sin for us, our worship would surely exponentially increase. If we bent our mind-power, spirit and imagination to the task of grappling with the spiritual suffering of Christ, where would this journey take us?

The danger of thinking little thoughts of a big God
I know one thing for sure, my God is so big, that I can't risk thinking just little thoughts of Him. I want to start thinking BIG thoughts of God. I might not like where it takes me...it may make me uncomfortable, but is my God worth any less? One hymn writers has already begun the journey:

We may not know, we cannot tell
What pains He had to bear
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there...
(Cecil F Alexander)

Enya is my 3 year old daughter. This is taken from my journal. I wrote this yesterday:

"I'm writing because Enya gave me a glimpse into God's heart of a Father tonight. She let me get in on the role!

We were reading bedtime stories, all four of us, on the couch. I was reading to Enya and Wendy was reading to Ariana. We'd already read two stories and I was reading the final story - a Dora fairytale one. I was on the last page, when Enya looked up at my face, all full of concern (she was sat under my right arm) as she said

"Daddy, I have to tell you something"

I was a little concerned, but not too much. It was the look on her face. I asked her what was the matter.

"Daddy, I broke my Polly Pocket"

(this was a Princess Aurora one I bought for her yesterday from Walmart - a kind of end of sickness gift...we'd all been sick over the past week). I said,

"That's OK, where is it?"

She pointed under her bum. So I felt under the cushions and pulled out a decapitated Polly Pocket! Enya's eyes were all teared up by now, and I knew from her tone of voice and the expression on her face that it was guilt she was feeling. From the empty Polly Pocket dresses in Enya's lap, I could tell she'd tried to get Aurora out of her dress and had pulled off her head in the attempt.

Enya's face just made me want to squeeze her and tell her everything's going to be OK. I said to her:

"You did the right thing telling me you broke it. It's important to be honest"

She nodded, and I could feel the beginnings of relief in her.

"Thank you for telling me the truth. It's OK, Enya.  Would you like me to fix it?"

She nodded. I pushed the doll's head back on in 2 seconds and it was all done.

It struck me how much courage it had taken my 3 year and 10 month daughter to own up to me what she'd done (which really wasn't a big deal to me but a HUGE one to her). She needed me to listen to to her confession, forgive her and make it all better. She'd sat (literally) on that 'guilt' for all of story time and said nothing...but then she confessed and found freedom!

"He who has ears to hear..."

During my Advanced Theology class last week, in Indiana, something the Professor (Steve DeNeff) said really struck me. I copied down what he said, as faithfully as possible:

"Worship is not something that we begin. Worship is already happening within the Trinity.
We can either get in on the game or not, but we are not game changers.
Worship is me pulling up a chair to the table of the Trinity and joining in the conversation that's already happening:

Me: Jesus, You're absolute!
God the Father: That's what I've been saying all along!!"

Can you imagine that? Each member of the Trinity has been constantly deferring to the other two for eternity past. They love each other SO much. One God, three Persons. Three Persons, One God. So when we get in on worship, we're adding our meagre thoughts and words of praise to this conversation that is ALREADY going on!!

My Professor said other things that gave me pause for thought:

"Sanctification is the process of becoming more like God.
God is a Trinity. Trinity means three.
Therefore, if the Trinity is true, we need community to be sanctified.
We cannot be sanctified outside of community!
God's vision for the Church is to represent what He has  in the Trinity on earth. This is evangelism!!"

Steve DeNeff is the Senior Pastor at College Wesleyan Church, Indiana. You can find his sermons online here or by subscribing on iTunes (just search for "College Wesleyan Church" in the podcast section)

This seasonal devotional series, Journey to the Cross, help readers journey through the season of Lent. These series are written especially for students  (though anyone can read them) and seek to provide reflections on themes that impact our faith journey. We hope that in the midst of busy or boring days, these sites will create a quiet space in your life for contemplation and prayer.

Lent idea: why not make "Journey to the cross" your homepage during Lent? That way, every time you open your internet browser, you are reminded to take a couple of minutes to allow God to speak to you through this wonderful, contemplative resource...

To get to the daily devotional for today, just click on either of the images to the right.

Shrove Tuesday Prayer (Feb 16 2010)
Pancake Supper: 5:30-7pm
Shrove Tuesday prayer and contemplation: 7pm - 9pm
If you're not a regular attender of Cornerstone, you are welcome to attend our pancake supper and prayer time. The address and mapquest link to the church building can be found on this website under "Where to find us".

Shrove Tuesday
The purpose behind Shrove Tuesday is to prepare oneself through the traditional means of repentance and absolution before embarking on the soul-changing journey of Lent. Whereas Roman Catholics may seek absolution through a priest, as Wesleyans (an evangelical Protestant Denomination), we believe that we find our forgiveness and cleansing through Jesus Christ alone (see here).

However, we can learn from our Catholic brothers and sisters in their regular practice of confession. We Protestants don't do confession very well - an unfortunate casualty to the Reformation. In fact, confession is an alien concept to many of us or, at best, a dusty tome we dutifully pull down from the shelves every once in a while. As a result, we walk around with many unnecessary cares, sin, cobwebs and frustrations tucked away in the nooks and crannies of our soul.

God, the perfect Gentleman continually offers: "Let me take that for you". But we're so used to the extra weight, that it becomes normal. If only we knew the new "normal" Christian life that God has for us!! The freedom from sin and the guilt of sin, the liberty from pride and self-sufficiency, the grasping of the reality that God has called us to cast all our cares upon Him because He. Cares. For. Us.  (1 Peter 5:7).

The means  that God has given us to release all our sin, junk, anxiety and reliance on self to Him is confession (1 John 1:8-9).

Confession
God created us to be confessors - confessors of His greatness and confessors of our sin, weakness and need of Him. He created us to be free, to cast off the sin that so easily entangles us (Hebrews 12:1) and to live lives of freedom (Galatians 5:1). So tonight, is an opportunity, in an atmosphere of candlelight and quiet to clear our lives once again of self and to allow God to fill us with Himself.

Prayer Stations
There will be prayer stations set up around the room, each with a different prayer focus. With candle light and quiet background music, I'm hoping that this will be a time of quiet and personal connection between us and God. There will be a freedom and a space in this time of prayer in a manner that perhaps you've never experienced. As we move around the room, using our senses of touch, smell, sight, hearing (and perhaps even taste), we will allow God the Holy Spirit to minister to us as we worship Him.

I hope to see you there!

Lent:(17 Feb – 4 April)
In Christian tradition, lent is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter.
The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitence, giving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion (suffering) of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The liturgical fasting emphasized eating plainer food and refraining from food that would give pleasure: In many cultures, this means no meat, dairy, or eggs. Other common things to give up include chocolate, sweets, coffee, alcohol, smoking, TV, the internet, Facebook. In fact, anything can be given up that enables a greater focus on Christ and His sacrificial death during this time. Other believers add something into their lives to enhance this focus on Christ, such as prayer, reading scripture, acts of service.

Shrove Tuesday:(16 Feb) Pancakes and doughnuts are associated with the day preceding Lent because they were a way to use up rich foodstuffs such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent.

As a family at Cornerstone, we will be celebrating this event together with a pancake supper next Tuesday, from 5:30pm – 7pm. After the pancake supper we will have a time of “Seeking His Face” prayer in the sanctuary to prepare us for the season of Lent. This looks to be an extremely poignant and moving evening as we join together to observe this historical time in the church calendar.

Ash Wednesday (17 Feb): The first day of Lent and occurs forty-six days (forty days not counting Sundays) before Easter. This year, Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent) falls on 17th February.

Free devotional book: On Sunday we are going to be making available a Lent-based devotion by the contemplative Christian thinker and writer Henri Nouwen. The devotional is called “Christ our Hope”. This devotional is free for anyone who wishes to use it, consider is a gift from Cornerstone to enhance your relationship with Christ during this season, whether you choose to fast in some way, or not.. I look forward to hearing your insights or thoughts as we go through this season of Lent together.

Information mostly taken from www.Wikipedia.com (with extra notes from Dan)

Somewhat mysteriously, I ended up on an email list from which I received this link today. It's a pretty nice and simple website, with images and scriptures. If you click on the tab "photo album", you can move through the pages of images and scriptures. I just set one as my desktop background by simply right clicking my chosen image and choosing "Set as desktop background" - what a great reminder of God's word for when you're working or relaxing at the computer. The picture to the left is one example