suffering – Holy Cross Episcopal Church

JohnÂ 18:1-19:42Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Â For the message about the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. â€“ 1 Corinthians 1:18

Words of St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians; not a reading appointed for this day, but one surely that sums up what Good Friday is about: Â the â€œmessage of the Cross . . . the power of God to those of us who are being saved.â€

But how â€œthe power of Godâ€? We donâ€™t often stop to ask ourselves that question. When I posed it a couple of weeks ago during a discussion of Paulâ€™s teaching in the time after breakfast, there was a lot of awkward silence. What does the crucifixion of Jesus, symbolized by the Cross, mean to people like you and me today?

Volumes have been and are being written in answer to that question. But what I want to do tonight is to try to answer it in personal terms, in terms of what the death of Jesus means to me. It may not mean the same to you, and it need not, but perhaps my â€œtestimonyâ€ will spur you to reflect on its meaning in your life.

The Rt. Rev. Arthur E. Walmsley

Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” â€“ John 20:30

I was talking recently with a friend who has for a long time been struggling with her faith. She has for years been alienated from the church in which she grew up. Its preaching and its worship didnâ€™t connect at all to her life. She had stopped trying to pray. And then the bottom fell out of her life. “I suddenly felt as if I had been shipwrecked on a desert island,” she said, “I didnâ€™t know what to think or what to do.” If you havenâ€™t yourself been as wounded by life as she was, you know plenty of people who have.

The story of Easter is about people who were as devastated as my friend.