“Those Little Cross Necklaces”

April 14, 2007

Scripture Reading:  Acts 5: 12-42

Rev. Dr. Carol  L. Kerr

 Blue Point Congregational Church

Does the cross save your life?  Or, does the cross cost your life?  Or both?  Interesting question. 

I read a story this week of a man Campbell Gillespie – a sales executive from England - where this question became quite literal for him.   He believes that the gold cross that his grandmother gave him both saved and almost cost him his life when he was hit by lightening in August 2003.  He is a long distance racer and he was out running that particular day.  This is his account:

We were coming to the last part of the run on a Sunday Morning, about 8:15 – a lovely, sunny summer’s day, when I’m told it got dark all a sudden and I was struck by lightning.  Lightning attacked the gold cross round my neck that was given to me by my grandmother and put me six feet in the air.  I landed head first into the concrete into a deep puddle, landed face first.  I stopped breathing.  Ray resuscitated me and Norman held me in recovery position while Ray ran for help.  They put me in an ambulance.

You can imagine what happened here.  It is almost like out of a cartoon, if it wasn’t for real.  The lightening bolt comes down and is attracted to the cross on the man’s chest. 

Unbeknown to me some of my friends had gone back to where it happened, and had found the gold cross which was lying on the concrete, not a mark on it.  So they brought that up to the hospital, and I came out of the coma on the Friday.  On the Monday I had a 6 hour operation where they rebuilt my face, basically.  They put 12 plates in my face.  So I don’t remember anything of August.  I don’t remember much of September.  But things become much more clear in October.

In a way, the lightning was attracted to the cross.  If it saved my life, why did the lightning strike it?  So I’m in ‘catch 22’ over the situation.  But I’m alive – and I don’t know who I have to thank for that, but I thank them, because I was an inch off checking out, y’know?  I will start wearing it again one day.  My mother’s offered to get me a chain for it, but I’m just not awfully confident at the moment, for obvious reason.  I have it in my drawer but I don’t wear it at the moment. 

Since I knew it was going to be a small group today, this sermon is going to be more interactive than most.  Who here thinks he should wear the cross again?  (raise hands)  Who thinks he shouldn’t wear the cross?  (raise hands).   O.k.  would any of you who thinks he should wear the cross again would like to volunteer why you think so?  Who would like to explain why he shouldn’t do so?   Who is not sure?

The cross is a powerful symbol.  It is the symbol of Christianity itself.  Jesus died on the cross.  The huge cross we have hanging at the front of our church is also empty.  There is no body on this cross.  This particular kind of cross is called a resurrection cross.  It is empty because the body of Jesus is not longer dead but has risen again.

  The word martyr is Latin for “witness.”  When we wear a cross we are martyrs because we are witnessing to the Christian faith.  There are many other ways of bearing witness to your faith.  Wearing a cross is just one small way.  I am focusing on it today to bring out the dynamics of any witness to Christ.  Any witness, even a little cross hanging around our neck, is a statement for Christ over against all the other statements that the world bombards us with.  It can be a culture that is degraded (“Nappy headed hos.” Sound familiar to anyone?).  Or it can be a political system that can be threatened.  This witness can put us in conflict with  those others.  And so, it can cost.     This witness also is a proclamation of life, love, and reconciliation.   And so, it can save.   It can save us and it can save others.  Whenever we witness to the cross, when we are martyrs, we stand at the place where there is a mix (maybe even explosive) of costing and saving at the same time. 

It use to be that Protestants didn’t wear crosses very much, let alone crucifixes.  However, now days I think as many Protestants as Catholics wear crosses.  Who here wears a cross?  Women?  Even now days many men wear crosses.  Men?  How many people might not be wearing their crosses or be wearing one right now, but how many have one at home somewhere?  Does anyone here would like to share a little bit about the story of their cross.  Where did you get it from?  How many bought their own?  How many got it as a gift?  (If you bought your own, why did you pick what you did?)  (If you got it as a gift, who gave it to you and when?)   Who likes wearing theirs?  Why?  Has  someone once said to you because you were wearing it? 

The second scripture reading today was from the book of Acts which describes what happened after the resurrection.  Before the disciples had witnessed the resurrection, they locked themselves in a room, fearful of the authorities.  After they had witnesses the resurrection they became witnesses.  This happened in spite of what the authorities at the time told them they could and could not do.  Peter had been sent to jail for preaching about Christ.  He had escaped (an angel released them, it says).  He didn’t go and hide.  He went straight back to the Temple took his stand and told them everything he knew about this new Life in Christ.  The temple guards hauled him before the chief priests again. 

“Didn’t we give you strict orders not to teach in Jesus’ name?  And here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching…”  These are the very same people that Peter was terrified of when he denies Jesus in the courtyard before his crucifixion.  These are the very same people he was terrified of and so locked himself with the other disciples in the upper room.  But, the resurrection changed Peter.   Peter became  very different.  Instead of denying and hiding, he was preaching and willing to risk his life, even crucifixion himself, to stand up in front of everyone and say what he believed.  In fact, there is such a radical transformation in Peter, before and after, that this is one of the arguments for the reality of the resurrection.  People  just don’t suddenly change like this unless something profound happened.  People aren’t suddenly willing to risk their lives unless they were sure about what they were preaching.   This time Peter responded to the Chief Priests, “It’s necessary to obey God rather than men.  The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, the One you killed by hanging him on a cross.  God set him on high at his side, Prince and Savior, to give Israel the gift of a changed life and sins forgiven.  And we are witnesses to these things.  The Holy Spirit, whom God gives to those who obey him corroborates every detail.”

There is a branch of Christianity, one of the oldest, that is called Coptic Christianity.  They are in Egypt.  Coptic Christians don’t wear the cross on necklaces, but have the cross tattooed on the inside of their wrists.  They have been persecuted on and off since Egypt had become predominantly Muslem.  At first they were forced to have the tattoo.  Now they wear it as a badge of honor, even though great prejudice still exists against them.  It is a sign of pride and defiance even though getting caught with this tattoo can result in the bearer getting harsher treatment by the government.    One blogger has a friend named Paul whose tattoo is old and faded.  Paul talked about a murder of Egyptian born Coptic Christian named Hossam Armanious and his family.  Paul says it is because of his Christianity.  The cross tattooed on their wrists makes Coptic Christians martyrs too.  It bears witness.  Let me ask another question, not really a yes or no question, but one that will make us all think more deeply about our Christianity.  Does the tattooed Coptic cross cost life or save life?  Who votes for the first?  Who votes for the second?  If you were a Coptic Christian.  Would you have the cross tattooed on your wrist?  Yes?  No?

When I was researching this sermon, I was reading today’s scripture from the Spiritual Formation Bible published by Zondervan.  This bible has spiritual questions in the margins for the reader to think about.  The question in the margin next to today’s passage from Acts is this,  Have you suffered “dishonor for the sake of the name?”  Has being faithful created uncomfortable situations fro you?  How did you respond?  If you have never experienced firsthand the cost of discipleship, why do you think that is so?  For the apostles, suffering was a badge of honor, a declaration of worthiness.  Is your Christianity so low-key that it offends no one or even is unnoticed outside the church setting?  If no one knows for sure you are a Christian, what badge are you wearing?

A minister friend of mine had her youth group wear crosses for the season of lent.  She had them notice when they wore their cross on the inside of their shirt and when they wore it on the outside of their shirt.  What did that say about their faith?  It is not always bad to wear it inside your shirt.  But, what does that say?  You can ask this question of yourself, even if you don’t wear necklaces and don’t wear a cross necklace.  For instance, why not?  Or, if you have a cross in your house, where is it?  Why is it where it is?  What importance does it have for you? 

You might have heard about the airline employee for British Airways in England, who was fired from her job because she was wearing a cross and it wasn’t part of the uniform.  She is 55 year old Nadia Eweid of Twickenham London.  She was wearing a cross not more than a half inch long, on a very thin chain.  She worked at the check in counter.  BA said that its uniform policy stated that such items could be worn if concealed underneath the uniform.  If we weren’t inclined  to tattoo our wrists and risk persecution in Egypt how about wearing the necklace as an employee of British Airways?  If you worked for the airlines would you have worn the cross under your clothes?  Would you have worn the cross over your clothes in spite of the regulations?   Does anyone want to explain their answer?  I don’t know that there is a right or wrong answer to this.  But, I am asking the question to help us all reflect on our faith. 

Rev. Richard Hall, a Methodist minister was sitting at a coffee shop, having a double cappuccino.  At the next table were a couple of young women.  They looked like they were on their lunch hour.  One of them was wearing a large, jewel encrusted cross on a necklace.  He said that he admired it, “Nice cross.  Are you a Christian?”  “No,” she replied, “what makes you say that?”  “The cross.”  “Oh,” she said, “I hadn’t thought of that.”  And then she added, “It’s just a bit of bling; it’s the fashion.”   E- bay has a major “bling” cross with 14.7C and 368 Princess diamond Hip Hop Cross going for $5,500. The fashion journalist James Sherwood, noted that celebrities like to wear crosses.  You see peple like Catherine Zeta Jones, Liza Minnelli and Renee Zellweger wearing crosses.  He says they wear them to ward off the paparazzi.  And adds that it also gives them a sort of veneer of piety. 

 After the British Airways incident, a radio show asked people why they were wearing their crosses.  One person wore hers because it was her granny’s.  Another said that she takes her cross more seriously than a style-statement or a family heirloom.  She wore hers because she said it warded off evil.  Some sports stars kiss their cross as they run onto the field, or after they score a goal.  Is that superstition?  Yes?  No? 

Crosses come in all shapes and sizes.  I Googled it and found – the sacred cross, the constellation cross, the percifal cross, the templar cross, the ethereal cross, the celtic cross, the benedict cross, the Gabriel cross, the aariel cross, the amil cross – to name a few.  Does anyone know what the UCC cross look like?  Can someone come up here and try to draw it?   

What to you is the most beautiful cross that you have ever seen?  If you could design your own cross would it be out of wood, diamonds, gold, silver, nickel, chocolate?  Would it be 1 inch, .5 inches, three inches long?  If you could design your own cross what would that say about your own personal witness to Christ?

The cross is one of the world’s richest and most potent symbols.  It can change the world.  Let me end with this story.  At the height of the Second World War, the city of Coventry in England suffered very heavy bombing raids, and its medieval Cathedral was brought to its knees.  One November morning in 1940, after a particularly damaging attack, a young clergyman – Philip Wales – was picking over the mountain of rubble where once a great Cathedral stood.  Philip’s daughter Mary takes up the story:

It was later exploring the ruins by himself that he found lyingont he ground, under the burnt out beams, the enormous medieval nails which had held these beams in place – they are extraordinary – they are so large.  I would say the one I’m looking at the moment are about 18” long and some are bigger than that.  They are beautiful in their own right, as if a craftsman had made them.

My father brought a handful of them home.  Moving these nails around on the kitchen table, they seemed to move easily inot place as a cross.  My father found a firm in Coventry who were able to weld these nails together and another firm who put a coat of silver to cover them.

The Coventry cross of nails came to symbolize not just the suffering of the war, but also the hope of survival, of resurrection.  Now, there is a community called “The Cross of Nails.”   It started at the Coventry Cathedral and it goes to war-zones around the world to inspire peace and reconciliation.  It brings it cross of nails wherever it goes.  Canon Justin Welby, a leader in the community, says

I work very often in areas of conflict.  And you take people around the cross, or your talk about the cross of nails, or you allow them to hold the small cross of nails that we wear around our necks, you begin immediately to find a transforming of attitudes.  There is a power within the cross which reaches deep into the human heart and into the human emotions, that challenges hatred and challenges unforgiveness, and challenges a commitment to violence. 

Does the cross cost or save?  The answer is both.  How much will it cost?  How will it save?  That is different for each martyr and will be different for us as we bear witness in our own ways  and with Peter as our model.  I leave us all to think about it.  To experiment.  Perhaps even to wear a cross for a while and see how it feels.  When we wear it on the inside and when we wear it on the outside.  Perhaps to be more aware of the one we now are wearing.