Touching
I had been told it was awkward and heavy, far too heavy, and there was no stand for it so it would have to be laid down on the steps of the chancel. It was heavy and plain: a 6x6 (or 8x8?) piece of lumber, more than seven or eight feet tall, with a cross beam insert.
While unadorned and raw-looking, it wasn’t splintery. Three of us carried it from the back to the chancel steps. Then the other two stood behind it and held it vertically. I went to the front and bowed and kissed it.
Slowly the people came forward, shy and hesitant, some of them, reverent, all of them. Some touched it gently, then turned aside. Others genuflected and embraced it at the foot. There were many bows, many kisses. And there were tears.
The choir had sung a motet. And then, after some silence, a few people still to come forward, they started a hymn. “To mock your reign, O dearest Lord, they made a crown of thorns.”
The people had finished, we three lifted it up again, and carried it over to the side, laying it on its side, leaning upon a wall. I went back to those chancel steps and forward to the bare altar. I spread a cloth and placed two chalices. The other priest now was at the step, vessels in his hands, vessels containing life set aside the night before. I placed one vessel on the cloth, and poured from the other into the chalices.
The choir by now had finished. “They did not know, as we do now, though empires rise and fall, your Kingdom shall not cease to grow, till love embraces all.”
---
Out & About. I am teaching a two-week class on the Resurrection gospels. These stories are quite different and they have fascinating details. The classes are at 9:30 a.m. at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, 5100 Ross Ave., Dallas. The first class is Sunday, April 8.
On Sunday, April 22, at 6 p.m., I am to give the spring theology lecture as Theologian-in-residence. It is called “Friendship: The Final Frontier.” It will be at Church of the Incarnation, 3966 McKinney Ave., Dallas, and a reception will follow.