"The Shape of the Cross"

Dear WRC,

I noticed something last week that I’ve never noticed before. I’ve been your pastor since October of 2012 and have spent, at this point, tens of thousands of hours in our Education Building. I’ve walked the halls for years now to go to meetings, sit down to pray or study, grab a cup of coffee, check in on another staff member, or visit a classroom, but it wasn’t until last week that I noticed that our building is laid out like a cross.

 I have no idea if that was intentional when the first phase of the building was constructed in 1953, or if it was part of the considerations in 1958 when they added the third floor, classrooms, and Heneveld Hall, but the main floor of this building is clearly laid out like a cross. There are two intersecting lines that run from the main entrance to the end of the Nursery School hallway and from the office suite to the Memorial Room. The proportions are even roughly accurate to a traditional cross. Whether or not it was intentional, I’m just going to assume that it was and run with it.

It wouldn’t be that out of the ordinary, you know. Western cathedrals and churches from the Middle Ages on have largely been laid out in the shape of a cross. In a classic Gothic cathedral, you entered on the western end into the “nave” (which is Latin for a boat and could be its own letter). The nave is long and narrow and is where the people gathered for worship. The nave generally ran west to east and was intersected by the “trancept” which went north and south. Where the two crossed was called the, you guessed it, “crossing.” This is generally where the altar was located. Beyond the trancept, opposite the nave, was the “choir” and the “apse”. Whether or not you have any idea what any of these words refer to, if you had a bird’s eye view or architectural drawing you’ll quickly see the cross-shaped design.

Some people assume that this design was more functional than theological, but I’m not so sure. For Christians in the Middle Ages, these cathedrals were understood to be images of the Celestial City (Revelation 21-22) as well as something like a model of the cosmos. If you were going to spend your life to build the perfect church, what better model could you have than God’s self-revelation, Jesus? If a cathedral is to give shape to the truth of the cosmos, what better shape than a cross? What better way to conceive of reality than in the shape of God’s sacrificial love poured out in Jesus? If, as Paul says, “All things have been created through him and for him…and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17), then reality is cross-shaped. And gathering within a cross-shaped cathedral, we learn to integrate that truth into our lives—accepting the gracious gift of Jesus’ life given on that cross and learning to live with the same sacrificial love.

Which is why I am having all sorts of fun realizing that our ministry in this building—from the menial tasks of answering the phones, receiving the mail, and making another pot of coffee, to the more obvious like praying together, writing sermons, and teaching Bible stories to children—all of it happens on the cross of Jesus Christ. All of our life and ministry together is cross-shaped. Isn’t that beautiful? Everything that we are and do is made possible because of that cross, and our task is now to fit everything we are and do onto it, as well. I’m curious to see how this realization will shape our life together, knowing that every step we take in this building is pressed into the image of Jesus and his cross. I wonder how we can continue to mold our life and ministry into the shape of sacrificial love and grace?

But it’s also now fully summer and many of you won’t set foot in the Education Building for a couple months. So, I pray that wherever you are and whatever you’re doing this summer, you, too, would find your life being conformed more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus—with arms wide open to God and to neighbor. Amen, Lord. May it be so.

In Christ,

Pastor Andy