I regularly read other minister's sermons to kind of monitor my own; are we using similar techniques? What are others saying about the same Bible passages? What are others saying about politics and life? Well, in a sermon by Timothy Zingale, I heard a story that stuck with me. It stuck with me in part because I looked up some pictures on the internet.
Zingale told of a visitor who was traveling through Sweden and who stopped in St. Mary's Lutheran Church in Ystad. It is a former Roman Catholic Church and has some beauty about it (here are some pictures). But what was unusual about this church was that there were two crucifixes in it; a crucifix is a Roman Catholic symbol that is like our Protestant cross except that the body of Jesus is shown hanging from the cross. 
The one is high up in the church over the body of the sanctuary suspended from wires and the other is opposite the pulpit. The one opposite the pulpit is rather gruesome and even has real hair adorning the head. Apparently, early in the 1700's, King Karl 12 visited the church rather unexpectedly; the preacher was so overwhelmed by the visit that instead of preaching a proper sermon, he extolled the virtues of the king. Karl was disgusted with the preacher that he had a crucifix made and sent to the church with the injunction that the preacher look upon the crucifix as a reminder of his proper subject. Thus, the crucifix was put up directly opposite the pulpit.
I'm not sure that I would like to preach from that pulpit. I'm not sure that I'd like the constant reminder of the suffering of Christ. I'm too much of a Protestant, I guess, that I find crucifixes more gruesome than spiritual. I'm not disparaging Roman Catholic beliefs; they are used to crucifixes, but I wonder about the theological meaning of such church iconography.
Crucifixes weren't part of church statuary until after the reign of Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor, who reigned from 768 to 814. He ruled much of Western Europe and was crowned by the Pope as the Roman Emperor as a rival to the Byzantine Emperor already installed in Constantinople. Charlemagne was a brilliant ruler, but he was also ruthless. He imposed the choice between death and joining the church. He used church-sanctioned violence to condone forced conversions to Christianity; he fought the Moors in Spain and sewed the seeds of persecution of Muslims that later became known as the Crusades. There developed the idea that the crowned monarchs required Church sanction and that monarchs ruled by divine right. Charlemagne also gave a huge amount of power to clergy within the Church and this set the stage for battles between church and state down through history. But what this also did was to give the ruler the self-imposed divine right to meddle in Church affairs. Maybe that's nothing new, but many reforms took place that were sanctioned by Charlemagne which drew attention to Jesus' suffering; the communion service, for example, became a service that focused on Jesus' death on the cross and the idea that by eating the crucified flesh of Jesus and drinking the crucified blood of Jesus, one would experience salvation. Along with this change in theology, came a change in church art; there were few depictions of Jesus' death upon the cross before the 9th century, but afterwards the depictions of Jesus' death became quite gruesome in their detail. And after the 9th century, increasingly the depictions of Jesus' resurrection, showed a suffering Jesus; prior to this time, Jesus was portrayed as youthful and cherubic and the scene around him was one of beauty and grace. And at this time, crucifixes, which focused on Jesus' suffering on the cross and the salvation we can experience through that suffering, became popular. The point is that Charlemagne heralded a shift in Church thinking to a focus on Jesus' suffering and that salvation is achieved through his suffering. In a way it began a shift to the idea that only through the violence of the cross can we experience oneness with God; now that is overstated, but this was a watershed moment that saw the Church increasingly use violence as a means of spreading the gospel of love. We had orders of monk-knights and the Crusades. It would have been a difficult time for Jesus himself to have lived and preached a gospel of peace and non-violence.
Well, all that I've said is by way of explanation as to why I wouldn't want to look out at the crucifix from the pulpit in St. Mary's Church in Ystad, Sweden. I much prefer the understanding of Jesus that we have in John's gospel: "For God so loved the world, that Jesus came to be among us." After all is said and done, we can not escape the demands that Jesus placed upon us to love foremost and above all other things. The teachings, parables and sayings of Jesus point to love. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and we are to love our neighbour as ourselves. And in response to this teaching a Scribe asked of Jesus, "Who is my neighbour?" We then get the parable of the Good Samaritan who takes us beyond the bounds of what is merely acceptable and into the bounds of love. "God so loved the world," John wrote in his gospel. "Perfect love casts out fear," John later wrote in one of his letters. And from Paul, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
And what is interesting about this love Jesus embodied and that is the most important aspect of Christianity is that it is distinctly Christian. I remember a multi-faith experience I had many years ago. Each representative of a particular faith was asked to sum up his or her faith in one word or sentence. The Muslim spoke about duty to Allah and humanity. The Jew spoke about Torah and freedom. The Buddhist spoke about Compassion. The Hindu spoke about yoga. The Baha'i spoke about the God within. And the Christian spoke about love. Each participant was asked to respond to what the representatives of other faiths had said and it was interesting to learn that love was an aspect of the other faiths but the main aspect. Now, I'm not suggesting that Christianity is the superior faith, but it struck me that love is really what we're distinctly about as Christians.
Love, that deep virtue that is the embodiment of God, leads us to places we sometimes would prefer not to go, like forgiving others. Or creating social and political change through non-violent means. Or accepting and trusting ourselves. Or joining others in taking a stand against greed and corruption. Or living by hope rather than despair, acceptance rather than hatred, confidence rather than fear.
I remember some years ago, when I was going through some soul-searching, I had one of those chance encounters with someone I didn't know at all. I don't remember all of the particulars, but I was walking down the street—I may actually have been in Toronto when we were still in Ontario—and standing off to the side was some character. He was rather non-descript, not particularly unsavoury but not dressed in a Bay Street suit. He started to walk beside me and I didn't pay much attention to him. And then he said to me, "You look sad. You know that God loves you don't you." And he walked off. That was it. I didn't think much about it at the time other than to say to myself, "Yeah. Right." But afterwards as I was at my hotel, I began to think more about what he'd said or, more to the point, what he'd meant. Yes, God does love even me!
And that began a shift in me from taking for granted my own selfhood and my relationships with my family. I began to realize that while I talked a lot about love in sermons and Bible studies, I'm not sure I really felt that love. And while I am a reserved person by nature, I've worked at knowing love in my life and in trying to live in a loving manner in my politics, in my work, in my family, wherever I am. I've made mistakes and will continue to do so, but I've learned from my mistakes and I've learned that love sets me free to begin again, and that I'm not defined by my mistakes.
That's the power of love. And we, each one of us in this world, is loved by God. And we, each one of us, can make a difference in the world just by simply living the radical love of God that we know was embodied in Jesus and is embodied in each one of us!
Blessings to all. Amen.