On a dark November afternoon I walked down to the village of Skene, about three miles round journey. By three o'clock it was getting dark.
Early on when this building was being completed, I had noticed the juxtaposition of the cross and behind it the pylons and power lines.
But in the gathering gloom of winter mist, the light radiated into the darkness, highlighting the sharp-edged shape of the cross.
Overshadowed by pylons which were themselves cruciform, the connection wasn't difficult to make.
The cross, a symbol of weakness, suffering and death, but behind it the very power that enables it to shine.
The cross, combining in itself darkness and light, and even that deep darkness cannot eclipse the light.
Darkness takes many forms; death, suffering, depression, fear, cruelty, violence, hatred, injustice. These are all abstract nouns, but the concrete realities add up to so much that afflicts humanity and the life we share on this earth.
What makes this cross specific, is our ability to see in our own life, and in the lives of all our fellow creatures, what it is that diminishes, crushes and afflicts human life. The Cross is the place to which we bring the suffering of humanity, our own and the world's pain.
Kneeling as those who do not have the answers, and sometimes can't even articulate the questions, we look at the light of God's love that shines out into that darkness, gloom and greyness. And we pray, for the healing of our world, and the healing of our times, and the healing of our hearts.
For Christians, power should never be about coercion, competition, domination or subjugation of others. The cross is the negation of all ideologies of power over others.
The power of God's love in Christ shines in unbroken patience, determined purpose, faithful persistence, redemptive mercy, and an infinite hopefulness that from all eternity, has ever been self-giving and infinite in creative intent.
"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
(This is the first in a series of reflections on the Cross. Each one will focus on an image of the cross based on photos I've taken. The photo above shows Westhill Community Church front, exterior.)
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