The Crucifix is Powerful

The Importance of The Crucifix

The empty cross, the one on which Jesus died, is the outstanding symbol of Jesus’ dying for us.  Jesus was removed from that terrible device, and placed in a tomb which was then sealed and guarded.   Then Easter!  Easter is the heart of Christian life.  Death is defeated!  A new age is inaugurated.  The resurrection of the body is now an event we celebrate and anticipate.  So the Cross is properly vacant.  Christ is risen!  He is not hanging on the cross.

While the simple vacant cross is a powerful message The Crucifix, Jesus on the Cross, carries powerful and important teaching.  Looking at the Lord Jesus hanging there in terrible agony announces God’s love in a powerful way.  It speaks a message sometimes overlooked when we focus on the cross without Jesus on it.  It is the message of God’s love, God’s pain.  It is a graphic proclamation of total love.

It is appropriate and good to appreciate and love the Crucifix.  It is a lesson about love.  What greater love is possible than that—dying, voluntarily. Yes, being put to death, in a terribly painful way, on behalf of others. That is love!  And it shows us in the extreme what the bottom line in our own lives must be.  We are called to live that way too- not go to the cross literally but we are urged to leave our comfortableness to help others. 

Every time we reach out and lift another person in some way we are dying for them.  Every tiny, medium sized, or major action of giving up time, money, energy, a preference, to help someone else is a form of dying for others.  When we focus on the dying Jesus, The Crucifix, we see a reminder of where our lives must be aimed.  The Crucifix graphically speaks of true love. 

Jesus said:  “If anyone desires to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever desires to save their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”  (Mt. 16:24).  That is the remarkable thing in all this.  We find meaning, purpose, vitality, and hopefulness, in carrying the agenda of dying for others, every day of the week.  We come to life in fresh ways ourselves when we lift others in any way with words, or kindness, with friendliness or interest, with admiration or appreciation.  We find life in giving love which gives life.

The Crucifix magnifies Jesus final words: “It is finished.”    All the preoccupation with sin, guilt and punishment was now over.  “It is finished.”  A new agenda is ours: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  We are called to bring heaven to earth.  We are called to build the Kingdom through love.  Sin is forgiven.  Loving-kindness is now our agenda, our mission.

Tears of Sadness Turn to Joy

Anna asked to see me in her waning hours.  Lung cancer was shortening her life radically at a young age.  She was only 47 years old, a hard-working single mother.  Today she was having difficulty breathing, and with a tube in her nose talking was not easy either.

What Anna said went like this: "I'm in so much pain, I can't keep my mind on Jesus."  Tears welled up in her eyes as she talked.  "I'm afraid I can't hang on to God and that scares me.  I feel so weak and I'm thinking about my children and feeling so troubled over much of my life."  Then the tears poured out:  "I'm afraid I wont have enough faith to go to heaven!"

She shared a few more thoughts and I mostly listened with brief comments showing I was hearing and understanding her deep anxiety.  Then I realized she was very tired and needed to hear from me about her fear.

"Anna," I said slowly, holding her hand in mine, "God holds on to you.  You do not have to hold on to God."  I paused and waited for the words to sink in.  "God will never leave you or forsake you.  Please relax and let that promise embrace and comfort you."

I then prayed slowly emphasizing those truths trying to saturate her soul with confidence and security and change her fear to joy.

I cannot adequately describe the look on Anna's face.  It became totally peaceful, with a slight incredulous smile as well.  Something enormous had changed in her.  Then with tears of joy she said "That is so good!  I have never heard such promises.   That is so good!  Thank you.  Thank you. Thank you."  Then she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Placebo

PLACEBO

( It is Faith Healing )

Pla-ce’-bo (plå-sē’-bő), n. [Latin, “I shall please.”]  Med. A medicine, esp. an inactive one, given merely to satisfy a patient.

                                                            Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, copyright, 1961

-                      A medication prescribed more for the mental relief of the patient than for its actual effect on his disorder.

Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, copyright, 1979

The mention of a placebo makes people smile.  It is the smile of a shared secret.  It connotes a beneficial little trick pulled on the not-really-sick.  The placebo technique involves giving a pill to trick the complainer into thinking something truly medicinal has been prescribed.  Believing it is true medicine many have been fooled into feeling better.  At least that’s how we have in the past thought about the placebo.  Recent research indicates there’s much more to it than fooling people.

Apparently when the placebo is taken by trusting patients, it actually causes the body to heal itself.  When the sick, or injured person pops the placebo pill into his system, the body can produce chemicals called endorphins.  One of these endorphis is a pain killer more powerful than morphine.  Pain is then reduced or eliminated by the body’s own chemicals, the production of which was stimulated by the placebo taken in “faith”.

The body can heal itself.  The self-healing capacity of our human system is being stressed more and more by medical leaders.  The placebo research underscores it in a striking way.  It shows that pulling the right trigger can initiate self-healing.

Throughout all of history healing has occurred in ways that defy modern science’s explanation.  While some healing may come straight from God, other recoveries may come through the mysterious miracles of faith in a practitioner, an herb, a touch, a spiritual event that triggers the self-healing potential of the human body.  That is a miracle of God too.

The trusting patient can be helped and even healed by a placebo, in the form of a medicine.   Obviously faith in the healing power of God, the hand of a praying person, or a drop of olive oil, can also release, trigger, or speed up healing in the sick or wounded person.

Primitive people have always responded to “unscientific” healing ventures.  Civilized Americans who have trusted science above all can hardly be helped by anything but the productions of laboratories.  Now as we see the evidence of the body’s self-healing capacities even modern people may find that faith can heal.  We may begin again to ask that the elders lay their hands on us, pray over us, and put the oil on us. Such love, care, attention, may trigger the healing process God has created within us.

People Need People

People Need People

What does this mean?  “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am present.”  They are the words of Jesus.  Is it just a description of a potent reality or is there more to it?

On the one hand it is saying that when we are gathered together in small groups The Lord is present with us.  However it would be an error to just leave it as a description.  It is also a prescription.  The words tell us we ought to get together in small groups because there is a special effect in those kind of gatherings.

Realizing this is a prescription we come to the understanding that in small groups the healing and helping presence of Christ Jesus becomes effective.  Such beneficial occasions are the result of the reality that Christ is in each of us and being with each other makes a positive difference.

Prayer is a powerful and necessary resource in our lives but a great amount of healing , renewal and restoration comes through being with others who care and encourage us.  Listening, forgiving, accepting are healing modalities.  And they are facilitated by people near us.

Sometimes we act as if God’s love comes through Bible verses, Christian truths and ideas.  We sometimes act as if the hurting person needs to get her facts straight or he needs clearer understanding of certain truths.  Far more powerful and healing is the presence of a caring friend or two.  “Weep with those who weep” the Bible advises.  There is where healing happens.  Not by getting better understanding.

That is what the church must be, a group who hurt with each other and laugh with each other.  It must be people who are “we” not “he” and “me”.  Just “we”.  That is the body of Christ.  We feel with each other.  And when we gather together and hear each other’s stories, healing happens.    

 

Combating Ageism--Six Suggestions

Ageism is an attitude or outlook that discounts and belittles the older years, and those of that age.

Suggestions for Taking a Different Approach:

1.  Discontinue even playfully fibbing or denying your true chronological age.

2.  Praise, honor, and show esteem openly to those who reach milestones of advanced age.

3.  Eliminate quips that knock and mock older age.  Regard such comments as inappropriate.  They are like racist or vulgar words.

4.  Seek the company of older people.  Treasure their observations, opinions, and advice.  Ask older folks to share their story with you.

5.  Select and elect older people for church and community leadership positions.

6.  Change your mind about aging.  Perceive it as a new opportunity rich with new rewards and discoveries.

A Proverb in the Bible says:  "Gray hair is a crown of splendor."

Aging Insights

"How Older People Feel and How they Think about Being Older"

90% are fairly well satisfied with their lives
83% feel they make a good impression
82% say they have gotten what they expected out of life
65% say things seem better than they expected
75% disagree if told this is a dreary time of life

MOST do not get down in the dumps, but instead look forward to good things.
MOST SAY “I’m just as happy as when I was younger.”

MOST say “these are the best years of my life.”
ONLY 5% require nursing home care, ever.

Smile ! A Care and Kindness Concept

         Big Smile, Long Life

                                                                     

People who smile a lot are usually happier, have more stable personalities, more stable marriages, better cognitive skills and better interpersonal skills, according to research. Science has  just uncovered another benefit of a happy face. People who have big smiles live longer.   

Researchers at Wayne State University used information from the Baseball Register to look at photos of 230 players who began their careers in professional baseball before 1950. The players' photos were enlarged, and a rating of their smile intensity was made (big smile, no smile, partial smile). The players smile ratings were compared with data from deaths that occurred from 2006 through 2009. The researchers then correc­ted their analysis to account for other factors associated with longevity, such as body mass index, career length, career precocity and college attendance.                                 |§j

For players who had died, the researchers found longevity ranged from an average of 72.9 years for players with no smiles (63 players) to 75 years for players with partial smiles (64 players) to 79.9 years for players with big smiles (23 players).

This isn’t a bunch of psycho-hooey, the authors said. Smiles reflect positive emotion, which is linked to   physical and mental well-being. But they added: "The data source provided no infor­mation as to whether expressions were spontaneous or in response to a photographer's request to smile. "Still, big smiles are more likely to reflect true happiness than partial smiles.     /

Maybe non-smilers were thinking about their batting averages.

shari.roan@latimes.com