The individual and the Collective

This wooden cross in the auditorium  at the Glorious Promised Land,  made me pause and reflect. 

Usually a wooden cross is made from a single wooden piece. The cross in this photo, was made by joining  multiple pieces of finely crafted wooden pieces.

The Christological symbols have a meaning and appeal.

The cross, when made from different pieces of wood represents the message that, 'we who are many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another (Romans.12:5). It is a sobering and inspiring message to all followers of Jesus of Nazareth, who suffer from separation and divisions, while being followers of the same faith tradition. 

The cross also symbolises the 'suffering servant', Jesus of Nazareth who volunteered for a vicarious death on the cross. That cross since then become the symbol of healing in a broken world.

This cross formed by joining together  several pieces of wood is an invitation for all those who profess to be followers of Jesus, to be unitedly engaged in a mission of becoming whole. The whole is formed by individual parts. But if the individual parts are separate from each other, the whole does not come into being. 

Although the different pieces in the wooden cross look dissimilar in colour, design and texture, they create the cross. There will be a mosaic in the whole, if all followers of Jesus can be an assembly, tuned to each other in fellowship and partnership.  

There are differences of opinion in pursuing a vocation, even in small organisation. But a rigid adherence to doctrines or dogmas can permanently keep the faith travellers separate from each other, which keep us fragmented and less appealing, to seekers of truth. 

The individual pieces formed this cross. Each piece of wood would not have made the symbol of the cross. I wish, individual followers of Jesus of Nazareth, would be drawn together with a passion to  form the whole, which then would be the symbol of healing in a broken world!

Agape love is the substance of the cross. Is that the heart language of individual followers of Christ and the congregations of followers of Jesus!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)