The Story of Our New Cross
If you attend our church and recently journeyed with us through Holy Week, you may have noticed that on Palm Sunday we suddenly had this new, gorgeously built cross. This is the story of where that new cross came from and how it was built.
The Gift of a New Cross
Every year on our church birthday (All Saints' Sunday) we have given the congregation a gift. This past November was our 5th birthday, and in line with the (completely non-spiritual) tradition of giving wooden gifts on 5th anniversaries, we thought it would be amazing to bless our church with a new cross, as our old one was on its last leg. In our Anglican tradition, it is essential that a wooden cross stand in the center of our sacred space of worship, symbolizing the centrality of Jesus' Cross to everything we do and believe. Thus, we saw this as an opportunity to not just throw something together, but to invest in something beautiful, using the gifts that God has distributed in our congregation.
The Gift of a New Cross
Every year on our church birthday (All Saints' Sunday) we have given the congregation a gift. This past November was our 5th birthday, and in line with the (completely non-spiritual) tradition of giving wooden gifts on 5th anniversaries, we thought it would be amazing to bless our church with a new cross, as our old one was on its last leg. In our Anglican tradition, it is essential that a wooden cross stand in the center of our sacred space of worship, symbolizing the centrality of Jesus' Cross to everything we do and believe. Thus, we saw this as an opportunity to not just throw something together, but to invest in something beautiful, using the gifts that God has distributed in our congregation.
Angel, Ian, and Kent: Our Very Own Bezalels and Oholiabs
Last year we studied in Exodus how God set apart two guys named Bezalel and Oholiab from the people of Israel, and "filled [them] with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts" (Exodus 31:3-5). Praise God He is still filling people with His Spirit to be ministers of craftsmanship, for glory and for beauty. In our situation, this was Angel Gaytan, Ian Rundquist, and Kent McDonell.
From dreaming up its design, to gathering all the right materials, to spending countless hours in the shop solving problems and bringing the project together, Angel, Ian, and Kent built our cross as a labor of love. Here is what Ian said about its construction and meaning:
The cross and base stand over 8' tall, and the arms are approximately 4' wide. We designed it to be constructed of numerous pieces of wood glued together into panels, and then those panels are glued together to form the square of the upright and the cross arms. The base is made of four panels as well that are glued individually together and then tapered and mitered to form the corners of a pyramid, with the top of the pyramid crowned by a mitered walnut frame. Inside of this pyramid is a steel plate upon which everything rests. At the center of this plate is a welded and plywood-wrapped steel post which we are able to insert into the hollow cross bottom allowing the cross to rest firmly on the plywood with the steel reaching up 18" (one cubit) into the cross to keep in place without any fear of tipping.
There are a number of different things that we wanted to think about while constructing this cross, and I don't want to over symbolize something that is in and of itself a symbol of God's divine love and power and thereby distract from it's true purpose, but there are some things that I like to think about and ponder while looking at this cross. Firstly, you'll notice that the side panels are made up of three wider boards reminding us of the tri-unity of God, and from the front you see that there are seven pieces reminding us of the completeness of God's creation and salvific work and his perfection.
As far as the pyramid goes, obviously that shape and image are reflective of the Egyptians. I like to think about the Cross as conquering those ancient oppressors of Israel and that example of the power of God over the Egyptians in Exodus pointing towards Christ's work in the same manner as the pyramid base might visually draw one's eyes upwards towards the foot of the cross above it. If one were to look at the base before the cross rests on it, one might only see the oppression of the egyptians (i.e. the pyramid), and yet, God is there (the steel post) awaiting the cross which in due course will be set upon that foundation of that first salvific work.
The majority of this cross is built out of Maple, which is the state tree of Wisconsin, and yet there is poplar, and walnut, and red oak, and white oak, a beautiful myriad of species and colors that makes up the cross in the same manner as the wide diversity of the people of God who are all united together in his church. I believe that I can speak for Kent and Angel that our hope is that when you look at this cross you will not see any one of us, nor will you see our craftsmanship or our handiwork but you will see the Christ, who died not on a smoothly sanded and finished glossy work of art but upon a brutal rough-hewn tree. May we rejoice that the object and symbol of torture and brutal Roman power has been flipped on its head to symbolize the incomparable, beautiful, overwhelming, never ending love of God.
Last year we studied in Exodus how God set apart two guys named Bezalel and Oholiab from the people of Israel, and "filled [them] with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts" (Exodus 31:3-5). Praise God He is still filling people with His Spirit to be ministers of craftsmanship, for glory and for beauty. In our situation, this was Angel Gaytan, Ian Rundquist, and Kent McDonell.
From dreaming up its design, to gathering all the right materials, to spending countless hours in the shop solving problems and bringing the project together, Angel, Ian, and Kent built our cross as a labor of love. Here is what Ian said about its construction and meaning:
The cross and base stand over 8' tall, and the arms are approximately 4' wide. We designed it to be constructed of numerous pieces of wood glued together into panels, and then those panels are glued together to form the square of the upright and the cross arms. The base is made of four panels as well that are glued individually together and then tapered and mitered to form the corners of a pyramid, with the top of the pyramid crowned by a mitered walnut frame. Inside of this pyramid is a steel plate upon which everything rests. At the center of this plate is a welded and plywood-wrapped steel post which we are able to insert into the hollow cross bottom allowing the cross to rest firmly on the plywood with the steel reaching up 18" (one cubit) into the cross to keep in place without any fear of tipping.
There are a number of different things that we wanted to think about while constructing this cross, and I don't want to over symbolize something that is in and of itself a symbol of God's divine love and power and thereby distract from it's true purpose, but there are some things that I like to think about and ponder while looking at this cross. Firstly, you'll notice that the side panels are made up of three wider boards reminding us of the tri-unity of God, and from the front you see that there are seven pieces reminding us of the completeness of God's creation and salvific work and his perfection.
As far as the pyramid goes, obviously that shape and image are reflective of the Egyptians. I like to think about the Cross as conquering those ancient oppressors of Israel and that example of the power of God over the Egyptians in Exodus pointing towards Christ's work in the same manner as the pyramid base might visually draw one's eyes upwards towards the foot of the cross above it. If one were to look at the base before the cross rests on it, one might only see the oppression of the egyptians (i.e. the pyramid), and yet, God is there (the steel post) awaiting the cross which in due course will be set upon that foundation of that first salvific work.
The majority of this cross is built out of Maple, which is the state tree of Wisconsin, and yet there is poplar, and walnut, and red oak, and white oak, a beautiful myriad of species and colors that makes up the cross in the same manner as the wide diversity of the people of God who are all united together in his church. I believe that I can speak for Kent and Angel that our hope is that when you look at this cross you will not see any one of us, nor will you see our craftsmanship or our handiwork but you will see the Christ, who died not on a smoothly sanded and finished glossy work of art but upon a brutal rough-hewn tree. May we rejoice that the object and symbol of torture and brutal Roman power has been flipped on its head to symbolize the incomparable, beautiful, overwhelming, never ending love of God.
Carrying the Cross and Laying it Down
The team worked hard to finish the cross by Holy Week, and in a meaningful conclusion to the whole process, Ian and Angel were able to process it on Good Friday and lay it down for the whole community. How amazing that what was only an idea on paper months before, became at that moment the means through which Jesus ministered to hundreds of us at the Veneration of the Cross. May God continue to fill us with His Spirit, and may the ministry of craftsmanship abound more and more, for glory and for beauty.
Scott+
Eastertide 2024
The team worked hard to finish the cross by Holy Week, and in a meaningful conclusion to the whole process, Ian and Angel were able to process it on Good Friday and lay it down for the whole community. How amazing that what was only an idea on paper months before, became at that moment the means through which Jesus ministered to hundreds of us at the Veneration of the Cross. May God continue to fill us with His Spirit, and may the ministry of craftsmanship abound more and more, for glory and for beauty.
Scott+
Eastertide 2024
Posted in HomeWord