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Making Sense of the Cross

This year several St. Matthew parishioners shared a Lenten experience with several members from Peace Lutheran Church, our full communion partners. Each Thursday we gathered for a soup/study followed by Evening Prayer.

We alternated meeting at St. Matthew (Fireside space) and Peace Lutheran (lower hall). Each week while sipping soup and munching on buns or bread we watched a video by Lutheran theologian David Lose as he summarized the pertinent chapter from his excellent book Making Sense of the Cross. After the video either Fr. Allen or Pastor Christoph would facilitate a discussion on the chapter’s main points.

The purpose of the book and the study was to help the participants wrestle with how the meaning of Christ’s death on a cruel cross has been understood down through the ages and into our present time. We looked at three main theories of Atonement (a word that is best understood if broken into its parts: at-one-ment). Discussions revolved around four central questions: What does the Cross tell us about 1) What God is like 2) What’s broken about the relationship between God and humanity 3) How does Jesus’ death (and resurrection?) repair what is broken and 4) What picture of the Christian life is given? A final, greatly appreciated discussion, revolved around moving from theories of at-one-ment to experiencing it in our lives and as a community. The participants enjoyed the content of the discussion and the opportunity to meet new people and build relationships across our two churches. The evenings ended each time with a beautiful musical setting of Holden Evening Prayer (link here to see an example).

The participants would like to thank Pastor Christoph for initiating idea, Fr. Allen for facilitating, the musical players (Eileen Deros and David Rushton) for leading us and teaching us the Holden Prayer setting. A special thanks to those in both parishes who prepared the soup and bread; it provided just the right touch for our fellowship and study!