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Proper 16, Year C
August 22, 2004
Christ Church, Covington
“Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and
will eat in the kingdom of God” (Lk. 13:29).
When I was a student in New York, someone told me that if you went down to
Times Square and waited around long enough, in due course everyone in the
world would walk past you on the sidewalk. Maybe this is the sort of “tall
tale” you tell naïve young seminarians from South Carolina before you try
to sell them the Brooklyn Bridge, but there’s more than a little truth in
this bit of hyperbole; namely, that Times Square is a global crossroad. In
the days of the Empire (that is, the British Empire) I suppose Trafalgar
Square was such a crossroad; or perhaps the Roman Forum was like this for
yet another Empire if we cast back far enough. The Romans were fond of
saying, after all, that “All roads lead to Rome”, and we might take this
as the very definition of a crossroad: a junction, an intersection. A
crossroad ties together different people and places, bringing them
together; it is a place of high energy, a junction, where goods, ideas,
and forms of life are transmitted and shape each other in turn.
Jesus himself was born at such a crossroad. Palestine is part of the great
land bridge that joins Africa and Asia, just south of the plateau of Asia
Minor that joins both to Europe. Our earliest ancestors traveled this land
bridge when they came out of Africa, and over the centuries nations and
their armies have come to this crossroads again and again. The events we
read about in our newspapers, events in the Middle East of great concern
to us, have historic precedent. There’s a well-worn trail here at this
crossroad.
So it should be no surprise when Jesus gives us the image of the crossroad
in our Gospel. “Then people will come from east and west, from north and
south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.” For God’s People the Jews,
Jerusalem was the great crossroad, the place of pilgrimage from the four
corners of the earth, the place where heaven and earth themselves
intersected. In Jerusalem, God’s People encountered not just people,
goods, and ideas, but God himself. Jesus borrows the image of the
crossroad to let us know that the kingdom is a place of connection.
The Church is a crossroad of connection. A crossroad ties together
different people and places; it’s a place of high energy where goods,
ideas, and forms of life are shaped and transmitted. A crossroad is
dynamic, with movement and transition; so we commonly say, “I’ve come to a
crossroad”. It certainly represents a juncture between one thing and
another, a point of departure, a harbinger of change. But what Jesus is
highlighting here with the crossroad image is not change, but connection.
The crossroad is the place where transitions come together and
intersection becomes fruitful and creative. The crossroad is where we
bring it all together and set out in a direction. The Church is that kind
of crossroad.
Think about this “crossroad quality” in relation to your own experience of
the Church, even with our own parish community. Our gathering today brings
us from north and south, east and west. We’re connecting with each other,
and through that connection, with God. Ideas and gifts are coming together
here. There are people passing through today, in transition from summer to
school, vacation to work, even work to sabbatical. There are newcomers to
our parish community, wondering what this crossroad is all about. But
everybody, old and new, is going to have a chance to connect with each
other, in small groups of different sorts, this fall. Connecting here, we
will connect with God. Like seasoned travelers, we don’t want to miss our
connection.
To all of which we can add the various crossroads that each of us have
come to in our own individual journeys, of faith and self-discovery. So if
you are at a crossroad in your life, remain calm! If you take away nothing
else as you examine your own crossroad you should take that away. Your
crossroad may seem fairly bizarre to you, like the Times Square I remember
in the 1980s, the sort of place where you can get into all sorts of
trouble. But don’t be put off by the chaos of the junction to which God
has brought you. For wherever you are in your life, at whatever crossroad,
God has also brought you here. The crossroad that the Church represents is
a crossroad of connection.
Things come together here, in Jesus Christ. There’s energy here, where
life intersects, the power of new resurrection life. Here is where we make
our connection and set out in the direction we’re called.
The Rev’d John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
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