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DAVID'S EMAIL BIBLE STUDY:
The Power of the Cross
A.
INTRODUCTION... each week we are looking at the scriptures that inform or arise from one of my short stories from Water Into Wine. Since each story is faith-driven we look for verses that amplify the story. Today's story is "Tracy Lee". It grew out of experiences I had in the mid-1960's working in Brooklyn, a time of great tumult in America. The Vietnam War, Civil Rights, urban riots, and the sexual revolution and drugs were all transforming society in ways positive and negative. Religion, the family, church politics, and society itself were impacted. Into that world stepped "guys like Tracy Lee and me, do-gooders of various stripes, the foot soldiers of the revolution, whether Jesus' or Che's... into that zone of containment, we were in the container, me and Tracy Lee, a
million others sweating bullets. And dodging them". (page 15)
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B. TODAY,
... Ephesians 2:14-16 and Matthew 25:31-40.
C. SUMMARY
- MY story. The narrator, 19, is working for a Bible society that organizes church people to give away Bibles door to door. The assignment takes him to a Brooklyn church where Tracy Lee is a sort of community organizer/social worker. Their daily subway ride on the elevated line takes them into the lives of apartment dwellers along the route. Their work takes them into the lives of people in the neighborhood. Tracy Lee uses idle time to whittle crosses, which he gives or leaves as opportunities arise. Their work is crashed by violence in the playground across the street. They intervene, and Tracy Lee challenges the narrator repeatedly, "What are you going to do for them?" The next day Tracy Lee is gone, leaving the narrator along with the violent perpetrator from the playground. He seems changed, converted, wanting to join with the narrator's Bible work and continue Tracy Lee's community work.
2. BIBLE Summaries. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians he celebrates the effective work of the cross in enabling people to "break down the dividing wall of hostility" and bring about peace between people and God, and between people. In Matthew's scriptures Jesus describes how people will be judged by God. He describes himself as hungry, thirsty, naked, and alone. And there are some people (sheep) who helped him, and some didn't (goats). Surprisingly, both groups of people claim they never saw Jesus like that. He corrects them: "whatever you do until the least, you do unto me."
D. KEY POINTS:
- YOU. You count. You matter. Whether or not I thought about it in the writing process, Tracy Lee comes across as a Jesus figure. The story takes place over three days, and on the third day "he is not here". Sort of like Good Friday to Easter. Tracy Lee confronts the narrator three times, asking "What will you do?" Sort of how Jesus confronted Peter three times, asking "do you love me? Feed my sheep." But most directly, Tracy Lee leaves, leaving behind a puzzled narrator and a slowly awakening perpetrator/mugger. If anything good is to come of Tracy Lee's work, they will have to do it. I write at the end, "No Tracy Lee. Just that boy, and me. Wouldn't you know. I'd known Tracy Lee a lifetime for two days, and he always put you front and center. You were the answer to any question. The missing piece." (pg. 25)
2.
The CROSS. Pontius Pilate meant for Jesus' crucifixion to be the humiliating end of Jesus and all he represented. Jesus was mocked and desecrated, a final insult to him and all Jews. Story over. Instead, Christians turned the cross into an emblem of love, sacrifice, victory, even beauty. We wear it proudly. It is at the front of our church. It is on many national flags. It has come to represent the best of God and of ourselves. One hymn declares "In the cross of Christ I glory". Theologically, St. Paul gets the credit for transforming an object of execution into the symbol of Christ's power. By Jesus' willing sacrifice on the cross we now know the fullness of God's love. And together with the Easter resurrection, we have the twin triumphs over sin (the cross) and death (the empty tomb). We are set free to live fearlessly. In my story, Tracy Lee seems to know this. The narrator wants to emulate him. The perpetrator is actually willing to work at it. Tracy Lee's "signature move" (as they say in sports) was to whittle crosses and look for ways to put them in people's hands as encouragement, reminder, and comfort.
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