Wearing the Cross

Is it unusual in your world to see a woman wearing a cross around her neck?

Standing in line to tour the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest, I got into a lengthy discussion of recent history with my sister-in-law’s cousin, Attila (“the Hun,” as he likes to say).

The conversation in English had become quite animated when I noticed the woman standing behind him was nodding.

Indeed, she stepped forward and interjected her own point.

Attila turned in surprise and then we included her in. Eventually she introduced herself as a tourist from Berkeley, California–which means she lives about 50 miles away from me.

I noticed she kept staring at me, but didn’t think anything of it until she blurted out her question. “Why do you wear that cross around your neck?”

I fingered the gold cross. “As a symbol of my faith.”

“Why? Are you some sort of Catholic?”

Was it a symbol?

I grew up in the port of Los Angeles and home to many Mediterranean immigrant fishermen. Many women wore small gold crucifixes around their necks when I was growing up; I thought it was a badge of adulthood.

My own mother, a Sicilian native, wore a small gold saint’s medal as long as I could remember. She never took it off–her godmother had given it to her at birth.

Somehow, I never got a fine gold necklace like my mother and countless friends wore.

So, when I became a Christian as a teenager, I bought a cross necklace, latched it around my neck and never took it off.

Until it broke or I lost it, and then I bought a new one.

I never thought anything about it until the woman in Budapest asked her perplexed question.

“No,” I said. “I attend a Lutheran church.”

This smart Berkeley sophisticate was still confused. “Do Protestants wear crucifixes?”

Attila, of Jewish heritage and a Nazi occupation survivor, raised his eyebrows at me.

I seldom think about it except when I pull it out of my clothes or when it twists around my neck during aerobics. It had not occurred to me Atttila and his Jewish relatives might find it curious, too.

So much for my cultural awareness.

A cross not a crucifix

“Actually, this is a simple cross,” I explained. “Protestants don’t wear crucifixes–which have Christ’s figure on them. I wear it to remind myself of what I believe and who I belong to. It marks me as a Christian.”

As my friend Kay demonstrated when she had a Coptic cross tattooed on her forearm,  it’s helpful for me remember just who I worship in our secularized society, and to be marked as such.  (See my blog post Tattooing Your Soul ).

But apparently many Christians don’t see it the same way.

Several months ago a woman I’ve known 15 years and attend church with, approached me on the same topic.

“I’ve noticed you always wear a cross and I wondered why. It also made me wonder if I ought to do the same thing myself.”

It told her to wear a cross only if she wanted to.

We don’t have to wear jewelry or have crosses tattooed to our arms to demonstrate to the world we are Christians. They should know we are Christians by our love, by our willingness to forgive, and by our open hands to God’s creation.

The cross is an offense to some, and can be downright dangerous if you wear it in the wrong place (I hid it under my clothes in London). It can open doors for discussion as it did in Budapest, or remind other believers of how you should behave if you proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus.

In the first century, wearing a cross around your neck would be the equivalent today of wearing an electric chair medallion,  some believe-i t was an offensive way to kill criminals.

And yet, it’s the way God redeemed the world.

That’s why I wear it –in thankfulness to the one who saved even sinful me.

Thanks be to God.

Tweetables

An unexpected question about a cross necklace. Click to Tweet

A woman in Budapest questions a cross necklace. Click to Tweet

The cross as an offense or a source of questions? Click to Tweet