Standing Split Cross

This cross made from the barrel and forestock of a shotgun, is striking.  It reminds us of the inherent violence of the crucifixion and the beauty of a love that is willing to give all in friendship.  Approaching the profile you can more easily see that it is not straight but gently leaning down and forward, “as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” (Mathew 23:37).

All representations of the cross are simulacra.  We don’t know what the original cross looked like, academics best guess it that it was a Tau cross (like a capital “T.”).  Romans are known to have crucified subjects on many structures including a simple pole stuck in the ground to an available tree.  The crosses Romans made were probably crude and constructed quickly; the physical object of torture was not the point, it was to tool to terrorize the public from disdisobeying Roman laws. Crosses were not even among the earliest symbols for followers of the nonviolent Jesus. It is remarkable that the Latin interpretation of the cross has become such a standard in Christian life around the globe.  Human culture imbues our symbols with meaning.  It is appropriate for each era to continue to re-create our traditional symbols while updating them to our time.  In a time and place where gun violence is the leading cause of death for our  youngest citizens it feels right to make crosses from destroyed guns.  It feels right to heat up and soften our attachment to guns, cut and forge them inside out, birthing them into new life as a standard for Love and acceptance.  It feels right to ask ourselves while in worship, how will we follow the nonviolent Jesus and love our neighbor today.

The underlying blacksmith technique to make this “split cross” (AKA Friedrichs cross”) has been around for centuries; some folks think this technique has been forged for over 600 years.  Unique to the crosses we make is that they are from gun barrels which are essentially pipes instead of a solid stock. Traditionally split crosses are forged from a rectangular chunk of solid metal.  Making them from pipe and keeping the curves of the pipe is a bit more time consuming and less forgiving.  This split cross is both old and new on several different planes; it reminds me of that line in Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun.”