When we walked into the auditorium Sunday morning I could see that the stage was set for us to have communion. They usually have several candles set out lining the stage, but there was something else in the place of the candles. Upon further inspection, I could tell that they were 6 x 6 cedar beams. On the beams were small buckets (at first I thought they were votive holders) and what appeared to be hammers.
After the sermon our pastor said we were going to do a "spiritual exercise." He asked all those who wanted to participate to come forward, take a hammer, a nail and a small piece of black paper. The paper was meant to represent our sins, and we were to nail the piece of paper to the beam. Simple enough. Most of the congregation started making their way down front. We had around 1,500 - 1,600 in attendance.
The sound of the hammering all at once brought shivers. My mind immediately went back to the movie "The Passion of the Christ" and the scene of the nails going through Christ's body. Even as Rick was praying just before communion was served, a few of the last nails were being hammered into the posts.
I watched as Sara struggled with her nail; she just wasn't strong enough. The nails they used were masonry nails, flat on all sides instead of round and not exactly pointed on the end. I immediately thought, "Why didn't they used a regular 8 penny nail? That sure would have made this alot easier." Then I realized that they wanted to make this as realistic as possible, as masonry nails were probably closer to the spikes that would have been used for a crucifiction 2,000 years ago. I also realized how much more pain a nail like that would have caused - more blunt on the end than sharp, therefore taking longer to penetrate.
We talked about it in class afterwards, about all the symbolism in the act. Someone said that they felt that they needed several more squares of paper for all their sins. Another person said that he noticed some people were able to put the nail in with one or two swings of the hammer, while others seemed to take much longer. He said that's alot like repentance is - for people it takes longer than others. We talked about how much we felt like stepping in and helping those who had trouble driving their nails, but that would have defeated the purpose. Just like to have a relationship with Christ we have to do it on our own, no one else can do it for us.
I looked down at the palm of my left hand. Saturday afternoon I was replacing an electrical outlet in the girls' bathroom upstairs. While attempting to disconnect the wiring from the existing outlet, my hand slipped. I had a tool (can't remember what it's called, but it looks like a screwdriver with a pointed end and pretty sharp) in my right hand that I was using to pry the wire out of the outlet. The end of the tool went into the palm of my left hand. At the time it hurt like the dickens. I think I may have yelled and probably said something I shouldn't have said. Looking at the scar in class Sunday morning, I realized the pain to my palm was nothing compared to having a nail there.....
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