Artist’s Statement

In antiquity, God Himself did it through a burning bush, in the midst of lightning and thunder, in a gentle breeze, and through men set apart as His mouthpieces. Christ did it enrobed in the frailty of human flesh along the highways and byways, in small and big towns, with individuals and crowds, and even as He hung dying on a cross. God now commissions others to do it in His name in the power of His Spirit so that all may hear.

Kerusso– to preach, proclaim, announce, or herald the good news that because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, God embraces sinners just as they are with a forgiving and merciful love that’s divine and eternal.

The entire span of redemptive history is bound up in this edict. But it takes clear, specific form in the New Testament where the word kerusso appears at least 60 times. There is practically no more urgent and pervasive command Jesus impressed upon His people than to proclaim His work, and more specifically, His crucifixion. The cross is central to the heralding activity of the Christian.

It was the cross of Christ that was announced by Peter in his great sermon in Acts 2:36 "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ-- this Jesus whom you crucified." It was the Christ of the cross whom Paul heralded to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 1:23, “but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” In fact, Paul proclaims that he knows nothing else more important than the fact of Jesus cross-work, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

Indeed, the cross is central to the heralding activity of the Christian. In the vernacular, you could say that Christians are to “pipe” this good news about the cross. We are to pipe it loud and pipe it soft. We are to pipe it deep and pipe it high. We are to pipe it at length and in detail, and we are to pipe it briefly and with simplicity. We are to pipe it all the time, in season and out. As the redeemed of God, we are to pipe the good news of Christ crucified as the basic soundtrack or melody of our lives.

What could be a more appropriate or important theme for a sculpture than the heralding of the cross? And if we are to “pipe” this good news at all times and in many ways, how fitting is it to create this sculpture using the pipes from a weathered, grand old pipe organ? It is fitting, indeed! For as this organ once played cross-heralding music with all the magnificent variety of its many pipes, we too are to do the same. The organ’s purpose, being in a church, was to lift the people within its sound to the cross where they could fall down in worship. In the same way, whenever we proclaim the cross, we and others are to fall down in worship.

I have created this sculpture using all manner of pipes from this old organ and arranged them in the shape of a cross to convey exactly this point. The subtlety of the shape and the slight backlighting add a sublime mystery and softness to the artwork. Yet the message is clear and easy to distinguish - kerusso - we are proclaiming the cross of Christ.