What is the Meaning of the Cross?

The band Switchfoot has a song called "American Dream." Here are part of the lyrics:

When success is equated with excess
The ambition for excess wrecks us
When top of the mind becomes the bottom line
Then success is equated with excess

When success is equated with excess
When we're fighting for the beamer, the lexus
As the heart and soul breathing the company goals
Where success is equated with excess

I want out of this machine
It doesn't feel like freedom

This ain't my American dream
I want to live and die for bigger things
I'm tired of fighting for just me
This ain't my American dream

I began wondering, this week, about the pressure of the American Dream...and even how that comes into effect around the holidays. What is the "perfect" American Dream Christmas? And what kind of strain does that exert on our lives and relationships...and what turmoil to our spirit?

And then I wondered about the Cross. That horrible tool of suffering and punishment, a sign of what happens to someone who has a counter-cultural dream. In Ephesians 2, the cross is spoken of in such a different way. Not the strain. Not the burden. But Ephesians 2:16, says, it is through the Cross, that Christ brought peace.

What is the meaning of the cross? for you? for me?

[related to sermon 12.02.07, 10am worship, Good Shepherd UMC, Westminster, Rev. Lynn Munson]