The Bbile doesn't say anything about COVID-19 (and if it did, we wouldn't like it)

If you are like me, perhaps you have been wondering what the Bible has to say about the COVID-19 pandemic.  I have been reading and thinking about the response the Biblical prophets or the apostles would have to say to the church in like of these events.

            Granted we live in confusing times and we are given confusing messages from Evangelical Christian leaders. From Kenneth Copeland spitting on the COVID-19 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMkyDS5ULts) to Pat Robertson claiming that we have cowered before a virus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtiUOr-Vw80) to churches trying to ‘liberate’ states from Social Distancing mandates, the church has been confused as to what direction they need to go with this virus.

            So what about the Bible? What does the Bible say about this? Surprisingly very little.  There is no explicit guidance as to what to do during a pandemic….although many Christians are pointing towards Psalm 91 as proof that God will protect you from the coronavirus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObpY9DcNhic).  In particular Psalm 91:6 seems to be the verse that people key in on: “nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday” (ESV). 

            But let’s be clear. Psalm 91:6 is not God’s promise to you that you will not get coronavirus.  The Psalms are poetry that express general feelings about the Lord, not direct promises from God to you that will neither suffer harm nor have pain inflicted on you.  Psalm 91 is not a medal of protection that will keep the virus at bay from you. 

            Plague, famine, destruction are all things that God’s people have faced throughout history.  While there have been instances of individual’s being spared the devastating effects, God has never excluded His people from these plagues.  In fact, often it is Christians who are in the front line of these plagues, putting themselves at risk and often succumbing to the effects of them. Jesus is not the ‘vaccine’ for this virus (https://www.christianpost.com/news/jesus-is-my-vaccine-protest-sign-declares-in-pennsylvania-as-people-demand-reopening-of-economy.html).

            So if the Bible doesn’t have much to say about pandemics directly…what does it say?

            Well, here many American Evangelicals might not like the answer.  The main thrust of Biblical ethics are directed toward helping your neighbor and protecting their lives.

            We are now seeing Evangelicals protest and demand for their right to open the economy.  At the behest of the President, they are seeking to ‘liberate’ the states and ignore social distancing guidelines. We have seen many churches even defy these directives and continue to meet because they see it as an act of faithfulness ( https://www.thedailybeast.com/louisiana-pastor-tony-spell-vows-satan-and-virus-wont-stop-easter-service-as-others-make-unusual-plans). American Evangelicals see the social distancing restrictions placed on the population as a cause to rally against in the name of Jesus…because….Jesus is American?

            But this does not do justice to the overarching concern that the Bible has for life and for love of neighbor.  A consistent theme is that Christians should be willing and ready to sacrifice…well everything…for others (John 15:13).  In the current case, social distancing guidelines could save the lives of people at risk for this disease.  Just as we should be cautious about spreading any disease, we should be ready to sacrifice some of our personal liberties to keep others safe.  This virus is spread very quickly and has a long incubation period. This means that during one church service has the potential to spread this virus to thousands of people.  While I do believe that corporate worship is important, the witness we send to the world about our concern for others is equally valid.

            Near where my family lives, there is a large megachurch (with an obnoxious statue of Jesus in the front yard).  They have vowed to continue to hold services despite being encouraged and ordered not to. The reaction from neighbors is one of contempt and disgust as these Christians are putting others at risk for disease and possibly further exacerbating the medical system.

            But what about the damage done to the economy? Shouldn’t we open up the economy because people will be adversely affected by this? First let’s be clear…yes there will be economic repercussions from this, that is inevitable. But why are Evangelicals thinking of this as an either/or scenario, as if the choice is either we open the economy and sacrifice lives or we keep it closed and hurt people later?  

            Let’s be clear: the Bible would see this as a both/and situation.  Yes we are going to protect people from this virus by sacrificing some of our liberties.  And yes we are going to help people in the aftermath of this virus by sacrificing some of our wealth. See what the Bible calls Christians to is to do the best regardless of the situation we find ourselves in.  We minister to the best of our ability to all people and try to do the best regardless of how it will impact us.

            We do not get the option to sit back and do nothing.  We do not get the option of arguing that the economy is worth more than people’s lives.  We do not get the option of sitting back and watching others struggle with poverty while we thrive.  We are called to love and to work for the life and well being of all. Isn’t that the pro-life position of the Bible (Exodus 20:13, cf. WLC 135-136)?

            What does the Bible have to say about coronavirus? Probably not much.  But it does say a great deal about acting in love, which is what we are called to do in this time…and everytime.  

Corona-time

       
     

         In the age of Coronavirus, Social-distancing, quarantine, self-isolation and all around weirdness that is 2020, we have an opportunity to re-evaluate our lives…our goals and our accomplishments.  Many people who were busy every day of their lives suddenly find themselves with a great deal of free time. Some who were considered to be the low-important, entry-level employees find themselves labeled as ‘essential workers’ and are required to be at work much more than normal.

          If there is anything that this global pandemic has done…it has allowed us to reassess what is truly important.  Many of us are left with a great deal of time…perhaps uncomfortable time…to look at our lives.  What are we living for? What are we giving up? What are we doing with the time that we have been given?

        The other day I was asked by a couple of Christians about my productivity…or…I should say…in their eyes…my worth. Things have slowed down a bit at work…we are unable to do things we once did.  Public worship services have been canceled and I spend much more of my time editing videos.  Anyway, the couple wanted to slam any work product.  We are a small chapel community and we only garner a small amount of ‘views’ or ‘likes’ on our page. Am I ‘productive’ enough? Am I ‘good’ enough? Am I valuable?

        We have used terms like ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’ to divide up the work force.  During these times we say, “Mission-essential” personnel only should report to work.  In a short time event like a Typhoon or a Blizzard, this does not affect most of us psychologically.  But when the duration is months…well things get trickier.

        We see it already as the ‘essential’ hold out their ‘essentiality’ with a sense of distinction and pride.  They, after all, are chosen to be ‘essential.’  The non-essential workers struggle to maintain a sense of relevance for themselves and try to produce work…in order to…produce work.

         I admit that I struggle with this.  As somebody who has historically identified myself with my job…this is tough.  Do I matter? Am I valuable?

        Or is something else going on?

       Walter Brueggemann wrote a book entitled Sabbath as Resistance where he suggests many answers to these questions.

       Where do we get the assumption that our value is tied to our economic productivity? If we look in the Bible, we have to acknowledge that is Pharaoh who embraces this ethic.  “They are more numerous than the people of the land, yet you want them to stop working!” he screams (Exodus 5:5).  Work harder! Work without resources! Pharaoh is the capitalist God. 

       Capitalism may be a good economic system…but it is a terrible source of life.  As Brueggemann puts it, “our capitalistic system is on the wrong side of history.” This does not mean that we need to embrace socialism or communism or any other version of centrally run economies.  It does, mean, however that we need to redesign our system of values that are derived from capitalism.

In our current crisis, politicians are willing to sacrifice people to protect the economy.  Rep Trey Hollingsworth of Indiana presents at as the mature thing to do (https://time.com/5821166/gop-coronavirus-deaths-economy/).  Time to “put on our grown up pants…” he intimates…as if those who want to stem the tide of the virus are immature babies. In a value system that would make Pharaoh giddy with delight, Hollingsworth suggests that the most important items are the economy and our productivity.  These are what give us meaning.  This is what is truly important.

In the Old Testament, YHWH had a different understanding.  He wanted His people to leave Egypt to worship the Lord (although even today, YHWH would probably insist on social distancing).  Delight was to be found in community and in providing for one another.  Joy was to be found in the Lord, not in the economic bottom dollar.

        Jesus, too, seemed to place value on people rather than political or economic goals. “Love one another…” that is the commandment Jesus gave to His disciples the night before he died. “Pray for you enemy…” he declared.  The New Testament church went farther and declared that true religion was to take care of the widow and the orphan (James 1:24).  The Church met together and took care of each other and shared in their property (Acts 6).  Their value system was different. 

Imagine a world where we could take the time to develop a new sense of community…a new sense of value and a new sense of importance.

        We now have that opportunity.  One of the things that is interesting in the Old Testament was God’s command for Israel to take a Sabbath every seven years (Lev 25:2-4).  God declares that if the people of Israel did not do this, He would inflict it on the land (Jer 25:11-12).  One of the reasons the people go into Exile is because the land needs a Sabbath rest.  It is a reminder to put God at the center of all things.

       When we do this, we realize that God is in charge, we are not.  God will do what God will do and we can not stop that. If God wants the world to pause, the world will pause. But this also has a side implication: we are all non-essential.

       God does not depend on us…any of us…to do His will. No matter how busy or non-busy wer are, God’s plan will always be accomplished.  This is heart breaking for many of us. We want to be the agents of our success and we want to change the world.  But it is God who does that.  Not us. It is        God who accomplishes His plans…we do not accomplish those plans for Him.

       But just because we are non-essential does not mean that we are not valuable.  I truly believe that every individual…the billions and billions who existed over time and the billions who exist now and all of those who will exist in the future are valuable. Each of us is important to somebody else.  The Navy may not care about me…but my family does.  My friends do. 

Even more important that this…God does.  One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Zephaniah 3:17… “He will delight over you…He will quiet you with his love.” Brennan Manning spoke about the furious longing of God and there is a sense in which each one of us… all of us are important to God.

        So perhaps the Corono-virus is an opportunity for us to re-evaluate what we are basing our lives on.  If we seek to base it on the productivity of Western Capitalism, we will surely be disappointed as we increasingly become aware of our own irrelevance. But if we base it on God and derive our value and importance from this…we will truly be free.

So my content may not be viewed by many people.  Nobody may read this blog entry…I’d be highly surprised if anyone did.  But my importance is not derived from how many likes, or clicks or shares I get.  
       My importance and my value is derived by my God and my family who love me.

Are you Somebody?

Nuala O’Faolin recently wrote a book whose title, Are you Somebody?, says it all.  She takes it from a question she was asked one day.  In her account of her life, she attempts to answer the question…maybe not the answer the person who asked the question was looking for, but an answer nonetheless.

            Are you somebody?

            Isn’t that a question that we are asked…and we ask ourselves…a thousand times a day.  The question may be asked in terms of “are you somebody important?”  Or maybe the person wants to know, “are you somebody I know…or I should know.”  Perhaps underlying all of this is the unspoken assumption, “are you somebody I should care about?”

            Are you somebody?

            How would you answer that question about yourself?  Are YOU somebody?  Perhaps it might depend on what you meant by ‘somebody’.  I mean, aren’t we all somebody? We all have our own personality, our own interests, our own quirks and our own habits.  Maybe you might say, “well, I’m somebody to some people” I have a family that loves me…and if they don’t love me they at least acknowledge that I belong to them. But am I somebody important? Am I somebody valuable? Well now we are getting into dangerous waters indeed.

            Are you somebody?

            Our Gospel lesson today introduces us to somebody who might have been asking this very same question.  In John 4, we meet this unnamed ‘Samaritan Woman’ who epitomizes the question we have been asking.  And even though we don’t get to know much about this woman, we find out what it means to be somebody through her eyes.

            It seems like an ordinary day.  Jesus has been out preaching and he is thirsty and tired.  He sits by a well in a small town in Samaria while the disciples go off and do…disciple things.  As Jesus is sitting there, this woman comes up to him.

            This woman…this unnamed woman coming at the well at noon.  Not in the morning, when everybody else would come to the well.  At noon.  So she wouldn’t be noticed by other people.  So she could avoid the other women in the town.  So she could be alone.  As she comes to the well, Jesus begins to talk to her.

            Are you somebody? Ok…not the question he asks.  Rather he asks with the benign request for a drink of water. 

            She responds, “How is it you a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (4:9).  She responds, “Are you somebody?”  She is confused because it was a social custom that Jews and Samaritans would be kept separate from each other.[1]  Not only this, but this is a man asking something from a woman.  There is a high wall of social norms, laws and regulations that are being overcome and it understandably makes the woman uncomfortable. 

            The best part of this story comes with Jesus’ response to this.  If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘give me a drink’… What a great statement.  Essentially Jesus is saying “Well I actually AM somebody…in fact I AM” but then goes on to bring the conversation back to her again.  “I could give you ‘living water’.” 

            The story then takes another turn when Jesus tells her to go get her husband and come back to talk to him.

            Then comes the truth.

            I have no husband.

            Jesus replies, “You are right in saying that you have no husband. In fact, you have had five husbands and the man you are living with now is not your husband.”

            Five husbands.  That’s a lot.  But it is also the reason why the woman is out at noon by herself.

            No matter what the reasons are for having five husbands, the fact of the matter is that in a small town like Sychar, having five husbands meant you were somebody.  You were that woman ( you can feel free to fill in what ‘that’ meant).  You were that woman that five men couldn’t stand so they left you.  You were that woman who was cursed by God and had her husbands die on her. You were that woman that you couldn’t even make the current guy marry you.   

You were somebody…but you were really nobody.  You were nobody that anybody wanted to be around.  You were nobody that anybody cared about. You were nobody that anybody wanted to see.

You were alone in the world and you can imagine what this felt like. 

She might have felt that she had been cursed by God.  She might have felt unclean because of her current circumstances.  She definitely felt alone.

Cursed.  Unclean.  Alone.

The nature of her five (failed?) marriages doesn’t really matter.  What really matters is how she felt.  Ostracized by her community, forsaken in love, abandoned by everyone and everything important.  It is no wonder that when given the opportunity to talk to Jesus, she talks about an old theological dispute.  Something that’s not personal, not about her.  Something that’s safe.

Cursed.  Unclean.  Alone. 

I bet that we have all felt like this at some point in our lives.  One of the memories I have of growing up was being called a “waste of air”.  But so many people have had to endure so much more.

I think of Anna, who grew up hated by her father only to marry a man who cared even less for her.

I think of Dan who gave his life over to drugs at an early age, kicked out by his family and lived his life on the streets.

I think of Mildred, the elderly woman that nobody wanted to visit and nobody wanted to listen to her pain.

Cursed.  Unclean.  Alone.

When we find ourselves like this.  We may ask ourselves, “Am I somebody?”  And the answer comes back in our heads and nestles in our hearts, “I am nobody worth listening to, I am nobody worth being with; I am nobody worthy loving.”  “Am I somebody?”  “NO” the answer echoes in the stillness of our rooms with only ourselves to hear it.

But when we consider this story, a different answer must be given. 

At its’ heart, this story is about the man who did pay attention, who did listen, who did care.

At this point in John’s Gospel, the reader knows fully well who Jesus is.  In fact, we cannot avoid this fact.  John’s Gospel begins, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was With God and the Word was God”.  John makes it pretty clear that Jesus is the Word, that Jesus is God.  “All things that were created were created through him.”  Jesus is God, He is the creator of the universe, of all that was and is and will ever be.

Reimagine this story.  Here is a woman, a broken, lonely woman going to the well one day.  Who does she meet? I AM.  The Beginning and the End the Alpha and the Omega, the CREATOR of the universe and all that is. 

This God became flesh, became man, and sat at the well with this woman.  He took an interest in her.  He offered her ‘living water’, everlasting life and life with hope.  He offered her a future where the God of the Universe loved her and took an interest in her.  In Her! 

This may not seem like a lot…but it is EVERYTHING.  It doesn’t matter what the other people in town are saying.  It doesn’t matter that life hasn’t worked out according to plan.  It doesn’t matter that our hearts are broken (it does, but hear me out).  What matters is that the GOD of the Universe, the one who holds worlds in the palm of His hands, is uniquely interested in YOU.  He wants to hear from YOU.  He wants to know what is going on in your life.  He wants to know your pain.  He wants to know your joy, he wants to know your life.

Are you somebody?

Yes, yes you are.  You are somebody of great importance to the great God of the Universe.  You are His beloved child.

You are somebody, and of slightly greater importance is that He is somebody.  He is God Incarnate.  He is the Christ.  He is the one who offers you living water to drink, both now and forevermore.

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[1] Jewish people of Judea (southern Israel) considered themselves to be ‘pureblood’ while the Jews of Samaria (Northern Israel) were descendands from mixed races.

Joy to the World!

           

          I meet a lot of people by accident.  It is just my lot, it seems.  Either I amble up to somebody and start talking (thinking they are somebody else) or people come and start talking to me, thinking I am somebody else.  At first, I was pretty put off by it, but before long, I’ve learned to roll with it.  I mean, we can all learn something from everybody and we should be open to new experiences every day.   Sometimes things go really well and we both walk away from the encounter having learned something or have just enjoyed each other’s company.   Sometimes, things go bad and then there is awkward moment that happens before one of us leaves.  But mostly, it’s ok. 

            I remember this one time, however, when I was NOT who was expected.  I was visiting somebody in the hospital and they clearly thought I was the priest to come and give them last rights.  Now, it’s important to know that this person was not anywhere close to dying.  They had come in for a relatively minor problem, but because I had been identified as a clergy member, they assumed that the end was near for them.  So, before I could stop her, out came a list of every sin she had committed…and we are not talking about minor ones here!  “Pastor, I had an affair with my neighbor and I never told my husband, I committed insurance fraud and I have a bunch of unpaid parking tickets!”  There was an awkward silence as she caught her breath, in which the doctor was able to say, “Ma’am….you are going to be fine.”  She looked at the doctor…then looked at me…then looked around the room at everybody who was in the room.  I have never seen anybody look redder.

            I was not who she expected…but then again, she was not in the situation she had thought.  I don’t know what ever happened to her, but I like to think that she took that moment as a real opportunity to look at her life, to rejoice in it and to change.

            Today’s Gospel reading is about expecting the right person.  Advent is about waiting with joy for the right person to come and to set all things new. 

            In our lesson, we find John the Baptist in jail.  John is one of those types of people we should probably expect to find in jail.  After all, he was bold in his proclamation and spoke the truth to power.  He even confronted Herod about his practices and that is why he wound up in jail. 

            Prison is a place of waiting…waiting either for release or for death.  German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who spent the last two years of his life in a prison cell, reflected that “A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various unessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.”[1]  But John is waiting and he is uncertain about his waiting around.  He is not sure what it is all about.

            John had initially pointed out Jesus from the crowd.  When Jesus emerged from the crowd to be baptized, John declared, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) He says this with such confidence and such boldness that today’s text has us do a double take.  John has now been waiting in prison for a long time, that he sends his messengers to Jesus and asks the question, “are you the one to come, or should we expect another?” 

            Talk about an embarrassing question to have asked.  Could you imagine the discussion that John’s disciples have on the way to meet Jesus?  “So…he boss seemed pretty sure of himself…” “Yeah…what do you think Jesus will say?”

            It might be easy for us to look down on John, but don’t we do the same thing and ask the very same question?  We might have a little bit more wiggle room…after all, it’s been two thousand years , and Jesus still has not returned.  It’s been two thousand years and those miracles have not been as often as they were when Jesus walked the earth.  It’ s been two thousand years and some of us might begin to wonder… “Jesus, are you the one to come? Or should we expect somebody else?” 

            We get tired of waiting for Jesus to appear…or we get embarrassed that we are called Christians.  Some have answered the question by saying that yes, we have been waiting for somebody else. Various names have been put into contention: Mohammed, Joseph Smith, Mary Eddy, and the Bab.  Others have said that we put our eggs in the wrong basket and that we have been failed by God.  Others have said that there is nothing special about Jesus.

            Maybe the problem is with our perception of Jesus.

            I often talk to sailors who say something like this: I have been good and yet God hates me.  He doesn’t take care of me! Whatever that might be…working too much or not getting the duty station they want or not getting promoted.  They get angry at God and they express their hurt and anger.  But if this is how we view God, you are more than likely to be disappointed.  Because these things will happen to us.  Bad things will inevitably happen to us and we will be looking for another God.

            So we can imagine John’s disappointment as he sends these messengers to Jesus.

            When the messengers get to Jesus, He responds simply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matthew 11:4b-5).  Jesus has this way of not answering the question that actually answers the question and here is no different.  His answer is an affirmation that the evidence speaks for itself.

            Jesus is looking back to the  prophesies of the Old Testament, specifically Isaiah 35.  Here we read,

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. (Isaiah 35:5).

            This was the time that was supposed to be inaugurated by the coming of the Messiah.  Isaiah had prophesied a time when the curse would be overturned and the kingdom of God would be established.  Jesus is saying that not only is he the one to bring this about, but that it is in fact happening as!   This is the significance of the coming of Jesus, and it is one that the Church needs to recapture.

            The third Sunday in Advent is known as ‘joy’ Sunday.  At about this time during the holiday season, most of us have probably lost our joy.  Stress has overtaken us as we have struggled with crowds to find Christmas presents.  We have endured office Christmas parties and we have watched enough holiday movies to drive us crazy.  Where is the joy? We may ask.

            And we are probably not alone in asking this.  Thousands of people around the world are asking along with us: where is the joy? Where is the joy that promised at Jesus’ coming? Where is the healing that was supposed to come along? Where is the blind that can see? Where is the deaf that can now hear? Where is the restoration of relationships, the politics that are not corrupt? Where is the answer to life’s problem?

            Let’s be honest, the world has expected more from the church and from the gospel.  The Church has often spoke about the greatness of Christ, but this has fallen on the deaf ears of the world. 

            I remember when I was younger…well in high school…and meeting a high school exchange student from Japan.  She was Buddhist and could not understand the Christian faith. She had a problem with the way we celebrated Christmas because we all talked about the ‘happiness’ and ‘joy’ of the season, but all she saw was sorrow and depression.  She could see nothing true about what we sung about or what we said was the holiday season. 

            And we have to say that this is true.  There are so many people stuck in the prison of their poverty, their depression, their addiction during this time of the year that they are truly asking, “are you the one we expected or should we look for someone else?”  Should we look for another answer, should we look for another Messiah?

            But the joyous message of the Church has always been: NO! Jesus is the Messiah! Jesus is the one who sets all things New! Jesus is the one who truly reveals God’s design for us!

            But what about the deaf? The Blind? The poor? What about those who are stuck in prison? What about those for whom the gospel was promised and yet there seems to be no delivery? Is there any true GOOD News for them?

            It may be hard for us, in our age of twenty four hour news cycles and addictions to anti-depressants, to believe that there is any good happening in the world.  But there is!

            It is found in the work of people like Shane Claiborne who has revitalized entire neighborhoods in Philadelphia by rehabbing old abandoned buildings and giving them to the poor. 

            It is found in the ministry of men like Oscar Romero who identified with the poor and oppressed in El Salvador to the point of giving his own life. 

            It is found in the work of institutions like the International Justice Mission that tries to liberate people trapped in the prison of slavery.  It is found in the work of local churches that work for reconciliation, salvation and peace.  Martin Luther King, Jr called this work the creation of the Beloved Community.

            There is good…GREAT news for them! God is at work in the world, utilizing the church to shed his glory and his kingdom! We are there to offer life to those who are outcast, good news to the poor and hope to the infirm. 

            Advent invites us to wait for God, but it also invites us to see God at work and to delight in the work of the Lord.  We are not to expect anybody else, because the one who has come is the one whom we have waited for and Christ is the one to establish this kingdom.  In this, we hope, in him, we rejoice. 

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[1] Letters and Papers from Prison

Road to the Cross: Arriving

Why is this night different than any other night?

This question, asked by children at the Passover Seder all over the world, sets the tone for the evening’s reflection and feast.  The leader then recites the story of salvation from slavery in Egypt.  We hear again of the plagues God puts on Egypt, the slaughter of the Passover lamb and the parting of the Red Sea. We remember the bitter tears of the people as they made bricks without straw and we are given the sweet charoset to remember that life is not only bitter.  But the overriding message is one of salvation and deliverance.

But today and tonight, we ask the same question, “why is this night different than any other night?” The answer is similar, but not the same. For the Christian, the reason for the night’s different lies not in the Passover, but in the Cross.

Today we arrive at the end of the road to the cross.  We have arrived at the foot of the cross to behold the innocent victim slain.

The cross. 

What can we say about the cross that has not already been said?  Perhaps there is no need to say anything new, but to remind ourselves about the meaning of the cross.  For Luther, the Christian must come to a complete stop at the cross to think about the crucified God.  Either we will accept the cross and cling to it, or we will reject it and scorn it.  As Paul said, the cross is “a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23).

If we reject the cross, we must reject Jesus and leave him behind.  Jesus’ crucifixion was not an accident and it was a failure.  Jesus came into this world and set his face towards’ Jerusalem.  He knew even before He started that his road would lead to the cross.  He accepted this as His purpose and even when he acknowledged the agony of the cross, he still submitted to it. 

But why? What was the point?  What did he do on the cross and why did he have to die on the cross?

Paul hints at the answer to this question in Colossians 1: For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

In the cross of Christ, lays the reconciliation of the world with God.  The world was once alienated from God through the power of sin and death, but now we have been brought close to God through Christ’s sufferings.  Our acceptance and reconciliation lies in Christ’s death.

Our journey to the Cross is our journey to God, because only through the cross can we come near to God.  Our sins must be punished and our debt must be paid.  This Jesus does when He goes to the cross.

This simple act changes our world and creates a new reality for us.  Just like the Jews who were able to escape Egypt into a new world, so now we have been able to escape from a dark world and enter into God’s family, his household.

Many religions offer a way to God, if only you will do x,y,and z.  Christianity is the only religion that says you cannot get to God, that God has to come to you.  Most religions say that you must sacrifice in order to get to God, in Christianity, Jesus is the sacrifice Himself who paves the way for us to stand before God.

This dramatically (or should dramatically change) the world.  The cross and suffering, not military power and wealth, is the way to victory and the way to salvation.  In 323, when Constantine heard the message, “by this sign will you conquer” he almost had it right.  Unfortunately, he saw this as a political answer to create a political empire.  Christianity has never been about a political empire and the cross is the positive sign of this.

Instead of seeking an authority based, power hungry organization to rule the world with an iron fist, the cross tells us that if we want victory, we must sacrifice ourselves, our very lives on behalf of others who not only do not believe the way we do, but mock and scorn us.  The cross tells us that the reconciliation of man with God is not to be sought in power, but in weakness.

Only when we see Jesus nailed to the cross, do we understand not only how deep God’s love is for us, but how deep our love for our neighbor should be.  We see Jesus willing to submit to cruel and vicious people for the good of those who shouted to crucify him.  So too, should the church be willing to sacrifice herself and submit to those who would crucify her.  In this, we see the perfect picture of love and a model for us to minister to a world that needs to be reconciled to God.

When we understand the cross in its entirety, we understand what Jurgen Moltmann meant when he said that "God became man so that dehumanized men might become true men."  The cross is the basis for a new society....one in which fair treatment does not need to be dictated by law but springs up from God's love for us and the new creation.  People are not divided by race, but differences are celebrated as diversity within God's family.  Hatred is replaced by love and war is overcome by peace.  Indeed the entire fractured world is held together by God's love expressed on the cross.