Easter

I think there is a very real way in which these people are images of Christ crucified. And if that is true then there is hope for them for they will , as Jesus  said to the man on the cross next to him, ' be with him in paradise'. 
                                                           
Maybe that seems facile. Because we know that sometimes life does not get better and then we wonder if there could be a paradise? 

There are two things I think are worth thinking about here:
                                                         First of all, experience does teach us that paradise exists where love  exists. We know also by experience, that we are given the power to love. So... by loving those who are suffering we can make paradise present for them and for us. When we can feed the hungry, visit the sick, free those imprisoned by fear, clothe the poor, educate children and nurse the sick then, I think, paradise is present. Then these people we see here would no longer exist like this.             

Secondly, by using this power of love starting with those right next to us and spreading out to neighbors and nations so that justice prevails, we won't ask whether paradise exists for we will be 
part of it.

HAPPY 
     EASTER!

Good Friday

Now we are getting close to Good Friday, the day that began a journey that goes on even today. It is a journey about love and its response to unjust suffering; it is about the ways in which we lash out at those we don't agree with or who in some way threaten us. But it is also about the possibility of healing and existence of life-giving hope. 

One of the apparent scandals of Christianity is the existence of unjust suffering. If there is this loving God, why does not 'he' save us from that? I don't know that any of us has a very clear answer to that and I suspect, in the end we do our best to ponder and to understand but finally, must trust in the message of love that we see in our tradition.

I marvel in the example of the Nelson Mandela's of our world who, in spite of all the evil actions that have been inflicted upon them, manage somehow, through faith and courage to rise not unscathed but yet stronger, more loving, more compassionate. There are too, the unending stream of women in our world who are brutalized, raped , denied humanity and yet rise above all that to be people of life, people who will not be crushed by all that we at our worst can do to one another. I know too, many men and women who born with scars of handicap, written off as not being worthy and full human beings, are yet in spite of ridicule, deprivation of rights, or persecution , people alive with dignity and joy.

We do not ever, ever, ever wish suffering. We do not ever, I hope, think it right to inflict suffering. But the sadness is, it exists and I think we can, like Jesus, like the Mandela's of our world, like the brutalized and disenfranchised women of our world, like the mentally and physically disabled of our world, take what is bad and with God's Spirit in our hearts, make it something new, something compassionate, something whole. And then, our world is a better place in which to live.


I think that is what Jesus' crucifixion led to. If God is like Jesus, then we found out that God is not distant and uninvolved. God is  here with us hanging on that cross of terror, giving us the wherewith, not just to endure, but in the end,  to overcome all that is hurtful and dark in a world meant to be loving and care-full and joyful.

 

The gift of Holy Week

I believe this is a very special week. I understand that what many Christians call Holy Week is the remembering and the re-telling, of a story of great power. It is essentially, a story of immense love but sadly, I think many of us don't know that. 

The preparation for it is Lent and for most Christians I think Lent is seen as a rather bleak time. But in reality it is a time when we hear how much we are loved and held by God whom we meet in Jesus of Nazareth. W.H. Vanstone, a British writer of the 20th century, has some beautiful and startling things to say about this time in Jesus' life. I would like to share a small bit from his book: Fare Well in Christ which may give food for thought because he is not saying what we have perhaps, been taught. 


1) He says: I have argued (in his book The Stature of Waiting) that Jesus did not make his final journey to Jerusalem in order that he might fulfill the purpose of God by being put to death there. I believe he neither knew nor wished nor intended that he should be put death. His intention was to address the nation through those who had authority and power in the nation - to convey the good news of God to the nation through the leaders of the nation. He knew that his endeavor would be dangerous to himself: political and religious leaders rarely welcome new truth or new ideas and often respond angrily and brutally to what seems to them a challenge to their authority.

What I especially appreciate in what Vanstone says is that it does away with that old image of a God who demands the sacrifice of his son in order to atone for what everyone else has done. Such an angry, vengeful god is no better than those leaders he refers to above. It is rather, that Jesus was doing what he believed was his mission and that among its risks was the possibility of death. Jesus reflected at every moment the love and 'courage' of the God who dwelt within.

2) Once again Vanstone writes: As the story of the passion unfolds , we see at the center of it a very calm figure, one who neither resists nor protests what is being done to him nor appeals for justice nor begs for mercy. He accepts without anger - one might even say he absorbs - the injustice of his judges, the mocking of soldiers, the taunts of his opponents, and the extremities of physical pain. He retains his dignity.

I think the intention here is not to say that injustice should not be fought but that in this instance when there was no way forward but an ignominious and horrible death Jesus heart leaned out towards those who will destroy him even to he point of saying to our God 'Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing'. That is, I believe, love and its power remains to this day.

3) Finally Canon Vanstone says a startling thing. He says that The resurrection of Jesus disclosed to the world that God, the eternal God, is 'like Jesus'...Since the first Easter day Christians have believed this to be true but sometimes we are inclined to assert the converse of this belief in the words 'Jesus is like God'...The resurrection of Jesus disclosed a new image of God which modified or corrected what was previously believed about God.

Our picture of God is of One who is all-powerful, just and righteous, merciful to those who seek his mercy, wrathful to those who do not, possessive and demanding of those who are his chosen people... If we say 'Jesus is like God' we tend to associate him with these attributes in his dealings with us. We tend as Christians to see ourselves as his chosen people, his elect in an otherwise lost world; as open to his wrath when we fail to plead for his mercy... or meet his demands upon us...

The eternal God, the one in whom we live and move and have our being, the one before whom we stand in life and in death, in time and in eternity, is like Jesus; God is on our side; God guides us through the exercise of our freedom but does not restrict or threaten our freedom; God is considerate of us; does not burden us with guilt or lay down conditions on which alone we will be accepted; does not hold our trespasses against us; reconciles us to 'himself' without humiliating us; does not obtrude upon us 'his' mighty and potentially terrifying powers but deals with us gently, tactfully as friend deals with friend.

Such was the new 'image' of God which dawned upon the world in the grace of Jesus Christ... 

I hope these quotes give hope - that our God whom we meet in Jesus, is one whom we can meet and trust and cling to - even in our betrayals and despair.

The cross of Christ is the tree of life.