Category Archives: The Cross
We Need to Doubt
Based on my reading of scripture, I’m convinced that God doesn’t mind doubt. In fact, I think doubt is an essential part of faith. The opposite of faith is fear, not doubt. That’s why perfect love casts out fear. Almost everybody in the Bible doubted. Eve doubted God’s goodness. Abraham doubted God’s ability to protect him, so he threw his wife under the proverbial bus (twice, no less). Job, David, Peter, Jesus’ mother Mary, Peter – they all had times of major doubt. Even Jesus himself expressed doubt on the cross.
It seems that every dedicated follower of Christ doubted. St. John of the Cross had his dark nights of the soul. Mother Theresa (now St. Theresa of Calcutta) had extended periods of doubting even the existence of God.
I’ll go a step further – doubt is essential for spiritual growth. The person who never doubts is thinking very superficially, living on the surface. The thundering, self-confident preacher who exudes certainty does us no favors. Arrogant certitude is the opposite of humility. Certitude is judgmental and unteachable. Humility admits I don’t know it all. I can learn from everyone and every circumstance. I may be wrong about things I believe. Honest doubt is a part of being poor of spirit. Honest doubt makes me teachable.
Yet, we’re attracted to certitude. We like the feeling of having all the right answers, of having life and God figured out. We enjoy the self-satisfaction of believing that me and my tribe are right and the other guys are wrong. We are attracted to certitude in our houses of worship, in politics, and in the world of business. Certitude feels very American. Certitude is essential for the fundamentalist and the patriot.
The way of Messiah Jesus requires us to jettison certitude along with the pride, arrogance, and judgmentalism that comes with it. Jesus leads us by way of Gethsemani and Calvary. Rather than dismiss doubts by plugging our ears to alternative ideas, an unpretentious disciple brings her doubts honestly to God and others. The genuine apprentice of the Master complains in prayer like a psalmist.
FREEDOM
Freedom
Mark 12:41 [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.44 For all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” (NRSVUE)
Such amazing freedom this impoverished widow had –
Clinging to nothing, but rather,
Freely giving all to God, knowing
God would take care of her.
As free as the birds of the air and
The lilies in the fields.
In times past, I pictured her old, bent, in rags,
Walking with a cane; but now I see her as
Ageless, happy, joyous, stepping lightly with
Sparkles in her eyes, full of peaceful contentment.
I like to imagine the women who were always with
Jesus rushing to her with love, embraces, and joy –
Taking her into the fold – this widow now joining the
Disciples at Jesus’ feet, learning and loving; with
Him at the Passover Seder, aghast at the mock trials,
Weeping at the scourging post and the cross;
Dancing with the risen King,
Aflame in the upper room.
The Grand Divine Plan
The Big Picture
God is love. God was always complete. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three in one, living in perfect harmony and mutual love. Divine love spilled over. Because God is love, God desired living things to love. So, God created.
Originally, the realm of nature, the cosmos, and the heavenly spiritual realm were one.
The oneness was disrupted, torn apart, by two deliberate rebellions – one by some angelic beings, the second by humans.
Immediately, God began the great divine rescue project of reuniting heaven and earth, i.e., the natural cosmos. God is doing so without violating any creature’s free will.
God chose a person named Abraham, and through Abraham raised up a nation called Israel. God’s purpose in doing so was to draw all people, all nations, back to the Divine self – to bring all humans into harmony with heaven, the realm of God, the realm of perfect love.
Israel, like the first humans, failed to live out the love-relationship with the divine, so the other nations were not attracted to YHWH. But God did not abandon the divine rescue project. God became a human being. Jesus claimed to be God. He forgave sins, said he always existed, and asserted he was coming to judge the world. This Jesus did things only God could do – walked on water, transformed water into wine, rebuked storms, raised the dead.
Was he deluded? Insane? Lying? Or, is Jesus God incarnate? Nice guy, helpful prophet, great teacher, fine ethicist, or model human are not logical options.
This Jesus, this God-Man, ushered in a new kingdom unlike any other. This kingdom has no military, no politicians vying for power. The citizens of this kingdom love, are nonviolent, inclusive, gracious, forgiving, compassionate. All are invited and welcome in this kingdom. In this kingdom, there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond nor free – all are one in King Jesus. This kingdom is multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual, multinational. In it, the last are first, the servant of all is the greatest of all, the way up is down, and the meek inherit the earth.
Jesus initiated this kingdom on the cross. When he allowed himself to be crucified by the Romans, Jesus absorbed into himself all the sin, evil, rebellion, and wickedness in the entire cosmos. Sin and evil imploded as it killed him – evil not realizing that a sinless one freely offered in love cannot remain dead.
Jesus rose again. Alive. Alive in a real physical body. He appeared to hundreds. Then, he ascended into heaven. That does not mean he flew away to some distant place. It means that now a fully human person is not only living in the realm of God, but is seated on the divine throne, ruling all that is.
His plan is to spread the kingdom of love to all. How does he spread the kingdom of love? He breathed into his apprentices and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” He poured out the Holy Spirit on 120 followers on the day of Pentecost. He breathes his Spirit into, pours his Spirit upon, all who receive him today. Why? So that they (we) would be equipped, enabled, empowered to love as he loved, to give their lives for others, to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, forgive the unforgiveable, and nonviolently resist hatred with love.
The incarnation means God became human.
The crucifixion means God has absorbed all sin.
The ascension means there is a human king ruling in heaven.
Pentecost means God indwells humans on earth, giving voice to the inarticulate praises of nature, living out the cruciform love that washes feet, soothes wounds, visits the incarcerated, houses the homeless, feeds the hungry, heals the sick, and loves the unlovable who live on the margins.
The realm of heaven, the realm of perfect love, is overlapping with the realm of human destruction. It is overlapping through those of us who seek to follow Jesus.
When Messiah Jesus appears, all will be like him, heaven and earth will be one. Perfect, divine, cruciform love will saturate all that is. Forever.
In Those Days
We love sentimentality, especially at Christmas time.
Syrupy movies with bad acting.
Teach the world to sing.
Oh little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by
That’s a lie.
The cattle are lowing
The Baby awakes
But little Lord Jesus
No crying He makes
I very much doubt it.
It came to pass in those days…
What were those days really like?
· Israel-Palestine was occupied.
· Caesar Augustus was on the throne.
· His name was Gaius Octavius.
· His great uncle was Julius Caesar.
· Augustus is a title indicating that he was a son of the gods.
· Everyone was required to worship him as divine lord.
· He was an absolute despot who ruled by terror.
· At the slightest hint of protest, Roman troops swept into town, randomly rounded up a bunch of innocent people and crucified all of them on a high hill nearby.
· There was no freedom. Everyone had been bludgeoned into submission.
· Poverty and oppression reigned.
· Judaism was corrupt. Its leaders were rich off the backs of the ordinary.
· The Temple was a den of thieves.
· Racism was prominent – Jews, Samaritans, and Romans, all hated each other.
· Women were property to be used, abused, and discarded at will.
· Unwanted children were left outside in the elements to die.
· A father could order his wife or children killed.
· There was no social safety net. Widows, orphans, and the disabled begged or starved.
· Life was brutal, unjust, and short.
Into that world God came.
Not as a conquering king, but as an infant.
Completely helpless and dependent.
The infant son of a poor teenage Jewish mother, displaced from home.
No generational wealth; no advantages.
No room in the kataluma, the caravansary.
Outside everything.
Perhaps in a cave or grotto, no one knows for sure.
Dirt, filth, poverty, exposure.
Hailed by shepherds. Being a shepherd was the lowest, most despised job you could have. Shepherds are dirty.
At the age of eight days, he’ll be circumcised.
Pagan astrologers from Persia will visit and adore.
Soon, because of this birth, all the baby boys in the region will be brutally ripped from their mothers’ arms and slaughtered.
Inconsolable wails will fill the air.
The baby’s parents will flee to Egypt with him – displaced refugees.
We don’t much like this kind of Messiah, this kind of God.
What kind of Messiah is this?
What kind of God is this?
We don’t want a God who forgives, turns the other cheek, eschews violence, includes women, embraces children, who proclaims good news to the poor, freedom to the incarcerated, recovery of sight to the blind, sets the oppressed free, and proclaims YHWH’s favor.
“True worship of God consists quite simply in doing God’s will, but this sort of worship has never been to people’s taste.” – Søren Kierkegaard
No, we want a warlord, a conqueror, a king who will crush our enemies, marginalize those with different opinions and beliefs, put minorities in their place, make us victorious, powerful, and wealthy.
What’s all this nonsense about denying self, washing feet, serving others? We all know where that stuff leads – rejection, death, Golgotha.
Ah, but also Easter.
Power
Power
Interesting word, power. It may refer to control, influence, or dominance. It can mean ability, as in aptitude or skill; strength, as in force or might. It can refer to authority or rights, privileges, entitlement. It is used of nations in the sense of military or economic force. Power refers to influence or dominion. As a verb, power may be used in the sense of causing something to be set in motion; or in the sense of fuel.
Power can be either negative or positive. In the negative sense, it is sin, diametrically opposed to Kingdom living. In the Kingdom of God, we are never to coerce, dominate, control, or force anything on anyone. Violent power is to be eschewed.
On the other hand, power as ability, skill, and energy to serve, love, and work for justice is godly and Kingdom-like. It is this latter form of power to which Paull refers in 2 Corinthians when he tells us that God told him that power is perfected in weakness. (2 CO. 12:9).
We have no desire to follow the way of the world with its violence, control, and coercion; we have every desire to follow the Way of the Lord by using the gifts, skills, and energy God gives us to advance the Kingdom of God by spreading shalom, wholeness, grace, mercy, and the good news of redemption to all.
Radical Jesus Freaks
Radical Faith
In a superlative article entitled Bono’s Great Adventure, David Brooks speaks of the conversion of the U2 bandmates that lead to them embracing “a faith that simply bypassed the encrustations of 2,000 years of religious civilization and returned straight to Jesus; the helpless baby who was born on a bed of straw and shit; the wandering troubadour who put the poor, the marginalized, and the ailing at the center of his gaze; the rebel outsider who confronted the power structures of his society and took them all on at once.” (Brooks, David. Bono’s Great Adventure. The Atlantic. Vol. 330-No. 5. December 2022. p. 46)
This is the radical faith of pre-Constantinian Christianity, of the desert mothers and fathers, of Francis and Clare of Assisi, of Anabaptists in the Reformation, and of the Jesus people of the 60s and 70s. Sadly, it is not the faith of most occidental Christians today, be they evangelical, Pentecostal, fundamentalist, or mainline. Instead, our cultural narrative places sex, drugs, rock and roll and libertarian unrestraint on one side of the fence, and religion, judgmentalism, control, sexual repression, and authority of the other. Radical Jesus freaks became fundamentalist megachurch pastors supporting right-wing politicians.
Ever since February 27, 380, when the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I (347 – 395) signed a decree in the presence of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian II (371 – 392) that made Christianity the religion of the state and punished the practice of pagan rituals, the Christian religion has been encrusted with power, politics, wealth, and violence.
Radical Christians who bypass the “encrustations of 2,000 years of religious civilization” and return “straight to Jesus” still exist in Bruderhof communities, at the Simple Way in Philadelphia, in small inner-city faith communities tending community gardens, among Mennonites, Brethren, and Amish, and in the hearts and lives of sold-out Jesus-people who are living by the Sermon on the Mount.
With loving, serving hearts, they forgive enemies, turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, wash feet, oppose killing for any reason, protect and care for the environment. They stand against racism, homophobia, misogyny, antisemitism, islamophobia, and injustice, and work to alleviate poverty and end exploitation. They join God in making all things new by taking up the causes of the homeless, incarcerated, addicted, disabled, and mentally ill. They confront the power structures that perpetuate injustice. The speak truth to power.
And, they are known by their love.
The Word in Focus with Dr Larry Taylor 