Our Lord's wounds, which heal our wounds, are "Rich wounds, yet visible above,/ In beauty glorified," and the Lord of the cross is at once the Lord of the resurrection. Just as Paul implies "the word of the cross and the resurrection" by his phrase "the word of the cross" (1 Cor.1:18), so I imply "theology of love rooted in God's pain" by the phrase "theology of the pain of God." Luther calls the death of Christ "death against death"; I call the pain of God "pain against pain." Just as "death against death" is the resurrection, so "pain against pain" is God's love which resolves our pain. For this reason, the message of the pain of God is called glad tidings.
We do not speak of the cross without knowing of the resurrection. In fact, in the cross - the one people wear around their necks or the one we carry in procession at the beginning and ending of the liturgy - we see the future...we see resurrection...we see "death against death" - new life! When Kitamori speaks of God's love through the images of pain - as though they are one in the same and pain is absolutely necessary for us to know God love - it does not take away my pain...it makes this God of ours a bit more connected to what it is to be human. Our God does not try to get us to fly somewhere away from pain - to rise above it as though it is not real. Rather, pain is so real and so ordinary and so natural to what it is to be human, we say that in Christ, Jesus, God is right here in the midst of us and getting hit with everything that hits us...no matter how hard we are hit. The "glad tidings" is that the pain...in all of its forms...does not have the last word. Therefore, we can live within the reality of the last words even though we are now living through much less. When that is real for us, we then become the presence of that last word for others. Forgiveness...for example...is the last word even when we want retribution. And we....we are invited to forgive even in times that seem unforgivable....glad tidings we bring to you and yours.
Connection: Sometimes all we can do is listen to the stories of God's love for us and then...listen again and again. Then in the middle of the listening we are told that God's Spirit will empower us to trust that love and what it is able to do within lives like ours. Today we may need to spend more time listening and learning what it is we can trust for life.
You walk with us, O Living God, and along the way we wonder what it means to have you alongside and with us when our world is being broken again and sorry seems to cascade down around us. In our tears and confusion enfold us into your loving presence so that the day at hand will not overpower us and we will be able to see new life right in the middle of the pain that is trying to cut us off from life. Amen.
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