15 September 2005

Once again from the "Theology of the Pain of God" by Kazoh Kitamori.

The "pain" of God reflects his will to love the object of his wrath. ...the wrath of God and the love of God - produces the "tertiary." This "tertiary" is the pain of God. Luther sees "God fighting with God" at Golgotha. God who must sentence sinners to death fought with God who wishes to love them. The fact that this fighting God is not two different gods but the same God causes pain. Here heart is opposed to heart within God. "God opened the way for (humanity's) atonement by experiencing unspeakable suffering, going through agonies, and offering himself as sacrifice."

First we need to address the comment about us being the "object of God's wrath." Earlier Kitamori simply states that we - as a broken people/people who turn from God/sin...must be sentenced to death- this is the manifestation of God's wrath. But...that is not what our God does. God is caught between this notion of wrath and the love of God that is beyond any power. Therefore, when this one God goes against this "wrath" by insisting on a love that will not let us go, there will be the utter experience of pain. Our God will not and does not let the power of death win the day. Wrath will not have the say over the love of God. I suppose you could say that when we actually experience the brokenness of another person - suffer what they suffer - face death like they face death - and we do that out of love for them (even if we think they deserve their situation), we not only begin to be aware of their sufferings we begin to have to face the two sided nature of our selves. When I do that, it is not an easy pathway. To love through what I would expect is a situation that deserves some kind of "death," means that I will suffer there also. What comes to mind immediately, is every time any of us change our positions and begin to live contrary to what we said is necessary and yet we, in time & by being utterly vulnerable, come away with a new sense of who we are and who the other one is. Pain crashes into us as we become vulnerable for the sake of others - even others we think deserve punishment for what they have done or who they are.

Connection: In a society that likes to be pain free, how do we love when we know that such love will conflict with some of our own values and those of others. I would suggest that we again need more prayerful conversation with others. Pain is something that needs to be faced together so that love will indeed be the way of the day.

Yes, Lord, we expect you to be here with us to save us and not condemn us. We expect that you will be in the midst of the horrors of our life because your love cannot be separated from us for any reason or at any time. In that closeness that is your promise, the life we call eternal emerges to carry us through this day within that eternal embrace. Amen.