21 July 2006

The week draws to an end with more about a suffering and real church by Douglas John Hall.

A purely doctrinal or theoretical theology of the cross is a contradiction. This theology is only authentic - only "for real" - insofar as it gives birth to a community that suffers with Christ in the world. Nowhere does Christendom's difference from the New Testament church show up more glaringly than in the fact that the birth of Christendom in the fourth century C.E. brought about a species of Christianity that with rare exceptions could be practiced without any threat or hint of its being a process of identification with the one who was "despised and rejected."

It is no wonder that the Church has such a difficult time being anything but what the world is. We have been knit within its fabric for such a long time. "Despised and rejected" has become an internal event through which Jesus will lead us. Therefore, the story is all about me who somehow suffers in many ways simply by being human. The notion of Christians suffering for the sake of others is almost considered an absurdity. When that does happen, we remember those people. Like Bonhoeffer and others who resisted the rule of the Nazis or the freedom marchers who resisted the law of the land in the U.S so that the brutality against some of us would stop. The way "despised and rejected" is stated these day has to do with people who say they are being oppressed because others want to take a few words out of the pledge of allegiance or take the manger scenes off civic center lawns. That is not suffering folks. That is a spoiled and pampered people who have lost all sense of what it means to suffer. Try this. The next time you see a group of Christians in our country complaining and wailing about how they are suffering and being oppressed here, take a look at them. They look quite a part of the privileged of the world to me. They look like they are used to having the world as they have had it. To suffer for the sake of others is not even in the game plan. They see themselves as the suffering ones...and yet they suffer not like the one they say they follow - Christ, Jesus.

Connection: There are so many people that need to be uplifted by the love of Christ. Now, having said this, I do not mean simply telling them the story...I mean being the love of Christ. The love that will risk caring when we really could simply walk away and care about ourselves alone.

Blessed Lord, open our hearts so that we will have the courage to venture forth along the way of your cross that becomes our cross as we enter into solidarity with the lost, least, and the lowest who long for an abundant life but are so often denied it. Remind us to give thanks for all that we have and then to be willing to give our lives away to those around us. Amen.