31 July 2006

Today we begin the week with a continuation of Douglas John Hall writing on The Church and the Cross..

The symbol at the center of our faith (the cross) must be turned into an apotheosis (an exalted or glorified ideal) of death, including the death of Jesus. Golgotha, rather, is a courageous facing of death and a confrontation with death - with "the enemy." Here God confronts the enemy and oppressor of life with a view to death eschatological overcoming. This enemy, like all great enemies of life, can only be overcome from within. ...Death must be faced, undergone, entered into - if it is to be challenged, defeated. Hence the second sentence of Moltmann's book on this theological tradition reads: "Yet only the crucified Christ can bring the freedom which changed the world because it is no longer afraid of death." What Paul calls "the sting of death" ( 1 Corinthians 15:55-56) is removed in faith through the grace-given courage to confront death's mockery of life openly.

There is and there must be that "confrontation." Otherwise, death will rule among us. From the cross of Christ we do not merely receive a pass to the other side of death. We take up a life of confrontation that is not afraid of the power of death because our Lord has faced it - in its full and brutal force - and made the power of death powerless. When I read this kind of talk - as a self-acknowledged coward - I find that I am encouraged to act and speak more often than not. Could it be that in hearing of the "courageous facing of death and the confrontation with death" by Jesus at Golgotha" the Holy Spirit is able to move even me to act just a bit...and then again maybe a bit more? I think so. In fact, as this coward, I would say I am in the boat with a whole bunch of folks. Our task as Church may be to keep telling this story and never turn it into something sweet and sentimental. Rather, we must keep it as real as it was. We must steer one another to focus on the way in which Jesus walked up to the power of death and did not give death an opportunity to win the day - any day. In that community support, even the cowards become more courageous and then...life becomes new.

Connection: When we are able to courageously face all the signs of death around us (and remember they can be quite small and ordinary), we are also beginning to take hold of the life that is promised in our baptism. Life that will live - and live abundantly - even as death stalks us.

O Lord of Life, we await the power of you Spirit. We long for the encouragement of our lives to break in and shape us this day. We know that you continue to bring that power into our lives and we pray that we will be made open vessels ready to be filled by your Spirit of life. Amen.