Today will be the last piece from Stanley Hauerwas on "Jesus and the Kingdom of God"...next week we look at the resurrection.
Jesus' cross...is not merely a general symbol of the moral significance of self-sacrifice. The cross is not the confirmation of the facile assumption that it is better to give than receive. Rather the cross is Jesus' ultimate dispossession through which God has conquered the powers of this world. The cross is not just a symbol of God's kingdom; it is that the kingdom has come. It is only by God's grace that we are enabled to accept the invitation to be part of that kingdom. Because we have confidence that God has raised this crucified man, we believe that forgiveness and love are alternatives to the coercion the world things necessary for existence. Thus, our true nature, our true end, is revealed in the story of this man in whose life, we believe, is to be found the truth.
The cross shows us that "the kingdom has come." Being embraced by the God who brings this story of Jesus alive among us is the power to become a part of that living story. Whenever we turn to this story and say that we are baptized in Christ, Jesus, we are telling ourselves that this way of peace and forgiveness and mercy and justice is the way of our lives. It is so easy to hold the story off at a distance and admire what it tells us - much like any great event in history that can teach us something. But this story of the way to the cross and through the cross and through death is meant to be a turning to us with an invitation. We are invited to live as the one who lived before us in the face of all the powers that attempt to defy the Reign of God. Jesus' life, death, and resurrection sets us up to see and be who we are when our God takes us home to be God's own. Therefore, now we can set up a place and life that demonstrates our full participation in a truthfulness in life that can be and will be a contrary adventure.
Connection: I don't know about you, but fear can mess with me - big time. Even when I am standing with others, fear can easily creep in and move me into a life that is not reflective of the peace within God's Reign. How is it that God's Reign is seen as something so far away when it is meant to be so close to us...especially when the powers of our day are attempting to pull us into their grip?!?
When you break into this day, O God, and invite us to be your own, pull on us so that we take a look at what in this world we are hanging onto that is so opposite of the life you are offering us. Heal us of our anxiety and fear so that we may rest in you alone. Amen.
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