“O great distress, God himself lies dead,
He died upon the cross,
In this he won the kingdom of heaven
For love of us.”
Johann Von Rist, 1641

In Christian churches, the cross has become the sign which distinguishes the church from any other religion, system, belief, philosophy, method, or hope.

Why? Why do we hold in such high esteem this moment where it seems that everything has come crumbling down?
Why is this defeat our victory?

We are people who live lives that are in many ways defined by our pain. Our sons and daughters die before their parents. Our jobs and ways of providing for ourselves and our families are removed at the worst possible time. Our hopes of a better life come crashing down because personal mistakes and uncontrollable disasters. Our lives are broken. We are defeated. We are people without hope. We are people in despair. Record numbers of people around the world identify themselves as atheist, believing no longer in any hope beyond what they can see with their own eyes. We are lost. We feel as though God has forsaken us.

And again we have our question. Why? Why is this our story? Why do the good suffer? Why do the best of of us seem to live in equality with the worst of us. This “why” can not be answered, because we will accept no explanation.

The answer God gives us is the resurrection of Jesus – not an explanation for why these things happen. God gives us a new reality.

I don’t want an answer that will bring me to peace with suffering. I don’t want to be “okay” with suffering. I don’t want a reason for why I suffer. I want to be saved from suffering! If we had it explained to us why we must suffer we would still not be satisfied, and we should not be satisfied with anyone who would try to explain away suffering.

But here is our peace: Our Christ, Jesus, our Saviour, our God shares in our suffering, and even more, he takes it all on himself. So we are not alone in our suffering any longer. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, suffers for us. And out of his suffering comes the answer – Resurrection!

This is important: God is not distant, planning our escape somewhere else and sending it to us via UPS or ExpressPost. Our hope is in a God who is really present.

God is not indifferent. God is not apathetic to your suffering. He is right there. God really experienced loss, pain, abandonment and death on the cross. It was not just an act or an experience that is somehow removed from who God really is.

This is one half of our hope: God is in solidarity with us. Our God suffers with us, the godless and the godforsaken.

When the crucified Jesus is called the “image of the invisible God”, the meaning is that this is God, and God is like this. God is not greater than he is in this humiliation. God is not more glorious than he is in this self-surrender. God is not more powerful than he is in this helplessness. God is not more divine than he is in this humanity. The nucleus of everything that Christian theology says about “God” is to be found in [Jesus on the Cross, and this crucified Jesus resurrected.]
Jurgen Moltmann, The Crucified God

It is not enough and no use for anyone to know God in his glory and his majesty if at the same time he does not know him in the lowliness and shame of his cross . . . Thus true theology and true knowledge of God lie in Christ the crucified one.
Martin Luther, from Thesis 20

This is another equally important half to our hope. God suffers for us. In the death of Jesus, we are justified. We are made right with God. Our guilt is gone.

God suffers with us. God suffers for us. And out of this act of perfect love, comes the resurrection, our hope, our life.

Forgiveness of sin and resurrection to new life. These can not be separated. Good Friday can not be separated from Easter Sunday. One is not more important than the other. They are together our hope.
If you find yourself thinking, I’m not so bad. I’ve got things together just fine on my own….
If you are ever tempted to think of your life as a Christian as being about living as a nice person…..
If you ever find yourself reading the bible as though it were simply an Instruction Manual or blueprint for Life….
If you ever find yourself thinking that Jesus in his humility and death is somehow less than who God truly is…
If you find that life is too hard…
If you find that everything is going wrong…
If you find that hate and brokenness seem to find you no matter where you go….
If you find that you can’t find the right way up and every choice you make seems so wrong….
If you find that you can’t believe that God cares about you….
If you find that you just simply can’t believe….

Please, come stand at the foot of the cross!
Take it in. Listen to the agony of our Lord, as he cries out, “My God why have you forsaken me?” This is the cry of the Son of God who has identified with us. “The Word took on flesh and blood and dwelt among us” – for real. He walks with us.

God placed himself in solidarity with us, his creation.
He understands our plight.
He understands our pain.
He understands our temptation.
He understands the times when we lose sight of our Father.
He took every last bit of it into himself. He hung there on a cross, and Jesus Christ, in solidarity with all humanity, lost sight of God the Father. He knows what sinful human existence is all about. Because “He who did not sin, became sin for us so that we would be free.”

And God our Father grieved. God our Father experienced the death of his son. He turned his face away in bereavement. God our Father understands what it means to have sin and death take away his beloved.

God promises us that the same hope that is in the resurrection of Jesus – the love of our God – is not bound to one side of a chasm. Our God has crossed the chasm. He has stood on our side and in our place. He identified with us, and said “even though you hate me, even though you crucify me…. that can not stop resurrection.”

In Christ – the sinless one, the end of sacrifice, the end of our trying to make peace ourselves…
In Christ, God stepped over the chasm and said,

BELIEVE ME. IT IS FINISHED.
You don’t have to live as though you were alone in this life. I am with you. Walk with me. You can love because I love you.

This is LOVE.
It is not that we loved God.
But that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins.
1 John 4:10

When the crucified Jesus is called the “image of the invisible God”, the meaning is that this is God, and God is like this. God is not greater than he is in this humiliation. God is not more glorious than he is in this self-surrender. God is not more powerful than he is in this helplessness. God is not more divine than he is in this humanity. The nucleus of everything that Christian theology says about “God” is to be found in the Christ event.

Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God, 205

How would you respond to this reaction to ministries of justice and compassion which I think are an unavoidable part of the church’s response to following in the way of Jesus? Is there any place for such a reading of Christian mission?

Can we separate sharing (with words) the good news of Jesus from actions of mercy, love, grace, and reconciliation? Are one of these more worthy or holy than the other?

46 Jesus and his followers came into Jericho. As Jesus was leaving Jericho, together with his disciples and a sizable crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, Timaeus’ son, was sitting beside the road.47 When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was there, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy!”

48 Many scolded him, telling him to be quiet, but he shouted even louder, “Son of David, show me mercy!”

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him forward.”
They called the blind man, “Be encouraged! Get up! He’s calling you.”

50 Throwing his coat to the side, he jumped up and came to Jesus.

51 Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man said, “Teacher, I want to see.”

52 Jesus said, “Go, your faith has healed you.” At once, he was able to see, and he began to follow Jesus on the way. – Mark 10:46-52 CEB

A picture of utter poverty

The scene is cast against the setting of Jericho. Jericho was a city that was bursting with immense wealth. King Herod the Great had built his winter palace in Jericho—when he was alive Jericho was the eastern capital of his empire. Wherever we find immense wealth we see also desperate poverty. This was the case in Jericho.

Earlier in Mark, Jesus had been having a conversation with his disciples as they were on the way to Jerusalem. James and John, two of his disciples had asked Jesus, “Teacher we want you to do for us whatever we ask” and to them Jesus replied, “What do you want me to do for you?”

The request that James and John had of Jesus was for power and might and prestige. They wanted to be big shots when Jesus came into his glory. The answer they got was not what they desired.

Here, a little further down the road we find a similar encounter.

Bartimaeus, this poor, outcast, blind man is crying out to Jesus. We don’t really even know his name. He is referred to here in the gospel as the Son of Timaeus (Bar-Timaeus) His identity is in who his father was, not in who he is.

Bartimaeus is repeating over and over one simple plea. “Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy!” Despite the jeering of the crowd and the shouts for him to be quiet he calls all the louder!

Jesus stops…. and asks his disciples to call the man over to where he is.

When Bartimaeus comes to where Jesus is Jesus again asks him this question that he asked of James and John… “What do you want me to do for you?”

Bartimaeus responds with simplicity and directness. “Teacher, I want to see.”

There is a bit of a pattern that we find when people come face to face with Jesus. The men and women and children who understand most clearly who Jesus is are the people that, according to all the people around them, were not supposed to understand. They were too poor, or too sick, or too old, or to sinful.

And the people with all the advantages and the squeaky clean lives are the ones that we find most often struggling to see who Jesus is, provided they don’t simply flat out reject him.

Bartimaeus’s cry was so simple and yet so difficult! “Show me mercy!”

In Hosea 6:6 God says, “I desire faithful love and mercy.” (my paraphrase)

This is Bartimaeus’s cry to Jesus and it is likewise the way that God calls on all of us to live our lives.

“Go, your faith has healed you”

Bartimaeus has cried out for the mercy of God. He wants nothing more than to see. In a larger sense he is already able to see. Jesus declares that it is Bartimaeus’s faith that has healed him. Not lots of knowledge or the right friends or the perfect family. Bartimaeus was simply able to see something that so many others miss. God desires mercy.

Bartimaeus’s faith insisted that the Jesus, the Son of God, would interrupt what he was doing to attend to the plight of a man who lived among the poorest of the poor. Bartimaeus believed that God cared for the sparrows and that God even cared for a poor, old, blind beggar who everyone else looked at as nothing more than a nuisance.

Bartimaeus had faith that the greatest would indeed serve the least and that he would do so with love and joy. He was not wrong!

James and John and so many of us are still searching for God to do the opposite. To elevate us into a place of power and importance.

I pray that each one of us would plead for mercy instead of a prideful plead for acclaim. Because out of that beggar’s cry for mercy comes so much more! God’s mercy is deep and rich.

42 You know that the ones who are considered the rulers by the Gentiles show off their authority over them and their high-ranking officials order them around. 43 But that’s not the way it will be with you. Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant. 44 Whoever wants to be first among you will be the slave of all. 45 for the Human One did not come to be served but rather to serve and to give his life to liberate many people. – Mark 10:42-45 CEB

I attempted to take our church family on an Advent journey this year. With a few exceptions Advent was mostly unknown to many people in our community. I’m already looking forward to how we can build on this experience next year.

Our journey this year was steeped in the prophets (specifically Isaiah, Zephaniah, Mary, and Ezekiel.) Thousands of years have passed and we still find it hard to listen to these men and women of God.

Candle #1 – HOPE
Here comes our God. Creator has drawn near.

Listen to me, Jacob;
Israel, whom I called:
I am the one;
I am the first and I am the last.
My hand founded the earth;
my strong hand
spread out the heavens.
When I call to them, they all stand up. -Isaiah 48:12-13

Listen to me, house of Jacob,
all that remains from the house of Israel
who have been borne by me
since pregnancy,
whom I carried from the womb
until you grow old.
I am the one,
and until you turn gray
I will support you.
I have done it,
and I will continue to bear it;
I will support and I will rescue. -Isaiah 46:3-4

Candle #2 – SHALOM
“Comfort, my people. I am doing a new thing!”

A voice is crying out:
“Clear the LORD’s way in the desert!
Make a level highway in the wilderness for our God!
Every valley will be raised up,
and every mountain and hill
will be flattened.
Uneven ground will become level,
and rough terrain a valley plain. -Isaiah 40:3-4

Don’t remember the prior things;
don’t ponder ancient history.
Look! I’m doing a new thing;
now it sprouts up;
don’t you recognize it?
I’m making a way in the desert,
paths in the wilderness. -Isaiah 43:18-19

Candle #3 – JOY
Being open to the in-breaking of God. Do we have eyes to see his arrival?

Rejoice, Daughter Zion! Shout, Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem.

Watch what I am about to do
to all your oppressors at that time.
I will deliver the lame;
I will gather the outcast.
I will change their shame into praise
and fame throughout the earth. -Zephaniah 3:14,19

Read the story of Zachariah in Luke 1 and meditate on its connection to the message here in Zephaniah.

Candle #4 – LOVE
God moves in justice and mercy. Forever and today!

Mary said,
“With all my heart I glorify the Lord!
In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.
He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.
Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored
because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name.
He shows mercy to everyone,
from one generation to the next,
who honors him as God.
He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.
He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty-handed.
He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
remembering his mercy,
just as he promised to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.” – Luke 1:46-55

And all of this promise and deliverance comes together in the fifth reflection:
CHRISTMAS
The promised Shepherd. Hope, peace, joy, love. Our salvation!

The LORD God proclaims: I myself will search for my flock and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out the flock when some in the flock have been scattered, so will I seek out my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered during the time of clouds and thick darkness. I will gather and lead them out from the countries and peoples, and I will bring them to their own fertile land. I will feed them on Israel’s highlands, along the riverbeds, and in all the inhabited places. I will feed them in good pasture, and their sheepfold will be there, on Israel’s lofty highlands. On Israel’s highlands, they will lie down in a secure fold and feed on green pastures. I myself will feed my flock and make them lie down. This is what the LORD God says.

I will seek out the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the wounded, and strengthen the weak. But the fat and the strong I will destroy, because I will tend my sheep with justice.
-Ezekiel 34:11-16

Walking through this month of expectancy and longing has benefited my own journey and I hope it has been half as helpful to some others in the church. One thing that I held to be very important throughout the month was to not come to a simple and straightforward lesson or application with each reflection. While they are concise thoughts I don’t think they turn salvation into something simplistic. I did not try to sum up all that God is doing. What I did try to do is awaken our imaginations – to focus us on who God is and what his dreams and plans are. My hope is that then we can find our place in that divine memory.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

(All scripture quotations are taken from the Common English Bible. I’ve been using the CEB for readings and Bible studies at our church for the past couple months and I absolutely love it.)

So while walking down the street on the way to an amazing vegan restaurant (I’m not vegan, but their food makes it tempting) I was stopped by a tall, thin, bald guy of about 25. He introduced himself as a monk and wanted to talk to me about the Hare Krishna movement. I’d never been approached by a Krishna devotee before so I was very interested to talk to the guy. I introduced myself as a Christian pastor and we began to talk about God, Jesus, and spirituality. We had a great short conversation about place, practice and devotion. He offered me the Gita and a couple other Krishna texts and in return I offered him Jean Vanier’s Becoming Human which I had just picked up for myself in a bookstore down the road. I had read it before and saw it for a good price. If you haven’t read Vanier’s book I fully recommend it – an amazing read.

We had what was a short and friendly conversation that concluded by the exchanging of gifts. I also made a donation to help his journey as a monk. We sought to help each other take suitable steps on our spiritual pathway. I had an opportunity to speak of my life as a follower of the way of Jesus and be blessed by this guy’s passion and devotion to his own spiritual journey.

Every chance to look into the eyes of someone who is passionate about life and faith is so rewarding. I can only hope that he felt the same as he looked into my eyes. My hope is that the fruit of the spirit was evident through me in our encounter. There was something very blessing about the way that neither of us sought to cage the other in our own system of belief, but rather saw in each other the face of a fellow seeker of the way and talk to each other with openness and respect.

I’m sure that many evangelistic folk would tell me I missed some sort of opportunity to save this fella, but I really don’t think so. God was a participant in our conversation and faith, hope, and love were proclaimed vividly.

While the thoughts and questions I have about life and faith have increased over this year my ability to blog about them has frozen.

The church I am pastoring at is fairly traditional and I suppose the simplest way to contrast me is to say that I’m not. That’s not to say that I find myself disagreeing on everything folks may believe in our community, but my thoughts tend to wander to places where others may not feel comfortable. Where some may see boundaries to the conversation and action of God or Christianity I see exciting frontiers.

So my blogging has dried up out of a fear that an unfiltered thought may find itself being read by someone who wouldn’t appreciate it and I might find myself out of a job.

This is completely selfish and fear-driven and I’m slowing coming to a place where I feel a bit more free to trust people not to misunderstand me.

This week I’m on vacation and I am hoping to use some of this extra time to release some of the things that have been building up as I’ve been working through relationships, studying the Bible to prepare for sermons and studies as well as my adventures as a hack youth pastor.

I welcome your eyes and thoughts, even if (especially if) you are from our local church!