What’s Going on at the Church
“Weighing Truth and Life”
If the whole idea of retributive justice is not God’s way, and if Jesus’ death on the cross is not about “taking the punishment God wants to confer upon humanity, then what might be an alternative way to understand it? What if the fact that Jesus, who was fully innocent of the charges against him – was condemned by the highest authority of both church and state; can endow us with a healthy suspicion about how wrong even the highest earthly powers can be? There’s a verse in John’s gospel that says Jesus will show the world how wrong it’s been about sin, and what is really righteous, and true judgment. In other words, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection isn’t about God’s mind being changed about humankind, it’s about our minds being changed about God, and ourselves, and about what’s really good and evil. The following are some further thoughts from Richard Rohr.
“I believe that we are invited to gaze upon the image of the crucified Jesus to soften our hearts toward all suffering, to help us see how we ourselves have been bitten by hatred and violence, and to know God’s heart has always been softened toward us. In turning our gaze to this divine truth – in dropping our many modes of scapegoating and self-justification – we gain compassion toward ourselves and all others who suffer.
A transformative religion must touch us at this primitive brainstem level, or it is not transformative at all. History is continually graced with people who somehow learned to act beyond and outside their self interests and for the good of the world, people who clearly operated by a power larger than their own. The Gandhis of the world, the Oscar Schindlers, the Martin Luther King Jr’s. Add to them Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero, Cesar Chavez, and many other unknown soldiers. These inspiring figures gave us strong evidence that the mind of Christ still inhabits the world.
Those who agree to carry and love what God loves – which is both the good and the bad – and to pay the price for its reconciliation within themselves, these are the followers of Jesus Christ. They are the leaven, the salt, the mustard seed that God uses to transform the world. These are ones who have entered into heaven much earlier, (sic. than death) and thus can see things in a transcendent whole and healing way now.”
Peace, Pastor Ed
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