+God so loved the world, God came to us in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ.
Who we then killed.
When phrased like that the action of God in today’s reading from Numbers makes sense. Why wouldn’t God condemn us, punish us? We aren’t the most reliable and loving bunch are we? But the God of venomous snakes isn’t the God we know through Jesus. The God we know through Jesus, the God we meet in our faith, didn’t come to condemn us. Or to shame us. Or to embarrass us.
Nope, nor did God come to us in the flesh to impress us. Although God in the flesh was and is pretty darn impressive
Nor did God come to us in the flesh to save us. Although God walking among us and all that the Good News of Christ has brought to the world has, indeed, saved many a person.
No God coming to us in the flesh, to live among us, to work among us, to walk among us and to die among us-- to die at our hand---was an act of Love …it was an act of unmitigated, inexplicable, unquantifiable Grace.
Atonement Theology states that Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins.
Now while you’ll hear me say that Jesus died on the cross for our sins during the course of most Sunday services….. every time I say it I am uncomfortable because it doesn’t mean, to me, nor to many other people, what it sounds like it means.
Clear as mud, right?
Jesus died for our sins, this is true. But not as a ransom. It wasn’t like God decided: well the only way these people will learn is to send them someone—ME in the person of Jesus— and then have him killed. That’ll teach ‘em. They’ll be too terrified to ever sin again, for they’ll know I mean business. This theology—this interpretation of Christ’s death upon the cross-- is embraced by people the world over. And has been for millennia. And when you hear today’s first reading , or any number of readings from Hebrew scripture, it makes sense…for God in many instances appears vengeful, spiteful and down right mean. Mean enough to send Godself in the flesh to be tortured and killed….just to get a point across.
But we don’t worship a vengeful and spiteful God. We worship an evolving, dynamic God, a God who is always adjusting to, learning more about and living into the Creation which emanates from God’s very being.
God is still figuring us, all of us, all of this---God’s creation--- out. A significant part of this “figuring out” is outlined in today’s Gospel, verse 16:
For God so loved the world, God came to be among us, to try and figure us out. Or at least, to get a sense of what was so confounding about us.
But instead of figuring US out, God coming to us in the flesh helped—helps---us figure God out:
For God so loved the world, God came to be among us and God experienced us at our worst as we took God in the flesh and nailed him to a tree, turning our backs on God once again.
And God so loved the world—God so loved US that God didn’t destroy us, didn’t obliterate us, didn’t turn God’s back on us. NO God, after we killed God in the flesh, loved us so much that God defeated death---and all the forces of darkness which lead to death---once and for all.
God took the worst that humanity could offer and turned it around. It’s the ultimate re-frame, the ultimate “life gives you lemon you make lemonade” scenario. God took God’s own death and made it the singular most loving action of all time.
God took the cross, a symbol many of us have made into an icon for our wretchedness, worthlessness, and general worm-like existence and turned it on its head. God took the cross, a symbol of Roman domination and intimidation and made it a symbol of love and grace. God, in the person of Jesus Christ, didn’t die on the cross as a ransom for our misbehavior-- Jesus’ death on the cross isn’t tit for tat, Jesus’ death on the cross isn’t the point. It’s what happened after Jesus died on the cross that’s the point….there’s the Resurrection—that’s important---but that’s not the point I mean.
No the thing that happened after Jesus’ death, after we succeeded in killing God in the flesh, the thing which is so amazing, incredible and unprecedented is:
NOTHING.
Or maybe everything.
God so loved the world that after the world killed God in the flesh, God continued to love us.
God’s grace just kept flowing and flowing and flowing.
The cross of Jesus, the cross of our faith, isn’t about paying a ransom or atoning for sins. The cross of Jesus, the cross of our faith is, instead, about Rivers of Grace, Mountains of Grace, Waves of Grace. The cross of Jesus and the cross of our faith is about God so loving us that we need to stop worrying about earning forgiveness and start living into this grace.
The message of the cross isn’t just forgiveness, though we are certainly forgiven by God for our misdeeds, small and large.
The message of the cross is LOVE.
The message of the cross is GRACE.
The message of the cross is that God so loves us, God can’t stop sending us grace upon grace, love upon love.
Our job, then, is to live into this grace, to live into this Love.
Our job is to stop worrying about everything we haven’t done and wish we had, to stop worrying about what we have done and wish we hadn’t. Our job is to allow ourselves to be washed through and through by God’s amazing, astounding and abundant grace and then, strengthened by this Grace to walk through our lives, as symbols of what Love, of what Grace can do when embodied in each and every one of us.
So be washed in this grace and go out into the world, spreading the light of love and grace on all you meet. Because, by doing that we take this symbol of torture and domination , this symbol of atonement and ransom and turn it into the symbol of hope and love the world so desperately needs.+
No comments:
Post a Comment