What can we say on this terrible, tragic day? We look upon the horror of the cross and we become wordless. Jesus could have called in legions of angels. He could have destroyed that hate-filled mob. But he did not. He suffered, he took in all that hate, and he answered it with one thing, the most powerful force in the world—love.
Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “Christianity is the only world religion that confesses a God who suffers. It is not that popular an idea, even among Christians. We prefer a God who prevents suffering, only that is not the God we have got. What the cross teaches us is that God’s power is not the power to force human choices and end human pain. It is, instead, the power to pick up the shattered pieces and make something holy out of them—not from a distance but from right close up.”
Taylor continues, “By entering into the experience of the cross, God took the manmade wreckage of the world inside himself and labored with it—a long labor—almost three days— and he did not let go of it until he could transform it and return it to us as life. That is the power of a suffering God, not to prevent pain, but to redeem it, by going through it with us.” (God in Pain, p. 118.)
I have shared this passage before but I wanted us to reflect upon it again. Our loving God suffers with us, takes in all that pain and suffering and makes new life out of it. When we humans suffer, God is there with us in that suffering.
God moves through our darkest times with us, not only as individuals but as the entire human race. God takes our times of greatest weakness and brokenness, and transforms them into life on a new level. May we walk the Way of the Cross, the Way that leads to life. Amen.
Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: "God in Pain", Barbara Brown Taylor, Good Friday, the way of the Cross |
Grace Episcopal Church (Sheldon, VT) 