Last night, we sat in shock as our Lord, our King, washed our feet. Now, we stand at the foot of the cross and watch him suffer and die a criminal’s death.
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. …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.” And then Taylor writes, “Some of us like it better the other way. We would rather have a God who makes everything happen, including the cross, than a God who hangs there with us.”(God in Pain, p. 118-119.)
Jesus, God walking the face of the earth, washes our feet, loves us, gives us the choice to love him in return—or not—does not create us as puppets, does not force us, does not try to control us. When we are going through very difficult times of brokenness, confusion, agonizing choices and decisions, times full of fear, loss, and darkness; when we realize more and more that our Lord went through all of that and came out the other side; when we realize more and more that his love has more power to bring wholeness than we will ever be able to imagine; when we realize that he is at our side, walking through the darkness and brokenness, leading us through because he has been there, and he knows the way, something happens within us. On deeper and deeper levels, we know in our heart that he is with us and that his love is more powerful than hate, more powerful than fear, more powerful than any force on earth, and his love will lead us to light and life. Amen.
Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: "God in Pain", Barbara Brown Taylor |
Grace Episcopal Church (Sheldon, VT) 