The invitation to walk with Christ, to be his companion on the way, has now been given once again.
Yesterday in my Palm Sunday homily I mentioned the following words of Julian of Norwich: "You want to know our Lord's meaning in this thing? Know it well: love was His meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did He show you? Love. Why did He show it? For love."
That we are beloved by God is good news. Yet, Holy week not only tells us of God's love, but it reveals what love is and how that love has been given. The really Good News of the Christian faith is that God has done something in the giving of his Son that delivers us from our bondage to sin and death.
As, again, William Temple wrote, “This is the heart of the Gospel. Not ‘God is love’ – precious truth but affirming no divine act for our redemption” (Readings in John’s Gospel, p. 48). Love is good. But love that does nothing to change our reality is just sentimental."
Here is where I find my greatest hope. Not simply in words of love, but the love which has changed my reality, and opened the door to the journey of transformation, healing and a new, unending kind of life.
The cross, said Luther, is "the test of everything" (Crux Probat Omnia). For Luther, Christian thinking about God comes to an abrupt halt at
the foot of the cross. The Christian is forced, by the very existence
of the crucified Christ, to make a momentous decision. Either he will
seek God elsewhere, or he will make the cross itself the foundation and
criterion of his thought about God.
Human theological intuitions are always
suspect. Some argue that Jesus crucifixion was not salvific only a metaphor, or even worse, simply a footnote. I am not among them. The cross breaks down our preconceptions regarding everything
about God – and, if we see with the eyes of faith, rebuilds them.
Love was his meaning. The Cross is the test of all.
Awakening Transformation,
Rob+
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