Hello,
There are events in the world so vile and incomprehensible
that they cast a pall over every nation and land. Such was the case with the events of Friday night in Paris.
My Friday night plan was to sit down, turn off my brain,
turn on my TV, and watch some football.
That did not happen.
Instead of watching what is meant to be a diversion from the rigors of
life, sports, I found myself watching life at its worst. The feelings that rolled through my
soul were like bowling balls knocking down pin after pin of hope and peace and
joy.
When things like this happen, they who know about
international politics are called upon to bring some analysis of such horrific
chaos. So, I will leave such
discussion to them. Even though there
are countless theologians far wiser and deeper in thought than I, the darkness
of these things has cast a shadow over my pen, a shadow that I humbly hope God
will use the words of this minor league theologian to dissipate at least a bit.
Those who perpetrated the horror of last Friday night did so
for a flurry of reasons, but it seems to me that a primary motivation is to
create a tsunami of fear. They
intend to cause such a tidal wave of fear that people will run away from life,
rather than live in the blessing of each day of life. They hope that fear will so chill people’s hearts that
earthquakes of hatred will rumble under every nation. They hope that fear will so loom over people that a crest of
suspicion will crash down upon neighborhoods and towns. They hope that fear will rise to the
level that compassion for those who suffer will be drowned. They act in terrorizing ways, it seems
to me, with the hopes that we will be inundated with fear.
This, of course, is nothing new. The same was the case in the days when Jesus walked this
earth. The act of crucifixion was
not just a means that the Romans used to carry out their brand of punishment;
it was far more a weapon used by the Romans to keep the people bathed in
fear. Crucifixions, as you might
recall, were not done behind high walls and in prison courtyards. They were done out in the open. In the middle of the day. The Romans wanted to make sure that
everyone knew they were going on, and that everyone could see what was going
on. They were meant to be a government-sanctioned
act of terror.
The cross, which oddly for some has become merely a pretty
piece of jewelry for many, is not so for me. It is not so because I know the story of God’s encounter
with the cross, the story of the one who was God incarnate that hung on that
Golgotha cross and died….and the continuation of that story that took place
three days later when that same one, Jesus, walked out of that Easter tomb. When Jesus walked out of that tomb,
everything that that Good Friday cross intended to bring down upon the
world…..fear, guilt, terror, hatred, and even death….was crushed under his
feet. For me, the cross is the
ultimate reminder, not of the terrifying powers of the world, but of the
unbeatable power of God.
I, when I was baptized, was marked “with the cross of Christ
forever”, and as a Christian I gather with all those who are so marked under
the cross every Sunday. And when I
mark myself with the sign of the cross, I hear the words of Romans 8 ringing with
unquestionable clarity, “There is nothing in ………. life or in death that can
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So, as one who lives under the cross, I need not, and I will
not live in fear. I will live with
appropriate care, but I will not succumb to fear. I will not hole myself away from life. I will not regard every person who does
not look like me with suspicion. I
will not brush large groups of people with hatred. And I will not stop joining my brothers and sisters every
week around the table of the Lord.
The cross is the supreme evidence to me that the grace and
love of God is far more powerful than the evil that some are determined to
ignite. So, marked with the cross
of Christ and living under it, I hope to show that power to the world so that
the world’s gaze might be captured by it rather than by those who act with
mistaken bravado.
“Fear not,” says the Lord, “I am with you always!”
Have a great week,
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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