Universal Salvation, Universal Scandal, Or What?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Dear Fellow Preachers,
Since the September 11 attack on the World Trade center, relationships between Christians and Muslims have been severely strained. The present war in Iraq has only served to heighten those tensions.
This week's installment of The Immediate Word offers a unique perspective on this problem. Team member George Murphy uses the lectionary text from John 12 to help us understand how the cross of Christ serves as a focal point for building bridges towards peace.
In addition, this installment also includes extensive comments from other team members, helpful illustrations, creative worship resources including a short mini-drama, and an important children's sermon.
Universal Salvation, Universal Scandal, or What?
By George Murphy
John 12:22-33
War in Iraq absorbs our attention now but there's a larger context: a clash of cultures and the religions that have informed them. Especially since the infamous 9/11, the news has been full of confrontation between Islamic nations and peoples with those whose traditions have been informed largely by Christianity. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and tensions between India and Pakistan remind us that other faiths are part of the mix as well. A quest for some kind of religious harmony seems to be important for the peace of the world.
Christians should have no illusion that they will build the peaceable kingdom within world history, nor do they have any business trimming their fundamental beliefs to make them more palatable to those outside the church. But some degree of religious harmony and intelligent communication of the gospel are possible only if Christians can contribute to it a clear vision of their own faith and think and act in ways that are reasonably consistent with it.
The gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Lent (April 6), John 12:20-33, is both a promise and a challenge. It is about the nations coming to Jesus, who is to draw all people to himself. But the means by which this is to happen seems more repulsive than attractive -- Jesus being "lifted up" (v. 32) on the cross. The cross is offensive, and is especially so for Muslims. They believe that Jesus was a great prophet and the Messiah, but the Qur'an says that he did not die on the cross.
What do we have to say to the world -- and to Muslims in particular -- about the cross? That probably isn't an immediate concern for preachers this Sunday, though with significant numbers of Muslims in the United States, Christians who want to witness to their faith need to be able to speak intelligently about the matter. But we might also turn the question around. What might a perceptive Muslim say to us about this central aspect of Christianity, the cross? That could even be a way to present a provocative sermon, something like "Questions from your Muslim neighbor."
But first we need to look at the text. It is an excellent preparation for the next weeks, for Palm Sunday, the events of the Passion, and Easter, and it also gets at the issues we've just raised in important ways.
Jesus has just entered Jerusalem on what came to be called Palm Sunday. (John is in fact the only one of the Gospels that explicitly mentions palm branches.) In verse 19, just before our reading begins, the Pharisees say -- with typical Johannine double meaning -- "the world (ho kosmos) has gone after him." Like Caiaphas in the previous chapter (11:49-52), they speak more truly than they know, and in fulfillment of this unconscious prophecy, "some Greeks" ask to see Jesus" (v.20).
These first fruits of the nations move Jesus to rejoice -- "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" (v. 23). But as he continues to speak, it is a strange kind of rejoicing and an off-putting kind of "glory" that we hear about.1 Jesus talks about seeds falling into the ground and dying, and about losing life in order to save it. The hour of glory is an hour that troubles his soul. He will indeed draw people to himself -- but by being "lifted up from the earth" (v. 32). And in case we fail to grasp what that means -- or understand it only too well and try to sanitize it -- the evangelist immediately tells us that he was speaking about the way he would die, "the utterly vile death of the cross."2
On one hand, there is a strong note of universalism in this passage, and in verse 32 in particular. "All people" -- not simply "some people" or anything of that sort -- are to be drawn to Christ. Nor is such a note unique in scripture. In Colossians 1:20, e.g., there is the even stronger statement that "all things, whether on earth or in heaven" are to be reconciled to God through the blood of the cross. These verses suggest a grand picture in which finally no one is excluded from the effect of Christ's saving work.
The inclusive reconciliation to which these verses point, however, is not accomplished by God simply ignoring sin and separation, or by some mythic action beyond the world, but by the historical event of Jesus being executed in a humiliating and agonizing way as one of the lowest of criminals "under Pontius Pilate."
Crucifixion in the ancient world was seen -- in the phrase I quoted earlier -- as an "utterly vile death." Under the Roman Empire it was a penalty reserved for slaves, rebels, and base criminals, and could not be imposed upon citizens. It was not only a painful and protracted dying but one which was intended to humiliate the victim and display him or her as a failure and object of contempt. Crucifixion wasn't considered a proper topic of conversation in polite society. It isn't surprising that Paul described the message of the cross as "a stumbling block" and "foolishness" to his contemporaries (1 Corinthians 1:18-25. Cf. also Galatians 5:11).
Theological reflection sometimes results in "the cross" becoming a kind of abstraction, one of the propositions needed for some "theory of the atonement." Things are no better when meditations on the Passion become a matter of pitying poor Jesus. Drawn to the cross? In reality, most people with any sensitivity today would be hard pressed to watch a real crucifixion. How can the real cross possibly attract people, as Jesus says that it will?
The fact that Muslims in particular reject the message of the cross is an important concern for Christians in today's world. The Qur'an is explicit about this.
That they [the Jews] said (in boast),
"We killed Christ Jesus
The son of Mary,
The Apostle of God"; -
But they killed him not,
Nor crucified him,
But so it was made
To appear to them,
And those who differ
Therein are full of doubts,
With no (certain) knowledge,
But only conjecture to follow,
For of a surety
They killed him not: -
Nay, God raised him up
Unto Himself; and God
Is Exalted in Power, Wise ...3
Jesus is, at least in theory, highly regarded by Muslims. (The verses following those quoted say that the "people of the book" must believe in him and that he will be a witness on the Day of Judgment.) But he did not, according to them, die on the cross, and one can find today Islamic polemic against The Myth of the Cross.4
No serious scholar who doesn't assume a priori that the Qur'an is divine revelation will be very impressed by historical or textual arguments against Jesus' death by crucifixion. Christians might go on to point out some problematic aspects of Islam belief and practice that seem to be correlated with this rejection of the cross. Muslims tend to expect that God will give them success and victory, an expectation bolstered by the fact that Islam spread during the first thousand years of its existence largely by military conquest. The rage of Islamic fundamentalists which led to 9/11 and many other terrorist acts has been fueled by the fact that in the past few centuries Islamic nations have not been very successful, have lagged behind the "infidel" West in science, technology, military power, and other ways, and in some cases have been subjugated by western nations. It isn't hard to see some connections between such attitudes and rejection of the belief that the Messiah died a humiliating death as a failure.
Ah, but we're not debating Muslims here! Imagine instead what a Muslim, one well versed in Christian teaching and an observer of Christian practice, might say about all this.
"You Christians talk a lot about the cross -- but how seriously do you really take it? I see Christians wearing crosses as pretty pieces of jewelry. There is nothing there of the ugliness that real crucifixion had. And the crosses -- at least in Protestant churches -- are usually empty. There's no body hanging on them! I've heard Protestants say that the empty cross means that they believe in a risen Christ. In other words, Jesus' supposed death on the cross is to be forgotten about as quickly as possible!
"And I'm told that about five times as many Christians go to church on Easter as on Good Friday. If the resurrection is all you want to hear about, why not just accept what the Holy Qur'an says -- 'They killed him not: -- Nay, God raised him up unto Himself.'
"Your St. Paul said that the cross was offensive. He didn't tell you that you were supposed to clean it up so that it is not offensive.
"But maybe more importantly -- how much attention do you pay to the words that Jesus is supposed to have spoken about the meaning of the cross in your Gospels? 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me' (Mark 8:34). Or 'Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life' (John 12:25). And when Paul talks about the cross, he does so to make the point that Christians are supposed to 'look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others' (Philippians 2:4).
"You accuse us of having a simplistic religion of success and victory. Instead of defending Islam right at the moment, I ask you to look at your own real religion. Isn't it mostly Christians and nations that have historically been Christian who have colonized, oppressed, and enslaved non-Christian peoples throughout the world? Aren't they the ones who point to their technological and military prowess as signs of their superiority?
Why are western nations with their Christian leaders and populations so willing to throw their power around and so unwilling to give up anything? Who is it that really insists on being 'Number One'? When do Christians on any significant scale really take up the cross that is supposed to be at the heart of their religion?
"Maybe we would look again at that part of the Holy Qur'an that speaks of Jesus and the cross, and maybe we would ask if there are some other ways to interpret it besides the traditional ones -- if Christians would speak and act as though the cross were really important. Maybe we would think of it differently if Christians in general -- and not just a few special ones -- seemed willing to bear the offense of the cross. But as long as the cross looks to us only like a symbol on a crusader's banner, we won't be very impressed by your claims."
What would we have to say to that? Perhaps Muslims are just more up-front about the offense of the cross than the average Christian. Does the cross really form our views of the world and the way we live? And with the world so fractured and contentious, is it the cross that we proclaim as the hope for bringing people together?
So how can we preach on this? One possibility, as I already suggested, would be to develop a sermon in the form of something like "Questions from your Muslim neighbor" and responses. The responses should not be simply a rebuttal of the statements by the "Muslim." They should instead encourage members of the congregation to be more fully conformed, in thought and attitude and deed, to the biblical pattern of Christ.
(I would not recommend asking a "real Muslim" to do this. It would be worthwhile to have a conversation with Muslims on these matters in an educational setting where some discussion would be possible, but a Sunday sermon is another matter.
In addition to a general difficulty with having this done by a non-Christian, a Muslim asked to speak about the cross might focus on the truth claims of the Qur'an and problematic statements about the supposed unreliability of the Gospel accounts rather than on the type of challenge that I've sketched.)
The idea that Christians are to bear the offense of the cross could be emphasized. "Bearing our cross" is often taken to mean accepting physical pain or deprivation, and we may be willing to do that -- though we would prefer to avoid it. But being an offense for Christ's sake may be much harder. This could happen in various ways. It may mean holding an unpopular position about a war or some other issue, or identifying with some group of people who are being mistreated. It would certainly include standing up for the Christian faith when it's being persecuted, and in Galatians 5:11 "the offense (more literally 'scandal') of the cross" has to do with the claim that Christians are free from the legal requirement of circumcision. No general statement can be made that includes everything that "bearing the cross" might imply. Perhaps finally we just have to say, "If you take the message seriously, you'll know the cross when you see it."
Another approach would be to emphasize the suggestion of universal salvation, the "all people," of the text. "Universalism" is a controversial topic. On the one hand, there is a naive or sentimental type of universalism that imagines that everybody is really good and deserving at heart and just can't bear to listen to words of judgment -- including those by Jesus. On the other hand, some Christians seem nervous at any suggestion that Hell won't be brimming with people.
Texts like John 12:32 and Colossians 1:20 need to be heard, but with attention called to the fact that they do not proclaim any cheap salvation. The universalism they speak of, if that is what it is, is one that is achieved at the cost of God going into death. We should not be dogmatic here but we can be carefully hopeful. Teilhard de Chardin said somewhere, "We are required to believe that there is a Hell but not that, finally, anyone will be in it." Or as Miroslav Volf quotes someone as saying, "I'm not a universalist -- but God may be."5
Finally, a preacher might draw out another implication of Jesus' being "lifted up" which I haven't explored here. The Johannine "lifting up" of the Son of Man (in 3:14 and 8:28 as well as 12:32-34) does not refer to the crucifixion in isolation, but hints also at Jesus being "raised up" (2:19) and his "ascending" to the Father (20:17). Crucifixion-resurrection-ascension are really parts of one continuous action. And yet we cannot talk about resurrection until we have absorbed the reality of the cross. There is an opportunity here to prepare people for a celebration of Easter which does not leave the cross behind, but which rejoices in the presence of the crucified One who is risen.
Notes
1 For a good imaginative reconstruction of the scene see Bruce E. Schein, Following the Way [Augsburg, 1980], pp.154-157.
2 That last phrase of Origen's is discussed in Martin Hengel, Crucifixion (Fortress, 1977), p.xi. This book is an excellent short treatment of the ways in which crucifixion was practiced and thought about in the ancient world.
3 The Holy Qur'an, Text Translation and Commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali [Dar Al-Mushaf Damascus, 1938], IV:157-158, p.230.The commentary here explains Muslim understandings of these verses.
4 This is the title of one book of this sort by Alhaj A.D. Ajijola (Kazi, Chicago, 1979).
5 Exclusion and Embrace (Abingdon, 1996).
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: You do us a real service, George, in sketching out the many ways the cross was, is, and continues to be offensive to this death-denying world.
"Sir, we wish to see Jesus," ask some visiting Greeks, in John 12:21. But who is the Jesus they are hoping to see?
Surely not the one who's going to "fall into the earth and die," as does a grain of wheat in the process of being planted! Yet this is precisely the Jesus these Greek visitors find: the one who warns, "Those who love their life lose it." (What a recruiting slogan that is! I wonder how long Jesus' visitors stuck around, after hearing that -- John never tells.)
Flannery O'Connor once pointed out, "What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket when, of course, it is the Cross."
Even some who pride themselves on preaching "the full gospel" often find ways to avoid the cross. One pastor of my acquaintance is fond of proclaiming from the pulpit every Good Friday, with a big grin on his face, "It's Friday -- but Sunday's comin'!" On that dark day, his church sanctuary is overflowing with flowers (the Easter blooms, delivered a couple days early). The hymns are warm-fuzzy, me-and-my-good-buddy-Jesus tunes. In his sermon he may touch on the crucifixion, but it's usually in the perfunctory fashion of a pilot doing practice takeoffs and landings: no sooner do the wheels touch the runway, than he's heading skyward again.
The cross, as you say, is offensive. "The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing ... a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (1 Corinthian 1:18, 23). It's just not what the world wants to hear.
Not most of the world, anyway, not most of the time. Yet when the going gets truly tough -- lying in a hospital bed, staring up at the ceiling tiles ... going down to the police station to bail out an errant son or daughter ... turning from a loved one's recently closed casket and trudging out of the funeral home -- in times like those, the image of Jesus on the cross takes on a new and powerful meaning.
In the words of theologian Jürgen Moltmann, "When the crucified Jesus is called 'the image of the invisible God,' the meaning is that this is God, and God is like this. God is not greater than he is in this humiliation. God is not more glorious than he is in this self-surrender. God is not more powerful than he is in this helplessness. God is not more divine than he is in this humanity" (The Crucified God, p. 205).
Paradoxical, but true. And in the face of the sort of suffering this world frequently deals, out, it's one of the few symbols that can be counted on to make existential sense.
Poet Edward Shillito put it this way:
If when the doors are shut, thou drawest near,
Only reveal those hands, that side of thine;
We know today what wounds are, have no fear.
Show us thy scars, we know the countersign.
The other gods were strong, but thou wast weak;
They rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God's wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds but thou alone.
Carter Shelley responds: I especially like your suggestion that preachers consider "Questions from your Muslim neighbors." It offers a way for us to reflect on the ways we embody and fail to embody our Christian commitment on a day in, day out basis as well as on the international stage right now.
The appearance of the Greeks seems very significant. Though not overtly stated at this point, the implication seems to be that Jesus' witness, Passion, and glory are meant for all, thus non-Jews must be present when Jesus speaks of the radical way he approaches both life and death. I find Jesus' initial words, "Now my soul is troubled ..." laden with meaning. Jesus acknowledges the heaviness of the path he will take. This brief confession highlights how Christ is different from other men and women. For us it would be natural to pray, "Father, save me from this hour." It's exactly the kind of prayer we do pray when our souls are troubled or our lives threatened:
Father, save me from this barrage of gunfire.
Father, save my child from drugs and bad influences.
Father, save my marriage; I cannot keep it together alone.
Father, save me from myself.
But Jesus, sounding more like an action movie hero than a vulnerable human being, uses the words primarily to contrast his prayer and action with the more predictable prayer and action you or I might offer: "No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name."
It is as the one who does not follow the practices, ambitions, and paths of this world, that Jesus is affirmed as God's representative. The name of God carrying here a breadth of meaning and sacredness reminiscent of the Old Testament far more than in the New. "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."
In Jesus, God offers the people a chance to change their ways and recognize the Savior in their midst. And, just as the prophet Jeremiah describes the radical new covenant God will make with God's people in 31:31-34, Jesus now outlines the radical way that new covenant will be enacted. A cross, not a crown, suffering not success, glory beyond the glories of this world, are the will of God's heart and the way of God's Son.
George, I greatly appreciate the research you did into Islam's interpretation of the cross of Jesus and also the justifiable critiques Islam offers Christians when we downplay, gloss over, or ignore the implications of the cross for our own life and faith. I like the phrase "the offense of the cross." Why does the cross offend us as well as Muslims? As you suggest, because it's ugly, obscene, filled with cruelty, suffering, and failure. Even more so, because it holds out to us a model for living that goes against so much of who we innately are and wish to remain: strong, proud, self-sufficient, independent, safe, successful, comfortable, secure. Isn't it interesting that those Muslim terrorists and others who criticize, attack, and despise American Christians, criticize, attack, and despise those aspects of our lifestyle and worldview that are American far more than they are Christian? A devout Muslim might not agree that God is most glorified through the radical humiliation of the cross, but it isn't our self-sacrifice, piety, and willingness to be last rather than first that fosters hatred and resentment.
In Your God is too Small, John Benton Phillips presented a series of different portraits that Christians often embrace for God. There's the God who is like Santa Claus, the loving, generous, happy provider of all good things. There's God the mystic or spiritual being, who really isn't connected to our flesh and blood world. God is as intangible as is the human soul. Can't be seen, touched, or excised, but is there somehow. A third depiction of God is as the terrible and terrifying judge who cannot wait to punish all who sin against God's many laws. This God is angry and vengeful. Of course, Phillips' point in the book is that all attempts to categorize and limit God lead to distorted and inadequate depictions of God that reveal more about us than they do about God.
As Christians we affirm that God most fully reveals God's will for humanity and love for humanity in Jesus Christ. Such an affirmation does not mean that God's godliness has not been discovered and understood by other people of faith such as Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists. If our political rhetoric and military might currently express our national arrogance, our assumption that only Christians have insight into who God is suggests religious arrogance. God as we understand God will always be too small to encompass all of God's godliness.
In the introduction to his book Why Religion Matters, Huston Smith alludes to this innate human compass [a set of principles or directions] without using the term. 'The reality that excites and fulfills the soul's longing is God by whatsoever name. Because the human mind cannot come within light-years of comprehending God's nature, we do well to follow Rainer Marie Rilke's suggestion that we think of God as a direction rather than an object (When Religion Becomes Evil, Charles Kimball. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2002, 191).
Jesus' final words in verse 33 speak not of exclusivity but of inclusivity. One doesn't have to be a Unitarian Universalist to read in Christ's words God's will to be in relationship with and to save all whom Jesus can draw near to him.
In A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle's characters name a number of people who have given their lives to the fight against evil and darkness. The list includes Jesus, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Bach, Pasteur, Madame Curie, Einstein, Schweitzer, and Gandhi, Buddha, Beethoven, Rembrandt, St. Francis, Euclid, Copernicus, and the children's own father. Often has L'Engle been criticized for putting Jesus in a list among mere mortals and for including non-Christians on this list. A deeply devout and biblically informed Episcopalian, L'Engle replies to such complaints with the words of the apostle Paul:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:28-29).
James L. Evans responds: George's imaginary critique of Christianity from a Muslim perspective puts in sharp focus the question raised by the cross. In other words, what does it mean to live in the world with the cross as our central symbol? The examples George uses reminded me of an old Anabaptist confession of faith:
As regards revenge, that is, to oppose an enemy with the sword, we believe and confess that the Lord Christ has forbidden and set aside to his disciples and followers all revenge and retaliation, and commanded them to render to no one evil for evil, or cursing for cursing, but to put the sword into the sheath, or, as the prophets have predicted, to beat the swords into ploughshares. Matthew 5:39, 44; Romans 12:14; 1 Peter 3:9; Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3; Zechariah 9:8, 9.
From this we understand that therefore, and according to his example, we must not inflict pain, harm, or sorrow upon any one, but seek the highest welfare and salvation of all men, and even, if necessity require it, flee for the Lord's sake from one city or country into another, and suffer the spoiling of our goods; that we must not harm any one, and, when we are smitten, rather turn the other cheek also, than take revenge or retaliate. Matthew 5:39.
And, moreover, that we must pray for our enemies, feed and refresh them whenever they are hungry or thirsty, and thus convince them by well-doing, and overcome all ignorance. Romans 12:19, 20.
Finally, that we must do good and commend ourselves to every man's conscience; and, according to the law of Christ, do unto no one that which we would not have done to us. 2 Corinthians 4:2; Matthew 7:12.
--Article XIV On Revenge, Dordrecht Confession of Faith, Adopted April 21, 1632 by a Dutch Mennonite Conference
Illustrations
It's very easy to despise our adversaries and condemn them all, without exception. Whenever I'm tempted to do that, I remember something that happened years ago when I was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.
In the fortress-prison where I was confined, the most reliable way we prisoners could communicate was by tapping in code to neighboring cells. Each covert "conversation" ended with a tapped "GBY" (God Bless You). But our requests for church services were denied, and every sign of religion was ruthlessly destroyed.
I had a small cross that meant a lot to me. It had been made by a fellow POW out of bamboo strands. Making it had been a great risk for him; getting it to me was a great risk to both of us.
I knew the guards would never let me keep the cross, so I hid it in a propaganda pamphlet, along with a list of other prisoners in the camp. By day, the pamphlet was under my pallet. But at night I took it out and held the cross in my hand as I prayed. There was great spiritual comfort in it for me.
I'd had the cross several months when I was told that a North Vietnamese work crew was making its way through the camp, cutting down the ventilation openings in each cell by adding bricks. When my turn came, I was ordered outside while a guard made a search of my cell. In a few minutes, I heard his grunt of triumph. He had found the cross.
Coming out, he stood glaring at me as he broke the cross into bits and threw the pieces into an open sewer. I was furious. And helpless.
The work crew had been standing by watching, five or six very old Vietnamese men and women, too old for any other kind of work. They were ordered into my cell to do their job. A half hour passed before they came out and I was allowed to return.
Immediately I reached under the pallet and found the pamphlet. The list of prisoners was gone. Still angry, I began tearing the pamphlet apart. Then I felt a bulge among the pages. There was a cross. A new one, carefully and beautifully woven from the straw strands of a broom. Obviously the work crew had made it. I shuddered at the thought of the punishment they would have suffered had they been caught.
Then I realized something; something that gave me even more spiritual comfort and hope for the future as I prayed with the new cross. Despite the deeds of men that can make enemies out of strangers, the love of God can still reach down and make men brothers.
-- Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton relates this story of his days as a POW in North Vietnam, retold in Guideposts Best Loved Stories, pp. 80-81.
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The cross is vulnerable to those who hate its message, its absurdity offering the ultimate grounds for the mocking of faith. And it is vulnerable, too, to those who fear its message, its violence giving a precedent and a weapon to Christians who cannot tolerate the way of peace. It is vulnerable to those who forget its message, its familiarity providing a pretty promise of protection to be worn around the neck. But it is perhaps most vulnerable to those who love it, and who genuinely wish to understand it. Sometimes, in order to honor the cross, we adore, domesticate, possess it, make it ours, part of our own experience, in the quietude of mystic oneness or in the exertion of busy emulation. Sometimes, in order to exalt the cross and its outcome, we speculate about its infinite significance and turn it into a metaphysical principle: the negative and positive rhythms of the cosmos, for example....
Mercifully, despite its vulnerability, the cross which is God's powerful weakness continues to resist its interpreters, exploding theology's own conceptions and compelling it to suspend its judgments until it has discovered from the story itself what may or may not be true.
-- Alan E. Lewis, Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), p. 27.
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To each one of us Christ is saying, "If you want your life and mission to be fruitful like mine, do like me. Be converted into a seed that lets itself be buried. Let yourself be killed. Do not be afraid. Those who shun suffering will remain alone. No one is more alone than the selfish. But, if you give your life out of love for others, as I give mine for all, you will reap a great harvest. You will have the deepest satisfactions. Do not fear death or threats. The Lord goes with you."
-- Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, quoted in Sojourners Magazine, Sep/Oct 2002, p. 60.
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To look at the Crucifix and then to look at our own hearts; to test by the cross the quality of our love -- if we do that honestly and unflinchingly we don't need any other self-examination. The lash, the crown of thorns, the mockery, the stripping, the nails -- life has equivalents of all these for us and God asks a love for himself and his children which can accept and survive all that in the particular way in which it is offered to us. It is no use to talk in a large vague way about the love of God; here is its point of insertion in the world.
-- Evelyn Underhill
Worship Resources
By Chuck Cammarata
CALL TO WORSHIP
LEADER: The guillotine.
PEOPLE: THE GALLOWS.
LEADER: The gas chamber.
PEOPLE: THE ELECTRIC CHAIR.
LEADER: The cross.
PEOPLE: ALL IMPLEMENTS OF DEATH.
LEADER: And yet,
PEOPLE: AND YET,
LEADER: We Christians glory in the cross. For on it, paradoxically, death was destroyed.
PEOPLE: ON IT, TRUE LIFE WAS GIVEN.
LEADER: This is foolishness to the thoughtful,
PEOPLE: AND SCANDALOUS TO THOSE WHO PURSUE RELIGIOUS RULES,
LEADER: But it is life
PEOPLE: FOR THOSE WHO KNOW JESUS CHRIST.
LEADER: So come, let us glory in the cross of Jesus Christ,
PEOPLE: AND COMMIT OURSELVES AGAIN TO WALKING THE WAY OF THE CROSS.
LEADER: Praise be to God!
PEOPLE: AMEN.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
LEADER: Lord, we celebrate the cross,
PEOPLE: BUT WE DO NOT TAKE UP OUR OWN CROSSES.
LEADER: We rejoice in his death,
PEOPLE: BUT WE DO NOT DIE TO OURSELVES.
LEADER: We talk of the Christian life,
PEOPLE: BUT WE DO NOT WALK ITS PATH.
LEADER: Father, forgive our half measure faith,
PEOPLE: WITH ITS VENEER OF RELIGION,
LEADER: And it's lack of surrender to you and your ways.
PEOPLE: FORGIVE US, O LORD.
LEADER: For we ask it in the name of Jesus the Christ.
PEOPLE: AMEN.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
LEADER: If the cross is anything, it is a statement that there is no sin, no failing, no rebellion against God that cannot be forgiven, forgotten, and overcome. So, come to the cross all you who have fallen, all you who have failed to live up to the high calling of Christ, all you who have made a mess of your lives, come to the cross, be forgiven, cleansed, and begin anew. This is the good news of the gospel.
PEOPLE: HALLELUJAH! AMEN!
HYMNS AND SONGS
There are dozens of great old hymns for this topic such as:
The Old Rugged Cross
In His Cross I Glory
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Beneath the Cross of Jesus
Were You There
One particularly appropriate hymn -- suggested by this week's sermon writer -- is "Lift High the Cross". George notes that the unaltered version of the hymn seems to be #377 in the Lutheran Book of Worship. In this version of the hymn the last line in verse 4 is, "As thou hast promised, draw us all to thee." In other versions the "us" has been changed.
Also especially good for this topic is the contemporary chorus "At the Cross" I have printed the lyrics here:
I know a place, a wonderful place,
Where accused and condemned find mercy and grace.
Where the wrongs we have done, and the wrongs done to us
Were nailed there with him, there on the cross.
At the cross, he died for our sins,
At the cross, he gave us life again.
PASTORAL PRAYER
I think it continues to be important to hold the war in Iraq, and those in harm's way, up in prayer. For me this includes not only our own combatants, but those compelled to fight on the Iraqi side by the terror of Saddam's minions, and all the innocents caught in the cross fire. Here is a possible prayer for this week.
O Crucified One, you know the suffering of this life as fully as we. You know our fallenness and brokenness. In that place in the world where all the darkness that is in us, where the worst in us is being manifest in a maelstrom of war and hatred and terror, send your spirit of comfort and protection on those whose need is great. And as you once did at a place of death, at Golgotha, on an instrument of torture, the cross, transform this new place of death into a beacon of life. Begin, even now, in the midst of war, redeeming the darkness, and bringing in the light of love. We ask it in the name of a crucified savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
MISCELLANEOUS
Lastly for this week, you might want to set up some crosses around your sanctuary this week.
In our church we have several big ugly crosses that we set up at various times for various reasons. They serve as marvelous reminders of the cross of Christ. We have one cross we set up in a small section of the sanctuary where people can go and attach to it burdens they are currently struggling with. Paper and pens are provided, along with tacks. People are encouraged to tack up any concerns they have. It is a visible reminder that the one who died on the cross helps us bear our burdens.
Another option might be to have the cross carried into the sanctuary. Last year we used -- as a call to worship -- a short dramatic entrance of the cross. It went something like this:
A guard shouts from the front of the sanctuary -- COME ON YOU. LIFT THAT CROSS! GET MOVING!
A Christ figure began moving down the aisle carrying a huge and obviously heavy cross.
The guard continued to shout, jab, and even kick the Christ. He also had interaction with the congregation. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT, FOOL! THIS MAN (pointing to Christ) IS A CRIMINAL. PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO DIE ALONG WITH HIM.
This continues until they reach the front of the sanctuary. As they arrive there, the Christ sets the cross in a stand and slips offstage while the guard addresses the congregation. WHAT? WHO SAID THAT? WHO SAID THAT THIS MAN IS INNOCENT? WELL, I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THAT! BUT I DO KNOW THIS! HE'S GOING TO DIE TODAY FOR SOMEONE'S SINS. YES, FOR SOMEONE'S SINS.
This was followed by a brief call to worship:
LEADER: Let us praise God that it was for our sins he died!
Children's Sermon>
By Wes Runk
John 12:20-33
Text: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. (v. 32)
Object: A crucifix or a picture of Jesus dying on the cross
Good morning, boys and girls. We are drawing very close to a special day for all Christians. How many of you know what day that is? (let them answer) You say it is Easter. Easter is a very special day and it is coming very soon. But I am looking for another day, a very important day in our church life. Can you think of another day? (let them answer) Good Friday is the day I was looking for when I asked that question. How many of you know what happened on Good Friday? (let them answer) That's right, it was the day that Jesus was crucified or the day Jesus died for our sins.
In our lesson for today we listen to Jesus telling his disciples about what he expected when this happened. It is nothing that any of us would want to have happen to us. It was a very cruel way to die and Jesus did not look forward to it, but he was willing to do it for our sakes.
I have a symbol of this event. It is called a crucifix and it shows Jesus dying on the cross. I also have some pictures of the event. Jesus does not look very happy either on the cross or in the pictures. It was so painful and awful that God tells us it will only ever happen once to his son and it will be for all of the sins that every man, woman, and child will ever commit. It was for all of the people who ever lived on this earth and it is for all of the people now living and anyone who lives after us. That's how important it was.
Jesus says something very interesting in our lesson today and I want to share it with you. He said that when he died he would draw all people to him. He didn't say all Americans or all white people. He didn't say his death was for everyone that had shared dinner with him or who lived in his country. He said it was for all people.
These are hard times. We are in war and many of the people we are at war with are of a different religion. It seems like all of these people who are Muslims are bad guys. But did you know that there are Christians in Iraq? Did you know that there are Muslims that live in America and are fighting in the American army, navy, marines, and air corps?
And did you know that Jesus died for Christians, Muslims, Jew, Hindus, and Shintoists? They may not know Jesus as their Savior but this is our responsibility. Just like St. Paul was a Jew and brought the word to Greeks, Macedonians, Romans, and Spaniards, so are we supposed to share our love of Jesus with Arabs, Chinese, Japanese, Americans, and all of the people in the world.
Jesus said that when he was crucified he would be lifted up so that everyone in the world would be drawn to him.
We are God's people who have been called to tell the world about the love of Jesus, and that love is for everyone, every single person in the whole world.
Today, when you go home and turn on your TV, you will see a war. No one wanted a war, but sometimes when nothing else seems to work, countries do things like this to try to solve problems. This war will cause a lot of hurt and hate, but it will end in some kind of a peace. As Christians, we must love our enemies and share the love of God with all people.
The next time you see a cross, imagine what it was like that day when they lifted Jesus up and he hung there ready to die for our sins. Also I want you to remember his words that when he was lifted up he would draw all men to him. Amen.
The Immediate Word, April 6, 2003, issue.
Copyright 2003 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
Since the September 11 attack on the World Trade center, relationships between Christians and Muslims have been severely strained. The present war in Iraq has only served to heighten those tensions.
This week's installment of The Immediate Word offers a unique perspective on this problem. Team member George Murphy uses the lectionary text from John 12 to help us understand how the cross of Christ serves as a focal point for building bridges towards peace.
In addition, this installment also includes extensive comments from other team members, helpful illustrations, creative worship resources including a short mini-drama, and an important children's sermon.
Universal Salvation, Universal Scandal, or What?
By George Murphy
John 12:22-33
War in Iraq absorbs our attention now but there's a larger context: a clash of cultures and the religions that have informed them. Especially since the infamous 9/11, the news has been full of confrontation between Islamic nations and peoples with those whose traditions have been informed largely by Christianity. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and tensions between India and Pakistan remind us that other faiths are part of the mix as well. A quest for some kind of religious harmony seems to be important for the peace of the world.
Christians should have no illusion that they will build the peaceable kingdom within world history, nor do they have any business trimming their fundamental beliefs to make them more palatable to those outside the church. But some degree of religious harmony and intelligent communication of the gospel are possible only if Christians can contribute to it a clear vision of their own faith and think and act in ways that are reasonably consistent with it.
The gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Lent (April 6), John 12:20-33, is both a promise and a challenge. It is about the nations coming to Jesus, who is to draw all people to himself. But the means by which this is to happen seems more repulsive than attractive -- Jesus being "lifted up" (v. 32) on the cross. The cross is offensive, and is especially so for Muslims. They believe that Jesus was a great prophet and the Messiah, but the Qur'an says that he did not die on the cross.
What do we have to say to the world -- and to Muslims in particular -- about the cross? That probably isn't an immediate concern for preachers this Sunday, though with significant numbers of Muslims in the United States, Christians who want to witness to their faith need to be able to speak intelligently about the matter. But we might also turn the question around. What might a perceptive Muslim say to us about this central aspect of Christianity, the cross? That could even be a way to present a provocative sermon, something like "Questions from your Muslim neighbor."
But first we need to look at the text. It is an excellent preparation for the next weeks, for Palm Sunday, the events of the Passion, and Easter, and it also gets at the issues we've just raised in important ways.
Jesus has just entered Jerusalem on what came to be called Palm Sunday. (John is in fact the only one of the Gospels that explicitly mentions palm branches.) In verse 19, just before our reading begins, the Pharisees say -- with typical Johannine double meaning -- "the world (ho kosmos) has gone after him." Like Caiaphas in the previous chapter (11:49-52), they speak more truly than they know, and in fulfillment of this unconscious prophecy, "some Greeks" ask to see Jesus" (v.20).
These first fruits of the nations move Jesus to rejoice -- "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" (v. 23). But as he continues to speak, it is a strange kind of rejoicing and an off-putting kind of "glory" that we hear about.1 Jesus talks about seeds falling into the ground and dying, and about losing life in order to save it. The hour of glory is an hour that troubles his soul. He will indeed draw people to himself -- but by being "lifted up from the earth" (v. 32). And in case we fail to grasp what that means -- or understand it only too well and try to sanitize it -- the evangelist immediately tells us that he was speaking about the way he would die, "the utterly vile death of the cross."2
On one hand, there is a strong note of universalism in this passage, and in verse 32 in particular. "All people" -- not simply "some people" or anything of that sort -- are to be drawn to Christ. Nor is such a note unique in scripture. In Colossians 1:20, e.g., there is the even stronger statement that "all things, whether on earth or in heaven" are to be reconciled to God through the blood of the cross. These verses suggest a grand picture in which finally no one is excluded from the effect of Christ's saving work.
The inclusive reconciliation to which these verses point, however, is not accomplished by God simply ignoring sin and separation, or by some mythic action beyond the world, but by the historical event of Jesus being executed in a humiliating and agonizing way as one of the lowest of criminals "under Pontius Pilate."
Crucifixion in the ancient world was seen -- in the phrase I quoted earlier -- as an "utterly vile death." Under the Roman Empire it was a penalty reserved for slaves, rebels, and base criminals, and could not be imposed upon citizens. It was not only a painful and protracted dying but one which was intended to humiliate the victim and display him or her as a failure and object of contempt. Crucifixion wasn't considered a proper topic of conversation in polite society. It isn't surprising that Paul described the message of the cross as "a stumbling block" and "foolishness" to his contemporaries (1 Corinthians 1:18-25. Cf. also Galatians 5:11).
Theological reflection sometimes results in "the cross" becoming a kind of abstraction, one of the propositions needed for some "theory of the atonement." Things are no better when meditations on the Passion become a matter of pitying poor Jesus. Drawn to the cross? In reality, most people with any sensitivity today would be hard pressed to watch a real crucifixion. How can the real cross possibly attract people, as Jesus says that it will?
The fact that Muslims in particular reject the message of the cross is an important concern for Christians in today's world. The Qur'an is explicit about this.
That they [the Jews] said (in boast),
"We killed Christ Jesus
The son of Mary,
The Apostle of God"; -
But they killed him not,
Nor crucified him,
But so it was made
To appear to them,
And those who differ
Therein are full of doubts,
With no (certain) knowledge,
But only conjecture to follow,
For of a surety
They killed him not: -
Nay, God raised him up
Unto Himself; and God
Is Exalted in Power, Wise ...3
Jesus is, at least in theory, highly regarded by Muslims. (The verses following those quoted say that the "people of the book" must believe in him and that he will be a witness on the Day of Judgment.) But he did not, according to them, die on the cross, and one can find today Islamic polemic against The Myth of the Cross.4
No serious scholar who doesn't assume a priori that the Qur'an is divine revelation will be very impressed by historical or textual arguments against Jesus' death by crucifixion. Christians might go on to point out some problematic aspects of Islam belief and practice that seem to be correlated with this rejection of the cross. Muslims tend to expect that God will give them success and victory, an expectation bolstered by the fact that Islam spread during the first thousand years of its existence largely by military conquest. The rage of Islamic fundamentalists which led to 9/11 and many other terrorist acts has been fueled by the fact that in the past few centuries Islamic nations have not been very successful, have lagged behind the "infidel" West in science, technology, military power, and other ways, and in some cases have been subjugated by western nations. It isn't hard to see some connections between such attitudes and rejection of the belief that the Messiah died a humiliating death as a failure.
Ah, but we're not debating Muslims here! Imagine instead what a Muslim, one well versed in Christian teaching and an observer of Christian practice, might say about all this.
"You Christians talk a lot about the cross -- but how seriously do you really take it? I see Christians wearing crosses as pretty pieces of jewelry. There is nothing there of the ugliness that real crucifixion had. And the crosses -- at least in Protestant churches -- are usually empty. There's no body hanging on them! I've heard Protestants say that the empty cross means that they believe in a risen Christ. In other words, Jesus' supposed death on the cross is to be forgotten about as quickly as possible!
"And I'm told that about five times as many Christians go to church on Easter as on Good Friday. If the resurrection is all you want to hear about, why not just accept what the Holy Qur'an says -- 'They killed him not: -- Nay, God raised him up unto Himself.'
"Your St. Paul said that the cross was offensive. He didn't tell you that you were supposed to clean it up so that it is not offensive.
"But maybe more importantly -- how much attention do you pay to the words that Jesus is supposed to have spoken about the meaning of the cross in your Gospels? 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me' (Mark 8:34). Or 'Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life' (John 12:25). And when Paul talks about the cross, he does so to make the point that Christians are supposed to 'look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others' (Philippians 2:4).
"You accuse us of having a simplistic religion of success and victory. Instead of defending Islam right at the moment, I ask you to look at your own real religion. Isn't it mostly Christians and nations that have historically been Christian who have colonized, oppressed, and enslaved non-Christian peoples throughout the world? Aren't they the ones who point to their technological and military prowess as signs of their superiority?
Why are western nations with their Christian leaders and populations so willing to throw their power around and so unwilling to give up anything? Who is it that really insists on being 'Number One'? When do Christians on any significant scale really take up the cross that is supposed to be at the heart of their religion?
"Maybe we would look again at that part of the Holy Qur'an that speaks of Jesus and the cross, and maybe we would ask if there are some other ways to interpret it besides the traditional ones -- if Christians would speak and act as though the cross were really important. Maybe we would think of it differently if Christians in general -- and not just a few special ones -- seemed willing to bear the offense of the cross. But as long as the cross looks to us only like a symbol on a crusader's banner, we won't be very impressed by your claims."
What would we have to say to that? Perhaps Muslims are just more up-front about the offense of the cross than the average Christian. Does the cross really form our views of the world and the way we live? And with the world so fractured and contentious, is it the cross that we proclaim as the hope for bringing people together?
So how can we preach on this? One possibility, as I already suggested, would be to develop a sermon in the form of something like "Questions from your Muslim neighbor" and responses. The responses should not be simply a rebuttal of the statements by the "Muslim." They should instead encourage members of the congregation to be more fully conformed, in thought and attitude and deed, to the biblical pattern of Christ.
(I would not recommend asking a "real Muslim" to do this. It would be worthwhile to have a conversation with Muslims on these matters in an educational setting where some discussion would be possible, but a Sunday sermon is another matter.
In addition to a general difficulty with having this done by a non-Christian, a Muslim asked to speak about the cross might focus on the truth claims of the Qur'an and problematic statements about the supposed unreliability of the Gospel accounts rather than on the type of challenge that I've sketched.)
The idea that Christians are to bear the offense of the cross could be emphasized. "Bearing our cross" is often taken to mean accepting physical pain or deprivation, and we may be willing to do that -- though we would prefer to avoid it. But being an offense for Christ's sake may be much harder. This could happen in various ways. It may mean holding an unpopular position about a war or some other issue, or identifying with some group of people who are being mistreated. It would certainly include standing up for the Christian faith when it's being persecuted, and in Galatians 5:11 "the offense (more literally 'scandal') of the cross" has to do with the claim that Christians are free from the legal requirement of circumcision. No general statement can be made that includes everything that "bearing the cross" might imply. Perhaps finally we just have to say, "If you take the message seriously, you'll know the cross when you see it."
Another approach would be to emphasize the suggestion of universal salvation, the "all people," of the text. "Universalism" is a controversial topic. On the one hand, there is a naive or sentimental type of universalism that imagines that everybody is really good and deserving at heart and just can't bear to listen to words of judgment -- including those by Jesus. On the other hand, some Christians seem nervous at any suggestion that Hell won't be brimming with people.
Texts like John 12:32 and Colossians 1:20 need to be heard, but with attention called to the fact that they do not proclaim any cheap salvation. The universalism they speak of, if that is what it is, is one that is achieved at the cost of God going into death. We should not be dogmatic here but we can be carefully hopeful. Teilhard de Chardin said somewhere, "We are required to believe that there is a Hell but not that, finally, anyone will be in it." Or as Miroslav Volf quotes someone as saying, "I'm not a universalist -- but God may be."5
Finally, a preacher might draw out another implication of Jesus' being "lifted up" which I haven't explored here. The Johannine "lifting up" of the Son of Man (in 3:14 and 8:28 as well as 12:32-34) does not refer to the crucifixion in isolation, but hints also at Jesus being "raised up" (2:19) and his "ascending" to the Father (20:17). Crucifixion-resurrection-ascension are really parts of one continuous action. And yet we cannot talk about resurrection until we have absorbed the reality of the cross. There is an opportunity here to prepare people for a celebration of Easter which does not leave the cross behind, but which rejoices in the presence of the crucified One who is risen.
Notes
1 For a good imaginative reconstruction of the scene see Bruce E. Schein, Following the Way [Augsburg, 1980], pp.154-157.
2 That last phrase of Origen's is discussed in Martin Hengel, Crucifixion (Fortress, 1977), p.xi. This book is an excellent short treatment of the ways in which crucifixion was practiced and thought about in the ancient world.
3 The Holy Qur'an, Text Translation and Commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali [Dar Al-Mushaf Damascus, 1938], IV:157-158, p.230.The commentary here explains Muslim understandings of these verses.
4 This is the title of one book of this sort by Alhaj A.D. Ajijola (Kazi, Chicago, 1979).
5 Exclusion and Embrace (Abingdon, 1996).
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: You do us a real service, George, in sketching out the many ways the cross was, is, and continues to be offensive to this death-denying world.
"Sir, we wish to see Jesus," ask some visiting Greeks, in John 12:21. But who is the Jesus they are hoping to see?
Surely not the one who's going to "fall into the earth and die," as does a grain of wheat in the process of being planted! Yet this is precisely the Jesus these Greek visitors find: the one who warns, "Those who love their life lose it." (What a recruiting slogan that is! I wonder how long Jesus' visitors stuck around, after hearing that -- John never tells.)
Flannery O'Connor once pointed out, "What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket when, of course, it is the Cross."
Even some who pride themselves on preaching "the full gospel" often find ways to avoid the cross. One pastor of my acquaintance is fond of proclaiming from the pulpit every Good Friday, with a big grin on his face, "It's Friday -- but Sunday's comin'!" On that dark day, his church sanctuary is overflowing with flowers (the Easter blooms, delivered a couple days early). The hymns are warm-fuzzy, me-and-my-good-buddy-Jesus tunes. In his sermon he may touch on the crucifixion, but it's usually in the perfunctory fashion of a pilot doing practice takeoffs and landings: no sooner do the wheels touch the runway, than he's heading skyward again.
The cross, as you say, is offensive. "The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing ... a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (1 Corinthian 1:18, 23). It's just not what the world wants to hear.
Not most of the world, anyway, not most of the time. Yet when the going gets truly tough -- lying in a hospital bed, staring up at the ceiling tiles ... going down to the police station to bail out an errant son or daughter ... turning from a loved one's recently closed casket and trudging out of the funeral home -- in times like those, the image of Jesus on the cross takes on a new and powerful meaning.
In the words of theologian Jürgen Moltmann, "When the crucified Jesus is called 'the image of the invisible God,' the meaning is that this is God, and God is like this. God is not greater than he is in this humiliation. God is not more glorious than he is in this self-surrender. God is not more powerful than he is in this helplessness. God is not more divine than he is in this humanity" (The Crucified God, p. 205).
Paradoxical, but true. And in the face of the sort of suffering this world frequently deals, out, it's one of the few symbols that can be counted on to make existential sense.
Poet Edward Shillito put it this way:
If when the doors are shut, thou drawest near,
Only reveal those hands, that side of thine;
We know today what wounds are, have no fear.
Show us thy scars, we know the countersign.
The other gods were strong, but thou wast weak;
They rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God's wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds but thou alone.
Carter Shelley responds: I especially like your suggestion that preachers consider "Questions from your Muslim neighbors." It offers a way for us to reflect on the ways we embody and fail to embody our Christian commitment on a day in, day out basis as well as on the international stage right now.
The appearance of the Greeks seems very significant. Though not overtly stated at this point, the implication seems to be that Jesus' witness, Passion, and glory are meant for all, thus non-Jews must be present when Jesus speaks of the radical way he approaches both life and death. I find Jesus' initial words, "Now my soul is troubled ..." laden with meaning. Jesus acknowledges the heaviness of the path he will take. This brief confession highlights how Christ is different from other men and women. For us it would be natural to pray, "Father, save me from this hour." It's exactly the kind of prayer we do pray when our souls are troubled or our lives threatened:
Father, save me from this barrage of gunfire.
Father, save my child from drugs and bad influences.
Father, save my marriage; I cannot keep it together alone.
Father, save me from myself.
But Jesus, sounding more like an action movie hero than a vulnerable human being, uses the words primarily to contrast his prayer and action with the more predictable prayer and action you or I might offer: "No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name."
It is as the one who does not follow the practices, ambitions, and paths of this world, that Jesus is affirmed as God's representative. The name of God carrying here a breadth of meaning and sacredness reminiscent of the Old Testament far more than in the New. "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."
In Jesus, God offers the people a chance to change their ways and recognize the Savior in their midst. And, just as the prophet Jeremiah describes the radical new covenant God will make with God's people in 31:31-34, Jesus now outlines the radical way that new covenant will be enacted. A cross, not a crown, suffering not success, glory beyond the glories of this world, are the will of God's heart and the way of God's Son.
George, I greatly appreciate the research you did into Islam's interpretation of the cross of Jesus and also the justifiable critiques Islam offers Christians when we downplay, gloss over, or ignore the implications of the cross for our own life and faith. I like the phrase "the offense of the cross." Why does the cross offend us as well as Muslims? As you suggest, because it's ugly, obscene, filled with cruelty, suffering, and failure. Even more so, because it holds out to us a model for living that goes against so much of who we innately are and wish to remain: strong, proud, self-sufficient, independent, safe, successful, comfortable, secure. Isn't it interesting that those Muslim terrorists and others who criticize, attack, and despise American Christians, criticize, attack, and despise those aspects of our lifestyle and worldview that are American far more than they are Christian? A devout Muslim might not agree that God is most glorified through the radical humiliation of the cross, but it isn't our self-sacrifice, piety, and willingness to be last rather than first that fosters hatred and resentment.
In Your God is too Small, John Benton Phillips presented a series of different portraits that Christians often embrace for God. There's the God who is like Santa Claus, the loving, generous, happy provider of all good things. There's God the mystic or spiritual being, who really isn't connected to our flesh and blood world. God is as intangible as is the human soul. Can't be seen, touched, or excised, but is there somehow. A third depiction of God is as the terrible and terrifying judge who cannot wait to punish all who sin against God's many laws. This God is angry and vengeful. Of course, Phillips' point in the book is that all attempts to categorize and limit God lead to distorted and inadequate depictions of God that reveal more about us than they do about God.
As Christians we affirm that God most fully reveals God's will for humanity and love for humanity in Jesus Christ. Such an affirmation does not mean that God's godliness has not been discovered and understood by other people of faith such as Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists. If our political rhetoric and military might currently express our national arrogance, our assumption that only Christians have insight into who God is suggests religious arrogance. God as we understand God will always be too small to encompass all of God's godliness.
In the introduction to his book Why Religion Matters, Huston Smith alludes to this innate human compass [a set of principles or directions] without using the term. 'The reality that excites and fulfills the soul's longing is God by whatsoever name. Because the human mind cannot come within light-years of comprehending God's nature, we do well to follow Rainer Marie Rilke's suggestion that we think of God as a direction rather than an object (When Religion Becomes Evil, Charles Kimball. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2002, 191).
Jesus' final words in verse 33 speak not of exclusivity but of inclusivity. One doesn't have to be a Unitarian Universalist to read in Christ's words God's will to be in relationship with and to save all whom Jesus can draw near to him.
In A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle's characters name a number of people who have given their lives to the fight against evil and darkness. The list includes Jesus, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Bach, Pasteur, Madame Curie, Einstein, Schweitzer, and Gandhi, Buddha, Beethoven, Rembrandt, St. Francis, Euclid, Copernicus, and the children's own father. Often has L'Engle been criticized for putting Jesus in a list among mere mortals and for including non-Christians on this list. A deeply devout and biblically informed Episcopalian, L'Engle replies to such complaints with the words of the apostle Paul:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:28-29).
James L. Evans responds: George's imaginary critique of Christianity from a Muslim perspective puts in sharp focus the question raised by the cross. In other words, what does it mean to live in the world with the cross as our central symbol? The examples George uses reminded me of an old Anabaptist confession of faith:
As regards revenge, that is, to oppose an enemy with the sword, we believe and confess that the Lord Christ has forbidden and set aside to his disciples and followers all revenge and retaliation, and commanded them to render to no one evil for evil, or cursing for cursing, but to put the sword into the sheath, or, as the prophets have predicted, to beat the swords into ploughshares. Matthew 5:39, 44; Romans 12:14; 1 Peter 3:9; Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3; Zechariah 9:8, 9.
From this we understand that therefore, and according to his example, we must not inflict pain, harm, or sorrow upon any one, but seek the highest welfare and salvation of all men, and even, if necessity require it, flee for the Lord's sake from one city or country into another, and suffer the spoiling of our goods; that we must not harm any one, and, when we are smitten, rather turn the other cheek also, than take revenge or retaliate. Matthew 5:39.
And, moreover, that we must pray for our enemies, feed and refresh them whenever they are hungry or thirsty, and thus convince them by well-doing, and overcome all ignorance. Romans 12:19, 20.
Finally, that we must do good and commend ourselves to every man's conscience; and, according to the law of Christ, do unto no one that which we would not have done to us. 2 Corinthians 4:2; Matthew 7:12.
--Article XIV On Revenge, Dordrecht Confession of Faith, Adopted April 21, 1632 by a Dutch Mennonite Conference
Illustrations
It's very easy to despise our adversaries and condemn them all, without exception. Whenever I'm tempted to do that, I remember something that happened years ago when I was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.
In the fortress-prison where I was confined, the most reliable way we prisoners could communicate was by tapping in code to neighboring cells. Each covert "conversation" ended with a tapped "GBY" (God Bless You). But our requests for church services were denied, and every sign of religion was ruthlessly destroyed.
I had a small cross that meant a lot to me. It had been made by a fellow POW out of bamboo strands. Making it had been a great risk for him; getting it to me was a great risk to both of us.
I knew the guards would never let me keep the cross, so I hid it in a propaganda pamphlet, along with a list of other prisoners in the camp. By day, the pamphlet was under my pallet. But at night I took it out and held the cross in my hand as I prayed. There was great spiritual comfort in it for me.
I'd had the cross several months when I was told that a North Vietnamese work crew was making its way through the camp, cutting down the ventilation openings in each cell by adding bricks. When my turn came, I was ordered outside while a guard made a search of my cell. In a few minutes, I heard his grunt of triumph. He had found the cross.
Coming out, he stood glaring at me as he broke the cross into bits and threw the pieces into an open sewer. I was furious. And helpless.
The work crew had been standing by watching, five or six very old Vietnamese men and women, too old for any other kind of work. They were ordered into my cell to do their job. A half hour passed before they came out and I was allowed to return.
Immediately I reached under the pallet and found the pamphlet. The list of prisoners was gone. Still angry, I began tearing the pamphlet apart. Then I felt a bulge among the pages. There was a cross. A new one, carefully and beautifully woven from the straw strands of a broom. Obviously the work crew had made it. I shuddered at the thought of the punishment they would have suffered had they been caught.
Then I realized something; something that gave me even more spiritual comfort and hope for the future as I prayed with the new cross. Despite the deeds of men that can make enemies out of strangers, the love of God can still reach down and make men brothers.
-- Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton relates this story of his days as a POW in North Vietnam, retold in Guideposts Best Loved Stories, pp. 80-81.
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The cross is vulnerable to those who hate its message, its absurdity offering the ultimate grounds for the mocking of faith. And it is vulnerable, too, to those who fear its message, its violence giving a precedent and a weapon to Christians who cannot tolerate the way of peace. It is vulnerable to those who forget its message, its familiarity providing a pretty promise of protection to be worn around the neck. But it is perhaps most vulnerable to those who love it, and who genuinely wish to understand it. Sometimes, in order to honor the cross, we adore, domesticate, possess it, make it ours, part of our own experience, in the quietude of mystic oneness or in the exertion of busy emulation. Sometimes, in order to exalt the cross and its outcome, we speculate about its infinite significance and turn it into a metaphysical principle: the negative and positive rhythms of the cosmos, for example....
Mercifully, despite its vulnerability, the cross which is God's powerful weakness continues to resist its interpreters, exploding theology's own conceptions and compelling it to suspend its judgments until it has discovered from the story itself what may or may not be true.
-- Alan E. Lewis, Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), p. 27.
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To each one of us Christ is saying, "If you want your life and mission to be fruitful like mine, do like me. Be converted into a seed that lets itself be buried. Let yourself be killed. Do not be afraid. Those who shun suffering will remain alone. No one is more alone than the selfish. But, if you give your life out of love for others, as I give mine for all, you will reap a great harvest. You will have the deepest satisfactions. Do not fear death or threats. The Lord goes with you."
-- Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, quoted in Sojourners Magazine, Sep/Oct 2002, p. 60.
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To look at the Crucifix and then to look at our own hearts; to test by the cross the quality of our love -- if we do that honestly and unflinchingly we don't need any other self-examination. The lash, the crown of thorns, the mockery, the stripping, the nails -- life has equivalents of all these for us and God asks a love for himself and his children which can accept and survive all that in the particular way in which it is offered to us. It is no use to talk in a large vague way about the love of God; here is its point of insertion in the world.
-- Evelyn Underhill
Worship Resources
By Chuck Cammarata
CALL TO WORSHIP
LEADER: The guillotine.
PEOPLE: THE GALLOWS.
LEADER: The gas chamber.
PEOPLE: THE ELECTRIC CHAIR.
LEADER: The cross.
PEOPLE: ALL IMPLEMENTS OF DEATH.
LEADER: And yet,
PEOPLE: AND YET,
LEADER: We Christians glory in the cross. For on it, paradoxically, death was destroyed.
PEOPLE: ON IT, TRUE LIFE WAS GIVEN.
LEADER: This is foolishness to the thoughtful,
PEOPLE: AND SCANDALOUS TO THOSE WHO PURSUE RELIGIOUS RULES,
LEADER: But it is life
PEOPLE: FOR THOSE WHO KNOW JESUS CHRIST.
LEADER: So come, let us glory in the cross of Jesus Christ,
PEOPLE: AND COMMIT OURSELVES AGAIN TO WALKING THE WAY OF THE CROSS.
LEADER: Praise be to God!
PEOPLE: AMEN.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
LEADER: Lord, we celebrate the cross,
PEOPLE: BUT WE DO NOT TAKE UP OUR OWN CROSSES.
LEADER: We rejoice in his death,
PEOPLE: BUT WE DO NOT DIE TO OURSELVES.
LEADER: We talk of the Christian life,
PEOPLE: BUT WE DO NOT WALK ITS PATH.
LEADER: Father, forgive our half measure faith,
PEOPLE: WITH ITS VENEER OF RELIGION,
LEADER: And it's lack of surrender to you and your ways.
PEOPLE: FORGIVE US, O LORD.
LEADER: For we ask it in the name of Jesus the Christ.
PEOPLE: AMEN.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
LEADER: If the cross is anything, it is a statement that there is no sin, no failing, no rebellion against God that cannot be forgiven, forgotten, and overcome. So, come to the cross all you who have fallen, all you who have failed to live up to the high calling of Christ, all you who have made a mess of your lives, come to the cross, be forgiven, cleansed, and begin anew. This is the good news of the gospel.
PEOPLE: HALLELUJAH! AMEN!
HYMNS AND SONGS
There are dozens of great old hymns for this topic such as:
The Old Rugged Cross
In His Cross I Glory
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Beneath the Cross of Jesus
Were You There
One particularly appropriate hymn -- suggested by this week's sermon writer -- is "Lift High the Cross". George notes that the unaltered version of the hymn seems to be #377 in the Lutheran Book of Worship. In this version of the hymn the last line in verse 4 is, "As thou hast promised, draw us all to thee." In other versions the "us" has been changed.
Also especially good for this topic is the contemporary chorus "At the Cross" I have printed the lyrics here:
I know a place, a wonderful place,
Where accused and condemned find mercy and grace.
Where the wrongs we have done, and the wrongs done to us
Were nailed there with him, there on the cross.
At the cross, he died for our sins,
At the cross, he gave us life again.
PASTORAL PRAYER
I think it continues to be important to hold the war in Iraq, and those in harm's way, up in prayer. For me this includes not only our own combatants, but those compelled to fight on the Iraqi side by the terror of Saddam's minions, and all the innocents caught in the cross fire. Here is a possible prayer for this week.
O Crucified One, you know the suffering of this life as fully as we. You know our fallenness and brokenness. In that place in the world where all the darkness that is in us, where the worst in us is being manifest in a maelstrom of war and hatred and terror, send your spirit of comfort and protection on those whose need is great. And as you once did at a place of death, at Golgotha, on an instrument of torture, the cross, transform this new place of death into a beacon of life. Begin, even now, in the midst of war, redeeming the darkness, and bringing in the light of love. We ask it in the name of a crucified savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
MISCELLANEOUS
Lastly for this week, you might want to set up some crosses around your sanctuary this week.
In our church we have several big ugly crosses that we set up at various times for various reasons. They serve as marvelous reminders of the cross of Christ. We have one cross we set up in a small section of the sanctuary where people can go and attach to it burdens they are currently struggling with. Paper and pens are provided, along with tacks. People are encouraged to tack up any concerns they have. It is a visible reminder that the one who died on the cross helps us bear our burdens.
Another option might be to have the cross carried into the sanctuary. Last year we used -- as a call to worship -- a short dramatic entrance of the cross. It went something like this:
A guard shouts from the front of the sanctuary -- COME ON YOU. LIFT THAT CROSS! GET MOVING!
A Christ figure began moving down the aisle carrying a huge and obviously heavy cross.
The guard continued to shout, jab, and even kick the Christ. He also had interaction with the congregation. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT, FOOL! THIS MAN (pointing to Christ) IS A CRIMINAL. PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO DIE ALONG WITH HIM.
This continues until they reach the front of the sanctuary. As they arrive there, the Christ sets the cross in a stand and slips offstage while the guard addresses the congregation. WHAT? WHO SAID THAT? WHO SAID THAT THIS MAN IS INNOCENT? WELL, I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THAT! BUT I DO KNOW THIS! HE'S GOING TO DIE TODAY FOR SOMEONE'S SINS. YES, FOR SOMEONE'S SINS.
This was followed by a brief call to worship:
LEADER: Let us praise God that it was for our sins he died!
Children's Sermon>
By Wes Runk
John 12:20-33
Text: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. (v. 32)
Object: A crucifix or a picture of Jesus dying on the cross
Good morning, boys and girls. We are drawing very close to a special day for all Christians. How many of you know what day that is? (let them answer) You say it is Easter. Easter is a very special day and it is coming very soon. But I am looking for another day, a very important day in our church life. Can you think of another day? (let them answer) Good Friday is the day I was looking for when I asked that question. How many of you know what happened on Good Friday? (let them answer) That's right, it was the day that Jesus was crucified or the day Jesus died for our sins.
In our lesson for today we listen to Jesus telling his disciples about what he expected when this happened. It is nothing that any of us would want to have happen to us. It was a very cruel way to die and Jesus did not look forward to it, but he was willing to do it for our sakes.
I have a symbol of this event. It is called a crucifix and it shows Jesus dying on the cross. I also have some pictures of the event. Jesus does not look very happy either on the cross or in the pictures. It was so painful and awful that God tells us it will only ever happen once to his son and it will be for all of the sins that every man, woman, and child will ever commit. It was for all of the people who ever lived on this earth and it is for all of the people now living and anyone who lives after us. That's how important it was.
Jesus says something very interesting in our lesson today and I want to share it with you. He said that when he died he would draw all people to him. He didn't say all Americans or all white people. He didn't say his death was for everyone that had shared dinner with him or who lived in his country. He said it was for all people.
These are hard times. We are in war and many of the people we are at war with are of a different religion. It seems like all of these people who are Muslims are bad guys. But did you know that there are Christians in Iraq? Did you know that there are Muslims that live in America and are fighting in the American army, navy, marines, and air corps?
And did you know that Jesus died for Christians, Muslims, Jew, Hindus, and Shintoists? They may not know Jesus as their Savior but this is our responsibility. Just like St. Paul was a Jew and brought the word to Greeks, Macedonians, Romans, and Spaniards, so are we supposed to share our love of Jesus with Arabs, Chinese, Japanese, Americans, and all of the people in the world.
Jesus said that when he was crucified he would be lifted up so that everyone in the world would be drawn to him.
We are God's people who have been called to tell the world about the love of Jesus, and that love is for everyone, every single person in the whole world.
Today, when you go home and turn on your TV, you will see a war. No one wanted a war, but sometimes when nothing else seems to work, countries do things like this to try to solve problems. This war will cause a lot of hurt and hate, but it will end in some kind of a peace. As Christians, we must love our enemies and share the love of God with all people.
The next time you see a cross, imagine what it was like that day when they lifted Jesus up and he hung there ready to die for our sins. Also I want you to remember his words that when he was lifted up he would draw all men to him. Amen.
The Immediate Word, April 6, 2003, issue.
Copyright 2003 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
