What is the church? Asked to suffer.

What is the church?  And what can we liken it to in Genesis 22?

"And he said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” And he said, “Take your son, your only child, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains where I will tell you.”"  

Does God, who gave you everything you have, including you, have the right to ask for it back?  Thank God, you say, that He doesn't test all of us in this way anymore!  But does He?  Many parents have had to wrestle with the question, "Is God good?"  or "Is God trustworthy?" after the loss of a child?  After something terrible has happened to their child?  God is all powerful.  Things we disdain to even put a price on matter to God.  Buy one, get one-sparrows matter to him and not one dies but by his permission.  Not one hair from your head falls without his noticing and approving the loss.  You think He didn't know a child would die?  Didn't ordain it?  Didn't bring it about?  The God who brought the universe into being and maintains it by His mere word?  Please. 

So if it's not a question of authority or power then it comes down to Eve's question.  Is God good?  Is God good in this?  Job asked it.  Anyone who suffers has to ask it.  If God asks you to do something hard, to give up something crucial, something treasured, something we think we can't live without, our lives, to follow him somewhere painful, will you obey then?  If so, why?  i sense we'll be camped out here for a few days but for today...

The church are those who hear the voice of God and obey it, because they know Him and trust Him.
"Whenever he sends out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. And they will never follow a stranger, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” John 10

What is the Church? Righteous.

What is the church?  And what can we liken it to in Genesis 15?

"And he (Abram) believed in Yahweh, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness."

God has made all the promises.  God has done all the heavy lifting.  Literally, He has lifted all the heavy things.  Your Sin.  Your death.  Your punishment.  Your obligation to worship Him as God.  Your righteous life which you should lead before a loving Creator Father God.  Your obedience.  All of these things were lifted up upon a wooden cross.  All of these things were bled for.  All of these things were despised and cut off.  All of these things bore the full wrath of the Justice of God.  

They are paid for.  It is finished.

The church are those who believe this.  The church are those who are affected by this and effected by this and changed by this belief.  The church are those who attempt to live according to this belief.  

You see, i must say 'attempt' for on this side of death, none but Jesus did it completely or correctly but because he did 'it is credited to (us) as (if it were our) righteousness.'

Good Friday

 

Good Friday. 

Right now you have been up all night, first praying but then dragged to and through a mock trial.  You have been beaten and spit on, derided.  In a few hours, they will drag you up to Pilate, a foreigner, a pagan for yet another farce of a trial.  You will then be dragged to Herod for more of an interrogation.  But there you will be beaten and mocked some more.  Then back to Pilate where he will condemn you upon a political expediency.  Better one man die than many in an uprising.  And he lose his job if not his life.  With great power comes great anxiety.  And so he washes his hands and signs your death bill.  But first, you are flogged, scourged, flagellated.  Your skin torn off.  A crown of thorns, carefully woven by some sadist, is mashed down onto your head.  The king of sin, the king of the fall then tries to carry his own cross but is unable.  A Libyan Jew is forced to carry it for you.  Or with you.  You walk the streets of Jerusalem, staggering from pain and the weight of the all the world’s sin.  You who has never sinned, now is forced to endure the punishment of it, the separation from the Father, communion is broken.  Love is broken.  Now there is only wrath.  The wrath of the Father pours out on you, the faithful and true and undeserving son.  The only flesh born ever that did not deserve the wrath of God from birth. 
 

By around nine o’clock they will have nailed you to the wood and hoisted you high into the sky.  They offer you a drugged wine and you refuse.  Though when you do cry out for drink, they offer you only sour wine.  Vinegar.  Even those in the same predicament as you mock you from their own crosses where they pay for their own sins.  Save one.  Who begs you to but remember him.  Who recognizes your innocence.  Three hours you hang there.  The sky goes dark.  You cry out to God the Father as but God.  You declare it all done.  All the work of all creation finally finished.  And you commit your spirit into your Father’s hands.  The earth quakes, the veil in the temple is torn in two.  There is now no separation between us and you, the profane and the holy, we have been made clean by your finished work. 

By tonight, before darkness falls and the Sabbath begins, they who adored you in secret will finally make public their declaration by coming and asking for your body and preparing it for burial and placing it in their own tomb.  Freshly cut.  Never used.  A stone is rolled over the entrance.  It is sealed with the governor’s seal.  Guards are set and the world wanders away, your followers to hide behind locked doors in confusion and despair, your detractors behind smug self satisfaction, your executioners behind their ignorance.  Darkness falls.
 

Hangin's too good for 'em.

The theme of the day seemed to be justice.

My partner doesn't believe in rehabilitation. He's an eye for an eye kind of guy. i think if he had his way, any violent crime (and quite a few less than violent ones) would be punishable by death. Preferably to be carried out by the arresting officer right after slapping on the handcuffs. He spent a good portion of the ride home today yelling at the radio. Well, more the ex-con on the radio who committed manslaughter (shot three of his hostages during a hold up and one of them died) as a teenager, went to one of the worst jails in the country for forty-four years and completely rebuilt his life there. The man's free now, apparently a model citizen and that seemed to really bother my partner. He didn't feel that justice had been done. The man hadn't been punished enough. And that made me wonder? Why do we have jails? Can anyone be rehabilitated? How much is punished enough? How can we forgive?

Earlier in the day, i heard an interview with a man who had been sexually abused by a priest as an altar boy. He described how it would even take place in the chapel, at the altar. It was very vivid and for a moment, i was not driving in a truck going to work. i was held down, before the altar of God with all the sacraments and sacred imagery before me, being violated and i thought, what kind of monster? How does a child go on after this? That man took so much from him and then left him to find his way in life with the very thing that should anchor his soul tied to the very act that rent it to pieces. What kind of justice is there for that boy? What kind of punishment should there be for that man? i can't bring myself to call him a priest.

And then i knew. String him up, Wrath said. No, hangin's too good for him. Too quick. Beat him first. Beat him until their ain't a square patch of skin on him that don't look like hamburger. Beat him till his own momma don't recognize him. Flay him alive, truss him up and then drag him through the streets so everyone can spit on him and kick him and call him every vile name in the book. Drag him out to the highest hill, then nail him to a board and crank him up where all can see. And hang him in such a way that his lungs fill up with fluid and he drowns in his own spit and every last moment of his miserable, wretched life is pure, fiery agony! That's what his sin deserves!

Course, that's what all sin deserves. And that's just what all sin got. Once. And for all.

Why do we have jails? Can anyone be rehabilitated? How much is punished enough? How can we forgive? i don't think any society will ever be able to answer those questions unless they start from the foot of the cross.