MICAH 6.8

Making Ready For Lent The long standing tradition of the Church has been to provide 40 days in which a person would be in a posture of penance and redemption so as to celebrate the Great Fifty Days of Easter. The focus, for the most part, was upon Jesus' suffering and death on the cross. A lot of this being talk about the blood of Jesus and how its miraculous power to wash away sin. In such a paradigm of theology and worship, our human condition is described by such words as deprived, corrupt, in need of a redemption and reconciliation that humankind itself is not able to make possible within ourselves. Such a nature depends on God to make a way for humankind to be redemmed and reconciled to God and one another. And, as it is at its heart, such a way is provided in the death and resurrection of Jesus, again his blood being the language used in many hymns and also in Scripture. The word "blood" in reference to the blood of Jesus and a carry over from the Hebrew Bible—that uses the word in a a like way—appears 91 times in the Second Testament. Most certainly a major theme, its use approaches, and sometimes becomes, a grotesque understading of who God is and what God is like. Some rightfully claim that it resorts to child abuse—a parental God somehow needing to afflict the Son with such suffering and mobid death. Still others argue that it is exploited by the church to condone—and, thus—help shape a world where violence is rampart and as an easy answer to expressions of conflict and disagreement. The cross was not a divine mandated necessity, but a brutal exemplification of the principalities and powers who desired to destroy this beautiful vision of life in relation that Jesus offered. Jesus’ death was not inevitable, but a result of the life that Jesus lived which placed him in conflict with leaders and powerful persons of his day. Jesus chose to live in opposition to unjust and oppressive rulers and his death was the consequence of this decision. Because of this, Williams sees the cross not as an image of redemption, but as “the image of human sin in its most desecrated form.” Modern day theologians must shift their view and see the ministerial vision of Jesus as the center of his mission. To be a Christian is not to profess belief in forgiveness of human sins obtained through violent sacrifice, but to keep faith “with those who have heard and lived God’s call for justice, radical love and liberation” and with those who challenge “unjust systems both political and ecclesiastical.” Williams write that all of our talk about G-d must be able to “translate into action that can help people live.” As Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” I am skeptical that such talk about Jesus’ violent death redeeming sinful human kind can help oppressed and marginalized persons to live productively and abundantly in a way that G-d would will for them. As Christians thinking about the meaning of Jesus’ death, we can never forget the cross, but we cannot idealize it either. Whenever we think of the cross, we should not think of it as the means of salvation, but instead as a failed attempt to disrupt and eliminate Jesus’ salvific ministerial vision. One must not be afraid to criticize and reformulate theological ideas that are harmful to a community. If the theology we offer is not liberative good news for all, then calling it the Good News of the Gospel is a misnomer. Salvation was not attained for humankind once and for all on a cross in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, but is a process that we must always be striving to participate in. Quite simply, salvation is not something one possesses, but a process one partakes in. Salvation, from a Christian perspective, should not be seen as arising from Jesus’ death, but through a participation in creative transformation using Jesus’ life and vision as our inspiration – a vision that is alive and with us today as Jesus’ death is not the end of the story. Let us all work together, with Jesus’ ministerial vision as our guide, so that all the world may have life more abundantly. _______________ *A big thanks to Micah Wimmer for the wonderful expose of the work of Dr. Delores Williams whom was my theology professor in seminary. Williams' book, Sisters in the Wilderness, which I cannot recommend highly enough for anyone who cares even the slightest bit about Christian theology. The above contains many quotes of that book which can be found here: "Sisters In the Wilderness"