Gordon E. Ellis
April 2, 2006
THE CROSS AS A LOVE STORY
Before I BEGIN this sermon, let me say that it expresses a STRUGGLE that I am having at the moment. Even though it may SOUND like it, I need to tell you that I have NOT come down on ONE side or the OTHER of it yet. I really AM struggling with it all. And SO, let me SHARE my struggle.
I think it’s because of LINDA’S influence upon me, and the new SCHOLARSHIP that she’s brought to us OUT of the seminaries, but LENT these last few years has become a TOUGH time for me theologically. DURING Lent, we move our focus more and more toward the CROSS of Jesus. And I guess I’m having a harder and harder time with our traditional Christian understanding of ATONEMENT. I’m finding it more and more DISTURBING to believe that God somehow WILLED the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross -- that God SENT Jesus to be KILLED -- so that OUR sins could be WASHED away in His SACRIFICIAL blood. The idea that God would WILL the suffering and death of Jesus is, perhaps, the HARDEST thing that WE, as CHRISTIANS, are asked to BELIEVE. And Christian teaching has TRADITIONALLY said that it HAPPENED because God WANTED it to happen, that it was GOD’S way of paying the PRICE for OUR sin, for OUR failing to keep up OUR end of our COVENANT with God. Well, quite frankly, I have found myself STRUGGLING more and more with this interpretation.
And I am not ALONE in this struggle. Dorothy Sölle, in her book, Suffering, calls it sadistic theology. She writes: And the ultimate conclusion of theological sadism is worshipping the executioner. (1) OTHER theologians have used the phrase, cosmic child abuse when talking about the CROSS. Rebecca Ann Parker and Rita Nakashima Brock, in their book, Proverbs of Ashes, explore the stories of their OWN and others SEXUAL and physical ABUSE. And they write THESE words: When Christian tradition represents Jesus’ death as FOREORDAINED by God, as NECESSARY to the divine PLAN of salvation, and as obediently ACCEPTED by Jesus the Son out of love for God the Father, GOD is made into a child abuser or a BYSTANDER to violence against his own CHILD. The seal of ABUSE is placed on their relationship when they are made into a UNITY of being. If the two are ONE, Jesus can be SELFLESS: can GIVE himself TOTALLY to God, a WILLING lamb to the slaughter. And they continue: [WE see] IN Christianity’s idea about JESUS, a theology that made people passive and aquiescent in their OWN suffering, a legacy of abuse entrenched in DOCTRINE. (2) Friends, THIS is controversial STUFF, but it makes a lot of SENSE. And SO, we need to THINK about it, regardless of WHERE we end up coming DOWN on the subject. By the way, I want to share some EXCITING news with you today. ONE of the authors of Proverbs of Ashes, Rita Nakashima Brock, whom I recently met in Florida, is coming to OUR church in September to lead programs for area clergy and laity, so you MAY want to READ her book before September. It’s VERY powerful stuff, and CONTROVERSIAL stuff, but it makes a LOT of SENSE.
SO, WHY am I struggling so much with our TRADITIONAL understanding? Well, we cannot study the various THEORIES of the cross and atonement WITHOUT discovering that they have been deeply colored by MYTHOLOGY, and some very CRUDE and PRIMITIVE ideas about SACRIFICE. In John’s gospel, for example, it’s important for John that Jesus be crucified at the EXACT time that the LAMBS in the Temple are being SACRIFICED for the Passover, so that JESUS is then viewed as the ULTIMATE Passover LAMB. For John, Jesus is the LAMB of God, and John’s is the ONLY gospel that worries about the exact TIME the crucifixion occurred.
AND, through the years I’ve seen so MANY ideas about the cross BEGIN with an ANGRY God, who will ONLY forgive the SINFULNESS of humankind AFTER a sacrifice. Well, the MORE I struggle with it, the more I REALIZE that such ideas do NOT square with my OWN experiences of GOD. NOR do they square with the teachings of JESUS, particularly the story of the Prodigal SON. Do you remember that story? IN it, a NEW ethic of love, repentance and forgiveness is MODELED for us. God is the Father, who against ALL social custom at that time, RUNS out to GREET, EMBRACE and offer a PARTY for His returning PRODIGAL son, who has LEFT home and squandered his father’s MONEY in RECKLESS living. But his father RUNS out to MEET him and RESTORES him to his PLACE in the family. And IN this parable, Jesus offers a BEAUTIFUL picture of a God of LOVE, COMPASSION and FORGIVENESS. So, my QUESTION is: Would THAT kind of God WILL the suffering and pain of Jesus on the CROSS? Was a CROSS part of God’s cosmic PLAN for God’s own SON? I don’t know. I’ve always BELIEVED that, but I’m NOW having TROUBLE believing it, because that’s NOT the God that I know, and it’s NOT the God I see in JESUS. It’s becoming a REAL struggle for me.
In her book, Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott tells the story of a man getting DRUNK in a bar in Alaska. And he tells the bartender how he recently lost whatever FAITH he HAD after his twin-engine plane CRASHED in the tundra. Yeah, he says bitterly, I lay there in the wreckage, hour after hour, nearly frozen to death, CRYING out for God to SAVE me, PRAYING for God’s help with EVERY ounce of my being, but [GOD] didn’t raise a FINGER to HELP. So I’m DONE with that whole CHARADE!
BUT, says the bartender, you’re HERE. You WERE saved!
Yeah, that’s RIGHT, says the man, because finally some ESKIMO came along. (3)
Well, MY question is: WHERE was that Eskimo for Jesus?! OR, WHY wasn’t there a divine VOICE shouting: “STOP hurting my SON!?” But there was NO Eskimo and NO divine voice for Jesus on the cross, only a deafening SILENCE from God. And TRADITIONAL thinking tells us that, BECAUSE God did not ACT to SAVE Jesus, then it MUST have been God’s WILL! And we can ONLY understand it as God’s WILL IF we view it as a SACRIFICE, because how ELSE can we make SENSE of a MESSIAH, God’s own SON, dying on a CROSS between two THIEVES?! BUT, BEFORE we RUSH to the conclusion that God must have WILLED that Jesus SUFFER and DIE on the cross, we HAVE to reckon with the matter of FREE-WILL. I wonder: COULD it be POSSIBLE that God SENT Jesus because we NEEDED Him, but WANTED Him to live a LONG life, maybe eventually gaining TENURE for teaching at the University of Galilee, and dying a QUIET death at the age of 95 on a guest bed in Peter’s BUNGALOW by the sea? COULD that be POSSIBLE? But, what HAPPENS? Because of the CHOICES that JESUS makes, He continues to pursue a path that will lead to a COLLISION with the power structure of ROME and the religious authorities in JERUSALEM. He COULD have retreated BACK to Galilee to continue TEACHING there, but NO. He makes CHOICES, all along the WAY, that will EVENTUALLY put Him on a CROSS. BUT, it’s NOT because God DEMANDS a sacrifice. It’s because JESUS really and truly BELIEVES what He’s TEACHING, and BELIEVES that the time is RIGHT for Him to put His LOVE into ACTION. And SO, it’s the LOVE of Jesus that LEADS Him to the CROSS!
You know: in order to move BEYOND our understanding of the CROSS as the atoning SACRIFICE for our SINS, it HELPS if we REFRAME the story. It HELPS if we MOVE from the story of an ANGRY God, who NEEDS a sacrifice in order to be SATISFIED, to the STORY of a God, who is an Infinite LOVER of creation, reaching OUT to a HURTING world in order to demonstrate a NEW ETHIC of LOVE.
Our Scripture Lesson this morning contains one of the most FAMILIAR passages in the Bible. If you watch SPORTS on TV, I’m sure you’ve noticed some lone character in the stands behind the end zone, or in the seats under the basket, waving a sign that says: John 3:16. Well, he’s NOT telling us that the bathroom’s on the third floor. He’s quoting SCRIPTURE. And MOST of us KNOW that verse by HEART: For God SO loved the world that He GAVE His ONLY son, so that everyone who BELIEVES in HIM may NOT perish, but have eternal life. Yes, God GAVE Jesus to the world, but NOT to KILL Him. God GAVE Jesus to the world, as an act of LOVE, so that we might BELIEVE in Him. And BELIEVING in Him, of course, means FOLLOWING Him, and taking His teachings SERIOUSLY, and LIVING His kind of LOVE.
Yes, we need to REFRAME the story from a story of SACRIFICE to a story of LOVE. And DESPITE John’s EFFORTS to TIE the CROSS to the PASSOVER sacrifice, the Gospel of John is basically a LOVE story. In fact, in John’s FIRST letter, he writes: God is LOVE. And there is no FEAR in love, but perfect love casts OUT fear. And I think that John would agree with Scott Peck, who defined LOVE as the WILL to EXTEND one’s SELF for the purpose of nurturing one’s OWN or ANOTHER’S spiritual growth. (4) Yes, THAT’S what the cross is ABOUT! It’s about LOVE! It’s about Jesus extending Himself for OUR spiritual growth. And WHEN we FOLLOW Him, WE learn to love as WELL. WE learn to extend OURSELVES for OTHERS. And He will lead US to such places as the streets of CALCUTTA or Mexico City or New York; to AIDS clinics in AFRICA or Los Angeles or Hartford; to FIELDS filled with migrant workers in Iowa, California or Connecticut; or MAYBE even to a public EXECUTION on the outskirts of Jerusalem. And friends, WE will GO there because of LOVE! Yes, JESUS is ALL about LOVE, GOD’S love! And THAT’S why I’M having TROUBLE thinking of God as a cosmic puppeteer sending His own SON to DIE as a SACRIFICE.
On the OTHER hand, however, AS a more TRADITIONAL theology would say: IF Jesus is FULLY God, as Christians have said ever since the very BEGINNING of our faith, then IN Jesus, GOD has come -- IN love -- to DIE if NECESSARY, and to make WHATEVER sacrifice is REQUIRED, in order to RECONCILE us BACK to God, BACK to our Creator, because, let’s FACE it, we AREN’T like that prodigal son, who turns BACK repentantly to his father. WE are a REBELLIOUS people, who very MUCH need a SAVIOR. And friends, quite frankly, I can understand and AGREE with this more TRADITIONAL theology as well.
SO, it REALLY is a DILEMMA for me! What I’ve SHARED with you today is controversial stuff, and I’m STRUGGLING with MYSELF. SO, WHAT do I want from YOU? I want you simply to THINK about it and STUGGLE with it prayerfully. And AS you DO, remember that, MOST of all -- and we can AGREE with this REGARDLESS of our THEOLOGY of the cross -- MOST of all, God WANTS LOVE: to LOVE and BE loved. And IF we are going to speak of God’s WILL for Jesus, OR ANY of us, I’D like to think that God’s WILL for Jesus, AND for EACH of us, IS and always HAS been, that we demonstrate GOD’S LOVE in ACTION. And the more IMPORTANT point IS that, WHEN we live in love, EVEN if it HURTS, and EVEN if it gets us CRUCIFIED, God CAN and WILL give us NEW life, AS we see in the RESURRECTION of Jesus! For more than anything ELSE, OURS is a RESURRECTION faith!
You know: AS I come to the END of this sermon, I am reminded of Howard Thurman, who served for many years as the DEAN of the Chapel at Boston University. When Howard Thurman would preach he would always raise more questions than he would give answers. And in one of his sermons, he reached a tentative conclusion and closed with question marks in his voice, saying: I don’t know ... I don’t know ... It MAY be. Well, THIS is how I’m feeling today. In the end, ALL that ANY of us can DO is speak out of our OWN experience and conclude by saying: I don’t know. I just don’t know, because in fact, it’s ALL a MYSTERY to US. NONE of us can know the mind of GOD. BUT, it may BE… It just MAY be! SO, pray about it, my friends, PRAY about it! WHAT does the CROSS mean to YOU? And WHO is this GOD we worship? AMEN.
Sermon Notes
(1) Sö1le, Dorothy, Suffering (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975), p. 28.
(2) Brock, Rita Nakashima & Parker, Rebecca Ann, Proverbs of Ashes (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), p. 157-158.
(3) Lamott, Anne, Traveling Mercies (New York. Pantheon Books, 1999), p. 117.
(4) Peck, M. Scott, The Road Less Traveled (NewYork: Simon and Schuster,1978), p.81.