Category Archives: The Cross

The Epiphany of Suffering

Posted on February 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

During this past week suffering and death have been ever before me: From a philosophy class I am taking on Suffering, Tragedy and the Christian Faith, to a Time article written by Rob Bell concerning him getting his call to be a pastor in the midst of severe headaches, to a guest lecturer in Chapel talking about growing up in the persecuted Church of Columbia, to filling out ACPE (Association of Clinical Pastoral Education) applications about my views of spiritual care and suffering, and last night hearing a friend’s testimony about God’s presence with him in the midst of his young wife’s death. These events bring me to today:  the Lord’s Day, Sunday, the First day, and the eschatological eighth day… and then I’m reminded of the “reason for the season”, Epiphany – Christ being revealed as God in the Gospels… in the midst of suffering.

Before the Passion of Lent and the Resurrection of Easter comes the Epiphany of the B.C. proclamation in Isaiah 53, “Surely he has borne our infirmities   and carried our diseases;  yet we accounted him stricken,  struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,  crushed for our iniquities;  upon him was the punishment that made us whole,  and by his bruises we are healed.”

The picture  and the Isaiah 53 passage above are an attempt to articulate the reality of suffering, tragedy, sin and death in light of the reality of Jesus as LORD. It attempts to show that the cross is not only a historical event, but it is also a reality of God’s cruciform love for the world. I remember Robert Mulholland saying in class, “The Cross is not just something Jesus DID, it is a revelation of  WHO God is.” During the season of Epiphany we see Jesus transfigured before us as God: Healing diseases, exorcising demons, and raising the dead. We follow the reality of Jesus as God in Epiphany into the reality of Christ’s cruciform love revealed in the Passion of Lent.

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Posted in Christianity, Christology, Church Calendar, Epiphany, Incarnation, Isaiah, The Cross

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Happy “V” Day!

Posted on February 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

Let the same orientation
be in your relationship
that was in Christ Jesus:

6 who, though he was in the form of God,                   to the glory of God the Father.
did not regard equality with God                                    that Jesus Christ is Lord,
as something to be exploited                  11 and every tongue should confess
7 but emptied himself,                                                  in heaven and on earth
taking the form of a slave,                                  every knee should bend,
being born in human likeness.        10 so that at the name of Jesus
And being found in human form,          that is above every name,
8 he humbled himself                            and gave him the name
and became obedient             God also highly exalted him
to the point of death—                           9 Therefore,
even death on a cross.

 

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Posted in Bible, Philippians, The Cross

Worshiping in the Shadow of the Cross – Pt. 2

Posted on February 10, 2011 | 1 Comment

In yesterday’s post, I began to describe what it was like to have a cross four feet in front of me during the first Spring chapel service at Asbury Theological Seminary. Later in the service JD Walt led us in a litany that blended the response of the three wise men to King Herod concerning the Messiah, “We have come to worship him” with the “mind of Christ” passage of Philippians 2:5-11 It is one thing to speak a litany in the absence of the cross and another thing to speak it at the foot of one.

Living in the reality of the cross should cause us to ponder what or who we are living for. The poignant  quote from Leonard Ravenhill comes to mind, “Is what you are living for worth Christ dying for?” Do we live in a separate reality that is absent of the cross? Why do we think  it is easier for us to live under a less offensive symbol? Perhaps, one with pretty colors and shapes that looks more like a corporate icon than a religious symbol? Without a physical cross present in worship, do we not nourish the memory that Christ despised shame on the cross (Hebrews 12:2), bore our sins in his body on the cross (I Pet 2:24), canceled our debt on the cross (Col 2:14), and by his wounds afflicted on the cross we are healed. Are we reminded to carry our own cross and follow Christ (Luke 14:27) or are we allowed to become ashamed of the cross and live as its enemy? Therefore,

“Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”  - Hebrews 12:1-3

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Posted in 1 Peter, Asbury Theological Seminary, Colossians, Epiphany, Hebrews, Luke, Philippians, The Cross, Worship

Worshiping in the Shadow of the Cross – Pt. 1

Posted on February 9, 2011 | 1 Comment

Yesterday kicked off the Spring chapel season at Asbury Theological Seminary. I was sitting in the first row of Estes Chapel with some of the other members of the Worship Design Team when the processional entered in with the first song. First came the light and then came the Cross. Unlike my perspective in other services, during this service the cross was placed directly in front of me, about 4 feet away.

The cross became a glorious distraction the entire service. I could not do anything (singing, praying, reading, listening, etc.) without being at the foot of the Cross and under its shadow. When the second song’s chorus began the reality of the cross was ever before me:

“Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling over death by death,
come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave
Christ is risen from the dead,
We are one with him again
Come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave.”
- Christ is Risen

What does it mean to come awake and rise up from the grave? Or what does it mean to live my life in the shadow of the cross?

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Posted in The Cross, Worship