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Re: Spring Cleaning!

By: joe-taylor in FFFT | Recommend this post (0)
Fri, 29 Mar 13 4:57 PM | 62 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Food For Further Thought 		Msg. 51184 of 65535
(This msg. is a reply to 51163 by joe-taylor)
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Forsaken With Jesus


"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27: 46


No one feels so alone as the one who feels deserted by God. And it is a cruel irony that the one who rejoices most in God's presence is the most bereft when God is gone. By this measure, could anyone have felt so deserted, so all, all alone, as Jesus on the cross?

And yet, a Jesus who would feel the full range of human circumstances had to experience the sense of being forsaken. He came to live among us, not as God in a human costume that could be shed whenever things began to get hard or rough. Rather, in Jesus, God came as human to the bone, which means human enough to experience doubts, bone deep despair, and even perceived absence of God.

The Apostle's Creed contains ths affirmation: "Jesus Christ was crucified, dead and buried, He descended into hell." The last part of that statement used to trouble me, until one day someone told me that for her it is the most treasured part of the creed, "because hell is where I spend much of my life."

Hell--a sense of being forsaken, a place of despair. We have been there. And Jesus has been there with us. And, having been there, Jesus transforms the experience of any and all who have been in hell.

One who would rescue those trapped in a mine shaft must enter into the danger and darkness of that place himself. How else can those who are trapped be saved, if the one who knows the way out is not willing to be trapped with them? Before a savior can share his light with us, he must first enter into our darkness.

The story of Jesus despairing on the cross is the story of a God willing to experience our hopelessness so that we might have hope. It is the story of a God willing to share human defeat, so that we might, in turn, share God's victory.


Jesus, thank you for sharing in human life--in all of its glory and misery--so that nothing we experience is stange to you. Amen.


Martin B. Copenhaver is Senior Pastor, Wellesley Congregational Church, UCC, Wellesley, Massachusetts.


To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.


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Re: Spring Cleaning!
By: joe-taylor in FFFT
Thu, 28 Mar 13 4:58 PM 		Msg. 51163 of 65535

Mercy


"You have loosed my bonds." Psalm 116: 16


"Our God is merciful," signs the psalmist and it is music to our ears. What, after all, is better than mercy?

In June of 1839 a Spanish schooner named La Amistad sets sail from havana, Cuba. On board are 53 captive Africans. The Spanish intend to sell the Africans into slavery, but the Africans revolt and seize control of the ship.

Observed for its erratic behavior, ragged sails and african crew, the schooner is seized by the U.S. navy. The Africans are arrested, jailed and charged with murder and mutiny.

Amistan is the story of evangelical abolitionists who wrestle with their Bible--long into the night--until it reveals something inexorable about the nature of God: God is merciful. Convinced of this--that God is merciful--Christian abolitionists raise funds for the legal defense of the captives. They learn their language, teach them to read and write, listen to their stories, companion them and supply them with food and clothing.

The Amistan captives live under arrest for two years as the complicated and momentous case winds its way toward the U.S. Supreme Court. In March of 1841 (in the season of Lent), the Supreme Court justices render their verdict: they decide in favor of the Africans. This represents the first civil rights victory of the U.S. Supreme Court. It represents a turning point in the cause of abolition. Not least, it is a story about a triumph of mercy.

The Amistad story reveals the nature of God's heart...a heart of mercy.


Dear God, make my heart as large and merciful as your own, for Christ's sake, for the world's sake, and for my sake. Amen.


Nancy S. Taylor is Senior Minister of Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts.

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