The Old Rugged Cross

This reflection comes from my ordination paper entitled "I am a Pilgrim."

A long time ago in Christian history, on a hill far away stood an old rugged cross. It’s an image that is maybe one of the universal symbols that the various strains of Christianity share. Some people debate whether or not a cross displayed in a church should depict Christ on it. There are some feminist theologians who wonder if the cross is nothing more than symbol of divine child abuse – pointing upward to an angry God in the sky who sent his only son to take on the burden of sin in the world by dying a vicious death to atone for humanity.

When contemplating the cross, I have to ask myself “Which God is this?” Is the God that Jesus is pointing to on the cross a punishing, angry father, or is it the God who entered the human experience through Jesus in order to help remind humanity that we are called to something more than just depravity?

Douglas John Hall says in his book The Cross in Our Context,

The cross of Jesus Christ is God’s claim to this world – the claim, however, not of a despot, yearning for greater power and glory, but of a lover yearning to love and be loved, and thus to liberate the beloved from false masters… The cross of Jesus Christ is the end-consequence of the divine determination to be "with us" (Emmanuel) unreservedly… God, in the biblical tradition is with us voluntarily – through love alone.

Because humanity was, and is, trapped in ways that push away from God, God entered human history in the form of Jesus in a display of compassion to suffer with us. Through Jesus, God became human and suffered under the principalities that govern the earth, the principalities that we humans are subject to everyday.

For me, the cross of Jesus does not point to a God in the sky, judging and condemning humanity. Instead, I believe that the cross of Jesus points directly to where God wants to help humanity the most, that is, amidst the despair and tribulations that daily attempt to kill the human spirit. God uses the cross to point to the pain in our lives, to remember despair, but to also find grace, hope and new beginnings.

Hosanna!

I always find it peculiar that around the time of Easter, the media coverage around the life and ministry of Jesus always spikes and then recedes. There is the brouhaha around the found Gospel of Judas, and the debate whether part of The Davinci Code was plagiarized. This morning on a news network, an anchor asked why all the recent focus on the life of Jesus. My response is just that this is not new, but it is the one time a year people give lip service to being Christian.

Since tomorrow is Palm Sunday, I guess I should be glad to be waving a palm branch, but I am not. As a follower of the path of Christ Jesus, I will admit my faith influences my activism and how I vote. However, I am by no means a Republican. When Jesus appealed to his followers to love the outcast, I don't think he envisioned a hard-nosed stance on illegal immigrants.

Because of my faith, I often find myself in progressive circles. I do not do this because I contend Jesus was a left-wing subversive (though, I do believe Jesus subverts our dominant values), but because I feel the Republicans on the Religious Right have defiled the ministry of Jesus to meet their own needs. This is my guess, but the Jesus I see in the first chapter of Mark who healed an entire town might advocate for healthcare for all.

In the days and weeks that followed the presidential election of 2004, I felt I was in a veritable Palm Sunday procession amongst my Democratic friends. The revelation that religious values matter to voters seemed like a new discovery to many on the left. Books like God's Politics by Jim Wallis and became the rage on the left, and George Lakoff (whose work admire) became the new darling of the left. The message was simple, yet profound: religious discourse matters in the public realm. "Hosanna!" yelled the Democrats, for the savior of the party's future had arrived -- the outcast who championed the rights of the dispossessed, Jesus.

November 2004 was almost a year and a half ago now, and it seems that the party who had found Jesus after the election has now abondoned him as things are beginning to shape up for the 2008 election. Granted, things are beginning to look promising for Democrats for the 2006 Congressional races, but 2008 is still a long way off, and a viable Republican that opposes Bush can still emerge, and such a person could easily appeal to a religious base. What I am saying to my Democratic sisters and brothers is not to lose your religion. Jim Wallis is right, Jesus is not a Republican or a Democrat, but I believe Jesus' teaching of love, compassion, and justice are more at home in the contemprary Democratic party. May I suggest the Beatitudes as found in Luke 6:20-26 as a good place to start.