March 2017 – Kiwichurch

Good Friday is coming…

Good Friday is coming.
Time for a rest! Easter! A long weekend, and into the school holidays.
But after catching my breath, what does Good Friday really mean to me, when all is uncovered? Everything. Why? Because this person, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, actually saved my life.

He reached into my darkness, into my death, into my grave, and pulled me out.
How? Because he went before me: into death. And then he came out again, with me following close behind.

But what does ‘salvation’ even mean?
Is it a high flying theological concept, only grasped by those vigorously and academically trained?
No. That’s why Mary was so delighted, when she praised God for revealing himself to the poor.
Salvation is close at hand: God, and Jesus, are right here, right now.

What does salvation mean: a life after death?
Heaven, forever?
Yes, but much more: life, here.
A deeper life; a richer life.
A lost soul found again.

But lost how? In drugs? In alcohol? In depression? In despair?
Yes, all of these, and more.
There can be binding power in our own failings, as well: with family, or friends, or colleagues…
And there can be binding power in the wrong that was done to us, from family, or friends, or colleagues…

There is a Way when we have lost our way.
There is a shining Light for those of us who are lost in darkness – whatever form that darkness may take.
On Good Friday, that Light is taking the form of a man on a cross.

Jesus hung there, beaten and dying, 2000 years ago.
He was executed, but why?
Because the religious leaders of the day couldn’t tolerate him.
Because the state was afraid of him.
What power did this man carry, to become such a threat without committing a single crime?
He Loved: with all of the power and audacity of God.

Love is compelling: love can change the world.
Divine Love can transform a nation – but at no little cost!
Such a Love demands our all, that we might gain much more:
A greater Way, a better Way; a Way of radical goodness and love.
The Way of God.

What does Good Friday mean? The cost to Jesus of saving us.
He is the Light in the Darkness – the light at the end of the tunnel.
Hope, stronger than despair.
Life, overcoming death.
Beauty and purity overcoming our corruption.

The cross is an invitation to come.
Come, and look at this man:
he’s hanging there for us, for me and for you.
His sacrifice is an offer; he is beckoning:
‘Come, and I will give you rest.’
‘Come, and I will give you new life.’
‘Come, and I will change you.’

Come, and leave the past behind.
There is a new day: a resurrection from death.
There is a new kind of life.
Look, and see that God is both powerful and good.

Love has won.

Love has won.
Is there injustice? Love is truer.
Is there fighting? Love is bolder.
Is there pain? Love is stronger.
Is there corruption? Love is purer.

We struggle, we fight, but there is a higher way:
a Way that eclipses our way;
a Way that transcends our way;
a Way that overcomes our way and embraces it easily into itself.

This Way comes with a price, as it must,
for any call worthy of our lives cannot be easy, or temperate.
The Way of true Life boldly demands our all.
It is the Light in the Darkness;
the rising Sun.

Christ is pure Love.

Mortality

Here’s today’s insert from: The heart of a kiwi Christian: a personal journey

25/3/17 Mortality

I’ve been reflecting on my own mortality, and suddenly realized: mortality is a gift! Wow: that’s radical! As Solomon wrote in Proverbs in the Old Testament, there is a time to live and a time to die: and I’m beginning to become grateful for it.

In our lives, we track down a path of different seasons: birth, childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle age – that’s me now – older age, and then comes death. We’re wired for it, these different stages: our lives flow out in a pattern of the seasons. The reality of the seasons changes us: we are different in middle age, more formed, more complete, than in early adulthood, and a grasping and accepting of our own mortality changes us too. It brings a freedom, the acceptance of death – a greater and deeper freedom to live.

What would it feel like, I wonder, if we were not wired for perhaps 70- 100 years: if we were, rather, wired for 500- 1000 years, like some of the figures of the Old Testament? What would that look like? Two hundred years of adolescence? Two hundred years of early adulthood? Or would it be full development for hundreds of years: a full offering of oneself over a long period of time for the sake of others?

I don’t know what it means to live a thousand years: but I do know what is has meant to live forty years. I’m grateful for life, but now, suddenly, I find myself also grateful for death. The reality of death can forge us: it can form us. The acceptance of death can free us: the awareness of our own mortality can inform us and release us into a deeper expression of our own humanity.

I’m glad to be merely mortal: I embrace my own mortality. Death, now, has become my friend, in setting my life free.

There is a time to live and a time to die.

Beauty

Beauty…
What is beauty? A stunning landscape, sparkling light off the sea, rich green grass; a face that draws the eye: fine lines, intriguing gaze…
But what then is spiritual beauty?
A sense of what is beyond: light, purity, of what it greater, and better, than we are…
Water, for the desert. Inspiration, for the artist and activist.…
Purpose, in simply being alive.

A fuller discovery of our being.
An actualization of our design.

For life, real life, true and testing, in all of its abundance, is worthy of the search, worthy of the struggle, worthy of sacrifice.
True life demands our all, and in return offers us the most stunning encounter with beauty.
For what else is worth living and dying for?

God is Light and Love

God is Light and Love.
Why is God Light? Because Light illuminates, in the darkness. Light beckons. Light evokes a brighter more vibrant way of Life.
And why is God Love? Because Love unleashes Life. Love provides a Way for a better Life. Love sacrifices to ensure the greater Life of His or Her children.

But if this is so, if God is Light, why is there Darkness?
The Darkness gives greater brilliance to the Light.
The Darkness can enhance our choice between Darkness and Light.
And if God is Love, why is there Hatred?
Love allows for Hatred, in His midst.
Love calls Hatred into Her own arms.

God is Light and Love, and so we have been given the choice.
Light, or Darkness?
Love, or Hatred?
And if we should choose Light, Love has provided the Way.
A greater Way; a better Way.
The Way of Christ, with all of its cost.
For the best kind of Life rightly demands our all.