crucified

" i am crucified with Christ, and yet I'm alive ..
but it's not me .. it's Christ that's alive in me
and the life I live now in this body I live through faith in Messiah Jesus, son of God, who loves me, and has given himself for me. "

" .. I rejoice in what I am suffering for you,
and I fill up in my body what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions,
for the sake of his Body, which is the church. "

the words of apostle paul

..  .  . 

we're reared and schooled to be successful in this world, success being defined as wealthy and secure, housed and mobile, tech-savvy, moving among the up-and-up, revering the movie stars and musicians and sportsters, aiming for comfortable retirement ..

there are some themes that recur in these blog posts, thoughts that will not go away,
among them, the upside-down philosophy of Jesus that looks to move us upwards, through the stratosphere, allowing us to look back at life on this Earth, maybe see things from God's view, through  faith ..
another persistent theme is the sobering role of suffering in this life ..
two seemingly opposing views
two horns of the same animal, a spiritual outlook in the midst of a suffering world ..
to be balanced somehow

. . . . . ....  -|-

as to the suffering ..
in this age of pump-up and prosperity ' gospel ', the concept of suffering simply seems morose almost
who wants to hang out there, dwell on that ?
why add to the depression and failure-mindedness, the sickness and distress and debilitating stress ?

...... ..

there came a day in the life of Israel when the promised Promise Land became a reality after decades of suffering want, and wandering and war ..
God brought them home
as that became a reality, God warned them - he told them to beware that when they settled and built their homes and raised their families in peace and planted their crops and dug their wells that they didn't forget him, their liberator from Egypt and sustainer in the wilderness
their security could well become a stumbling block to dependence on God, their creator

somehow we don't get it
still
for some reason we gravitate to the wealth and security thingy, the independent kings and queens of our own castles

and then .. we see Jesus, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame of it all, and is now set at the right hand of God, as our faithful advocate and defender ..

for the joy that was set before him ..
the cross

wealth/security/bigup
suffering and death
those are two vastly different mindsets - worlds apart
.... ..

we live in bodies, bodies that link our souls to this world, through which we experience life in the here-and-now..
sometimes - actually most of the time - our bodies lead
our senses drive our soul
our spirit follows

if there's anything Jesus preached/taught/lived it was complete, persistent, perpetual dependence on the Father, minute-by-minute
he lived that, Word that he was, humanized for the reconciliation of the cosmos, made in the likeness of sinful flesh ..
he lived that
spirit leading, body and soul in tow
with that as his foundation, Jesus healed, fed, overruled nature, and spoke the wisdom of the Ageless ..
and he promised something : if we mortals ( like he was { though he was not 'mere mortal } ) assimilate that, make it our own base-motivation, we could do greater things than he did .. we could move mountains ..
out of our own suffering, maybe ..
for the suffering

move mountains .. ??
feed starving people
clothe the naked
heal the sick
drive out demons
face the imperialistic powers-that-be
.. love our enemies

we could do that ..

we
could
do
that

i

.. . . .  .

there's something within us that says, when we're settled and secure, we are safe and don't need anyone or anything
" i got this "

Jesus disses that mindset in his own life
if he does, who on Earth am i to think i got anything ??

that's where suffering comes in
it disables us
sweeps the footings downriver
knocks the breath out
leaves us on our backs, gazing upward, staring long into the deep lightblue above
wondering
totally vulnerable
nothing inbetween us and eternity
remembering that we are but dirt, mere mortals in the face of a massive universe that will be there after we're gone from this world

there is where we do the real
there is precisely where we plumb the depths of who we are
and maybe see the face of God
maybe begin to see the face of God in our own reflection, albeit dimly

i have made nothing
i have created nothing
i have built nothing enduring
i am
simply

i am

my only recourse, if i were to be real with my self, is to strip naked before my maker, before whom all is stripped away anyway
bare my heart
relinquish my hold on me
disengage my own version of game-of-thrones
step down from my dais
and rely totally on my creator in the face of Jesus, my master ..

and sometimes suffering helps me get to that place

... .  .   .

when Apostle Paul said he was filling-up in his own body what was lacking in the afflictions on Christ's body, for the Body of Christ ..
what could that mean ?
bugs me

something was lacking in the suffering of Messiah Jesus ?
something left to suffer for ?
apparently
seems that in the very madness of suffering this world lives under every day, there is a call to suffer, and to die, every day

somehow mine is to bear in my body and my soul the marks of a life devoted to God, following rabbi Jesus ..
whatever the cost, the damage to me matters little in the cosmic scenario, in the eternal age ( as it did to him )
the kingdom of God is everything
following Jesus is simply all there is that's worth anything in this life
period
.

.. . .

recently some people diss'ed the work of mother teresa, claiming her motivation was to encourage suffering as some sort of penance, a roman catholic concept of ages past ( and maybe current in some circles ), not only in her personal life, but also in the lives of those around her, including the impoverished children of calcutta
regardless of the truth-content of that claim, i find it hard to dismiss a woman that gave her life for those children, for she followed the counsel of Jesus himself, the true gospel

most of the world suffers
we simply don't internalize that; we see it on the tele and walk away, past it, into our leveraged-to-the-hilt house
maybe a wince at the photo of the child dying from starvation, the woman sleeping on the snow-covered street, the slave children working long hours for nexttonothing, the girl selling her body for a fix, the people running en masse away from the violence, the murder, the war
maybe a wince ..

.. . . .. -|-

in my own understanding of the christian scriptures, Jesus internalized all the sins of humanity, bearing them in his body on that cross
becoming the sinner
paying off the debt humanity owed to the Usurper
delivering us all from our enslavement and bondage, and providing hope amidst our fear of death ..
that was suffering, such suffering that we could never ever understand,
 ... . .  .

we lose our home
   maybe become homeless
our marriage fails
we don't get that job we need so badly, and the children suffer
we become ill
we become depressed
a close one dies
or commits suicide
more and more the threat of poverty and homelessness threatens us all as the world sinks into a new divide between the rich and the poor, which may well catch up to me one day
or you ..

when we find ourselves on the floor, beating our fists into the wood, crying out to whatever god there is out there
is precisely when we approach the God who is out there
maybe like we've never done before
and although it's a horror to be in such condition, truth is God's been waiting for us to acknowledge him
if this madness, this deathly illness or accident, takes us past the $-signs and walks us out of our throne room, then God will take that, gladly
he loves us that much
he is not the cause of our suffering, but he welcomes the opportunity to see the colour of our eyes as we gaze upward in need

suffering becomes our opportunity to touch the divine as we never have before .. .

hopefully we learn that, experience that

as a wise person once said, those of us that have ears to hear should listen ..


' there is more in the new testament about the suffering of the church than any other single theme or issue of ecclesiology ' .. Douglas John Hall

' the Christian faith in its established form has been so conspicuously devoid not only of any sustained suffering but of the very contemplation of that biblical theme ' DJH

peace to you