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Saturday 6 October 2018

"Atonement Do You Have Questions"




Oct 7 2018 proper 22 “Worldwide Communion Sunday” Job 1:1   &   2: 1-10
Hebrews 1: 4,  &   2:5-12               
In the begging years of my pulpit ministry, the book of Hebrews for me appeared to be an exclusively bloody interpretation of atonement theology.  So much so, in the beginning I just mostly avoided it.   The idea that God would will the sacrifice of his only Son in such a violent ghastly way was simply repulsive to me.  A sacrificial human for the sins of the world?   I must admit I was not fully convinced of this theological perspective.  It was not until much later in my ministry that I began to meet Jesus in a deeper more healing way through the Hebrew text.   I began to see Jesus as the exact imprint of God’s very being.  In fact, the Jesus these passages began to introduce me to, would show me a path that would lead me towards polishing and reflecting the image of God’s love in my own life. 
Educator the Rev. Dr. Rodger Nish-i-ok-a has helped the contemporary Church understand what our dropout young adults are yearning and searching for.  According to Hishioka they are “not” looking for a halo crowned, white robed, squeaky clean Shepheard who gathers little children around him.  No, they are longing for a tangible, perceivable, passionate Jesus that doesn’t just speak of the human condition, suffering and the outcast in society, but actually becomes a living example of this human experience.   Jesus doesn’t project an image of becoming one with the elite and powerful within the world but projects and image of becoming one with the poor, the suffering and the outcast in the world.   And so I began to see that there was no other way that God could do this but to allow His only begotten Son to become fully human.  To live and experience life as we do.  Not just the joy, laughter and fellowship but also the rejection, the humiliation, the pain and suffering that love and loss bring with it.  That is the Jesus we must get to know too folks.  The book of Hebrews unveils this passionate, loving, yet suffering Jesus.  The human Jesus who is made perfect through the excruciating suffering and reality of the human experience.   Here in lies the mystery! Jesus the Christ embodies the authenticity of human life and the authenticity of divine love all wrapped up in His mysterious incarnation.   Jesus is the real thing folks.  Let just say He is the full meal deal.  It doesn’t get any better than this.  Fully human yet, full of divine unconditional love for all of humanity as it was expressed on the cross.    
To the Jews “Christ crucified” was a scandal.  The mysterious God, the one they called Messiah, dead never to be seen again.   To the Greeks “Christ crucified” why he was foolishness, because for them, a God who feels, suffers, weeps and dies was an abomination to superior logical Greek mind a true God would have no need of this experience.   May I suggest to you that Atonement presented only as the Lamb that takes away the sins of our world, has superseded His wondrous act of divine love and the unshakable obedience to His fathers will.  Luke 22: 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”  To paraphrase this passage in my own words.  He goes kicking and screaming but he goes, never walking away from the path of His Fathers will.  Even unto a cross.  That is the deepest expression I can think of for a Son's love.  You now can hear and understand the expression "It wasn't the nails that kept Jesus hanging on the cross, it was LOVE. 
The idea of a super powered hero is so far removed from our humble human experience that many can only worship Jesus at arm’s length or from afar.  A personal relationship!   Why it seems almost impossible for so many Church going folk.   
I am more and more convinced that the uniqueness of the Christian life is the radical way in we are called to embrace the paradox.   Grace and truth, life and death, darkness and light, suffering and joy. In the rich verses of Hebrews we are given a Jesus who embodies glory and humiliation, power and suffering, authority and servanthood, radical grace and radical obedience.  Each side of the paradox makes the other side possible.  This is the kind of God that makes His Son possible and personal.  God knows our struggle and God’s love brought to us through Christ Jesus can never be taken from us. 
All we are asked to do is to accept Him a master over our lives by taking Him into our hearts, follow in His ways so we can be with Him now and for evermore.  Now isn’t that GREAT!    As we come to the table today let us be reminded that the Jesus who committed himself to the cross through obedience and love is here in our hearts with us today.
                                        Sow Mercy, Sow Grace


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