This week we look to ‘the way of the cross’, (that great paradox embedded in our respective Christian journey), to seek a fuller understanding of our identity. What kind of life was I created for? How do I find the life I was created for? How do I know that I know I’m living the life I was created for?
What is justice? In our culture we typically enact it through a series of restrictions and protections. We associate our laws of the land (restrictions & protections) with justice because we live in a broken, fallen world. In our culture, there is a lean towards “fairness” as the highest and best goal. And, there’s a strong case to make that we’ve made some progress on this front. But that system, while helpful in so many ways, falls drastically short of what appears to drive the idea of justice in the scriptures, particularly the idea of justice that is demonstrated in the person of Jesus on the cross.
This week, we look at the power of the Cross. We are going to talk about how Jesus reimagined our understanding of power, turning it completely upside down and why that is good news!
Right at the centre of the gospel of Jesus we find the Cross. Something happened on that cross, something shocking and revolutionary. The cross wasn’t just the method of Jesus death, but he made sure it was part of our own process to encountering the eternal life He invites us to. For the next 6 weeks leading to Easter, we are going to reflect on this most crucial moment in history.
Like computers, people have “operating systems”, sets of rules or assumptions we use to navigate life. “The code” we talked about last week (earn worth to get love), is actually a virus that robs, diminishes and ultimately destroys.
Jesus doesn’t simply fix the old operating system, he explodes it completely and rewrites everything.
Do you wrestle with disappointment, disillusionment, frustration, hopelessness, depletion, exhaustion… going through the motions without it ever feeling like it’s enough?
That comes from something we’re going to call “The Code”. What’s the code? Earn worth and you can be loved. But the code is a liar that destroys relationship with God and with others.
Yet here’s the wonderful news: The code can be detected. The code can be hacked.
Last week we touched on a couple of the creative processes that He seems to use over and over again. Creating something where previously there was nothing, and then bringing order into the chaos that comes from that initial flourish of creativity. The very next thing He does? He grows stuff. Plants, vegetables, trees with fruit, stuff with roots. This week we’re going to explore God-the-gardener and consider what it means to tend growing things, to trust in the invisible behind-the-scenes processes that ultimately lead to healthy, delicious fruit. And the bible has amazing things to say about fruit!
God’s primary work today is what it’s always been: Creating a good and beautiful creation. All through the big story of scripture, from the initial reveal in Eden, through the fall, the law, the prophets and straight through to the redeeming work of Jesus on the Cross, in every moment, God has been creating and recreating, artfully leading his creation towards his beautiful intentions. And he’s invited us to share in that work. This is the work of the Kingdom.
Every artist has tools and processes. This week we unpack two of the processes that God seems to use over and over again. We look at each, and explore how we are invited to come alongside him in this work, both in our own lives and in the lives of those around us.
