I offer you the final paragraph of a sermon preached this day by Diana Butler Bass in Alexandria, Virginia. I do love what she says here about "God's dream of love and justice for the whole world." May these words truly speak to us in our own reflections of what it means to be with another.
"The Cross isn’t a contract between God and sinners; the Cross is God’s definitive expression of kinship and love—that everything, everywhere, through all time, is connected in and through pain and suffering. We are with Jesus on the Cross, not at a distance from it, standing by, watching safely from afar; those are our hands and feet nailed, our blood dripping, our voices crying out “We thirst.” And Jesus on the Cross, naked and mocked, is with us all on every broken-heartened, betrayal-laden, blood-soaked day of human history. That is God’s Passion; that is Jesus’ Cross. And, in the tortured Christ, we find the hope to endure, a love for others and creation, the power to enact God’s dream of love and justice for the whole world. We are with God. God is with us. This is why the Cross should cause us to tremble, tremble. We tremble at the fearsome with of God."Artist: Stefano di Giovanni (15th century)
Image from Wikimedia Commons
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