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Stolen Images: DaVinci’s and Something More Hideous…
Thoughts which drag me back to Jesus, and to the Cross…
“Then I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom can I send? Who will go for us?” So I said, “Here I am. Send me!” Then the Lord said, “Go and tell this to the people: ‘You will listen and listen, but you will not understand. You will look and look, but you will not learn.’ Make the minds of these people dumb. Shut their ears. Cover their eyes. Otherwise, they might really understand what they see with their eyes and hear with their ears. They might really understand in their minds and come back to me and be healed.”” (Isaiah 6:8–10, NCV)
If, in view of something apparently more important, we push God to one side in order to give precedence above all else to the happiness of the human person, we do not thereby become more free to establish right order in the world, but rather lose the standard and eventually come to despise mankind. Only one who regards humanity from God’s perspective is capable of loving mankind. Only one who knows God can love mankind—even the most wretched, the weakest, the defenseless, the battered, the unborn, the inept. That is why the “Hear, O Israel” stands irremovably at the beginning of all our ways.
Now, this is Christ. I see him hanging on the cross, not beautiful, nor greatly honored; but I see him hanging in disgrace, like a murderer and malefactor; thus, reason must say that he is cursed before God. The Jews believed this to be true and they could only consider him the most cursed of all men before God and the world.
Moses had to set up a serpent of brass, which looked like the fiery serpents, but did not bite, nor harm any one; it rather saved the people. Thus, Christ also has the form and the appearance of a sinner, but has become my salvation; his death is my life; he atones for my sins and takes away from me the wrath of the Father. If man believes that the death of Christ has taken away his sin, he becomes a new man. The carnal, natural man cannot believe that God will gratuitously take away and forgive us all our sins. Reason argues: You have sinned, you must also atone for your sin. The gospel of Christ says: You have sinned, another must atone for you. Our works are nothing; but faith in Christ does it all
I have see Social Media blow up over the opening of the Olympic Games in France. I have seen a lot of fear, a lot of hatred, a of condemnation. Because they took license (in both meanings of the words) with a man’s depiction of the Last Supper.
But what should the church expect from people who do not know God? What should we expect from that part of humanity that is “wretched, weak, defenseless (against evil and temptation) battered by sin, etc. I think the fact the church has a different expectation of the world is sadder than the world’s attempt to mock the church.
But the world needs to learn a lesson about how to mock, how to completely pervert something, for it can only take what is good, and try to make it look evil. It has no power to take what seems evil and make it good. That’s why Isaiah says they have no clue, as they refuse to listen to God. For if they had, they would flip things from bad to good….as Jesus does.
Consider Luther’s point about the serpent – the one who delivers the judgment for rebellion against God. God mocks Saan there, by using the image of the serpent that causes such pain and death- to bring healing and life. The difference is God’s serpent didn’t bite us, it bit death.
The same with Christ on the cross. A hideous form of torture, an unbelievable amount of pain, as one hangs on the tree – accursed because of sin.. not his own, like other criminals and rebels, but ours. And so the church mocks sin, Satan death, and the world by preaching Christ crucified – earing crosses and crucifixes–parading them before the entire world… shattering the world and perverting the world sense of justice, by punishing the Innocent One in a humiliating, ugly, and traumatic way.
The irony of the Cross is its brutality, its horror, it injustice leads to perfection, to holiness. The irony of the cross is His death leads to eternal life. Its irony is that what sought to permanently divide us from God, eternally united us to God.
And those who think they mocked the church, those that think they were deliberate profane, we pray that they understand the irony, and find the hope in Christ Jesus, and in His sacraments.
Ratzinger, Joseph. 1992. Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. Edited by Irene Grassl. Translated by Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
Luther, Martin, and John Sander. 1915. Devotional Readings from Luther’s Works for Every Day of the Year. Rock Island, IL: Augustana Book Concern.
Dan Brown, Dante’s Inferno and the Missio Dei
English: Dante Alighieri’s portrait by Sandro Botticelli. Tempera 54,7 x 47,5 cm. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
27 God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. 28 We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. 29 That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me. Colossians 1:27-29 (MSG)
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. (Dante) For Langdon, the meaning of these words had never felt so clear: In dangerous times, there is no sin greater than inaction. (1)
Throughout Dan’s Brown’s latest novel, the above italicized words are repeated, over and over. ( I happen to like this one – even though it’s attack on the church was much more… veiled)
There is something to be said for those who are inactive in the face of a crisis, in the face of a moral crisis. To passively live as if there was not some looming disaster that would come is simply wrong.
Most of us would look at this and think of things like war, abortion, racism and other forms of discrimination, political corruption, slavery.
In view of the book though – and the crisis there and the so-called “solution”, I kept coming back to the cause of all sin – including inaction. Idolatry, especially that of Narcissism. It is encoded in us, as surely as if it was part of our DNA. Spiritual leaders, self help authors and counselors of many types make money – many of them with great sincerity.
But the answer isn’t found in growth, or development in the way we set our minds to it and grow. The way is through dependence, through recognition of our weakness, through something that radically changes us, radically transforms us.
In church language, the concept is what Peter talked of at Pentecost. “Repent (literally – to have a changed mind) and be Baptized (see Ezekiel 36:25 and following to see how the Holy Spirit works there ) In both cases, the work is beyond us, it is beyond our ability, and it is the work of God. We have to, however, trust Him. We have to die to ourselves – as the Spirit unites us to Christ’s death on the cross, so that we can be born again, that we can come to life. It is their (not in purgatorio ) that we are purged of our sin. We trust God to do this – to cleanse us, to give us life. This is basic Christianity…. and once alive – we dwell – even now, in the presence of God.
Back to Dan Brown and Dante’s quote about inaction.
The world’s population is growing – for sure. I don’t think to the extend of Brown’s theories, but it is growing none the less. Even so, there is a crisis more severe than that of Brown’s thoughts – it is the crisis of faith – that much of the world is unaware of God’s heart toward them, His desire for a relationship with them, and the extent of God’s work to see that happen.
We who know this – do have an obligation – that of loving our neighbor – to share with them that which we know. Know legalitically, nor condemning their symptomatic demonstration of sin in a way that gives them no hope. Rather, our job is to share why we, who also sin – have more than “just” hope. We have Him
Let us not dwell in the sin on inaction – but with Paul, let us share God’s love, with the power and strength God gives us. AMEN.
(1)Brown, Dan (2013-05-14). Inferno: A Novel (Robert Langdon) (p. 464). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
