June means warmth
Well, April has flown by, as did May. I can’t believe I haven’t posted a blog for so l-o-n-g!
Briefly, we had a very nice trip to England. It was unseasonably cold, but that is almost a joke when it comes to the British weather.
We spend some lovely times with my family. It was especially good to have time with my brother’s three boys, who are growing like weeds.
While we were away, we had a chance to think and pray about the Church, Center Edge, and I decided not to take on the leadership. We may still meet on a more informal basis as a group, so we will see how that goes.
In the meantime, a few theological thoughts.
A BIG story to help Cross the road of life
The Theology of the Cross, as the result of our transgressions, is so often emphasized in the Western Church, whereas, in the Eastern Church, the emphasis is more on the Glory that results from our justification via the Resurrection.
Now, Karl Barth, writing in his handy little tome, “Dogmatics in Outline”, reminds us that we need both. We cannot have Easter Sunday without Good Friday, and we certainly cannot have Easter Sunday without Good Friday!
Similarly, I suppose, we must each live with a tension between these poles in the day-to-day happenings of life, and in our personal experience, as believers. If we camp out at the Cross, we will tend to remain glum and sin-conscious to an unhealthy degree, while, if we seat ourselves at the mouth of the cave, conversely, we might become so optimistic and petty about the hard things, that we will avoid grappling with the pain we must encounter in order to both, grow up as people, and to go deeper, personally and spiritually, and will ultimately, fail to bear, and help repair the suffering of others.
We need both the highs and the lows, but truly, these make no long-term sense by themselves, and lead to various forms immaturity without the vital contributions from both side of the Calvary-Easter story. As John Eldridge reminds us so often in his books, we need the Big story to make sense of our little stories.
Perhaps we would do well to ponder which side of the story we prefer, and why this is so.
Cheers!
