Sunday, April 8, 2012

The Weakness of God: A Communion Meditation

We do well to talk and sing about the strength of God, and we also do well to pause and consider the weakness of God.  If we rewind a couple of days from Easter Morning, we see that the power and glory of the resurrection was begotten in the weakness and ignominy of the crucifixion; in order to rise from the dead, you have to be dead.  

Jesus wanted us to remember him, and oddly, he wanted us to remember him not rising victorious from the grave, but as the One Who Was Broken in Pieces.  That is who he is.  That is his autograph, his trademark.  

Two questions.  First, what God allows himself to be broken in pieces?   Second, what God who allows himself to be broken in pieces instructs his followers specifically to regularly commemorate the event, as if it is somehow crucial to their sense of identity?

Christianity carries the signature of weakness. To partake of communion is to partake of the brokenness of Christ and to say yes to whatever specific breaking he wants to do in our individual lives and our life as a community.  God is inviting us to fall on the stone and be shattered into a ridiculous and beautiful mess, for this is what it means to be the people of the Broken One.

Peace - and pieces - be with you.  

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