In reading Oswald Chambers I am often dragged reluctantly back to my days in Catholic school with the nuns – like they dragged us around (only when they were pissed at us) by the collars (if we were lucky) or the hair or ears. The message, to a young boy, seemed to always be about suffering, about Jesus on the cross. Today is an example as Chambers entitles today’s reading “Partakers Of His Sufferings” and writes:
“In the history of the Christian Church the tendency has been to evade being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ; men have sought to procure the carrying out of God’s order by a short cut of their own. God’s way is always the way of suffering, the way of the ‘long, long trail.’”
It is easy to see how the perception is that Christianity needs a new marketing strategy.
But seriously, I’ve now had more than a few decades of reflection and see Chambers has a point (the nuns likely did too, but their methodology remains questionable). But to Chambers’ point – I am guilty as charged. Who wants to spend time at the foot of the cross? (The question is, of course, rhetorical, as the only company Jesus had there were two thieves who had no choice and Roman Centurions who had to be there.) I would rather take the short cut directly to the post-resurrection Jesus, or at least to the pre-resurrection Jesus that strolled the holy land dispensing knowledge and performing miracles. It occurs to me that all that means is that I want God, but on my terms. But in all this I am reminded of a sermon my friend Sid Gervais once gave where he noted that people fussed at him because they believed he preached too much about the cross and not enough about redemption. (Sid, I am paraphrasing; forgive me.) His response was direct and to the point – we have to preach about crucifixion, about the cross, otherwise, redemption has no meaning.
Sid is right, of course, as is Chambers. Still, I’ll likely keep looking for shortcuts. I suspect God knows and even expects that. I am not the first, and won’t be the last. So He’ll sow ample grace in my path while He redirects me back to His.
It occurs to me... 