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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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Bishop's reflection
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'God is with us. God understands. God has walked, stumbled, bled upon this earth. God knows the tears of a mother.' Such sublime affirmations flow from the heart of a faith in God that has not only been examined, but has been tested and stands firm. Mary, Dostoyevsky, Corrie ten Boom, Desmond Tutu and Henri Nouwen all affirmed their trust in the God of life even as they lived through the furnace of evil and suffering. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in a Berlin prison awaiting execution for his resistance to Hitler affirmed, 'Only the suffering God can help.' ScandalAt Christmas we celebrate the prophetic cry, 'Immanuel - which means, 'God with us'. At Easter we recall that this 'God with us' takes evil and suffering into himself and dies that we might respond in repentance and faith to join the redeemed and redeeming people of God, experience his presence and share in his resurrection hope. At one level the scandal of affirming life because of the death of a criminal nailed to a Roman cross beggars belief. Yet, through the centuries Christians have put their faith in God's suffering love and glorious resurrection. They have found their trust well placed. Their faith in 'God with us', established them firmly in Love's grasp. On the cross, Love won out over evil. UnrelentingDuring my years in Argentina. a military dictatorship brought unrelenting injustice and death to its own people. An Argentine colleague, a university chaplain, recommended Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning, to assist us both to pastorally support students and staff whose family and friends had 'disappeared', and also to help us cope with our own distress at these evils occuring around us. Why was Frankl's research helpful? His research into the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps showed that the number of people who had experienced Auschwitz and deepened their religious life was far greater than those whose belief was lost. The chaplains could encourage conversation, 'How is real faith nurtured? And, what of 'the God who suffers with us'?' RainbowThe Cross on Calvary is the tear of God. It is God's heart to both walk with us in our humanity and to take upon God's ownself the cost of our redemption. In the well known words of Phillip Bliss, 'Man of Sorrows, what a name, In his death, Christ takes death upon himself, thereby overcoming death and bringing in eternal life. In his resurrection, Christ is the life-giving rainbow of the love, hope and purposes of God: the resurrected, glorious King. This Easter, let us join in singing Phillip Bliss' wonderful hymn, When He comes, our glorious King, Amen!
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