Christians at the Cross: Finding Hope in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus

Christians at the Cross: Finding Hope in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus | N. T. Wright | passionate meditation

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Christians at the ...

	Christians at the Cross: Finding Hope in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus N. T. Wright Word Among Us Press, 2008 - 79 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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More Beautiful Music by N.T. Wright

I just got my hands on N.T. Wright's newest book, Christians at the Cross: Finding Hope in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus. I made it about halfway through last night. The book is essentially a collection of a series of sermons delivered during Holy Week 2007 in the town of Easington Colliery in the Northeast of England, a town who's economic lifeline, a mammoth coal mining pit that employed thousands, was shut down in 1993, leading to more than a decade of hopelessness in the community, economic and otherwise.

I'm not sure if it was providence or coincidence that I began to read the book at precisely the same time that I've been engaging in a conversation with some friends about the collapse of "Emerging Church" as a defining label. That conversation has, perhaps naturally, morphed into one about how we as a Church can best communicate the Good News of Jesus. And it is that question that is so freshly tackled by Wright in this book.

The series of sermons, or meditations, are delivered within the framework of an interesting new metaphor or paradigm that I've seen Wright hint at in the past, but in this book we see how it works in practice. The paradigm is this: the message of Jesus, the Gospel, the Good News, is and has always been a many-layered, many-dimensioned thing. In Christians at the Cross, Wright implores and leads his listeners to think of it in terms of a piece of music, consisting of the treble (or the main tune), the bass (the part of the music that grounds the whole thing and keeps it sold and firm), the tenor (the part of that often tells if you if the chord is major or minor, happy or sad), and the alto (sometimes a bit shy, sometimes doesn't seem very exciting, but the harmony isn't complete without it).

Wright delivers his sermons within this paradigm, with the explicit story of Jesus during Holy Week as the treble, the main tune, the Old Testament writings, particularly Isaiah, as the bass, the part that grounds the story, makes it comprehensible. The tenor part consists of viewing the story of the pain of our world, our communities, going on within that story, providing its classification as "major" or "minor" depending on the circumstances. And finally, we are implored to hear the music our individual part, our own personal story, which metaphorically constitutes the alto.

There are many more that simply four layers to the Gospel. Wright hints at this when he mentions one of the motets of Thomas Tallis that had no fewer than 40 parts, all different, all harmonizing together. But these four are central, comprising the essential parts of any great piece of music, such as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And perhaps my recent conversation about Emerging Church, a small example of the wider conversation being had within the Church as a whole, has taken the shape that it has precisely because we have, as we often do, deconstructed the music, taken it apart to view it in its isolated parts that were always meant to be viewed, to be heard, rather, simultaneously, harmoniously.

Thank you again, good bishop, for bringing into focus an issue that was always there to begin with, simply muddled by us fallen disciples, and presenting it to us in a fresh way (not different, just fresh).

Raffi Shahinian
www.parablesofaprodigalson.com

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passionate meditation

Although it would have been more appropriate to read this work daily during Holy Week, as a pastor I am constantly on the lookout for fresh perspectives on the church's appointed times of meditation, so I read through this over the last week and a half. As expected, it is a wonderful collection of sermons given by Bishop Wright suitable for daily reflection throughout Holy Week. No, there is nothing particularly new in his work (if you are familiar with NTW), but it is framed and explained in a manner more fitting for laity, sermon, devotional, and the like.

The collection comes from Wright's week long journey with the congregation in Easington Colliery in 2007. This community, which lies in County Durham, has experienced tragedy and hardship in the past few generations. As the village now lies in somewhat of an eclipse, Wright takes the message of the cross and resurrection as a challenge to the fear and dread and a proclamation of hope and life. This certainly makes for some interesting coloring upon his well-documented theological beliefs of the resurrection, resulting in a powerful and poignant message of salvation. I know of many communities (my present one especially) who can relate to much of what lies in this work.

On a more subjective note: I felt that the book/sermon-series reached a particular climax on the Meditation on Holy Saturday, entitled "Waiting." Here Wright brings together the themes of suffering and death with hope and resurrection in a unique way, for it is the in-between of the passion narrative. And we who participate in the church today are in a similar situation (being those who mourn and who are, simultaneously, filled with joy). Reading the chosen text from Lamentations with this setting, one can better reflect the tragedy of this life and the call of hope which has gone forth.

To quote from this chapter: "And if we want to find God's way forward for this community, for ourselves, for this church - and we are, in many respects, a microcosm of where so many churches up and down our country are today - then we must learn to wait, to be quiet, to affirm God's order in our chaos but not yet to understand it" (67).

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A wonderful Lenten preparation

It has been a joy to reflect on the meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through the beginning of this Lenten season. If anyone is wondering about some sort of weekly devotional material this season I would highly recommend this book for a weekly meditation on Christ.

Bringing our Pain to the Foot of the Cross

During Easter 2007, Tom Wright gave a series of sermons to the church at Easington Colliery. This is a community that had been totally dependent on its coal mine for most of its jobs, and hence the economic life of the area. Devastating consequences followed when the pit was closed. Some 15 years later, the community finds itself at a place of pain, distress, anguish and bitterness. Not enough work, no affordable housing, the radical decline of social cohesion caused by the loss of the community's central locus. Add to this the ravages of our times, drugs, alcohol, and crime, and you have an area struggling to keep its head above water. It is into this situation that Wright brings the story of Jesus.

Following the last week of Jesus' life, with its triumphs, pain, sorrow and ultimate joy, Wright interweaves the story of Easington (and with it, our own stories of pain). With lightness of touch, he deftly brings his scholarship to bear, with a pastor's heart and concerns for those whom he ministers. Ultimately, God's great story of redemption which culminates in the cross and resurrection, gives us the hope to leave behind our own pain at the foot of the cross and to look forward to the new heavens and new earth in which we will follow after Jesus into full-embodied resurrection life. The challenge for Easington, as for us, is to live between Good Friday and Easter Day, we live in the light of what God has done in Christ and in the light of what we know is to come - Jesus' resurrection has made that glorious future certain. Thus, Wright urges us to bring comfort to those in pain and the healing of forgiveness, and the hope of a better future.

This proved a wonderful little book for my own Lenten reflections. Real people and a real situation was woven into the story of Jesus and God's love for the world. A world full of pain, but for which there is an answer.

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