Brown's Daily Word 5.30.14

Praise the Lord for this last Friday of May.  Yesterday was Ascension Day.  Forty days after Resurrection, Jesus the Risen Lord ascended in to Heaven.  "This Same Jesus shall come again in Glory".  The Annual Conference of the Upper New York Annual Conference is meeting in Syracuse this week.  The Upper New York Conference of the United Methodist Church includes over 950 United Methodist Churches.  Our Bishop, Mark Webb, preached from John 15 yesterday, encouraging and challenging us to abide in Christ and thus bear much fruit.   Several of my colleagues are retiring at the end of this June, and several pastors are being ordained .  One of the young pastors ordained was a young boy who was raised in one of the churches I served in 1982.  This young boy was raised by his mom along with his two brothers.  His grandparents were devoted and faithful Christians. These three boys were raised by a single mom. The Lord has done amazing work of grace in the lives of these three young men.  All three of them are married and blessed with beautiful famlies with children.   All of the three are in full time ordained ministry.  We do not need to blame our circumstances and fall into dungeon and darkness.  The Risen Lord gives us the victory over our circumstances.

    In Philippians we read, "He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:8) .  The Lord has highly exalted Him. "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Galatians 6:14)

    In my undergraduate days I studied Shakespeare.  Although I did not fully understand it, I love to go back and read Shakespeare from time to time.  I recall running  across a peculiar expression, "Holy Rood", which is, of course, another designation for the Cross or the crucifix.  For example, Lord Stanley in Shakespeare's play Richard the Third says, "... by the Holy Rood, I do not like these several councils."  The term is hardly used today.   However "rood" in this expression is sometimes spelled today as "r-u-d-e."  "Holy Rude" captures the paradox of the cross.

    That rude, crude tree, more shameful than the gallows of modern times, has been made holy by the death of one.  Though there were many condemned to be suspended on it, Jesus Christ, the Son of God made it holy.  How people regarded the cross at one time is evident in  : "He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."  "Even the death of the cross" tells the story.  Jesus was so obedient that He even went that far.  The cross not only hurt; it also humiliated, but today we revere the cross.  It is one of our most powerful and beautiful symbols.

    The rude has become holy.   Paul writes, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."  Come to think of it, "Holy Rude" captures not only the paradox of the God-Man but also the paradox of us.  We too, thanks to Christ, are the "Holy Rude."

    A death on the cross and God suddenly calls black white, sinners saints. Jesus dies in our place, and by a divine decision beyond our comprehension but not beyond our faith, stuttering full of contradiction sand confusions,  creatures like you and me are declared righteous by God, .  He justifies us on the basis of the  finished work of Christ at the Cross and the Rude and cold grave.

      I was thinking and reflecting upon those three young boys brought up in a broken home are made whole by the One who suffered and died and was fully broken at the " Holy Rood".  This Same Jesus is alive and well now offering that life abundant and Eternal to all those come to Him by faith through His grace alone.  The Lost are found.  The Blind see.  The lepers are made whole.  The empty are filled.  The dead in sin are raised up in to a new life.  The prodigal sons and daughters are welcomed home.  Blessed be His Name.

  In Christ,

  Brown

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