February Letter 2007

February is already here, can you believe it? Just days ago we were ushering in 2007 and looking toward a bright future of endless possibility and potential. Now we have put the month of January behind us; a peculiar and warm winter month which surprised us day in and day out. It was 52 degrees one day and icy the next. All the peculiarities of the weather were compounded in my own life by the random misfortunes of health and wealth. In one week I managed to replace my battery, alternator, and timing belt (a substantial financial “investment”); and also punctured my lip with my very own tooth (not on purpose of course).

All of these strange events prompted a rather interesting process of reflection. My thoughts took me to the power and hope of the cross, but I found it quite difficult to put the events of my life in terms of sin and grace. Keep in mind that I have not lived a sinless month, free of failure and moral misjudgments, but I looked to find a way for Christ and the Cross to be meaningful where personal responsibility was not to blame. How could Christ and the Cross be meaningful, hope-full, and redeeming in events over which I had no control?

I remembered a book that I read by an author from Yale Divinity School called “Imagining Redemption.” In this book, the author, Dr. Kelsey, examined an example of redemption in terms of evil, rather than sin. So many times we think of Christ, the Cross, and God as instruments of personal salvation which free us from moral failures or poor ethical choices. We formulate Christ in terms of sin, and sin alone. Unfortunately that leaves half (or more) of the world's problems without a solution. What about all the things that happen to us over which we have no control?

Unlike Pat Robertson, who infamously charged Ariel Sharone's political actions as the reason for his heart attack, I do not find personal sin to be the operating force behind uncontrollable circumstance. Rather, there is just bad stuff that happens. There is the helplessness of the human race in a world that is riddled with evil. This takes the form of natural disasters, abuse, disease, illness, injury, social conditions, etc. These are victims who share no responsibility in the circumstances that are forced upon them. So how does Christ and the Cross prove to be meaningful in these situations?

Well, we have many times heard that Christ redeems us from our personal sin; our human fallibility before the Holy God. But many times we do not realize that Christ also redeems us from the evil that befalls us. Yes, Christ also makes those situations and circumstances uniquely hope-full. Dr. Kelsey pointed out that Christ provides each and every one of us with an identity. Paul said in 2nd Corinthians that we are each a new creation, a new human subject in relation to Christ (v. 17). As Christians, every evil circumstance which comes our way loses its power over us. Those circumstances cannot control who it is that we are as Christians. Instead, Christ gives us the power over these circumstances. Through Christ we have the power and hope to transform these circumstances by liberating ourselves from its grip. Evil circumstances do not define us. Evil circumstances do not control us. We are not victims of abuse, victims of disaster, or victims poverty. We are not confined by these past misfortunes. No, we have the freedom of our future in Christ. We have the infinite accessibility of a hopeful future thanks to the infinite Love found on the Cross.

So as I recalled my own situation: a fat, wounded lip, and an empty wallet; I realized that these circumstances are not what define me as “Michael Swartzentruber.” Rather, Christ offers me the identity of a Righteous God, the power of a purpose centered on God's Kingdom, and the hope of liberation from my past. I am not Michael, the fat lip substitute. No, I am Michael, Christian, Disciple of Christ.

I think this is a powerful way to see Jesus. In Luke 4 we read that Jesus unrolled the scroll of Isaiah and read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor” (v. 18-19). Jesus ministered to those who found themselves helplessly captive to the forces of evil in society, to the evil of illness, and to the evil of poverty. Christ still ministers to us today, freeing us from the evil which befalls us.

Through the message of Jesus and the power of the Cross we have the infinite potential to form our futures as followers of the Christ. We are not defined by the evil that has come, is come, or will come. No, we are grounded in the God who was, and is, and will be. This is a beautiful message of redemption, one that magnifies and intensifies the reconciliation of our personal sin. What a Glorious God, what a Wonderful Redeemer.