The Cross, The Economy, and Laser Death Beams

I recently watched a lecture online from Professor Thomas James of Union Presbyterian Seminary. He and a host of other professors there offered lectures on faith and the economy from different perspectives. In that lecture, I was challenged to look at the economic crises of our time from the perspective of the cross. What does the cross teach us about the current situation? You see, the cross is not just a simple historical event or symbol of faith. God chose to use this particular instrument to bring salvation to humanity. God chose this particular instrument for a greater reason. God chose this particualr instrument because it orients our thinking and challenges us to look beyond our own simple notions of the way the world works.

So what does the cross teach us? Well, many things, but here's one of the biggies: it teaches us that often innocent people suffer for the risky behaviors of others. Jesus died on that cross for the risky behaviors of human beings past, present, and future who would risk their relationship with God by making choices that seem to say "Thanks for the advice, God, but I think in this particular case I will be doing my own will." This is more than a condemning statement against all of us terrible sinners. (Me included!) It actually challenges our basic view of the world. We have this moral rationalism that says that good stuff gets you good things and bad stuff gets you bad things. And then we find ourselves lost when bad things happen to good people and when good things happen to bad people. Why are we so lost? Doesn't the cross teach us that "fairness" is not the universal principle?

Instead, the cross's first lesson, that innocent people suffer for the sins of others, teaches a different set of principles... that our lives are connected, that such suffering may lead to opportunities, that "redemption" may be the universal principle.

When we see the cross, it should draw us together as a community, making moral designations like guilt and redemption into community issues instead of issues for individual justice. If we get angry at bailouts from the government, have we stopped to think of the alternatives or the consequences? Are we ready to put aside our distaste of someone avoiding their punishment in order to help the innocent of the situation which may involve workers who need the jobs or the poorest among us who need the government programs to provide for their family's basic needs? The cross makes us brothers and sisters who focus on redemption, not justice, because that is where God focused his attention when faced with similar problems of irresponsible behavior and risky actions. Good enough for God... good enough for me.

Uh oh... I think I almost talked about social justice for a second. Sorry, Mr. Beck. I think I may have some people fearing that I am an advocate of socialism because that's the new dirty word in American politics. Perhaps I need forgiveness for being much more interested in a world that takes care of one another instead of seeing the toughest survive. The cross just makes me see the world in ways that are disturbing and perhaps overflowing with grace and dreams of redemption. Oh, it would have been so much easier if Jesus would have roamed the earth pointing out sinners and blowing them to bits with laser death beams from his eyes! Then I could look at the world and its suffering as products of "those people's mistakes." But now I have to see it as suffering because we as a community are suffering. And now I have to see myself as a fellow sinner looking for ways to join God in redeeming my whole community. Ugh! So perhaps the model for faith is not Rambo, Jack Bauer, or the Terminator. Perhaps I cannot spend my time in moral judgement but instead invest my time in community solutions that breathe with the divine breath of re-creation and redemption.

And the real noodle-baking brain-teaser of all of this is that the cross may also be teaching us that these great crises of our lives (including the economy) may be more than meaningless events that are outside of God's plans. If God uses the rule-breaking, morally irrational ugliness of the cross to bring redemption, then perhaps such terrible crises may be opportunities to show the world exactly who God is. The cross is the clearest revelation of who God is when we combine it with the redemption and hope of the empty tomb on Easter morning. And likewise, the great crises and wrongdoings may be giving us opportunities to clearly reveal who God is to the world, but only if we bring with these modern-day crosses, the messages of redemption and hope.

So, how will we solve the economic crises of our lives? I have absolutely no idea. However, the cross teaches me that it probably has something to do with grace, forgiveness, redemption, hope and re-creation. And it probably has something to do with looking beyond our own personal needs and into the needs of the community. And it probably has very little to do with laser death beams that blow the guilty into bits...probably.