Pondering on Atonement

For the past several months I have been wrestling with Atonement theories. I have grown up hearing the idea that Christ had to come down and take the place on the cross for our sins. We quote Bible verses such as, "“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" (John 3.16, New Revised Standard Version) and translate it to mean that Christ took the place to satisfy an angry God. Or there is the theory that God in His love could not be near sin so sent His Son to die and destroy Sin so that we may be able to be purified and enter into His presence. There are many theories of Atonement and I would agree with the theologian Tony Jones that many of them likely got some aspects right but, not all.

But I would like to present another idea one that very likely is not original but, has been on my mind. What if the reason why Jesus became human and allowed himself to die on a cross was to show us that He loved us enough to become like us and die the worst possible death that we could experience. He came simply to suffer with us, love with us, dwell among us. He wanted to show he was not some far off, transcendent God who did not care. This would show us that if the Son of God is able to come down and go through this we should not be discouraged and should follow His example of the life He lived. It seems to me that we often stop atonement theories here. We say the Cross is what it's all about but, here's the problem with that: if the Cross is all that matters then we are hopeless. All that the Cross shows us is death. If the story ended with the Cross then it would end with Jesus' death but, we know the story does not end there. Three days later Jesus is resurrected and what if His resurrection is to show the resurrection that will await us in the age to come? What if Jesus was saying, "Just as I have loved the best I could until my death--and had the worst kind of death--so can you and if you will do as I have done you will to be resurrected." That is the good news. That Jesus is inviting us to live the life of the Resurrection. He is inviting us to choose life, reject evil, love the unlovable, love the lovable, and spread the good news of the Resurrection as we await that day where Christ returns to be fully here, fully reigning on earth as it is in Heaven. 

Strengths build community

Positivity. Includer. Input. Developer. Connectedness.

These are my top five strengths according to the Strength Finder 2.0 test (http://www.strengthsfinder.com/home.aspx). Properly understanding how these strengths work and what they mean helped me to see how they completely describe my life.  I have found that understanding my strengths can open my eyes to why I can struggle with working well with certain types of people. We have different strengths. We do things differently. 

In life and in our vocation it can be easy to focus on perfecting our weaknesses. We tend to see what we are not good at and try to change that. We are a culture that strives for perfection even one that is diverse in its appearance. This perfection can lead to competition which when not kept in check can rule a persons life. 

I'd like to argue that we need to focus on our strengths. Point out what strengths our co-workers have and let them work with those strengths as we work with our own. We need to stop falling into the competitive life style and realize that whatever vocation we have we can still work together with people to further the kingdom. We all have different strengths to bring to the table. 

This mentality is what brought my YouthWorks staff team close this summer. Instead of living a life of competing who was better, we realized we all had our own strengths to bring to the team. Where one member was lacking another could step in. That's what true Christian community looks like: building each other up with our strengths.