“22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.” (Acts 17:22-34 ESV)
Center of being, life throws curve balls at us, and the center of being reflects factually that some gestalts, worldviews, opposing structures, are not easily integrable into our sphere. The Cross is designed to help with this: the Cross of Christ posits a subliminal, subdued, baseline Report, Standard, Thinking Experiment, wherein the non-integrable are integrated.
Because it is traumatic to reckon with someone else’s pride and hegemony, rather, with their meek coping and getting by. We immediately go ape-wild or lash out, turn to drug or drink, or sputter words neither planned nor particularly helpful to the matter. The Cross, then, is a subliminal or subdued Scene, Bedrock, floating on air, walking on water, Ability not to turn sinner just because another Personage or Leading Light is on the make, on the scene, on the outlook and rising and falling horizons.
Therefore the Aim, all this notwithstanding, is a Gospel that still is winsome and Endearing to our fellows and gals, because it is not Aped, Cowed, Crucified quite, or in any case it knows Resurrection. And our feelings of having Disappointed, of aging without much to show for it, these things also tend to lean on the Cross.
The Cross is the fact that on Christ’s dying day aka His heavenly Birthday, He was just out of the shoot of dialog with Pilate. And in that Dialog, He was blustery and firm, not fazed by the latter thinker’s other worldview. But what would we do? Would we cajole and cave in, would we Deny our need for punchiness and sharp wit? Would we try to escape the Condemnation, by “Getting along”, “making do”, “speaking peace”?
The burden of War therefore is lightened when once we realize it is a Constant and Permanent state of affairs: to be in dispute, to draw Near to the Cruciform Dying Ways, to cajole and attempt to coalesce around Differing Worldviews, to care indeed for the poor in any nation and those underrepresented, to seek a better way of fighting that knows all too well the Sadness of life on the edge, the loss of friends, the state of being, the constant buzz of “On”, the hasty helter-skelter attempts to find some bleary-eyed Rest for our soul, when all is war and judgment: you, after all, haven’t you the fear of having Failed… your parents, your teachers, your family? And of shooting yourself in the foot, evading and forgetting Musical Chairs when the music stops, and we are each left in the fault, to blame, hopelessly serpentine.
The chutzpah of Christ’s dialog with Pilate reminds us to cease seeking comfy routes or getting along quite always: we get along, but that as a prize indeed for each other’s day’s labors and realizations we are laboring for the same things. So this is no theology of good works, but just that we Identify with our labors, and we Befriend on the basis of a more wise, aged, sagacious Experience deriving from life and experiential Work. And to the parent, to the teacher, to the community headship, that is all we need acknowledge: that Christ Died, once for all, for the sinner in the world, that we ourselves might know Eternal Life. In this we live and breathe and have our being.