Lenten blog | March 26, 2024

The cross as control rod

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 26th:  Psalm 71:1-14; Isaiah 49:1-7; and 1 Corinthians 1:18-31.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is Holy Tuesday.  Yesterday’s newspaper headlines shared stories about the terrorist attack in Moscow last week that killed and injured indiscriminately, the fear and depravation in Gaza accompanied by Israel’s apprehension of the existential threat that surrounds it.  The terrorist attack in Moscow was claimed by ISIS-forces responding to Russia’s attacks in Syria.  Hamas’ attacks are claimed by forces responding to Israel’s attacks, and Israel’s attacks are based on the October 7th Hamas attack.  This is the practical logic of the world.  It is the quid pro quo of violence for violence.  In this logic, do you see any endpoint, ever?  It is often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. 

We are caught in a net of our own making.  There are problems in the world, undoubtedly.  Some of them seem intractable.  However, the worldly logic of force rather than compromise, of force rather than dialogue, of force rather than forgiveness has only led to more force.  It takes on a life of its own.  Remember that the World War II Allied Commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who went on to become President, warned in his Farewell Address to the nation against “… the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”  He saw that force takes on a life of its own and a logic of its own, even when that logic becomes the definition of insanity, that we can force security on the world no matter how often and how destructively that logic fails.

  Or, as it is written in today’s 1 Corinthians passage:  “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing …”  The cross is insanity in a world that is perishing and that calls the insanity of cyclical violence practical.  My father once manufactured the control rods that are used in nuclear reactors.  They are inserted to absorb neutrons, which stops them from splitting more uranium atoms.  The control rods break the cycle of nuclear reactions.  Jesus’ entire life, culminating in the ultimate witness of the cross, is the control rod that is God’s attempt to break the insanity of the world’s cycle of violence.

When Paul writes to the community at Corinth, Jews and Greeks are the situation-appropriate euphemism for all humanity.  Accordingly, to all people the cross will appear at first as an anomaly.  Paul writes:  “For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” 

The crucified Christ is the power and wisdom of God that is nonetheless seen as the weakness and foolishness of God by the world entranced by the insanity of cyclical violence.  Lent is our blessed opportunity to see the cross as the control rod that breaks this insane cycle, that allows us to see past “human wisdom” and “human strength” so that what the world calls foolishness we can grasp as humanity’s hope. 
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.