What incredible power... A God who rules the world from the cross...

Tonight I sat reading Stanley Hauerwas' book "With the grain of the Universe" (2001, Grand Rapids. Brazos Press). The book is the result of Hauerwas' Gifford lectures of 2000 - 2001. It was a gift (which always makes a book so much nicer to read) from my mentor and friend Dr Neville Richardson.

I was struck by one particular phrase in the book "... the God who would rule all creation from Christ's cross" (2001:17). Isn't that an amazing thought? The very nature of the Universe is radically changed in the events of the cross of Christ. What the world would consider an act of ultimate defeat, what evil would consider as its ultimate brutal victory, becomes God's greatest triumph. It is a victory of love. Of course, if one thinks about it, it all makes so much sense!

The most powerful force that could ever operate in the world is not violence, it is not hatred, or abuse, or loneliness, not even death, it is love! What could ever challenge the love of God that would show itself, even if the price is death?

The God of the cross is not healthy, he's dying. This God is not free, he is enslaved by others. This God is not white, he is from Africa. This God is the saviour, the creator, the sustainer, the ruler of the whole Universe! This God is God... Well, at least the kind of God I can identity with!

Truly God rules all of creation from the loving, life giving, self sacrificing cross of Christ. Through that act the world is redeemed, it is brought back to its true identity - a loving relationship with God, not based on power, not based on authority, or even respect, but a relationship based on self giving love.

I am not sure what cross you are facing in your life? I hope that in love you will be able to bring it before God, so that God may show God's love by ruling from the cross. God can rule, in fact God can triumph, in the crosses of this world.

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)

The image above comes for a Kenyan set of stations of the cross found here.