Which World is the Real World?
You should take a few minutes (or hours) to read Kim Fabricius’s Good Friday sermon “Wackos” posted over at Faith and Theology today. His final paragraph is lodged in my gut as I head off to church this morning:
My friends, Good Friday calls us in the most focused and urgent way of all the days in the church’s calendar to ask the question that lies at the core of Christian faith: Which world is the real world? The world of Wal-Mart and Westminster, of wallets and wars, of what we wear and worry about, of how we calculate and control, of payback and perdition? Or the world we see through the crosshairs of the cross, where self is slain, slayers are forgiven, the excluded are embraced, and peace is not a pipe dream but a way of life, a world where we may hope that all will be saved, even Charles Carl Roberts and that impenitent murderer at Jesus’ side? Luther said crux probat omnia—the cross probes, plumbs, tests all things. The cross alone defines what is finally right, true, eternal. Once again, Good Friday presses us with the overwhelming question: are you willing to take up the cross and count yourself among those the world calls wackos? Of the crucified Nazarene—are you a follower or a fan?
Rumblings 
Here on this holy day, on the eve of Easter, I realize that I don’t think much at all about the cross, or even the resurrection. I think more about the incarnation. I think more about Christmas than Good Friday, or Easter.
With this story I remembered a workshop at an MCC meeting shortly after this happened. There was a reporter from the Nickel Mines area who told us about this event and how the Amish community responded and I remember how we were humbled.
Ironically, I read this morning how Theo Fleury responded when he saw Graham James, his aggressor from his teen years. It saddened me that his anger and his grief still controlled him.
These folks at Nickel Mines had it together
The two worlds are miles apart, aren’t they? Perhaps one of the most powerful aspects of the Amish approach is its refusal to allow evil to control behaviour. In this sense, I think love and forgiveness are displays of power—the power to transcend wrongs committed and not allow them to determine the future.