S is for Share

But why the falling? Answer: to take us down to share death with himself, to purge away our old morbid selves. This Christ, precisely because his mercy stares straight through us, can play rough, inspiring mortal fear of himself, cauterizing away our petty phobias. Yet our dying, because it is shared dying with him, is always for the sake of the shared rising. At just the right moment in the Godfearers' dread, Jesus breaks in and reverses their dread. With the split-second timing of an exquisite comedian he intervenes with the punchline, "Don't be afraid." Luther explains how every day God reenacts our baptisms, doing the "alien" work of putting to death only to make room for the "proper" work of resurrecting. "Amazing Grace" does both. Come to think of it, America still has some feel for that old hymn. There is hope after all, maybe even for something so Godfearing, so hell-defying as Mary's Magnificat.

robert w bertram