We Preach Christ Crucified($16.38Value)

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Through hymns, poems, and the lens of personal experience, a leading spiritual director and author takes a thoughtful, in-depth look at the Cross as a focal point for theology, spirituality, Christian symbolism, and discipleship, providing a probing and disturbing resource for group study during Lent. Kenneth Leech (1939-2015) was the founder of Centrepoint, one of the biggest programs for homeless youth in Europe, and former field officer for racial justice for the Church of England and community theologian at St Botolph's Church in Aldgate, London. He is the author of many highly regarded books, including Soul Friend, The Eye of the Storm, True Prayer, and the award-winning Care and Conflict. WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED By Kenneth Leech Church Publishing Incorporated Copyright © 2005 Kenneth Leech All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-89869-499-4 Contents Preface....................................................................vii1. Foolishness to the Greeks...............................................12. Healed by His Wounds....................................................203. A Kingdom not of This World.............................................394. The Love of God Poured Out..............................................535. The Darkness where God Dwells...........................................696. Christ Our Passover.....................................................84References.................................................................99 CHAPTER 1 Foolishnessto the Greeks For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling blockto Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to thosewho are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christthe power of God and the wisdom of God, (1 Corinthians 1:22–24) STRANGE MEMORY Thousands of people were crucified during the sixty-fiveyears from the time that Judea became a Romanprovince until the end of the Jewish War. Almost all ofthem are now forgotten: they have become part of theimmense historical mass of the anonymous dead. Sucha loss of identity is hardly surprising in the aftermathof this most degrading and dehumanising form of punishmentin which, according to Cicero, even the nameof the victim should be removed. The rotting corpseswere often left for vultures and animals to devour. It isthis form of punishment, reserved mainly for the lowerclasses, particularly for slaves, violent criminals andinstigators of revolt, which provides the location forthese reflections on the work of our salvation. Among the crucified people, Jesus of Nazarath aloneis remembered. But he is not only remembered, he isremembered by his followers as the crucified God. Theaccounts of his death in the gospels are the longest andmost detailed accounts of crucifixion in the whole ofancient literature, and the event itself is supported byevidence which is better than that for any similar eventin the ancient world. Within the gospels themselvesthe accounts of the passion (suffering) and death ofJesus take up the largest single sections: indeed thegospels have been described as passion narratives withextended introductions. Clearly this crucifixion is seenas being exceptionally important, at least by somepeople. Within the community of his followers, Jesus isremembered – in the most literal sense, re-membered.Week by week, day by day, in the eucharistic offering,in the exposition of the word and in other ways, thereis a ritual re-enactment, an anamnesis , of the dyingand rising of Jesus. It is the Eucharist or Mass – thatregular act in which Christians claim to 'eat the flesh'and 'drink the blood' of Christ – which most dramaticallymanifests and makes present the mystery of thecross and resurrection. This ritual or liturgy is centralto Christian consciousness and to the nurturing andsustaining of Christian identity. 'Do this in remembranceof me' stands at the heart of Christian worship.Yet it is a strange act and seems to the outsider to bea foolish one. For here Christians not only retell theancient stories, they claim to re-enact the Last Supper,relive the sacrifice of Calvary and of heaven, andremember their own broken body through solidaritywith the broken and glorious body of Jesus Christ. This'unbloody sacrifice' of the Mass is strange, mysterious,fascinating and impenetrable, and, for all the attemptsto dispense with its mystery and reduce it to a crudeone-dimensional fellowship meal, the complexity of themystery keeps returning. In the mystery of the Masswe are, as it were, present at Calvary and at the resurrection.It is a strange event rooted in a strangememory. While most Anglican eucharistic prayers use 'remembrance',the English versions of the Roman Mass usethe weaker word 'memory'. However, while memory isoften seen as a looking back to past and finished events,in recent years there has been a renewed emphasis oncorporate memory, the memory which recovers losttraditions and suppressed histories, th