By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

Theologian Douglas John Hall writes, “I wouldn’t have become a theologian (perhaps I wouldn’t have remained a Christian) had I not been introduced to Martin Luther.” I might say I wouldn’t have remained a Christian had it not been for Luther’s Theology of the Cross.

Martin Luther said that the theology of the cross is about “calling a thing what it really is.” The theology of the cross is an honest theology, a humble theology – unwilling to speak for God or claim more than one knows; unwilling to gloss over sin, doubt, evil, or despair; unwilling to explain suffering away with sayings like “everything happens for a reason” or “it’s all part of God’s plan.”

“To call a thing what it is the beginning of liberation.”

We don’t deny suffering, but we do believe that God bears our suffering. When God says to Moses, “I know their suffering,” it means that “God so enters into their suffering … that God takes that suffering into the divine self and bears it there,” according to the late Luther Seminary faculty member Terry Fretheim.

And, that “taking suffering into the divine self” is most profoundly revealed in Jesus. It is most profoundly revealed in his passion and death, the focus of the week ahead, the center of the Christian faith.

We are free to call a thing what it is because we are tethered in a relationship that will never let us go.

 

TO CALL A THING what it is the beginning of liberation. This is true not only in our personal suffering and pain, but also in our work for justice. We can speak honestly of sin and greed. We can name what the doctrine of discovery did, what Christian nationalism is, what the legacy of white supremacy continues to do. We can name how human greed is intricately related to a climate in crisis.

Whether you’re quoting James Baldwin or Mr. Rogers, the truth is that you cannot address that which you do not name.

We call a thing what it is.

 

YES, I’M PROBABLY A Christian because of the theology of the cross, a theology that calls a thing what it is.

And, dear friends of Christ, of all the things named for us in the theology of the cross this is one of the most important. Pay close attention:

  • This is your name: Beloved child of God. This is God calling a thing what it is – calling you what you are.
  • You are a beloved child.
  • In your fullest, authentic, beautiful, and broken self, you are loved, embraced, forgiven; you are set free from all the self-talk and other-talk that binds you with names that are not beloved child of God.
  • God knows you. God calls you beloved.

May the Spirit move among us this Holy Week that we might experience anew the depth of God’s love and our belovedness.