Overland Park Christian Church
(913) 677-4646
  • Home
  • About OPCC
    • Guest Information
    • Vision & Core Values >
      • 2023 Missional Planning
    • Our Team
    • Our Story
  • Worship
    • Worship This Week
    • Virtual Worship
    • Sunday AM Worship
    • Worship Arts
    • Children in Worship
    • Children Worship & Wonder
    • Funerals >
      • Digital Funerals
    • Communion
  • Ministries
    • Stewardship Ministries >
      • Stewardship
      • Online Giving
      • Landscape Ministries
    • Children's Ministries >
      • Nursery
      • Children Worship & Wonder
      • Children in Worship
      • Vacation Bible School
    • Family Ministries >
      • Families, Youth & Children During COVID-19
    • Youth Ministries >
      • Youth Group
    • Young Adult Ministries
    • Adult Ministries >
      • Christian Ed for Adults
      • Empty Nesters
      • Men's Fellowship
      • Girlfriends Unlimited
    • Caring Ministries >
      • Pastoral Counseling
      • Congregational Care
      • Caregiver Support
      • Grief Support
      • 12-Step Support Groups
    • Music Ministries >
      • Choir Recordings
  • Outreach & Missions
    • Global Outreach >
      • Mission Trips
    • Local Outreach >
      • Local Assistance Info
      • OPCC Food Pantry
    • Building Use Ministries >
      • Wedding Information
      • Building Use Requests
  • Get Involved
    • Calendar
    • Opportunities to Serve >
      • Serve in the Church
      • Serve in the Community
      • Serve in the World
    • Joining our Faith Community
    • Affiliations
    • 2023 Missional Planning
  • News & Media
    • Newsletter
    • Virtual Worship
    • Worship Bulletins
    • Social Media & Blogs >
      • A Community of Voices (Blog)
  • Contact Us
    • Employment Opportunities

The Day God Died

4/3/2015

 
Picture
The angels watched and waited, and as the Passover began in his thirty-third year, God was praised as a liberator, while the one who frees was taken into custody, swiftly tried, driven like a beast to the place of a skull, and nailed to a tree. And the heavens wept.
                                             - "Bo" Crowe

READING:
Jesus, seeing that everything had been completed so that the Scripture record might also be complete, then said, “I’m thirsty.” A jug of sour wine was standing by. Someone put a sponge soaked with the wine on a javelin and lifted it to his mouth. After he took the wine, Jesus said, “It’s done . . . complete.”
                                              - from John 19


REFLECTION:
In the beginning – or even before the beginning if that makes sense – there was God.  That’s it; God.  There were no stars to adorn the night sky… indeed, there was no sky to be adorned.  There was no sun to rise above the world’s horizon signaling a glorious, new day, and no world to greet this divine herald.  But that was okay, because God was perfectly content, complete, and whole.  God’s heart, you see, burned with a Light that warmed and illumined from the inside out, and God’s Spirit swelled with Joy. 

And that’s where it all began, with God’s Joy; because it eventually - and inevitably - overflowed its source.  Some say that God breathed Spirit into the void; others that God spoke into that void.  But if we had been there we would know that God laughed; God’s Spirit over­flowed with a rich, divine laughter that left life in its path.  God’s laughter echoed through the void and a universe sprang forth, a universe full of songbirds and sailors, mountains and mystics, daylight and darkness, rivers and raccoons, black holes and maypoles, damsels and their heroes, thunder and wonder, and all was marked by joy!

God gazed on this marvelous creation and laughed again… woops! More life.  God couldn’t help it – God can’t help it – for God to be is to create; to laugh joyfully again and again into any void that appears, filling it with life.  God gazed on this marvelous creation and was strangely attracted to one group of creatures that seemed very much like God; made in God’s image, per­haps.  So God befriended these creatures - women, men, and children alike – and even allowed them to stand in for God, charging them to care for the rest of the creation.

If all this sounds too good to be true, it was; for God’s chosen creatures, like God, were free, and in freedom chose to abandon God.  Foolish as it may seem, humankind turned from the light to walk in darkness; women, men, and children covered their ears to block the sound of di­vine laughter, the very laughter that alone could fulfill their lives and fill them with joy.

Was God angered by this choice?  No.  Was God tempted to end it all right there and show them just who was boss?  …Well, maybe for a moment; but when all is said and done God is God, and God’s heart was broken.  All of the creation, you see, including those special creatures, represents God’s own family; all of the creation is made from the very stuff of God.  So God wept at the sight of all the carnage called forth by humankind from the underbelly of creation: estrangement, exile, greed, anger, hatred, violence… was there no end to this malady, no end to this empty parody of life?

It seemed that there was no end… that there could be no end, unless God ended it.  So God watched and God wept.  For eons it seemed, God watched and wept; but through it all con­tinued to love these creatures, and strove within for a way to regain their trust, a way to demon­strate clearly that Divine Love knows no limits, and will settle for nothing less than fullness of life for each one of them.  Finally, in a flash of insight God exclaimed, I will become as my creatures; I will share their fate, regain their trust, and above all demonstrate that my love is theirs now and for always.

A novel idea, this.  A novel and, perhaps, dangerous idea; for God to become human, sharing its risks, its frailties!  So God called together heaven’s brain trust – rank upon rank of angels - and ran the plan by them.  An excellent plan, so far as it goes, one angel remarked.  But it’s too dangerous; it has no safeguards.  What if something goes wrong?  What if you are re­jected, or worse assaulted by these ungrateful creatures?  No, we angels cannot recommend that you follow through with this plan.

But God thought otherwise, and as if to avoid a change of heart, swiftly left the assembly, shedding divine robes in haste; rich, blue robes whose stars – all save one - were strewn helter-skelter on the floor.  Before the angels could respond, however, before they could block the door and reason with God to stop this foolishness, the stars burned holes in the floor, and the angels, peering through in curiosity, looked down on a pasture shrouded with darkness and scattered here and there with sheep, and on a small band of shepherds warming themselves by a fire.  Sensing their fear the angels spoke gently to the shepherds.  Don’t be afraid, one began, we mean you no harm.  In fact, another chimed in, we bring good news, joyful news; for this very night a savior is born for you, your - oh, what’s their word; oh yes - your Messiah.  Turning in fear to flee this dreadful apparition, the shepherds froze in their tracks at the sight of one last star shin­ing in the night sky illuminating their village; and then they heard, drifting on the night wind from somewhere in the village, the sound of a newborn baby… laughing.

The angels watched anxiously as this vulnerable infant grew to be a man; for some thirty-three years they waited; watching with baited breath the life of– oh, for God’s sake!  A Galilean peasant! Jesus of Nazareth. How could such a bumpkin command a hearing, how could this peasant Jesus convince anyone of the profundity of God’s love? So they waited and they watched, with little hope that the light of God become human would long shine. And their despair deepened.

The angels watched and waited, and as the Passover began in his thirty-third year, God was praised as a liberator, while the one who frees was taken into custody, swiftly tried, driven like a beast to the place of a skull, and nailed to a tree. And the heavens wept.

Unable to contain their grief, rank upon rank of angels descended through the clouds to hover above the cross, their tears washing the blood from the limp, lifeless body of Jesus.  The light has gone out, one angel said.  God gave everything there is to give, but nothing could withstand such brutality… darkness has overcome the Light.  So the angels wept - lost in darkness - the day God died.


Comments are closed.
    Permission to use and stream music in our worship services obtained from ONE LICENSE #A-730652
    and CCLI #36152
    and CSPL #143030. 
    All rights reserved.
    ​

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

    Categories

    All
    Acts
    Advent
    All Saints
    Amy Luckenbill
    Ann Weems
    Bo Crowe
    Body Of Christ
    Bonhoeffer
    Children
    Compassion
    Crucifixion
    Discernment
    Early Church
    Eastertide
    Encounters With God
    Epiphany
    Faith
    Faith Community
    First Corinthians
    Forgiveness
    Fred Craddock
    Frederick Buechner
    Generosity
    Genesis
    God
    God As Present
    God In Our Image
    Gospel Of John
    Gospel Of Luke
    Gospel Of Mark
    Gospel Of Matthew
    Grace
    Holy Books
    Holy Friday
    Hope
    Humility
    Image Of God
    Isaiah
    Journey Of Faith
    Joy
    Justice
    Laura Phillips
    Lent
    Light
    Lisa-setty
    Living Faith
    Love
    Madeleine L'Engle
    Maya Angelou
    MLK Jr.
    Narrative Lectionary
    Peace
    Poetry
    Prayer
    Psalms
    Rainer Maria Rilke
    Reconciliation
    Reel Theology
    Reign Of Christ
    Resurrecting Easter
    Sacred In The Secular
    Spiritual Life
    Stewardship
    Struggle
    Thanksgiving
    The Lord's Prayer
    The Star Of Bethlehem
    Trinity
    Unity
    Vbs
    Vision
    Vision & Mission
    William Sloane Coffin
    Women In The Bible
    World Communion
    Zachariah

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
Donate to OPCC Online
Picture
Calendar
When viewing our calendar:

OPCC
= Overland Park Christian 
RAV = Rios de Agua Viva Iglesia
IHN - Interfaith Homeless Network

CMS = Case Management Services
AIM = Advocacy in Motion
​HBCS
 = Honeybee Community Services
Monarch = Monarch Montessori Preschool
Most other names of groups are 12-step support groups.

Church Office Hours: 
Monday - Thursday: 9:30am - 4:00pm
Friday: 9:30am - 3:00pm


©2013-2022 Overland Park Christian Church
​7600 West 75th Street
Overland Park, KS  66204
(913) 677-4646
office@opccdoc.org
Worship Schedule:
10:30am Sundays In-Person
and Online Live-Stream Worship
913-299-9002 Sunday Worship by Phone