The world before us

I was driving to Sydney the week before Easter and found myself singing a chorus from my childhood except that I was singing a line the wrong way round and I realised that I was expressing how my theology has changed. Of course this would be heresy to some Christians but for me it is a very important fundamental shift.

What was the chorus? Answer: I have decided to follow Jesus. The original version goes like this: I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back. The cross before me, the world behind me, the cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back, no turning back. The line I had reversed was being sung like this: the cross behind us, the world before us...

When I look at a lot of Christianity it seems to have turned its back on this world in which we live. It's focus is on the world to come. Some Christians appear to uncritically follow the symbol of a cross, they have exchanged living life to the full for a narrow version of the message of Jesus. Suppose we were to see the cross as the beginning or the spring board for living life rather than the end. After all don't we turn on Easter Sunday from an empty cross and an empty tomb in the power of the resurrection to follow where the Spirit leads us in life?

The cross is symbolic of a God who suffers with humanity, with all creation and who frees us to live the life we were created to live. With the cross behind us, with the foundation of that theology, a theology grounded in the suffering and death of Jesus we focus firmly on making this world a better place. The cross behind us. the world before us...