KDB_3432I finally received the picture of the front of the cross that stood on the dais at the LWML Convention.  It is quite beautiful and my picture was from behind.  You see the figures of women around the cross.  The cross is our theology the Lutheran Confessors said because by it Christ reconciled the world to himself.  The cross is our preaching although if you listen to much preaching today you would never know.

Stanley Hauerwas wrote this back in 1972…..

“Christ, the Lord of creation, Reconciler of the world to the Father, Redeemer of sinful humanity, Victor over death through his crucifixion and resurrection, Foretaste and Herald of the Kingdom of God, Incarnation of God, very God and very man.

Even though such affirmations about Jesus have been the center of the church’s preaching from its beginning, such Christological commitments to him have not had a prominent place in much modern preaching.

This has been true in the middle class church because it requires its preaching in the form of easily palatable moralisms about how to get through life without being disturbed by it or him. This has also been true for the contemporary college chapel because such language about Jesus is awkward to the ears of those who pride them­selves on being secular men. These are those who be­lieve their virtue depends upon being different from “crude” believers and some sort of virtue attaches to what secular men are able to disbelieve.”

Sad but true and we are living in the detritus of what Hauerwas was talking about over 40 years ago.  That is why something like the LWML convention was so amazing and uplifting.  It ran against type.