good friday

this is in stark contrast to the spirit of last night's post, 

but today marks good friday, 

the day that followers of jesus mark christ's crucifixion on the cross.

i don't often post about my faith practice

on my blog,

maybe because a lot of religious language has baggage attached or can be trite or cheesy, 

or because i hope people know who i am and 

what i practice through my actions more than through my words. 

in any case,

today i am thinking about 

how i believe that

jesus on the cross

did something radical that still matters.

 i recognize today - 

although it is dark and heavy.

because to fully taste the sweetness of resurrection sunday 

you have to know the bitterness of good friday.

it doesn't take someone from the christian faith tradition to

know that this world is broken and messed up-

sickness, poverty, jealousy, loss, death, estrangement, abuse, addiction.

we have all seen or experienced this break in goodness that is our world.

to me,

good friday is a picture of all of that brokenness in one place.

easter comes as the hope that i can live in- 

that despite 

cancer and racism and classism and depression and suicide and unemployment and war, 

i hope for another story that is bigger and more beautiful, 

another story that eventually consumes and changes that brokenness into something whole.

some days i believe,

some days i doubt.

but i still hope for a world

that looks more like easter than good friday,

that is good and not hard,

that is just and not wrong.

 and i try to live my life believing that jesus came down into our crap, was treated like crap, 

and knows firsthand the crap we are surrounded by, 

but came to change the crap.

from the series stations of the cross by sarah gorss

i love this old johnny cash version of the spiritual 

"were you there when they crucified my lord"