The Theology of Rock Climbing

              I have a friend who is an avid rock climber. While I’ve never been rock-climbing, she’s been hounding me to try it for some time now. I noticed the other day that her hands were callused and I asked what was that from. She described that with rock climbing, you have to give everything to it, forgoing the pain and keeping yourself up on the rock-face. I looked at my hands, they were soft and without blemish, I spend most of my time content not to be climbing a rock.

            Friends this time of year as spring has sprung it is often time that we turn towards the resurrection. It is still very much the season of Easter. Though the stores have put away their Easter goods, we as counter-cultural people of faith continue to keep the faith that Christ is risen and God is here! My family has this set of figurines that describe the resurrected Jesus, everything from roman soldiers to a tomb to Jesus on the cross. When my little brother, Scott was little he commented that though we had Jesus on the cross, we didn’t have a ‘walking around Jesus’ So in an act of theological childhood wonder he went on a quest for a Jesus that was resurrected and walking around.

            As we continue the journey of this life, it is our job to get dirty, it’s our job to get down in the dirt and help someone back up to life. I love that God doesn’t make bad people good, but dead people alive again. It’s our job to have callused hands of faith as we do the work of God in this world, it’s our job to say, “he isn’t here, he is risen, Christ is risen indeed”

            So this week, make sure your hands of love are callused, make sure your hands of grace are tired. People will believe that Jesus is in fact walking around. The beauty of a walking around Jesus is that he is no longer confined to distant millennia ago in Palestine. Christ comes to us, today, and asks of us to fight the good fight and finish the race. When the reality of our lives are left to history will we see a life of dirty, messy grace or will we see a life that was spent on a clean pedestal?

            People of faith these moments happen in a second but can change everything. These moments of messy theology change lives. Fred Rogers put it this way, “In the external scheme of things, shining moments are as brief as the twinkling of an eye, yet such twinklings are what eternity is made of -- moments when we human beings can say "I love you," "I'm proud of you," "I forgive you," "I'm grateful for you." That's what eternity is made of: invisible imperishable good stuff.”

            This week as you are encountering the walking around Jesus and getting your hands dirty, find that Christ comes to us in the shining twinklings and the dark abysses of this existence. He comes with abundant love and outstretched arms. It is in that hope that we can say, thanks be to God.