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    Hanging by a Thread: The Questions of the Cross
    Hanging by a Thread: The Questions of the Cross
    Hanging by a Thread: The Questions of the Cross
    Ebook62 pages57 minutes

    Hanging by a Thread: The Questions of the Cross

    By Samuel Wells

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    About this ebook

    This brilliant series of theological reflections from internationally known scholar and Anglican cleric Samuel Wells reflects on the challenges of our understanding of Christ’s crucifixion that arise today using contemporary ideas in history, biblical studies, and philosophy. Wells deals with such questions as: “Does the improbability of one event having significance for everything, everywhere, for all time leave our faith hanging by a thread?” “Does the possibility that elements of the story did not actually happen leave our Christian heritage hanging by a thread?” “Does the history of persecution that flowed from the classical belief that the Jews were responsible for Jesus’ death leave our morality hanging by a thread?”

    After reflecting upon six biblical stories, Wells discovers that the cross has an enduring power to shape how we live, how we relate to one another, and how we allow ourselves to be enfolded in God’s story.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChurch Publishing
    Release dateNov 1, 2017
    ISBN9780898691009
    Hanging by a Thread: The Questions of the Cross
    Author

    Samuel Wells

    Dr. Sam Wells is a visiting professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Kings College in London, England.

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      Book preview

      Hanging by a Thread - Samuel Wells

      Hanging by a Thread

      Hanging by a Thread

      The Questions of the Cross

      Samuel Wells

      Copyright © 2016 by Samuel Wells

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

      reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in

      any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

      including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without

      the written permission of the publisher.

      First published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by the

      Canterbury Press Norwich

      Editorial office

      3rd Floor, Invicta House

      108–114 Golden Lane

      London EC1Y 0TG, UK

      Canterbury Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd

      (a registered charity)

      13A Hellesdon Park Road, Norwich

      Norfolk NR6 5DR, UK

      www.canterburypress.co.uk

      First published in the United States in 2017 by

      Church Publishing

      19 East 34th Street

      New York, NY 10016

      www.churchpublishing.org

      Cover design by Jennifer Kopec, 2Pug Design

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      A record of this book is available from the Library of Congress

      ISBN-13: 978-0-89869-977-7 (pbk.)

      ISBN-13: 978-0-89869-100-9 (ebook)

      For Karl

      Contents

      Introduction

      1Story

      2Trust

      3Life

      4Purpose

      5Power

      6Love

      7Story

      Introduction

      There was a time when the cross was an answer. For the early Church the cross explained why there needed to be a Church at all: Israel had rejected Jesus the Messiah, and the Roman Empire had killed him – so a new institution, neither chosen people nor worldwide superpower, arose to worship the crucified Lord. For Christendom (the many centuries in which Church and state asked the same questions and reached the same conclusions) the cross explained how God in Christ had dealt with eternal matters, leaving us to deal with earthly ones. For the time of the West’s expanding empires, the cross explained why the benighted ones would one day thank us for our invasions so much: for we knew the grace of God, utterly portrayed in the crucified Jesus, and they did not.

      Today the cross is no longer an answer. Today the cross is a question. It’s a question about God, about existence and about us. In the days when the cross was an answer we didn’t need to pay attention because we already knew the answer. The answer was that Christianity confirmed everything we already believed about existence. Now that the cross is a question we fear to pay attention because we find the question so frightening and we’re terrified to face it because we are afraid it may not have an answer. And our faith will be hanging by a thread.

      Some years ago, when I served at Duke University Chapel in North Carolina, I used to share in the service of Tenebrae. I found it one of the most memorable services of the year. At around 7.30 p.m. on the evening of Good Friday there would be a single reading, followed by a sermon; then, interspersed with Passiontide hymns, there would follow a series of readings, and, after each reading, one of seven huge candles placed on the altar would be snuffed out. Finally the congregation of around 1,300 would listen, in darkness and silence, as the tower bell tolled 39 times. That silence was louder than any music or words.

      The question that exercised those preparing for the service was, what should happen after the great silence? The tradition had been that a candle would be brought forward slowly from the back of the chapel, more than 50 rows back, a journey taking a minute or so, and that the person bearing the candle would light a small candle that was placed to one side of the altar, at a lower level. It was a beautiful and compelling moment. The symbolism was unmistakeable: ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1.5). From this flame, the whole world would shine in glory. God’s love had been snuffed out, but you can’t snuff out the nature and destiny of all things. Humbly, quietly, but relentlessly, it would reassert itself.

      The trouble was, it was an action befitting a Saturday night Easter Vigil rather than a Friday night Tenebrae. It seemed to me to represent a profound reluctance to stay with the unresolved, tragic and terrifying experience of Good Friday evening. In subsequent years various endings were tried; but in the end it was decided that there could be no conclusion: the bell should toll, there should be silence; and, after a solemn interlude, there should be sufficient side-aisle lights lit to enable those who wished to do so to leave in safety.

      This liturgical question goes right to the heart of the theology of Good Friday. Was the cross an agonizing, horrifying but ultimately successful and triumphant enterprise, in which a limitlessly-loving and inexpressibly-gracious saviour secured our eternal salvation by

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