Such important reading this morning in Fleming Rutledge's brilliant book on the Crucifixion of Christ.

In it, she writes:

… in our world, something is terribly wrong and must be put right. If, when we see an injustice, our blood does not boil at some point, we have not yet understood the depths of God. It depends, though, on what outrages us.

To be outraged on behalf of one's own group alone is to be human, but it is not to participate in Christ.

To be outraged and to take action on behalf of the voiceless and oppressed, however, is to do the work of God.

(Fleming Rutledge)

I fear many, including myself more often than I wish, do not dig deeply enough into classic and orthodox Christian theology, and so our understanding of God and what he did for the world on the cross is truncated, shallow, self-centered and without teeth.

Rutledge is reminding me that the message of the cross is much more than simply "Jesus died for my sins so I can go to heaven."

Much, much more.

The cross carries deep, deep messages about the very nature of God. So deep that the human mind can never plumb the depths. Nevertheless, we should try.

If the cross and what happened on it does not shape our lives on behalf of our neighbor, especially our oppressed neighbor, we have seriously misunderstood the cross.

All this feigned outrage on the part of rich, white, Western Christians that is erupting in our country today is bunk.

In light of the cross of Christ, it is just bunk.