{"id":148,"date":"2010-04-03T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-03T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/2010\/04\/improvising-the-wondrous-cross.html"},"modified":"2010-04-03T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-03T14:00:00","slug":"improvising-the-wondrous-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2010\/04\/improvising-the-wondrous-cross.html","title":{"rendered":"Improvising Upon “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross”"},"content":{"rendered":"

When
\nI survey the wondrous cross, <\/em>I am horrified.<\/em>  <\/span>Tattered and torn
\nskin…blood matted hair…pain induced quivers…the death of God.  <\/span>A man so battered and betrayed that
\nwords…fail.  <\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>Selah<\/em><\/p>\n

When
\nI survey the wondrous cross, <\/em>its beauty startles me.<\/em>  <\/span>The life…the
\nlove…the compassion…of the death of God. 
\n<\/span>It…no, He summons me to feast upon that which I gaze.  <\/span>For some unresolved reason I accept the
\noffer.<\/p>\n

            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>Selah<\/p>\n

When
\nI survey the wondrous cross, <\/em>I am haunted.<\/em>  <\/span><\/p>\n

For my soul knows…<\/p>\n

my inmost being
\nbows in contrition…<\/p>\n

compunction
\nconvicts.  <\/span><\/p>\n

My hands, my thoughts, my eyes
\nbetray the reason    
\n<\/span>for the death of God.<\/p>\n

            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>            <\/span>Selah            <\/span><\/p>\n

When
\nI survey the wondrous cross, <\/em>I am mystified.  <\/span><\/em>I search for it’s
\nmeaning, for its understanding…for the “why’s” of what I see.  <\/span>What was God doing on the cross?  <\/span>There are so many answers.  <\/span>The more doctrine digested, the more
\nelusive and yet, simultaneously adjacent the death of God becomes.<\/p>\n

Peter, why couldn’t you have kept
\nit’s meaning to yourself?  <\/span>“To this
\nyou were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example<\/strong>, that you should follow in his steps.” (I Pet. 2.21)<\/strong> Why
\nmust you involve us?  <\/span>Why must you
\nsummon me?  <\/span><\/p>\n

As if we want to…<\/p>\n

as if I am willing…<\/p>\n

to follow the
\nexample of Christ and His cross.<\/p>\n

The cross is an example, an
\nintricate design, on which we lay the transparent parchment of our lives and
\nsketch our feeble outlines.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The cross is to be followed, like
\ntracks in the snow.  <\/span>We step high
\nand sink in deep to the openings made by The One who has gone before.<\/p>\n

Excruciare<\/em>…Latin
\nfor “out of the cross.” 
\n<\/span>Excruciating People–those who live life out of the cross.  <\/span>Christians–those
\nwho have accepted the invitation to live an excruciating life.<\/em>  <\/span>The cross is a way of life…an
\nethos.  <\/span>Mores not just morals.  <\/span>The cross is a culture for
\npain-absorbing, peace-making, love-wielding, price-paying, cup-drinking people.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

When
\nI survey the wondrous cross, <\/em>I am terrified.  <\/span>For what I see and what I know demands my soul, my life, my all.<\/em><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

(An excerpt from my current writing project which will be a jazz-shaped view of the cross)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I survey the wondrous cross, I am horrified.  Tattered and torn skin…blood matted hair…pain induced quivers…the death of God.  A man so battered and betrayed that words…fail.                                                                                                  Selah When I survey the wondrous cross, its beauty startles me.  The life…the love…the compassion…of the death of God. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jazz-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nImprovising Upon "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross" - The Jazz Theologian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2010\/04\/improvising-the-wondrous-cross.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Improvising Upon "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross" - 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Robert Gelinas on Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01","name":"Robert Gelinas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","caption":"Robert Gelinas"},"description":"\"For more information visit: Jazztheologian.com Robert Gelinas is Lead-Pastor (and resident Jazz Theologian) of Colorado Community Church\u00e2\u20ac\u201da multi-cultural, interdenominational community of 3000+ followers of Christ in the Denver area. Author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith (Zondervan) and the upcoming, Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (2011). Founder of Project 127, a ministry dedicated to seeing the day when there are no children waiting for homes in Colorado's foster care system. Robert deeply desires to see the body of Christ mobilized to serve the least of these. The poor, the down and out, the disenfranchised and disabled, those deemed unimportant and the unborn. He believes that God loves all people yet he has a special heart for the poor and the poor in spirit, the miserable and the marginalized. A Contributing Editor for Leadership Journal and Urbanfaith.com. He acquired a B.A. in Bibilcal Studies from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Arts in World Christianity (Missiology) from Denver Seminary. Robert is married to the love of his life, Barbara, and they have six energetic children (3 boys & 3 girls--one bio, five adopted--two from Ethiopia). Friend of God...Passionate about the Body of Christ...Lover of this thing called jazz! Please visit Jazztheologian.com for contact info., speaking schedule, videos, Facebook and Twitter.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/author\/rgelinas"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}