mustard seed that God uses to transform the world. The cross, then, is a very
dramatic image of what it takes to be usable for God. It does not mean you are
going to heaven and others are not; rather, it means you have entered into
heaven much earlier and thus can see things in a transcendent, whole, and
healing way now.
To maintain this mind and heart over the long haul is true spirituality. I have
no doubt that it takes many daily decisions and many surrenders. It is aided by
seeking out like-minded people. Such grace and freedom is never a lone
achievement. A heaven you created by yourself will never be heaven for long.
Saints are those who wake up while in this world, instead of waiting for the
next one. Francis of Assisi, William Wilberforce, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Harriet
Tubman did not feel superior to anyone else; they just knew they had been let
in on a big divine secret, and they wanted to do their part in revealing it.
They all refused to trust even their own power unless that power had first
been taught and refined by powerlessness.
This is no easy truth. Once their entire frame of mind had been taken apart
and reshaped in this way, they had to figure out how they fit back into the
dominant worldview—and most of them never did, at least not completely. This
became their crucifixion. The “way of the cross” can never go out of style
because it will surely never be in style. It never becomes the dominant
consciousness anywhere. But this is the powerlessness of God, the powerlessness
that saves the world.
The scapegoat mechanism, our ability to hate ourselves in others and attack,
is too seductive and too difficult for most people to recognize. It must be
opposed anew by every generation and every culture. The Kingdom of God is
always a leaven, a remnant, a critical mass, a few chosen ones, a Jewish minyan
—“ten just men”—who save us from ourselves for the sake of truth.
God is the ultimate nonviolent one, so we dare not accept any theory of
salvation that is based on violence, exclusion, social pressure, or moral coercion.
When we do, these are legitimated as a proper way of life. God saves by loving
and including, not by excluding or punishing.
This God is calling every one and every thing, not just a few chosen ones, to
God’s self (Genesis 8:16–17, Ephesians 1:9–10, Colossians 1:15–20, Acts 3:21, 1
Timothy 2:4, John 3:17). To get every one and every thing there, God first needs
models and images who are willing to be “conformed to the body of his death”
and transformed into the body of his resurrection (Philippians 3:10). These are