Theology of the Cross at Pine Ridge

I woke up this morning with a sore throat. Since colds have been taking people down one by one, I was not thrilled. We met as a group to open conversation and process some of what we have experienced these two weeks. Then we were off to SuAnne Big Crow Boys and Girls Club.

SuAnne was a true leader. An athlete who averaged 39 points per basketball game, one of the top four scorers in SD history. SuAnne was killed in a car accident when she was 17 years old. Her family decided to carry on her legacy of promoting drug and alcohol free lifestyle, athletic fitness, and academic excellence by creating a safe place for kids. Check out the website. It's really an amazing story. I'm surprised there isn't a Disney movie yet.

Following lunch at HappyTown at SuAnne Big Crow Boys and Girls Club, there was time for a nap to take care of myself before Children's Hour. Today we had Children's Hour, worship, and supper. We took the kids to go feed the buffalo at a neighbor's ranch. Two white buffalo calves were born to this rancher and we heard the story of the White Buffalo Calf Woman.
Some folks fed the buffalo by hand and some dared to stick the buffalo food cube in their mouths and feed them by mouth. Um, I bypassed the Buffalo Kiss option. But I have some fun pictures.

Quickly after the kids returned home, we traveled to the Boys and Girls dorms at Pine Ridge school to celebrate winter birthdays. The evening concluded with a talking circle. Whew, that is a full day.

There are so many layers and facets to the socio-political-economic-s

piritual issues and topics here. Where does one begin? I've witnessed hope rise out of tragedy in the story of SuAnne Big Crow. I've heard vision and hope in the story of White Buffalo Calf Woman bringing the prayer pipe, 7 religious rites, and the medicine wheel. I've tried to find Christ in culture and seen a Lakota Jesus in the Stations of the Cross. Now, since I am a Lutheran, it's time to talk about Theology of the Cross.

According to an article by Gerhard Forde, Theology of the Cross "is a particular perception of the world and our destiny, what Luther came to call looking at all things through suffering and the cross. It has to do with what he referred to often as the question of usus, the way the cross is put to use in our lives."

Deaths of someone you know is a common occurrence here. Children from little on attend wakes. Sometimes there is a Christian burial, someones traditional, and sometimes both. The shadow of Wounded Knee weighs like a heavy blanket over all vision for the future. I see the cross, the place of death, the place of revelation and truth-telling here. I see true humanity revealed in those who live there lives to be role models and visionaries and those who are angry, bitter, and suffocating.

Robert Kolb writes in his article on theology of the cross "The cross reminds us that “ ‘we live on borrowed time’—time lent us by the Creator.Yet we also see in the death of Jesus on the cross our rebellion against that life, and we note that there is absolutely no way out now except one. God vindicated the crucified Jesus by raising him from the dead. So the question and the hope come to us.‘If we die with him, shall we not also live with him?’ In the cross we recognize not only the awful truth but also the wonderful truth about ourselves."

The truth is we are children of God capable of love, peace and joy, plagued by evil, injustice, and oppression. The truth is God reveals himself as a person of love and mercy in the midst of our tragedies. When we question human value and worth, the economics of God are irrational and radical for they come in the death of what we value most so that we can experience a revelation beyond our conception. The Lakota way is to know that all things happen for a reason. If one were to judge human life from the basis of God's presence in human life and God's love for creation, we might find all things happen for a reason to be a relevant cross-view.