This time last week we were at a church retreat on the shore of Lake Wairarapa. It was good. Great snacks. The content oddly orthodox & compelling: Jesus & St Paul. A good world marred. This is not the way it’s supposed to be. The word for that is sin. Both out there in the violent oppressive destructive alienating structures, but also right in here, in me, in everyone. So we have a problem. So God has a problem. God’s world’s not right. God’s mana offended. Jesus is the remedy. Jesus the man put to death in a religiously authorised state execution. The cross is mysterious and beyond final explanation, but many metaphors are used to try and get at it. Metaphors coalesce on Jesus being God; God in Jesus himself experiencing it all, humiliated, vulnerable, alienated; and that somehow dealing with the sin inside and out, redeeming it, putting things right. The word is next year will be about the resurrection.