Some Would Call God "mean."

Now the challenge of determining the theology of the Creator God as portrayed in the Old Testament. 

To do that I want to share the opinion an eighth grade confirmation student I talked to many, many, years ago.

It was my custom to have individual conversations with each student in the Fall and in the Spring.  This particular Spring conversation occurred after the eighth grade class had experienced a full school year of Old Testament.

During the interview I ask the student: “Now that you have learned the Old Testament stories, what is your image of God now?

The response:  “He is mean.”

Here we have one of the more graphic examples of how we might see God is capable of  “mean.”  

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,

   whose right hand I have grasped

to subdue nations before him

   and strip kings of their robes,

to open doors before him—

   and the gates shall not be closed:

“To subdue” Is to strive against. 

It is not just a verb that quiets down or calmly reprimands. 

It is a verb that describe an over-powering, forceful trampling underfoot in order to disable father resistance.  

To reduce to tenderness, to melt, to soften the rebellion

One commentator puts it this way: “God will “subdue” actions before Cyrus — the uncompromising Hebrew verb 'radad'  means “to beat down” or “to stamp flat” — and the kings will be publicly humiliated by having their loins exposed….underlining the aggression with which God will breach public boundaries and enemy leaders’ honor alike….(p. 173 Feasting On The Word Year A Volumn 4))

I imagine that God’s brain exploding at that point in history.  

No more patience to offer His uncontrollable human creation.

What we are witnessing, in this portions of Isaiah, asked us to go beyond the lion lying with the lamb vision; to a God who can, and does indeed, go beyond His passionate love for his people and creation in order to make an extraordinary impression on those who have blatantly chosen the way of evil.

Right smack in the middle of the Hebrew Bible we read of this God who shows His passion and determinations to right the wrongs of human temptation. 

It must be kind of like a parent feels when children make horrible decisions that can ruin their life.  There is circuit in the parents brain that just pops with fear and yes anger.   And tough love is the position taken.

What I want to invite you to consider is:  This same God is passionately active in correcting political a culture that has invaded this nation. 

Remember on the Day of Pentecost when God invaded the disciples with tongues of fire and a mighty wind?"

Some would call that "mean" too.   

I believe God is actively busy righting wrongs, injustices and the unkind mindset of the human world view.  Calling all, who will listen, back to the image of emptying themselves.

What do you think?

How Do You Understand God's True Nature?

 So here is what is going on in my mind this week:  The two, quite startingly opposite, theologies on God’s character. 

The one the Old testament often appears to profess.

The one God, Himself, came in Jesus’ skin to manifest to the whole world.

My reason for this complicated conversation, in my brain, comes from two Sundays reading in the common lectionary.

First, before I left for vacation I read from Philippians 2:

⁶ who, though he was in the form of God,

   did not regard equality with God

   as something to be exploited, 

⁷ but emptied himself,

   taking the form of a slave,

   being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form, 

⁸   he humbled himself…(Phil. 2)

He humbled himself.....

This image of God is the one I cling to for may personal faith.  I believe in Jesus’ modeling of God because it is extraordinarily accepting, loving and forgiving, of our inborn natural human tendencies.

No matter how weak and tempted we are; no matter the size of our faith; Jesus/ God takes us right where we are and slowly molds us into possibilities never imagined. 

When we stay focused on the New Testament, and Jesus’ teachings, we begin to know a God who is gracious not wrathful.

However before God came in Jesus’ skin we had only the Hebrew image of God.  Which is a mixed bag of divine characteristics. 

If you read the Wisdom books you hear, mostly, of a faithful and all sustaining God of steadfast love and kindness. 

However, there are also stories of God’s constant battle with his people and their unwillingness of follow God’s will.

Stories like the forty year in the wilderness led by Moses.  Where we hear of the creation of the golden calf; and finally the Ten Commandments.

We can read about stories of Saul and David with all of their religious, as well as personal, battles.

Or the Flood story where God decided to destroy all of creation and begin again.  That attempt, to right a wrong, didn’t prove too successful in the long run.

And how about the story of Job, where God allowed Satan to basically ruin Job’s life?

This last Sunday we heard a reading, from Isaiah 45, of a God who once again uses great force to right a wrong.

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,

   whose right hand I have grasped

to subdue nations before him

   and strip kings of their robes,

to open doors before him—

   and the gates shall not be closed:

I’ll talk about that tomorrow.

God is asking: “Can you learn to see through my eyes?”

 

In the kingdom of God we find, through stories like Jonah, that God usually doesn’t follow our set of rule and of our views of how life “should” be.

Clearly, God is not limited to our particular mind-set. 

We learn early in our lives to demand what we call “fair.”

By the of age two we know how to stand our ground when things seem “unfair.”

When we get older, and unfairnesses are larger, we take to the streets to strike against the injustice.  We gather around others who think the same way we do and stand firmly together resolving to make it “right.”   To make it “fair” according to our way of thinking.

We know of these movements all to well in todays world. 

The question I have is: What, or who, constitutes fair?

What Jonah thought was fair; was not what God thought was fair.

This little story, in the Middle of the Old Testament, bids us to consider: What does this story tell us about ourselves?  What does it expose about our presumptions on what is fair and good, unfair and bad.

God was intending to change Jonah’s heart.

                                                               It clearly didn’t work.

Can it work for you and me?

When someone hurts us; when someone disagrees with what we feel strongly about.  We want them to stop.  We want God on our side.

And God response is:  I will do what I know is best.

I will give what I choose to give.

And forgive whom I choose to forgive.

The question of the century:  Should God not be concerned about others?

You see, it is not about fair or fairness.  It is about whether or not we are concerned about others as well. 

The story about Jonah challenges us to examine our thinking, check our habits and adjust our behavior.

It challenges us to examine our faith in Jesus The Christ.

It challenges us to examine the ways we listen, understand and live God’s word.

How does what we know, think and act upon frame how we become apart of God’s way of thinking and doing?

Does our understanding of God — our faith — guide our practices, our habits, our ways of interacting and speaking with each other?

Some of you might claim: God’s kingdom, by human standards, is irrelevant, unrealistic and it simply not fair. Because God is so extremely generous and forgiving to everyone equally.  

And those other people “don’t deserve it.”   “Not the way they act.”

Here is the question I think God is asking all of humanity:  

“Can you learn to see through my eyes?”