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From Rodger:
As I mentioned – this is sort of ancillary point to the previous post – not a back and forth as much as kind of a merging right turn into an idea that’s been hanging around with me. In all the solemn, penitential, somber realization of what Lent and repentance looks and feels like, I can’t help but remind us – myself included – that we don’t need to overdo all the doom and gloom and throw out the proverbial “baby with the bathwater.” Which we might well be doing if we forget that God isn’t mad at us: From a sermon of mine:
God Isn’t Mad at Us
John 3: 1 – 21
Rev. Rodger P. Sellers
A few years ago I had the opportunity to hear Jim Wallis speak. Wallis Was the founder and long-time editor of Sojourner’s magazine and now leads the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He’s been invited to White House during both Republican and Democratic Presidents… which should tell us that his words are important to a wide range of people on both sides of the political aisle.
Jim shared a short vignette of his childhood in church – and in it there is a matter that’s been on my mind lately. It’s this idea of “what kind of God do we worship?” (That’ll make sense below.) So, begin with the video below, where Jim talks about going to church as a little boy…
What a difference between the “Preacher” (I used the “quotes” intentionally) and his mother! And we see this perhaps more often than you might think. Here’s the essence of what I’m saying in a question: “Just what kind of God are we trying to share with other people?”
A God of love, who, as John chapter 3 tells us, loves us enough to give us the incomparable gift of his Son? You DID notice, I hope, that John 3 doesn’t say ANYTHING about Jesus dying on the cross. It doesn’t say anything about God killing his Son (or allowing that death) in order to show his love for us. If you listen to the words clearly, it talks about GIVING us his son… the incarnation, as opposed to the crucifixion. (The passion of Jesus is, in a very real sense, a PART of the Incarnation.) John here in chapter 3 is talking to Nicodemus about the same thing Mark means when Jesus shows up and proclaims that the “Gospel” – the good news – according to Mark 1:15, is that “the Kingdom of God has come near.” God’s love… is seen just as clearly in Jesus’ coming to dwell with us, as it is by his dying for us.
So… do we share this particular God with others? One who loves us so extravagantly that He will do anything to show us hat love?
Or do we show people a God who is so angry, so irritated, so fed up, sick and tired of all our inadequacies, sin, short-comings, you name it… that this God is just waiting… biding his time, watching for that one mistake that pushes the balance point over the edge… to say, “GOTCHA! You’re mine now! Game over! You are all alone, little boy! Mommy and Daddy have gone to heaven and you didn’t! It’s hell for you, you miserable sinner!”
Here’s the thing: I’ve wrestled with this for a long time now – in fact I’m probably still wrestling with it – but in large degree, these two “Gods” I’ve just mentioned are incompatible. They are mutually exclusive. You can’t have both. Not really.
If God is some kind of cosmic sheriff, waiting for us to break a rule or commandment to slap the cuffs on us and haul us off to spiritual jail, then it’s worse than illogical to talk of this God in terms of love. How many sheriffs do you ever hear talking about how much they love their prisoners? Remember Sheriff Clint Low in Mason County Texas? He’s the one who made headline news back in 2006 when he put prisoners in those pink jumpsuits – and spoke openly about his reasons. To humiliate them. To offend their manhood. To 
punish them. Nothing else. To make then walk the straight and narrow simply to avoid being seen in pink? (Granted, I don’t get it – I wear pink all the time and don’t worry about my masculinity at all, but…) There’s not much love in this – a pretty good understanding of Niccolo Machiavelli but not so much God, I think.
You do know, don’t you… that’s exactly the kind of God some people tell you loves you. Here’s the way it goes for some:
“God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life… And if you don’t accept God’s plan and do exactly what God wants you to do, God will send you to hell where you will writhe in pain and suffering for all eternity.”
What’s wrong with that message? Just this. It turns God into a psychopath. What do we call a man who professes his undying love to his wife or children while he is in the process of beating them senseless?
What do you call a God who tells us he loves us while threatening our souls with never-ending torment? Do you see the problem yet?
I’m always surprised when I mention Jonathan Edwards famous 1741 sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Mostly by how many people aren’t familiar with it and then are so shocked when they hear it explained. I’ve watched people listening to me describing Edwards’ main points and seen them physically shudder, clearly uncomfortable. You may well be one of them; read a bit of what Edwards preached and decide for yourself:
“There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God. By the “MERE” pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered my no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God’s mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment.”
Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it?? (And no, I’m not equating living our Christianity with a mere “warm and fuzzy” feeling!)
Or how about this: “Thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out… In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.”
Whoa! You all ready for the altar call yet?
So what’s the problem? Just this: Where is the love? A word that appears in the Bible more than twice as many times as words like “anger” or “wrath” – a word that appears over 4 times as often as words like “justice” or “guilt…” (If you don’t believe me, order your own copy of any good Bible software and check it out.)
How can we share with people the idea that God loves us as much as we believe God does when our language about God is like this? How can we ourselves believe God loves us if we’re forever cowering in fear of God’s anger, wrath, power and fury… with the “nuclear option” always hovering out in the distance… the threat of hell?
Let me say it another way: Can we “scare” people into heaven? Can we, as I keep seeing on church signs, “Scare the hell out of people?” (And don’t even get me started on some of the cliché theology on some church signs!) Can we cower in fear before a God who is just one breath away from obliterating us body and soul, matter and spirit, and have a prayer of understanding love on the part of that tyrant?
I don’t think so. Not and have love be what Scripture tells us it is. Not and have heaven be what God promises it is. If heaven is simply the absence of hell, then it’s already become hell itself. If peace is simply the forbearance of violence then why bother?
If you love someone and beat them half to death, do you really understand the word? No. Can you say “I love you,” while holding the matches and gasoline to burn them up? Well… maybe… if you’re a sadistic sociopath or monster with no conscience. I’m talking Jack the Ripper here. Ted Kaczynski, Saddam Hussein, the Boston Strangler, Hannibal Lector… you getting the picture yet? So… why do so many try to portray God in the same way?
I don’t get it.
OK… enough of the negative. It’s time now to do a bit of theological “deconstruction,” remembering as we do that deconstruction isn’t finished until we reconstruct something. That means simply focusing on a negative without finding a contrasting positive isn’t much help. I’ve been deconstructing so far here… now it’s time to move on.
It’s really simple. And so, so beautiful!
God isn’t mad at you. Really! God’s not angry, fed-up, just waiting for that last straw to break the camel’s back!
God loves you. And me. And that love is so great that he turned time and space inside out by becoming one of us to dwell with us, to give us in Jesus a clear look at God, heaven, eternity… so we’d understand what we keep calling the “good news.”
That’s what the 3rd chapter of John is getting at. It’s interesting that most (or at least many) read the well known 16th verse, “God so loved the world,” (Stop right here for a moment – both the “so” and the “world” are important – the “so” we’ll get to, the “world” reminds us that God’s love, Jesus’ incarnation, isn’t just a private gift for you and me – While God’s love is intensely personal, it is never private – God loved the world: That means God loves you and me because we are a part of that world. Be clear on our position in the grand scheme of things!)
And the “so”… most interpret that to mean quantity or quality. “God “SO” loved the world,” means God loved the world SO MUCH…” that he gave his son, etc. That’s true, as far as it goes. But that word also implies specificity: God “SO” loved the world means also, “THIS is the way God loved the world… by becoming one of us.” That’s important. Because in all of it, we’re getting a glimpse of a God that lets love have the final word.
And that’s the point.
God’s love. Not God’s anger. God’s anger is real – and that’s a wholly different topic; one where some Christians would be absolutely shocked and scandalized to get a glimpse of where God’s anger is primarily directed – which is not at all where far too many people assume it is!
God’s love. Not God’s vengeance. Nor God’s retribution. Nor any of those negatives usually used to imply a power based relationship where we end up having to bargain with God in order for God to think of us more highly than he is at first inclined to do. That’s idolatry, by the way. Paul wasted a lot of parchment in his letter to the church at Rome talking about it.
What a radical idea: Instead of thinking about an “Angry” God, can we wrap our heads around the idea of “Sinners in the hands of a LOVING God.” What does that look like?
I can tell you where to start. And it may seem so simple but it’s no less powerful.
God is not mad at you! Get that part first. There will be plenty of time to think about the rest later.
Amen.