Does God Get Angry?

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14:1-7; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10

Friends, last week we talked about how some of the Scriptures we’re reading right now don’t really sound like a gentle, loving kind of God we probably prefer to think of, and we continue to get some of that this week.  So I’d like us to continue to explore what it is that actually might make God angry, as well as perhaps some things which don’t, and what happens afterwards.

When does God get angry?

Jeremiah tells us that God gets angry when people seem to be too good at doing evil and don’t seem to know how to do good.  When God talks about what it’s like when God’s angry--we hear about how the world grows silent and trembles with fear.  After all, the rest of creation knows God and what God is capable of doing.  When I read the description there of just how angry God is--no light, birds fleeing, land waste and void--I’ll admit:I kind of hear that western music that they always play right before the shootout.  God is sort of fantasizing about some really dramatic stuff here, because God is angry.

But even though God is angry, God hasn’t cut God’s people off.  They’re still God’s children, whom God calls, “my people.”  And so to help us understand a little better, let’s talk about parentalisms:  those things which parents say when they are really fed up with their kids.  Such as, “oh, you think this is angry?  You haven’t even seen angry…”  The Jeremiah passage reminds me a lot of that.  Or, can you imagine God, the parent, with the whole world in the back seat, bickering and squabbling and picking on each other and whining, and finally God saying, “Don’t make me pull this car over and come back there!”  

Have you ever asked yourself, as a parent or as a child, what exactly was going to happen if the car did get pulled over?  Did you try to find out?  Or did you just get the picture that it was time to knock it off?

Maybe God isn’t literally going to pull the car over.  However, like any parent knows, there are times when you have got to step in and get the kids’ attention before they really get hurt.  And God knows that if they keep going down the road they are going, they are indeed going to get seriously hurt.

Seriously: Don’t Eat People

So, what exactly makes God angry?  Well, the Psalm tells us God is angry when people become corrupt, that the evildoers are the ones who “eat up my people like they eat bread,” who exploit the poor and vulnerable.  If you’re going to get where you’re going by making life more miserable for those below you, then you should know that God is providing refuge for them, and your plans are in trouble.

I wonder if you’ve heard it said that if you took a knife and literally cut out everything the Bible had to say about something like healthy sexuality, or gay people, you wouldn’t notice the difference.  But if you tried to cut out everything the Bible had to say about our responsibility to care for the poor and vulnerable, the whole thing would fall apart.  Treating those who have less power and material wealth than ourselves with respect and dignity is at the very core of our faith.  So often, the world entices us to do otherwise, and to treat them like a nuisance, or simply forget them.

And wouldn’t that seem easier?  Even with the Gospel story:  If you had 100 sheep, and lost one, a 99% retention rate is still pretty good, like an A+, right?  Even losing just one coin out of ten, that’s still 90%, like an A-, right?  Ah, if only it were so easy, and the stakes weren’t so high.

More Joy In Heaven

The Gospel goes on to say that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, rather than 99 righteous ones who need no repentance.  There’s a little bit of a sarcastic undercurrent there, since Jesus is responding to people criticizing him for eating with tax collectors and sinners, when a “good” religious person would know how awful they were and wouldn’t associate with them.  In criticizing, they’re demonstrating how very self-righteous they are.  Surely, they themselves don’t need to repent for anything.  But God isn’t that excited about such self-righteous people.  Besides, they’re really rather boring.

Re-calculating...

It’s hard for many of us to admit when we’re lost--literally or figuratively.  Literally speaking, how many of you have a GPS?  How many of you disagree with the GPS and then get irritated when it sits there and says, ‘reCALCulating, reCALCulating….’  How many of you just turn it off?  My mom is one of those people, who has no idea where the thing is taking her and everytime she comes out to visit, she gets within five miles of the house, gets frustrated, and turns it off.  Has no idea where she is or how to describe where she is, and I get to go out in the middle of the night (and it always is, by that point) go find her, and get her back to the house, where the grandkids are eagerly waiting.

When we get lost, when we miss the right turn, God re-calculates.

It’s hard to admit we’re lost in other ways too.  As you may have seen, the local chapter of Al-Anon which met in our building recently disbanded.  In the weeks since, I’ve had so many conversations with families who feel very lost, even helpless and hopeless, as they try to find resources to help their loved one struggling with an addiction.  And certainly part of the difficulty for many of the families as they try to find help, is not wanting anyone else to know--they’re worried what their friends will think, or maybe even worried about their insurance.  I admit I wasn’t equipped with a lot of knowledge about what resources were around and where to direct folks when they started coming to ask for direction.  But I’m learning, along with our other local clergy, and hopefully we can figure out how to offer folks more than a seeming dead-end.

God Understands Loss

There is so much pain in these families that I’ve met over the past few weeks.  And yet it helps to remember, God knows pain.  God even knows losing a child due to all the violence and evil in this world.  When God sees us hurting, or even our children hurting, even if it’s because of our own wrong turns, God hurts with us.  And God does not abandon us to our own devices, even when we are sure we can trust only ourselves.  God’s depth of love and mercy and grace surpasses anything we can imagine.  Indeed, God’s anger lasts for a night, but God’s steadfast love is forever.  [Now that is some pretty Amazing Grace].

A Real Rascal

Some people do get lost, and don’t realize it, until they are found--and that’s what’s going on in the letter to Timothy.  Paul, who is instructing Timothy in Christian life and leadership, admits that he once was a real rascal--a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence.  We might forget that Paul was formerly Saul, a man who was actually lauded for his harsh persecution of the early Christians, including holding everyone’s cloaks as they attacked and stoned Stephen to death.  This is a man with some real blood on his hands.  He is willing to admit he is the foremost of sinners, since he was working so hard to squelch the followers of Jesus--until he had his Damascus Road incident, literally knocked off his donkey by a vision of Jesus speaking to him, became blinded, and repented, and then was given a new role in life, as Paul, who would go on through his letters and teachings to build and support the new Christian movement and take it much further than any other person had before.  

Cause for Celebration

God got angry enough with Paul to stop him in his tracks, but God also didn’t get rid of Paul.  God had a purpose for Paul, and the rest is history.  That is cause for celebration.  When people we’d rather write off as total losers are found, that is cause for celebration.  When we cease our self-righteousness and join the celebration, that is cause for rejoicing.  And when we are found, over and over again, whether we realize when we’ve been lost or not, that too, is cause for rejoicing.  Thanks be to God!

Prayers This Week:

For all who are recovering from surgery

For all who are in hospice care

For all wrestling with chemical dependency, and those who love them

For all affected by flooding

For our Presbytery during this visioning process, grant wisdom and clarity of purpose

For a true peace in Syria

For all who wrestle with hunger and homelessness, that they not be forgotten

Don’t Look Back...?

June 30, 2013

Psalm 77, 2 Kings 2:1-14, Galatians 5:1, 13-25, Luke 9:51-62

You know what an earworm is?  That song that sticks with you and you can't get it out of your head?  I’ve had one this week, a song which I recently heard, I’ll share the lyrics with you and you can hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuJWQzjfU3o

"Hello, My Name Is" by Matthew West

lyrics found here: http://www.klove.com/music/artists/matthew-west/songs/hello,-my-name-is-lyrics.aspx

Hello, my name is regret

I’m pretty sure we have met

Every single day of your life

I’m the whisper inside

That won’t let you forget

Hello, my name is defeat

I know you recognize me

Just when you think you can win

I’ll drag you right back down again

‘Til you’ve lost all belief

These are the voices, these are the lies

And I have believed them, for the very last time

Hello, my name is child of the one true King

I’ve been saved, I’ve been changed, and I have been set free

“Amazing Grace” is the song I sing

Hello, my name is child of the one true King

I am no longer defined

By all the wreckage behind

The one who makes all things new

Has proven it’s true

Just take a look at my life

What love the Father has lavished upon us

That we should be called His children

I am a child of the one true King

There’s a ring of familiarity to these lyrics, which sound a little like introductions in a 12-step group.  However, this is not just a song for people who have been through the nightmare of addictions and recovery.  Really, I think, it’s for all of us.  I believe all of us have known regrets or defeats in life, at least at some point, that still plague us--maybe not for a long time while things are going good, but they can sneak up, heap up, and even bury us at later points in life when we are hurting or down.

And yet we are children of God and heirs with Christ as this song and the scriptures are bold to proclaim today.  And that’s great, except I always feel a little hesitant in proclaiming that.  Perhaps it’s because of a term you may have heard: “Trust-fund babies.”  At the risk of offending anyone for whom the term may apply, it means that if you are born into a fortune which you didn’t earn, you tend not to act in very kind and mature ways.  And perhaps we as Christians, who have not earned our great fortune, could be described this way sometimes as well.

But Paul sets us straight in Galatians this morning, saying that “For freedom we are set free.”  We are not set free to destroy ourselves, but to live abundantly and share that goodness with others. (5:1, 13-25)

You know, we live ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ here on earth, often enough, sometimes not of our own doing..as with tragedies or being the victim of others’ violence...but also we do so through the choices we make--which in turn make us miserable.  God sets us free for better things.

I also think maybe when a lot of us hear that Galatians passage, we can feel mixed emotions, maybe confusion, especially about the ‘works of the flesh’ checklist:  “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.” (5:19-21) Or maybe some of us treat it like a checklist: “no, no, no, yes, no, maybe? no, I dunno, and ‘I think they warned us about that one in confirmation...’”

But really these days, probably most of us here struggle most not with the wilder ones but with the everyday ones:  jealousy, anger, and quarrels, “and things like these.” as Paul writes.  But then it’s hard to imagine it’s the same: “I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  Really?  Seriously?  Not inherit the Kingdom of God, just over a little jealousy and anger?  Well, maybe...I have some thoughts about that too...

After all, the fruits of the Spirit are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (vv.22-23).  And I’d like to think I come close to the mark reasonably often. And the Kingdom of God, as we know, is already and not yet, it’s in this world, and also beyond.  Well, I think, when we are living the fruits of the spirit, we are more likely to feel like Children of God and heirs with Christ.  And likewise, when we’re all wrapped up with anger and quarrels, well, then, it’s pretty hard to feel the Kingdom.

++

Let’s talk about that part where Jesus tells his presumed volunteers, “Don’t look back (9:62).”

Really?  Is the guy really not supposed to bury his own father?  What about meeting family obligations? Or the Ten Commandments? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments

Well here’s the thing:  Dad isn’t dead yet. (Monty Python fans, think of that scene in the Quest for the Holy Grail)  Jewish people bury their dead quickly, usually within 24 hours unless it’s the Sabbath. Dad might even outlive him, given that being a disciple is a dangerous business.  I tend to think he may have stood to inherit the family business.  Anyway, if his father was dead, then he wouldn’t have the time to be hanging out talking to wandering prophets.

Then there’s the guy who says, “Let me say farewell to my family.”  That seems decent, no?  However, I think it’s like when I’m feeling pressured to say yes, but also can’t quite say no.  I say, “Let me check with my husband.”  Now,  I am about as feminist and modern as they come and so is Jorge, but this is my way out when feeling pressured to accept something I don’t want. Likewise, I believe this guy is hoping to be talked out of it while also saving face:  “Oh, about that.  Something came up.  Sorry.”

By contrast, Elijah and Elisha, a mentor and protege deeply devoted to one another, are demonstrating the kind of devotion that is being asked.  Elijah is offering his student numerous opportunities to turn back, since the road ahead will be so difficult and painful.  However, out of love for God and for his teacher, he follows Elijah to the very end--keeping his eyes fixed until he can see no longer. (2 Kings 2:1-14)

Freedom doesn’t mean a lack of adversity ahead, but a path on which we are not alone or abandoned.  Could it be a freedom to fail more?  To go boldly?  Or to walk forward into the future instead of always looking back on the past--we can be proud of where we came from, as individuals or as a church, but we can’t stay there and expect to do any more good.  The future might be painful, but the past is no more.  http://pres-outlook.com/insights-opinions/outpost-blog/18472-making-better-mistakes.html

The Presbyterian Outlook posted an article recently about needing to train pastors for future, in which nothing is certain, rather than training pastors for the church of fifty years ago, where we knew what we were doing, but only in retrospect. To do otherwise, they write, is to guarantee the death of today’s congregations.  http://pres-outlook.org/insights-opinions/faith-matters-by-bill-tammeaus/18486-we-should-close-some-seminaries-and-refocus-the-ones-we-have-left.html

Yes, we can look back for right reasons: to learn from them, to see how far we’ve come.  But not to let our own guilt or regrets cause us harm again and again; we’ve been set free from them, and to clobber ourselves is to commit an act of abuse against a child of God.

For freedom, we have been set free.  Let us be ready to follow Christ, as forgiven and redeemed children of God.  Amen.

-----

Here’s a ‘Fun Fact’ about the ‘Foxes have holes...’ verse, Luke 9:58...it’s a commentary on ethnic/religious tension between Samaritans and Jews--Jesus is headed to Jerusalem (where Jews go to worship God at the Temple), when Samaritans worship God on top a mountain in Nablus.  It’s a poignant point because Jesus (the Son of God) then says he has nowhere to lay his head--not in God’s presumed home of the Jerusalem temple and not on the mountaintop home either.  God is everywhere, and contained by nowhere.  

I also liked this top-40 pop hit for a twist on this week’s scriptures: 'Carry On,' by Fun.

Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7yCLn-O-Y0

Lyrics here: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/fun/carry+on_20989899.html

There But For the Grace of God...

Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9

This is an excellent resource on prayers celebrating the gifts of women in the church:  http://www.pcusa.org/media/uploads/pw/pdfs/2013_celebrate_the_gift.pdf

Today’s Scriptures offer some difficult stories, and show us that the questions people had for Jesus back in his time, are not so very different from the questions of faith which we hold deeply today.

Today we have stories of people suffering and being struck down, stories warning us to be mindful of our own morality, and how not to end up like those other folks.  And maybe these days, we might have a question in our minds of just how troubling these stories can be.

When Bad Things Happen To Good People*

In the Gospel story, people are asking Jesus the fundamental question, Why did these bad things happen to these people? After all, they suffered unspeakable acts when the local dictator killed people trying to practice their religion.  And we hear from the people an even deeper suspicion then than now that might those who suffered might have deserved it; morality, etc.  Yet Jesus reminds them that the people who suffered are no better or worse than anyone else.  Simply put, tragedy is not God’s punishment for sin.  That’s pretty radical talk, and often overlooked.  And Jesus goes on to say that trying to insulate ourselves from the bad which has happened to others, is more likely to lead us on our own short-sighted paths to destruction.

And in Paul we hear phrases that are so often misinterpreted by people trying to comfort others going through suffering.   But what does it really mean to be tested?  And that phrase that God never gives us more than we can handle--not actually what Paul says--says that everyone faces tests; rather; God gives a way out somehow, and that is what allows us to endure a situation, because there is some glimmer of hope.  And that way out may entail some extremely difficult choices.

It’s important to realize when reading this passage that Paul is trying to coerce the “know it alls” at Corinth, who think that they’re better than others and can get away with doing things that cause others to stumble, because they’re invincible.  Paul is warning them that they’re just as human and just as vulnerable as anyone else.  

When we see someone else who is suffering, we have this saying, “There but for the grace of God go I.”  It’s supposed to be a sympathetic phrase, that we could just as likely be the one suffering as the person we’re observing.  But it’s not really God’s grace that allowed us to live a more privileged or less harrowing life than someone else.  And it doesn’t mean that God didn’t extend grace to a person who is suffering.  Instead, I think the more appropriate questions are:  How much grace does God extend to us?  And, How much grace do we need to extend to each other?

Women, Self-Righteousness, and Grace

As you’ve already seen in the bulletin, this weekend of focus on the gifts of women in PCUSA, and it’s the ‘kickoff’ of sorts to our One Great Hour of Sharing.

And I’m wondering if you’ve heard the phrase, “hating on each other?”  It means to have a certain amount of self-righteousness about someone else, especially the kind that we get together in groups to express.  Well, I’m going to be honest with you, just as the Scripture stories all have people who are kind of doing this to others today, we’re pretty good at doing this as women.  If you want evidence of this today, you need look no further than the websites called “mommy blogs;” where you can hate on those who use disposable diapers, or daycare, or formula, or just parent their children somehow differently than you do.  A generation ago, before the Internet, the more familiar term was the “mommy wars”--with deeply drawn lines between women who stayed home to raise their children and those who worked outside the home.  It really is the same war, now just fought on different media.

However, as a world, we’re making a little more progress when it comes to ‘hating on,’ or blaming, women who experience domestic violence or sexual assault.  The rhetoric in this country is dying down about whether the woman in question did something to “deserve it,”  whether by wearing the wrong outfit or burning her partner’s supper--and more emphasis is being put on women’s rights not to be abused in the first place.  Yet, there is still work to be done in our society, and work to be done around the world on this very topic.  And we ourselves can probably be more helpful when talking about these things in other places by not saying it happens because the men in those countries are somehow morally or culturally inferior to the men in our own, as a result of their race or ethnicity or religion.  Perhaps when we say this, we do so in the vain hope that it will not happen to us.

And there are so many other circumstances in which women can find themselves, that we are more willing to judge or regard with disgust, rather than compassion--for example, teenage pregnancy, or prostitution.  We heap shame on women who do either of these things, while probably hoping that either situation doesn’t happen to anyone we know.  And yet, even in the Bible, God brings blessings through pregnant teens and prostitutes.  It’s not an easy life, to be sure, but we don’t need to make it harder.

Remember that phrase again, “God never gives you more than you can endure?”  Well, maybe God doesn’t, but others do?  What is harder to face, the suffering of our situation, or the stigma we receive from others?

And then, there’s the tension that exists closer to home, that might be in any of our homes, which is the tension between Mothers vs. Daughters; or especially mothers and daughters in law.  We consider ourselves lucky when a relationship is good; and almost inevitable when the relationship is not--perhaps because years of heartache are so deeply felt and remembered.  Whatever role we play, it’s easier to commiserate with our friends than to really work on the brokenness in the relationship itself.

[And let’s be honest, the world has changed and it exacerbates that tension: Everything that we thought we knew about raising children 20 or 40 years ago is considered wrong now:  should the baby always sleep on its back, or on its stomach?]

Of all the things I’ve described above, then and now, I think we do well to hear those words in Isaiah, when God says:  My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways.  The heavens are higher than the earth--well, we all know that taking the high road, and truly doing so, is hard!

And yet, we too, whether we have faced misfortune, or are tempted to judge others who have, we might know deeply the words of the Psalmist, that God’s “Steadfast love is better than life; my soul clings to you, you have been my help.”

The Outreach Factor: God Abundantly Pardons

This will be even more important for us as we seek to grow.  As Isaiah says, People we wouldn’t even consider associating with might turn to us, and when we reach out as a church to our community, we might be surprised whom we find waiting for us, if we are really practicing God’s welcome!

Why waste our efforts on anything less than what God seeks from us?  Whether cliquishness or fashion or denigrating others?

After all, God abundantly pardons.  What if the housekeeping isn’t perfect?  God pardons.  Did you make a costly mistake at work?  Have a family fight?  Did you sleep in and miss church?  God abundantly pardons.  Forgot to exercise last year?  Your Doctor might not be so understanding, but God abundantly pardons.  The point is not to give up and stop caring as if nothing matters--but at least to reduce our anxiety about failure, so that we can begin to practice love.  Begin seeing world as God sees it --and not wandering around in self-righteousness, because that is a problem.  I think we all have to be reminded of this from time to time, because it’s so easy to do, to think we’re doing it all right, we’re going to church every week, we’re watching our mouths, we’re doing a little volunteer work here and there--but it’s too easy to judge others.  We get too fixated on what others doing wrong, probably missing something looming large in our own lives.  Paul says, “If you think you’re standing, watch out that you don’t fall.  Everyone faces the same kinds of tests in this life.”

Finally, let’s go back to that fig tree in the garden.  When we’re ready to cut others down, God pleads for another chance.  When we’re the ones who feel like we’re a waste of space, God may simply have put our feet in manure a while until we are ready to thrive again!

When we have been shown such abundant grace, why wouldn’t we want to respond in kind?  Why wouldn’t we want to bear good fruit?

Tragedy is not a punishment for sin.  In judging others, we risk destroying our own lives as well as others.  God has shown us the ways of love, through extending grace to us, that we might lend our own acts of healing to a hurting world.  Go and do likewise. Amen.

*There is an excellent book by this title, authored by Rabbi Harold Kushner.  I highly recommend it.

Children’s sermon:  Why do bad things happen?

Sometimes we do things that aren’t wise, and bad things happen. If we tease someone, they might cry.  If we don’t study, we might get a bad grade.   If we let our cat out, it might get lost.  Other times, we have accidents, where we didn’t do anything wrong, but something bad happens anyway.  In Biblical days, people thought that if something bad happened to you, you must have done something wrong to deserve it. This is done to scare other people into being good, but didn’t work very well, and people were afraid.   Jesus says that this is not true, and that we should not judge people by the bad things that have happened to them, because they could happen to anyone.  Rather, we should focus on God’s love for us, trust in God, and show God’s love to other people.

Prayers:

For those recovering from stroke

For those struggling with mental health

For those struggling with addictions

For all who face abuse in their homes and families

For all who face hunger

For all women who struggle to gain access to education, work, and safety in their daily lives around the world

For the Catholic church, as they seek a new leader, that they may discern with wisdom