What is God really like?

The beautiful image of God making his rainbow covenant with Noah in last Sunday's first reading follows a darker portrayal of God who had just intentionally drowned nearly all of humanity in a flood, a MEGA-punishment for sin. God will later entomb the sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah in volcanic ash and send venomous snakes upon sinners worshipping the golden calf in the Sinai desert. This darker side of God seems quick to anger, harsh and vindictive against sinners. Is God really like that? Some people, even some Christians today, think so…

When the tsunami hit Indonesia in December 2004, Islamic clerics said the giant killing wave was God's punishment for sins. In September Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans claimed hurricane Katrina had been God’s punishment for the invasion of Iraq. Evangelist Pat Robertson declared that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke in January was God’s punishment for endorsing division of the Holy Land with the Palestinians. Two weeks ago a Christian group from Kansas picketed the funeral of Corporal Andrew Kemple in Anoka , asserting that his death in Iraq was God’s punishment for our country tolerating homosexuality. Is God really like that...vindictive and punishing?

I not only oppose such interpretations…I denounce them as an offense against God. “But what about those scriptural accounts mentioned above,” you might ask, “don't they support such an interpretation?"

If we look to those passages for our understanding of God, let's consider the rest of the God-picture those texts offer. Before the flood, the Genesis account goes, God regretted having created man and woman…that means, wished he had done things differently! But didn’t God know beforehand? Before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, God decides to go down and see for himself if the people are as bad as he has heard. Would an all-knowing and omni-present God have to take a trip to check things out? At Sinai God’s first impulse is wrath…destroy them all! Fortunately for the people, tempered and logical Moses convinces God to cool down. God changes his mind. God changing his mind?

If such passages prove that God is an angry, vindictive, punishing God, then He is not all-knowing, not omni-present, gets his info through messengers, makes mistakes, changes his mind, and is hot-tempered. if one accepts that early Scripture writers, while inspired by the Holy Spirit, perceived a personal God as sharing our human emotions and tendencies…as did all other cultures of the time…we can see why they interpreted events accordingly. We can also understand why the portrayal of such attributes becomes more and more rare as the scriptural age advances and then disappears…totally absent from the New Testament message.

The mindset of God punishing sinners did not disappear, however. Even Jesus' apostles tended toward such an interpretation. A tower in Siloam collapsed killing the workers. Some temple visitors became victims of Pilate’s brutality. The group encountered a man blind from birth. Each time Jesus corrected the faulty assumption that God was punishing people for their sins.

The God of the New Testament, the God I came to believe in as a child and still believe in, is not a punishing, vindictive, angry God, but rather the perfection of love...God is love...which St. Paul described as patient, kind, not prone to anger, not brooding over injuries, having unlimited forbearance. God forgives, not begrudgingly but with perfect 70 times 7 forgiveness. God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

It’s not that sin doesn’t have consequences. Driving drunk, doing drugs, promiscuous sex, lying, cheating, selfishness, laziness, over-consumption, individuals or nations fueling anger or resentment…all can lead to disastrous consequences. We become victims…not of divine punishment…but of our own decisions and acts, and innocent people are often brought along for the ride.

The tsunami and hurricane Katrina were not divine punishment but rather the result of weather patterns, possibly influenced by global warming. Ariel Sharon likely suffered a stroke because of poor health including high blood pressure. Corporal Kemple died, not because of homosexuality, but as a consequence of our country being at war in Iraq.

Mayor Nagin, Pat Robertson and the group from Kansas may believe in an angry punishing God, but don't let them taker you down that dark corridor with them. Problems are a normal part of life. Some are the consequences of our sins or those of other people, but don't interpret them as God's punishment. Jesus came to free us from our sins and from the false images of an angry vindictive God. Let God forgive you...and forgive yourself. Don't punish yourself for sins committed long ago. “Repent,” yes, be freed from your sins…"and believe in the Good News."

Comments

[Charlie Kyte]

I heard you present this sermon last Sunday and felt that it was a profound analysis of what is going wrong among a much too large a group of american christians. Well spoken and right on.

PS: Our great Minnesota icon, Kirby Puckett was not smitten down by god for misdeeds. He most probably died early because he did not physically take care of himself.

[Griff Wigley]

I agree, Charlie... on both points.

As does this person who commented on N.org:
http://northfield.org/node/1479#comment-630

[Pat Mahowald]

Fr. Denny, Thanks for mentioning your blog. This is a very profession web site, and you have some thoughtful commentaries. Pat

[Rick Estenson]

Thanks Father for this thoughtful blog. I used it with our Senior High Sunday School group last weekend at the Methodist Church as we struggled mightly with this a year ago just after the Tsunami. I like your perspective.