NOTE: While I have no intention of this blog being solely theological, there are moments when my fingers start running around the keyboard producing ideas of their own. Is this the so called stream of consciousness? I don't know. Todays missal comes from a reaction to some things a fiend is goint through, and my response to it. As my response grew in length, I realized that a chord in my spirit had been set off and that this was more than a response to one friend, it si for all those out there who face doubet about the source of your faith and have been told that God is out to get you and he will punish you...Do we belong to an Angry God? Do I live in fear of an angry God? Is God waitng for me to screw up kust one more time before he yanks me off this blue marble in the outskirts of the Milky Way and dumps me into some dark abyss? Not so much.
At some point we all make a decision to accept the manure that lands in our lap or do something about it. When we are at that point in our lives, we are all too often inundated by judgementalist Christianity (that is my term for fundamentalists after they left the fundamentals on the bathroom sink) and the only reasonable voice we hear may be the one we are told is no longer reliable or reasonable.
Our government is based on a principal that the majority rules. But with God, that is not the case. The only voice that should matter is His, through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. He wants us to live by faith in Him, and that faith means we should listen to His voice alone. Fear, on the other hand, sends us careening around the planet looking for a majority consensus to tell us we are doing okay, or at least okay enough that God is not going to smack us down and grind us to powder. I know all about this, I have been there, and sometimes still stop there for a while.
Many, too many, Christians live in this fear based belief system without being aware of it. It is what we have been taught by our traditions. It is a belief that says, “God’s gonna git ya” unless you follow the rules. The “sinners in thehands of an angry God” philosophy.
So, why don't we take a close look at this Angry God…
This angry God, while we were still His ENEMIES, while we were still AGAINST Him, sent the ONLY SON He ever sired to be the recipient of His judgment and wrath, so that I WOULD NOT HAVE TO, so that YOU WOULD NOT HAVE TO. And Jesus stretched out His hands WILLINGLY so that he would be the recipient of that wrath. WILLINGLY! INTENTIONALLY! AS PLANNED for eons. WITHOUT HESITATION. I fully believe the bible shows us that Jesus fought to make sure he lived through all of the torture prior to the cross so that He could willingly be nailed to it. He did this for everyone of us. Angry hands? not so much.
The images are clear of this "angry" God...JESUS praying, sweating blood, before God in Gethsemane; Jesus silent before the Sanhedrin; Jesus silent before Pilate; Jesus silent in the face of the Roman whips and the Roman fists; Jesus struggling along the path to the top of Golgotha, Jesus suspended in agony on the cross, crying out, “WHY have you forsaken me?; Jesus, God in the flesh, outstretched hands clearly demonstratingthe true nature of Gods “anger.” Angry hands? Not so much
And then He said, “IT…IS…FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!” God’s anger was fulfilled.
He was buried.
And then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, HE ROSE FROM THE GRAVE. He is ALIVE.
Because HE LIVES,
I can face tomorrow.
BECAUSE HE LIVES
ALL fear is GONE
Because I KNOW
HE HOLDS the future,
MY life is worth LIVING
BECAUSE HE LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Gaithers)
And because He lives, I need never fear an Angry God.
An angry and judgmental world? For certain.
A world that is hell bent for election on rebelling against Him? YEP, and as often as not I get caught up in that headlong rush.
And what is it that awaits me when I recognize the error of my ways? If it is God’s anger, it is an anger that takes the form of the atoning and cleansing blood of Jesus and the forgiving and restorative grace of God that surpasses even his perfect mercy.
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