DAY 80

SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO PUT IT OUT THERE

Joshua 7, 8 & 9 and Luke 1:21-38

Today I am feeling challenged by the two readings for two very different reasons. The first set of readings in the Old Testament challenge me because we read of God directing the killing of other people. The second reading in the New Testament speaks of a virgin conceiving. In both God is “acting in the world”. He is doing “these things” I believe for a very specific reason, so let me just “put it out there”. The reason: God is motivated to do whatever it takes to reveal Himself to us. 

This idea of “revealing” is an important one. How does an invisible, omnipotent being who is the creative force that actually let his creation exist – how does He reveal himself? The Bible shows us the answer; it contains the story of God revealing himself over and over. We have read about many of those moments already. From Abraham, to Moses, to just yesterday Zechariah and Joshua - all had encounters with God. God is a God who is in the business of not hiding from us. He is not hiding from us today, even in the midst of these challenging passages.

Today then how do I think about God and violence? Before I answer that question let me just say two things:

1.   I think God and His message are unchanging – I think His means of communicating changes based on our limitations. I think God uses the means to communicate with us in a way that hopefully we will then understand.

2.      I believe today that God is opposed to us using violence to hurt each other.

Having said those two things I don’t believe that was the case in Old Testament times. We think of God as separate from politics, government and the like. That is not how people thought in Old Testament times. Any victory or defeat is attributed to “their god/God”. You might consider that they would frame their question, “How do we know your God is real?” The answer isn’t because your God is a God of love. The answer (and again this is my thought and bit hard to type) the answer is because my God is powerful enough to defeat yours in battle. Not only that my God wants to wipe out all possibility of your gods surviving because they are not gods at all, they are merely superstitions that will lead my people away.

You might argue (and probably should argue – in the positive sense of the word) with me. My sense of the world back then is that it was brutal. We know that “An eye for an eye” was actually a law to limit the revenge people extracted on one another – it was actually a law of compassion in that day and age. Power and might was how people listened.

So let me put this to you. If “power and might” is the medium by which people can hear, and you really want them to hear, would you communicate through that medium? I know it is unpleasant to think about, but for a moment consider the question. My answer is that God uses power and might to communicate to the world He is God – because (and this is a BIG because) that is the only way the people will listen. That is how I think any of this makes sense. God is so focused on getting through to us that He will do whatever it takes for us to listen – even when it causes Him pain. I do believe it causes Him pain each time a human life is lost, especially to violence. He is not doing any of this because He wants to “show off”; quite the opposite.

How, or better why, do I believe this about God? Because He did not spare His own Son…cf. Romans 8:32. God endured the violence of the Cross so we would “hear and receive” the message of the Love of God in Christ.

I know that is a lot to take in, and you don’t need to agree, but before you dismiss large portions of the Old Testament I do ask you to think about it. It is also a lot to take in that God came to earth through the Virgin Birth. There were prophecies that God would deliver His people by way of a virgin conceiving. Two points: first if I believe God is supra-natural (outside of nature) and in fact capable of controlling nature (such as parting the Red Sea, etc.) then I believe He can orchestra an egg in a woman being fertilized – he can orchestrate a virgin birth. Again, He is not showing off, He is trying to get us to “hear” that He is revealing Himself to us.

The question might be, “How is God revealing Himself today to us?” Do we see God in the eyes of the poor? Do we see Jesus in the cancer ward and Alzheimer's unit? Do we see Jesus in the moments of our world? For God is still in the business of revealing Himself to us.