Monday 2 March 2009

Here is a piece about the nature of God connected to the discussion of toughmindedness and tenderheartedness from last week.

The greatness of our God lies in the fact that he is both toughminded and tenderhearted. He has qualities both of austerity and of gentleness. The Bible, always clear in stressing both attributes of God, expresses his toughmindedness in his justice and wrath and his tenderheartedness in his love and grace. God has two outstreched arms. One is strong enough to surround us with justice, and one is gentle enough to embrace us with grace. On the one hand, God is a God of justice who punished Israel for her wayward deeds, and on the other hand, he is a forgiving father whose heart was filled with unutterable joy when the prodigal returned home.

Even in God there is the display of different sides. And yet, I would have to disagree with King in how he draws this picture. Traditionally we use words of "punishment" when we read what happened to Judah and Israel. They were a "wayward" people and they were punished. So God is seen as a Santa Claus type being....watching to see if we are living rightly or wrongly. Truth is, we would never -any of us- walk the right way. If we use King's image here, we can fall into that trap of some TV evangelists who have tried to link 911 or Katrina to an act of God "punishing" a people or a nation for not acting a certain way. In reality, even within the Hebrew Scriptures, the unfaithfulness of Judah and Israel, put them in the realm of all the other powers of the world. Had they been the covenant people whose lives were a light to all the world...would they have suffered as they did? We don't know...because there were not this light of the image of God in the world. Punishment, if we want to use that word, is what happens to ourselves when we put our trust in the way of the world. God's wrath is simply the fact that we are allowed to be who we are and trust what we will for life. As we do that, we walk away from the covenant of God's love and chose another way. The toughmindedness of God is a gracious love that will not impose itself on us...not force us to "be good." That is tough love. It is a love that is eternally gracious and eternally present with open arms even when we refuse to trust that love.

Connection: God's grace is the breath of our day that is also the power to refresh us and revitalize how we see all of life within God's Reign. Rather than try to judge between wrath and grace, breathe in the grace of our God that is always a welcome home.

Lord of Life, we have a tendency to walk away from you and move close to other powers and voices within our lives. Encourage us to turn around and see that you are the constant one...the eternal one who is present in and through all things. Amen.