How wicked do a group of people have to be for God to punish them
severely? Some religious leaders seem to have no problem identifying
groups of people who deserve God's wrath and/or connecting disasters that
affect people with God's punishment. Several prominent American
Christians stated that Hurricane Katrina was God's wrath meted out to New
Orleans for being a wicked city. I wonder how the many Christians who
lost loved ones, churches, and schools felt about that analysis? What
about Senator Trent Lott, a favorite of the Religious Right, who lost his
house in Mississippi to Katrina? Osama bin Laden justified the 9/11
massacre on the basis of his belief that America was wicked and deserved
to be punished. Some religious leaders attributed the tsunami in
Indonesia to God's wrath. Is that really what God is like? Not according
to the story found in today's reading from Genesis. After God determines
to find out whether the reports about Sodom's wickedness are really true
by sending two angels to scope out the city (apparently the notion of
God's omniscience was not yet fully developed!), Abraham stays behind to
argue with God about the fate of the city. Why does Abraham care about
the city? Is it merely because Lot and his family live there? That seems
unlikely, for if Abraham were merely concerned about Lot, he could have
simply asked God to protect his nephew's family rather than the whole
city. In fact, it appears that Abraham is genuinely concerned about the
loss of innocent life. He begins his argument with God by getting God to
agree to spare the city if fifty righteous people can be found, and he
talks God all the way down to ten righteous people. The fact that the
city isn't saved is an indication of the truly wicked nature of the city,
in the narrative at any rate, but more significant to me are two salient
facts. (1) Abraham is concerned for the welfare of the innocent people in
the city. (2) God agrees with Abraham that the salvation of the innocent
is more important than the destruction of the wicked. This notion is
stated more blatantly at the end of the book of Jonah, when God spares the
city of Nineveh because there are so many innocents there. When I hear
that people who identify themselves as conservative Christians are more
pro-war than the general population, I wonder what kind of God these
people picture. They seem to worship a God who condones striking down the
innocent (e.g., children and adult civilians) along with the supposedly
wicked (i.e., those this group identifies as the enemy). The concept of
God's grace is lost on them, and they scoff at Jesus' instruction to love
our enemies. Our attitude toward war and toward the victims of major
disasters, natural or otherwise, says more about our view of God than our
confessions of faith. If we believe that dropping bombs on children is OK
in war, then we believe that God does not really love the children of
"enemy" nations. If we believe that God directs hurricanes and tsunamis
and earthquakes and mudslides and wildfires and terrorist attacks against
the wicked, then we also believe that God punishes the innocent
indiscriminantly, since the vast majority of people killed in such
disasters are innocent by any reasonable measure of innocence--unless, of
course, our prejudices and hatred count as reasonable. It is high time
that all Christians--and other people of faith who see Abraham as their
spiritual ancestor as well--follow Abraham's example and advocate for the
innocent. Yes, there are bad people in the world, that is, people who
habitually do things that harm others, and they deserve a measure of
punishment. However, their innocent children, friends, and neighbors do
not deserve their punishment, and we should not wish for it.
Psalm 85 (first published
25 July 2004)
In the world of Star Trek, the Klingons are portrayed as the most
warlike group of people in the Federation. Modeled on the ancient
city-state of Sparta, Klingons live for war and hope to die in battle.
When the Klingon Empire is at peace, it hardly seems to know what to do
with itself, and its people seem lost. When most people imagine an ideal
political situation, it is not the Spartans or the Klingons that come to
mind. Most people imagine a realm characterized by peace, prosperity, and
justice, one like that described in today's reading from the Psalms. The
psalm is set in a time when God seems to be withholding blessing from the
people. How long will this period of disfavor last? asks the psalmist.
God has punished and restored the people in the past; is this yet another
swing of the undulating pendulum of favor and judgment? The psalmist
trusts that God will again restore the fortunes of those who are faithful,
and he describes what he believes God's reign will be like. "Steadfast
love and faithfulness will meet; justice and peace will kiss." In the
psalmist's idealized world, God reigns over a faithful people, and God's
rule is characterized by steadfast love, faithfulness, justice, and peace.
There is no mention here of military might or victory over one's enemies.
I'm particularly taken by the expression "justice and peace will kiss."
Justice and peace go hand in hand, both in the ideal kingdom and in any
nation that truly wants what is best for its people. The Spartan/Klingon
model of peace by military might is an illusion, or better, a delusion.
Many, perhaps most, of the conflicts in the world today are fueled by
injustice, even when they also have ethnic or religious facets as well.
People of one ethnic or religious group have superior social status to
another group, so rebellion ensues. The lower classes see no hope of
advancing beyond their current status by ordinary means, so war breaks
out. Masses of people living in slums look at the riches of their rulers
and see injustice, so they resort to terrorism to try to right the wrongs.
Peace at the point of a sword is oppression. A system that guarantees one
social group privilege is structural injustice. An army that consistently
brutalizes an already subjugated people is state-sponsored terrorism.
One of the most frightening aspects of our modern world is the fact that
many people--privileged and oppressed alike--see nothing wrong with a more
or less constant state of war. The U.S. spends hundreds of billions of
dollars a year on the machinery of war (quite a bit less on the personnel,
but that's a matter for another time), and its leaders, Democrat and
Republican alike, seem surprised that it doesn't result in peace! At the
same time, Osama bin Laden and his ilk plot the murders of hundreds of
innocent people, and they can't seem to understand why each bomb only
makes their opponents more determined! Both group-sponsored and
state-sponsored terrorism are unjust and an affront to the cause of God,
which is the cause of peace. It is time for the people of God to stand up
and say to all who support violence, "Enough!" Only when justice and
peace kiss will we be on our way to the ideal world we all dream about.
Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19) (first
published 25 July 2004)
When a forlorn Frenchwoman appears at the door of a house in a small
village in nineteenth century Denmark, the women of the house take her in
and offer her a position as housekeeper and cook. After several years,
her fortunes change, and the Frenchwoman prepares a sumptuous feast for
her employers and for the entire religious community that lives in the
village. In the process, the people learn that life is something to be
enjoyed with friends and family, and Christianity is not incompatible with
happiness. The religious community portrayed in Babette's Feast is
not unlike many religious communities today. In their efforts to remain
unstained by the world, people sometimes go too far, equating joy with sin
and following rules that seem designed more for punishment than
sanctification. The church at Colossae had members who didn't understand
the nature of the freedom that Christ offers his followers. They were in
danger of being "taken captive" by philosophy, human tradition, and the
"elemental spirits of the universe." Some Greek philosophers of the day
taught that everything in the universe was made up of fire, air, water,
and earth. These fundamental elements also symbolized esoteric truths
about the powers that ruled the universe. Only by living one's life
according to certain rules and principles could one hope to remain in
harmony with the ruling powers. The author contrasts his view of
Christianity with this one. If Christ contains the whole fullness of
deity in himself, then there is no reason to fear elemental spirits.
Neither the Jewish custom of circumcision nor Greek demands that certain
food and drink be avoided have any hold over Christians. Christianity is
a religion that should be characterized by joy, openness, and interaction
with the world, while at the same time its followers are called on to
avoid unprofitable excess in all areas of life. It's easy to feel moral
superiority to people who don't live their lives according to the same
rules that you do, but following God is not about rules. Following God is
not a matter of eating and drinking, it's not a matter of what words you
say or avoid saying, and it's not a matter of how frequently you attend
church or engage in prayer. Following God should be something that people
do out of joy, not out of fear or obligation. From time to time we all
need to examine our lives to make sure that we are not harming
ourselves--or our witness--by our tendency toward self-limitation.
Luke 11:1-13 (first published 25 July
2004)
Prayer is a funny thing. We use it to praise God, and we use it to curse our enemies. We ask God to intervene on behalf of those in need, and we ask God for favors that will benefit us at others' expense. We thank God for our blessings, but we rarely ask for wisdom in using those blessings for the sake of God's kingdom, since we already have other plans. Maybe prayer isn't what's funny after all: it's the way we pray that's funny. Abraham Lincoln, in his Second Inaugural Address, noted the irony of both Union and Confederate partisans praying to the same God and asking for victory in battle. During World War I, many German and British soldiers along the Western front celebrated Christmas Day, 1914, together in No Man's Land, singing carols and praying. Today we pray for the success of our soldiers fighting in Iraq. Undoubtedly the terrorists who hijacked the planes on September 11 prayed for success the morning of their attack. It is obvious that God can't grant all these prayers, since so many are mutually exclusive. It is equally obvious that many of them should never have been prayed. We need to hear again the words of Jesus, who gave his disciples a model to use when praying. The version of the Lord's Prayer in Luke is shorter than that found in Matthew, but the essentials are the same. Jesus told his disciples to praise God, to pray for God's kingdom to be established (which I view as equivalent to the Matthean expansion that asks that God's will be accomplished), to meet the immediate needs of the disciples, to forgive the disciples' sins, and to protect the disciples from times of trial. I want to focus on points two and three, establishing God's kingdom and meeting immediate human needs. The problem with many of our prayers today is that we focus so much on our wants that we forget to ask God to meet our needs, much less to establish God's kingdom. Furthermore, how often do we consider that if God grants our wishes, God's greater purposes might be thwarted? This applies on both an individual and a global scale. If God gives me that promotion at work, will someone whose family is in greater need suffer? If God gives our soldiers in Iraq victory, what are the long-term repercussions for justice and peace in the region? It's hard not to pray for the things we really, really want, and I don't think it's necessarily wrong to do so. However, our focus should clearly be on what we need, and even more on what the world as a whole needs, that is, that God's kingdom be established. If we will concentrate on praying for those two items, maybe we'll realize that having our basic needs met and seeing God's kingdom established will become what we really, really want.