In the hands of an angry God

“[the Devil]... stands waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it...”

                               Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

“God's grace is not defined as God being forgiving to us even though we sin. Grace is when God is a source of wholeness, which makes up for my failings. My failings hurt me and others and even the planet, and God's grace to me is that my brokenness is not the final word ... it's that God makes beautiful things out of even my own shit. Grace isn't about God creating humans and flawed beings and then acting all hurt when we inevitably fail and then stepping in like the hero to grant us grace - like saying, "Oh, it's OK, I'll be the good guy and forgive you." It's God saying, "I love the world too much to let your sin define you and be the final word. I am a God who makes all things new.”

― Nadia Bolz-Weber, Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint

“I know nothing, except what everyone knows - if there when Grace dances, I should dance.”

― W.H. Auden, Collected Poems

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We have a choice it seems

Grace

Or

Merit

We are either people in a love relationship with a God of love

Sacred children

Being helped to live out our lives according to the original design

The original blessing

Of being creatures who reflect, in our very being, the Sacred

Love

Or we are sinful lumps of clay in the hands of an angry God

Playing out the art of the deal

Where in fear we seek to placate One who is all too eager

To send us (and most others) into eternal torment

We are either loved (period) into communion, and then union (or reunion)

with the Sacred,

simply need to come awake to that love to enjoy it,

and be changed by it

(for love does change us, and Love [God] does make us new)

Or we are people who must believe the right things

Spout the right formulas (Jesus is Lord?)

Go to the right church

Vote for the right candidate

In order to be “saved”

I know it is complicated

This relationship with have with Sacred

We throw around all these big words

Justification, Sanctification, Atonement

And we talk about grace

But I wonder if too many people have lost the concept of grace

And replaced with faith as transaction…

With grace Jesus came to show us ‘the way’

To show us that God is love

And to show us that when we are awake to God we can live life a different way

With grace the cross is God showing us what God can do

With human hate and brutality,

God showing us that even when humanity does its worst

And kills

Love still wins, and brings life out of death

A beginning out of an ending

With transaction

Well honestly the birth of Jesus makes little sense

His teachings make less sense!

Give up all you have and give?

Be the servant of all?

Die to live?

Really?

And the cross becomes God

Enacting retribution

“Somebody has to pay”

I know, its complicated

There are those big words

But still transactional faith comes down to this

I have to earn my way into grace

(how is that for an odd statement)

I have to say those words

I have to get dunked

I have to do certain things

And then God saves me

I escape eternal torment

But it’s a transaction

Or else its in the fire I go

Or else my life turns to shit

But there is the problem.

When we enter the world of transaction

It taints everything….

We have God’s love, they don’t (not yet, not really)

We are in, they are out

We are saved, they are going to hell

We are loved, they are hated (by God)

And here is the thing I notice

This is the most powerful side effect of merit faith

It makes us cruel

Faith should not make us cruel

But wow

Even while we sing “just as I am”

We are thinking, “just as you are when…..”

When you get your life together

When you stop using

When you stop drinking

When you have become responsible, and have cobbled together

A living wage out of your three minimum wage jobs

I’ve done what I need to do

Now it is your turn

Suck it up!

Get it together

When you do, I will accept you

When you do, God will accept you.

When you do, then we can talk about healthcare

And food stamps

And housing

And when you do, then we will welcome you fully,

Into the circle of God’s love

Christians, who should be the most grateful and most accepting

And welcoming people in the world

Are all too often the ones

Shaming

Rejecting

Demanding merit

Which brings us back to love

Not love earned

But love giving

That mysterious love we find clearly distinguished in the Bible

Agape love

Love without strings

Love unmerited

Love simply given

That is God’s love

We struggle to believe in it

For ourselves, or for others

And that love, when poured into us

By the Spirit

Should become our love

And that love

Is God saying to us and through us

"I love the world too much to let your sin define you and be the final word. I am a God who makes all things new.” (Bolz-Weber)