Sunday, July 21, 2024
The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
OUR IMAGE OF GOD IS IMPORTANT
The Rev. Mark D. Wilkinson, Rector
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Katy TX
2 Samuel 7: 1-14a & Mark 6:30-40, 53-56
I have been doing a lot of praying and a lot of talking with people about the divisions that lead to the type of violence and vitriol we are seeing not just in our country but in the world. As I am hearing the comments that have a religious connotation, I realized that some of the stark difference have to do with different images of God. What we believe about who God is and how God functions is going to color our personal and corporate theology and in today’s world, our political values and beliefs. This then can contribute to misunderstandings about where they are coming from when people speak with rhetoric that is colored by theology.
I want to spend some time this morning showing you how understanding this can help put what we see and hear from people into context. I was talking with the vestry on Wednesday about listening to people as they talk with them. Careful listening to understand the theological understandings that then color what the person says is important. Let me use David’s image of God and contrast and compare that with the image of God as Jesus makes him known in our gospel passage.
I believe that one of the greatest problems that have faced organized religion over the millennia is this urge to define and thereby restrict God according to human values. Please remember that a great deal of the Hebrew Scriptures is a description of how the nation of Israel’s understanding of God grew and changed over the millennia. Jesus then introduces another different image of God into the first century world. There is no one definitive image of God in any of the scriptures.
This week in the daily lectionary we have been hearing the story of Joshua crossing the river Jordan at the end of the Exodus. He sends the priests into the Jordan carrying the Ark of the Covenant. As they step in, the water stops flowing and Israel enters the promised land over dry land. God travels with Israel; God is their God and not the god of other people. The ancient Hebrews of Joshua’s time believed God was in fact sort of a God in a box This image of God was a tribal God. However, this is an image that some people have today. God is on their side or their group’s side and is against anyone outside of the group. That is in itself an image of God that promotes an us versus them way of thinking. I see a lot of this today.
Richard Rohr writes; there is no concept of God that can contain God. Your present notion of God is never it. [1] As Augustine said, “If you comprehend it, it is not God.” We can only come to know God as we let go of our ideas about God, and as what is not God is stripped away.[1]
Michael Curry states that we must give up on the idea of controlling any member of the Trinity, God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. This is a good thing because our understandings ultimately restrict what we believe God can do. This also limits what we might believe God might call us to do as well.
Just last week we had David dancing in front of the ark as it came to Jerusalem. This week we have a new covenant between God and David and David’s line as a dynastic monarchy is established. The great change in that relationship is that now it is a covenant that is filled with the Grace of God. Unearned and unmerited God tells Israel I am here for you no matter what. This is a seismic shift in their image God. The relationship is not an economic one, a quid pro quo but one of Grace. This changes everything for the nation of Israel. This passage gives us proof of just how radical the love of God is, far beyond anything David or Nathan could imagine. This passage changes the very relationship between God and the people of Israel.
With Abraham and Moses the relationship, the covenant with God was conditional. If you do this, I will do that. Sin, and God will punish. Follow the rules and God will reward. Scholars refer to this as the Sinai covenant after Mount Sinai where Moses receives the 10 commandments. This was in image of God where God’s love of us is contingent on our actions. Again there are many people today who believe this.
What God promises is the founding of a new and different type of covenant (Zion). This covenant is unconditional in contrast to the promise to Moses. This is truly the first instance of understanding the concept of grace, God’s unconditional love, totally unearned and not based on merit. This is a huge step forward in understanding God for the Israelites. Please hear this, we have here not a change in God, but a change in how the people of Israel understood their relationship with God. God is saying that he will love the nation of Israel forever even when they stray away.
Why is this so important for us today? Because there are so many people in the world and even within Christianity who are afraid of God. They follow the commandments out of fear of punishment rather than love. This problem knows no age limit. I had a man of 70+ years ask me many years ago, why God was punishing him when his wife did not get better after an illness. He truly believed that her illness and lack of recovery was God punishing him for something he did. That is the God his church had taught him.
Br. Curtis Almquist from SSJE said: “Love: That Jesus loves you may be old news stored somewhere in the archives of your soul. If pushed, you might say Jesus used to love you, or that Jesus’ love for you is true with a qualification; however that qualification keeps you from completely embracing the truth of Jesus’ love for you today. This is news for you, today, now. Jesus loves you.”-Br. Curtis Almquist
When I say Jesus came not to change God’s mind about us, but to change our minds about God, this is what I mean. In our gospel today and in all of the gospels we see a Jesus whose entire message is love. Bishop Curry says, “If it’s not about love, its not about Jesus.” We see a deep well of compassion in Jesus’ care for the crowds. Tired, worn-out Jesus still shows incredible compassion in our gospel today. This is the image of God, shown to us through Jesus that is the one I carry in my heart.
So much of the trouble we face in the church today and in our country is all the roadblocks we have built up that keep people out, keep others away, separate us from each other. An exclusive image of God who only loves certain people, who favors certain people above others, is one of those major roadblocks. This message to our culture that only certain people can experience God’s love is very destructive to the kingdom and to our country. When what we know is that God loves everyone, no exceptions we can then start to reach out. That love knows no bounds, no limitations. Jesus never said to hate anyone. He said to love everyone. It’s that simple and that hard.
God has spoken to his people and the message is simple: God loves each and every person unconditionally even when we may not feel lovable. But God doesn’t stop there. Not only are we to know that we are loved by God, but that every person is the beloved child of God. If you truly understand and believe that in your heart, then you cannot hate, vilify or destroy any other person. Disagree, maybe even dislike, absolutely you can. But seek to destroy, to cast out you cannot do that. Jesus never cast anyone out nor does he want us to reject the other.
A bishop said to me many years ago that the problem today is that we used to disagree with each other while walking towards each other. Now we are not only disagreeing but walking away from each other. We need to turn around, see the beloved child of God in the other person and start to walk back towards them and work to overcome our differences. That is the only way we can begin to heal the divisions we are experiencing. However I believe that you must have an image of God that is one of love for this division to be healed.
[1] http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Richard-Rohr-s-Meditation–Meister-Eckhart–Part-II.html?soid=1103098668616&aid=37CS3HSr8vc