Lent 4 March 22, 2009

THE REAL GOD

The Rev David Kidd

Some of you who are age fifty plus may well remember a television show called "To Tell the Truth". The panelists on the show were challenged to pick from among three contestants the one who really was who he claimed to be. They attempted to discern this by questioning the contestants about the line of work or the particular talents which the real person exercised. The results were always interesting, and sometimes quite surprising.

The chiallenges facing the panelists on the TV show aren’t a whole lot different from the challenges we face in trying to discern the "real God" from the biblical record.

Our lesson from the book of Numbers this morning is a good example of the dilemma which faces us. Is God really Dr Jekyl - the one who purposely sends poisonous snakes among the people to kill them as punishment for their impatience and grumbling - or is he Mr Hyde, who gives Moses the means of healing the people who are bitten? To claim that he is both is to say at best that God is inconsistent, or that he acts impulsively rather than rationally. At worst, we make God out to be bi-polar, careening unpredictably from vengeance and punishment to mercy and grace.

Deserts are places where poisonous snakes, scorpions, and other dangerous creatures are pretty common. Could the truth be that the people just happened to wander into an area with an exceptionally high concentration of snakes, so many were bitten? If so, then the "real God" is the one who provides for the healing of the people, in spite of their rebellious and complaining nature. To me, this God is much more consistent with the creation stories’ picture of a God who created us in his own image, pronounced us "good", even though he was fully aware of our potential for disobedience, and, when Adam and Eve fulfilled that potential, provided for them even as he cast them out of the Garden of Eden.

Why, then, would the writers of the Old Testament so often picture God as vengeful and punishing, insisting on righteous adherence to the Law, and calling for the anihilation of people whose customs and beliefs differed from theirs? Could it be that they sought to instill fear in the people as a means of maintaining control? Could it be that they sought to justify what we today would certainly call genocide, by claiming that God explicitly told them to pursue such a course?

At the risk of being labeled a heretic and a traitor to the cause - along with many of the Old Testament prophets, and even Jesus himself - I have to state that I believe the answer to both of those questions is a resounding "Yes!".

I believe that Jesus’ cleansing of the Jerusalem Temple and his frequent disputes with the Jewish religious authorities constitue his "Yes" to those two questions. The authorities had to have him crucified because he was a very real threat to their precious "system". John tells us as much in his report of the response of the Jewish leadership to Jesus’ raising of Lazarus: "So the Pharisees and the chief priests met with the Council and said, ‘What shall we do? Look at all the miracles this man is performing! If we let him go on in this way, everyone will believe in him, and the Roman authorities will take action and destroy our Temple and our nation!’ One of them, named Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, said, ‘What fools you are! Don’t you realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people, instead of having the whole nation destroyed?’" (Jn 11:47-50)

The Psalm for today tells the Numbers story from a very different viewpoint. God acts consistently for the good of his people, even in the face of their rebellion and sinfulness. Paul’s words to the Ephesians in our second lesson show God in that same light: "But God, who is rich in mercy , out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were (spiritually) dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ ... ... so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasureable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Eph 2:4-5, 7)

All of this can be translated into those words I had us interject into the Psalm and the Ephesians passage this morning. "God isn’t mad at you - no matter what!"

When we make wrong choices things go wrong in our lives. When we consciously make wrong choices, we sin, and we hurt ourselves and others. God doesn’t punish us, but he does allow us to suffer the consequences of our sins. What God wants us to do is to look to him in faith and change our choices. This is what we call repentance. Through it, God will change and renew our lives. Jesus, lifted high on the cross, is our "bronze snake", our healing. Look to him in faith, and live.