I would like to thank John Burns for choosing the hymns for today. I would like to thank him particularly because they are hymns which make me feel slightly uncomfortable. They make me feel uncomfortable because they challenge the way that I understand God. I would like to think of God in the same way that St John does in his letters, that God is love and where love is, God is truly there. I would like to think of God who loves all creation and all people, regardless of age, gender, race, marital or family status, sexual orientation, disability or wealth. The God I worship loves the drunken and dirty man I see in the street sometimes. The God I worship loves the Osama bin Ladens and Saddam Husseins of this world and he sent his only Son Jesus Christ to die for their sins. The God I worship wants to take every one of the people of the world into his arms and love them into righteousness. My chooks in the back yard remind me that Jesus wanted to gather the people of Jerusalem into his arms as a mother hen gathers her chickens under her wings. The God I worship is the god of Psalm 103, full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great goodness - as a father is tender towards his children, so is the Lord tender towards those who fear him, for he knows of what we are made and remembers that we are but dust. Or psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing. He will make me lie down in green pastures and lead me beside still waters." The God I worship has given us a new commandment, to love one another in the same way that God loves us.
Who, then, is the Lord we have been singing about? Is this our God, trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored? Is this our God, who has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword? The song tells us that God is seated on the seat of judgement, sorting out human souls, some to be given eternal life, others to cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Mtt 25:30) The prophet Ezekiel tells us that God says, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their way and live."(Ezek 33:11) Can it be the same God who sometimes gives mercy and sometimes gives punishment?
This question is one that has troubled humans for many thousands of years and still they have not come up with an answer which satisfies everyone. I actually think it is one of those questions which have no answer, like, why do bad things happen to good people? All we can do is struggle with the question and may be come up with part of an answer. This is because human beings cannot possibly understand the mind of God. We love to form scientific theories and put our knowledge in neat little books, but God will not fit into our theories or our books. All our science and our books are aimed at understanding and controlling our world. God is far beyond our understanding and our control. All we can do is look and wonder.
This is what the writer of the book of Judges was doing. The nation of Israel did what was evil and was conquered by King Jabin after Ehud died, and Deborah the Prophetess made a plan to save the people from the army of general Sisera. The writer saw God at work in all things, especially in the events of history. It was God who sold the Israelites, because of their evil deeds, into the hand of king Jabin and it was God who sold Sisera into the hand of a woman, because the nation turned again to the Lord and cried for help. God's actions were easy to understand; evil led to punishment and repentance led to rescue. This is how the writers of the histories of the Old Testament understood God to work.
By the time of Jesus, the Israelites had learned a lot more about God. Sometimes evildoers prospered and bad things happened to good people. The Israelites learned that God's actions were more complex than they had thought. The great prophets like Isaiah spoke of God's merciful kindness, and how the true servants of God would suffer for the evil done by the whole people. In Jesus, the prophecies of Isaiah came to their fulfilment. Jesus, who was obviously a good man and a prophet, died on the cross, and the people were really puzzled. Why would God do such a thing? The Israelites could not understand a God who suffered. The writers of the historical books of the bible understood God as a great ruler, living above the sky, in command of the hosts of heaven, looking down on the earth from a great distance. However, Jesus Christ shows us a God who works through humans in the human community. In the New Testament God we see God working through the lives of all Christians, inspiring them with the Holy Spirit, giving them gifts and talents to use. This is the message of the parable we hear in Matthew's gospel. We understand ourselves now as fellow workers with Christ. Jesus shares our burdens and walks with us in our lives. We might be tempted to turn our back on the Lord God of Hosts, the High King of Heaven of whom we hear in the Old Testament. Maybe we would like to see God only as our dear friend Jesus who loves us no matter what. If we do so, then God becomes very tame, a bit like Father Christmas, who seems to hand out presents to all children, whether they have been good or not.
The hymns we are singing today and next Sunday, and the readings from the Bible remind us that God is not a tame God. The Lord God graciously invites us to respond to his love, that is true, but there are also consequences if we refuse the invitation. Those slaves who were given talents had to give an account of their stewardship. Those who responded were rewarded, but the one who did not respond was punished, as Matthew describes it, by being cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The darkness shows that they are separated from Christ who is the light and life of all people. The weeping shows that they are grieving for what they have missed out on by their foolishness, and they gnash their teeth with anger - they are angry with God because they blame God for not making them good, and angry with themselves because they have not responded to the love of God. The God I worship is the God of unconditional love and acceptance, but the God I worship is also the Lord of Creation who commands a response to that love. We can choose to respond or not to respond, like the slaves in the parable, but we need to be aware that our choice is one of life and death.