Lent

Lent 2006

In former generations, the preaching style of some clergy was described as ‘fire and brimstone’. I remember my grandparents coming back home from church-they were old fashioned Presbyterians-and my grandfather would often say, ‘That was a real fire ‘n brimstone sermon’ as he poured himself a glass of Port. My grandfather was a wise man; he said that these preachers didn’t mention God’s love too much but they were very fond of preaching about his ‘wrath’. They would conjure up horrible images of God’s revenge against human sin as if God was just waiting for his great opportunity to say ‘told you so’. My grandfather was a kind and loving man and maybe that’s why he didn’t like fire ‘n brimstone preachers. 

When I grew up and thought about these old preachers, I saw that my grandfather was right-they never thought about the logic behind the idea of God’s wrath. For example, how could God get angry with us about things he knew we would do anyway? Imagine a father leaving the front door of the house open and watching while his 30-year old son wandered out onto the street. Then the Father gets angry, goes to fetch the child, picks him up to eye level  and shouts at him ‘I told you not to go on the street’. What kind of father would do that?  The Book of Psalms complains of human weakness; and Paul says we constantly do the evil things that we do not even want to do. So how can God be angry with us? We are just children. 

 The idea of the wrath of God comes from a time before we knew anything about science or psychology. It was a different way of thinking but the idea is still the same: denying God brings with it dreadful consequences. God doesn’t throw lightening bolts; He just gives us our freedom to do what we want which is much worse. For example, remember the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco a few years ago; some religious people claimed that it was God’s wrath against  homosexuals; now AIDS is ravaging whole countries in Africa; innocent women and children are suffering because of a system that expects women to be faithful in marriage but exempts men from the same obligation. Can we say that God is angry at a whole continent because of this kind of ignorance?  AIDS is a natural result of ignorance, sinfulness and selfishness. Ultimately it comes from treating people as possessions or objects whether in African polygamy or in homosexual communities. Nature is not a passive observer of our sin; nature reacts when we desire the creature more than the creator. It’s not God’s doing; it is ours! 

For example, in a thousand years form now, when archaeologists examine the remains of our civilization they will probably retrieve treasures from the sunken cities of London and New York and put them on display in their museums. Scientists will know that the polar ice caps melted and inundated the world; they will know that the climate changed suddenly causing floods, mudslides; they will know that millions of people were killed by diseases and natural disasters. But will they know the reason for this catastrophe that wiped out such an advanced civilization? Will they know that our culture worshipped material things instead of God who gave them? Will they know that our civilization was so far from knowing God’s love that they were willing to accept counterfeit copies of that love in sex, exploitation and selfishness?  

Some people may still prefer to see in these disasters God’s ‘wrath’. But they are more the results of our own tendency to self-destruction. And I think God is not ‘wrathful’ but sorrowful as must ‘give us over to the desires of own hearts’ as Paul says. 

Lent has come again? On Ash Wednesday we put ashes on our foreheads and declared our sinfulness. Why did we do this? We did it to declare to one another that we are a part of the natural world and our personal actions, thoughts, words, deeds and omissions have a total effect on the human community throughout the world. Our selfishness affects someone else; our impatience may harm someone else; our refusal to forgive may fan the spark of hatred in someone else. We have the ability to start a chain-reaction of sin and we don’t know where it will go or how it will end up. The ashes of Ash Wednesday symbolize the communality of sin. 

We also have the potential to start a chain-reaction of good.  And this is what we remind ourselves of in Lent. In Lent we are especially careful to ask God to forgive our personal sins; we ask him to heal our community divided by sin; we ask him to heal our world with all the misery caused by our sin. We remember that the good and evil unleashed in this world depends on our choice-the good will bring blessing and the evil will bring wrath, God is saying to us this Lent as He said to the ancient Hebrews: ‘Today I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life.

Fr. Ron