Just last week I was remembering a sermon I once heard that left me feeling both angry and sad. The preacher began in a lighthearted manner, real folksy, telling lots of stories about this and that. Nothing, really. He told some jokes at other people’s expense, making them look foolish, which I didn’t like. But I waited him out, to see if he had a point. And eventually, I guess you could say, he did.
Suddenly, his tone changed as if he flipped a switch. Now the folksy good humor was gone, and he was dead serious when he told the congregation that we had better get right with Jesus. “Because some of you,” he promised, “are going to hell.”
If we wanted to be saved, he said, there was only one thing we could do, and we’d better do it. Or else.
I don’t know exactly who he was talking to. Was there someone in the room who was known to have drifted away from the faith? Someone who he knew did not share his particular beliefs? Was it me? Maybe he could have walked around the room and tapped each of us on the shoulder, saying “saved” or “bound for hell” with each tap.
As for himself, he knew where he was going. He was, most assuredly, heaven bound. But as for the rest of us, well, he had some real concerns and warned us not to make any assumptions about the fate of our immortal souls.
He wanted us to know, though, he was genuinely worried about our salvation and of course, he did want to see us all in heaven. If we could get it right.
If we couldn’t? Well, wasn’t anything he could do about that. It’s in God’s hands.
So there you have it. God is a stingy and vengeful king. God is a bouncer at the door of the most exclusive club, allowing some through the entrance, while barring the door to others – those who haven’t managed to get right with him.
The ones who are turned away might not even know how they missed the mark. Were they wearing the wrong clothes? Do they not have the right friends?
All they know is that they fell short. They were somehow not good enough for God to love.
Yes. That makes me sad. And angry.
Angry at the preacher, who abused the privilege he was given. And sad because this kind of theology hasn’t been killed off yet. It is a belief that has been shouted by countless preachers, to terrify their congregations – they confuse terror with what the Bible calls the fear of the Lord. It is an idea that has trained too many children to believe that they are bad at their core – period. It is a theology that has taught people to fear and resent God.
It is a theology of judgment, of arrogance, of callousness.
It is hard to see any grace at all in it. and that is a serious flaw.
As common as it is, I cannot believe that fear-mongering is what God wants us to be doing. Of course, if scaring people is what you want to do, you can use the Bible to do that. If making people feel shame about who they are is your goal, there is enough material you can misuse to do that.
But I ask you this: what does it have to do with the God who created a world he called good, and who loves this world enough to die for our sake, and who promises us an eternal home with him? Honest to God, the through-line in the scriptures is the vision of love. God is love. And God’s grace will see us through.
The Psalm we read today tells us so. It is a worship prayer, praising God almighty who has done and will do great things. In the first verses, which we did not read, the psalmist recounts all the gracious and merciful deeds of God: God has forgiven, God has restored, God has revived God’s people.
And the psalmist asks: will you do this again, God? For we, your people who need forgiveness, who need to be revived – will you be faithful?
The answer is quick and sure. Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet. Righteousness and peace will kiss each other. Faithfulness will spring up from the ground and righteousness will look down from the sky. What glory the world will behold! God is so good, and we are so blessed.
And in case we need more convincing, we turn to the letter to Ephesians, where we read that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, and that is good, isn’t it?
We read that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love. This is extraordinary. God chose us from before the foundation of the world. Not from the time we got it right, but from before the foundation of the world.
We continue, and read that God destined us for adoption as God’s children – God chose us – according to the good pleasure of God’s will, to the praise of God’s glorious grace, which God freely bestows on us.
We have redemption…forgiveness…lavished with grace – according to the purpose of God, who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will.
Not according to our goodness. Not depending on our ability to get it right. But according to God’s purpose. End of story. Alleluia. Amen.
The point of this text really is to say that we who are, in a sense, latecomers to the party are welcome. We who are not children of Israel by birth are adopted into God’s family – and not just on a whim. Indeed, God has had this intention from before the foundation of the world. We are beloved. We always have been.
The beauty in this is not just in the relief of being included, the sense that we, somehow, dodged a bullet. The real beauty and potency is in imagining all that we are enabled to do with this amazing grace God bestows on us. How much love can we get flowing through the world because of this grace lavished upon us?
Can we who are healed extend this healing to others? Can we who are forgiven extend this forgiveness to others? Can we who are blessed by the God of righteousness and peace become instruments of righteousness and peace?
In all these things we are empowered by the love of God. Thanks be to God. And this, I pray, is what we will teach our children.
Some years ago I served a church where we held an intergenerational Sunday school class in which we taught the lesson that God created us good. The Bible says so, by the way. And after class a man approached our Sunday school teacher to say how concerned he was that we were teaching bad theology. He said, “You can’t tell children they were created good. They have to learn that they are tainted by original sin; that’s the only way they can be saved.”
There is not a day when the world does not tell us that we are bad, wrong, not quite good enough. We all get that lesson. The deepest need of every human being is to know that we are loveable. To know that God loves us.
This is the key. We all know the ways we fall short. But when we hear God call us holy and blameless we know that God is looking at us through a lens of pure love. And wrapping us up in that love and grace.
You see, it is not about knowing how bad you are. It is not about figuring out what you need to do to fix it, get it right. Because it is not we who get right with God. It is all God. The key is to know you are loved by God. To know that you are blessed in so many ways with the gifts of God’s Spirit.
This is all I want you to hear this week. Next week, there will be more to say about how we respond to this gift of love. But for today, only know this is who we are: Beloved by God.
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