Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
One of the things we never talk about much these days in the church is the anger of God. Part of it is because that phrase invokes fear. Not fear that is the awe and respect we should have for the Lord, but fear that at a whim, it could all come crashing down.
And part of it is that we've all seen this kind of anger. The anger of one who is capricious, the anger of one who is just there to take us down, or even the anger of one whose feelings towards us changes from day to day.
Instability. Unknowing. We tremble at the idea of the anger of God because we think it is fickle, that it could change at a moment's notice, and that it is completely unpredictable.
That's not really what is being conveyed in God's anger. God's anger is what most of our own anger is really about. We get angry when someone has violated our trust, or harmed us in some way. That anger is about breech in relationship, and it's what's really behind God's anger too. It is in Isaiah this morning (Third Isaiah to be exact, the Isaiah after the return of the Israelites from exile in fact) that we see that God's anger is because we sinned. God is angry because His people abandoned Him. But in His anger, God did not come down and smite Israel itself. Instead He allowed to Israelites to continue to remove themselves from Him until there was nothing left for the Israelites to turn to but the violent empires of Assyria and Babylon there ready to take control.
It is because of us that God is angry. Not merely because we sinned, but because of what it means to sin. Because sin means breaking our relationship with God. Just as we get mad at each other for the breeches we cause in our relationships with each other, so too does God get angry at the breeches of our relationship with Him.
(Unfortunately, the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible softens this sense that it is our breech. The NRSV appears to try and put the blame on God by saying we sinned because God hid Himself instead of saying the opposite, that we sinned and because of that God hid Himself. This passage fails to recognize that the Hebrew text here is very confusing. In looking at 4 different versions of the Bible, I have found 4 different interpretations of what it means, but only here in the NRSV does the blame seem to be put on God)
God's anger shouldn't be met with fear. It should be met with sadness. It should be met with the sense that we have messed up. If we care for our relationship with God as deeply as we care about our relationships with our fellow human beings and as deeply as God cares about His relationship with us, then we should do what we do when we've wronged our loved ones: beg forgiveness and ask them to take us back in order to not break off our bond with them completely or forever.
There is a tinge of that sadness at the end of the passage from Isaiah this morning. Third Isaiah asks that God not be angry, that God not remember our sins forever. He asks God to remember the truth, that we are in relationship with Him and that we are His people.
This tinge of sadness is continued in Psalm 80. The psalmist asks how long God will be angry, how long He will refuse to listen to our prayers. And he continues this refrain throughout the psalm: "restore the light of your countenance and we shall be saved."
In our sadness that we have angered God, that really we have deeply impaired our relationship with Him, the psalmist realizes the truth. Without God we are nothing. Without God we can do nothing. Without God, we have no hope for our salvation.
God isn't angry at us because He's wrathful, fickle, or vindictive. He's angry because He wants to be in relationship with us, and we've screwed that up.
But even in His anger, God shows His infinite love for us. He came down and died on the cross so that we could have a way to bridge the gap back to Him. He made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could continue, in spite of our sins, flaws, and constant rejection, to come back to Him.
It's not that God's anger completely subsides. We see that in Jesus. Jesus still gets frustrated, or "snippy" even, with the chief priests, scribes, and leaders of the Pharisees. He still drives out the money lenders from the temple. But these are the people that continue to breech their relationship with God. And, in the case of the chief priests, scribes, and leaders of the Pharisees, these are the very people claiming to have a special relationship with the one they are persecuting.
But even though that anger is there, God Himself tells us how to appease it. He provides a way for us to turn back from our sins. He provides a way for us to abandon those things that impair our relationship with God and come back to Him. He does that through Himself, through His death on the cross. He does that through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Advent season is about preparing to let God into our lives. And we should do just that. We don't have to be divided from God by our sin. We don't have to continue to make Him angry with us. Instead, we can take the opportunity that God has given us through Christ Jesus and make our way back to Him. Because God wants to have a relationship with us, and He wants that relationship to be made whole once again.