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Sermon:
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There's a complaint often brought against Scripture that I hear, and I bet you have heard it too. It's that there's a huge difference between the Old Testament and New Testament God. People seem to like the New Testament God who is seen as more loving to all.
That makes sense. We want to know that the Creator of the Universe who knows all and can do all actually likes us. We want to feel that we live in a world that is loving and caring, even if we the people in it are not always so.
Our very faith is predicated on the love God has for us. God loves us so much and came down to be with us. God loves us enough to even be willing to die so that we don't have to. That's basically the plot of a really good movie or a heroes story.
One might ask, then, why do we even bother with the Old Testament? Why do we need it if we've got the actual God in the New Testament? Well, the answer is quite simple: the Old Testament God is actually not different from the New Testament God at all.
The Old Testament God isn't just this whiny despot that wants everyone to do exactly what He says and nothing else, as some try to make the Old Testament God out to be. The love and care we see in the New Testament is not, in fact, new. It is very ancient and comes directly from the Tanakh, the actually Hebrew name for what we call the Old Testament.
In our reading from the Psalms today, the cry to God is to "Save the weak and the orphan; defend the humble and needy; Rescue the weak and the poor". That cry to God is for the weak, poor, and needy because those are the people God traditionally looks after. Caring for all is who God is about.
In our Gospel readings, Jesus begins by asking the lawyer, "what is written in the law?", to which the lawyer replies, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." These are the Two Great Commandments, and they are not new to the New Testament. In the Old Testament, we hear them in Deuteronomy (6:4-5) and Leviticus (19:17-18).
Even our Old Testament reading from Amos this morning fits in with this image of a loving God. Yes, our reading today is focused on God measuring out the Israelites, finding them lacking, and what will happen as a result (hint: it's not good). Yet back in Amos 2 when The Lord is listing out the sins of Israel, the first things listed are not helping the poor and needy, not Israelites disregard and disrespect for the House of The Lord, which, spoiler alert, they also do.
It might seem harsh that God is livid with the Israelites, but not really. They haven't been loving their neighbor as themselves. We shouldn't forget that even Jesus gets angry in the New Testament, nor should we forget C.S. Lewis' characterization of The Lord as Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Aslan isn't just sweet and cuddly, but we are told that he is wild and not tame.
God might seem harsh or angry at times, but it is out of love. Rather, it is out of frustration at the lack of love that God's people have for one another and for their neighbor. God's ultimate message is that we should love with the same love God has for us. That isn't a message that's new in the New Testament. God's message of love goes back to Old Testament times.
When you hear someone talking about how the Old and New Testament have different Gods, or that the Old Testament lacks the same love the New Testament shows, show that person how that's wrong. Jesus' message isn't a new one; it is in fact a very ancient one. God came down as Jesus in part because we didn't listen to that message very well. God also came down to bring that message to fruition. God loves us and wants us to love each other too. That's why God came down and died for us.
Scripture isn't divided, but is the whole picture to help us see how it is God is working in the world. Don't divide Scripture, but see it as a whole delivering the same message and giving to us the totality of Salvation History. Most of all, do what the ancient Israelites failed to do: actually listen to what God is saying to us through the Word.