The Heart of It All

In my last several sermons, I have been focusing on the resurrection and what difference it makes to us. Maybe the biggest reason that we should care about it is that it shows us what God is really like -- in other words, the heart of it all!

Who is God? That question has been asked by more people, in more situations, and at more times than probably any other question in history! Who is God? There are lots of guesses. Some people think that God is a tyrant who sets up arbitrary rules and then throws a fit if we don’t follow them. Others think that God is a judge who watches us like a heavenly Peeping Tom, giving us points when we do what we should and black marks when we get out of line. Many think that God is something that we can never know, something so deep and mysterious that our minds can’t even begin to comprehend it; so we might as well not even bother to try and find out.

So, who is God, anyway? It’s a question that’s at least as old as the oldest Old Testament writings; and my guess is that it’s even older than that! For as long as people have known that there is a God, people have wanted to know what kind of deity this God is. The questioning started with Moses. When he met God in the burning bush and God gave him instructions to go back to Egypt and confront Pharaoh, Moses didn’t ask for a map to Pharaoh’s palace or a PowerPoint to show to Pharaoh to convince him that letting the Hebrews go free was a good idea. He asked God, “What is your name?” In Moses’ time, your name reflected your nature; so asking “What is your name?” is really asking “What are you like?” But Moses didn’t get an answer; so from that day to this, we have been trying to understand who God really is.

We can see the quest to know God’s nature in the writings of the Old Testament. The ancient Israelites believed that God was distant and aloof; even dangerous! They stayed as far away from God as they could. Only the priests ever approached this powerful God who made himself known in fire and thick darkness. The prophets, on the other hand, bet the ranch that God was like a judge, absolutely fair and just; although some of them wondered whether God wasn’t going a little bit overboard with Israel’s punishment when the people insisted in worshiping other gods. Habakkuk, in particular, asked why God would choose the Babylonians to conquer Israel when that pagan nation was worse than own God’s people! Even Job, the poster child for faithful devotion, wondered whether God was really as just as he claimed to be. And then there was Jonah. When God told him to go preach to Ninevah so that they would clean up their act, Jonah was madder than a wet hen when God let Ninevah off the hook! God was supposed to be just! Why didn’t he destroy Ninevah, who certainly deserved it – at least, according to Jonah, they did.

So, what’s the deal, anyway? Is God aloof or involved in our affairs? Does God insist on our following the rules or does God cut us some slack? Does God really care about us, or is God only worried about making himself look good? What is God like, anyway? Moses eventually got an answer to that question. He asked God flat out after God had led the Israelites out of Egypt. In Exodus (33:18-23 and 34:6) Moses asked “Show me your glory.” In other words, “I want to see who you really are.” God said no to that request, but he did say this: “[I am] a god merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”

There it is, straight from the horse’s mouth: God is merciful, gracious, patient, and faithful. But we tend to forget that. Maybe it’s because we want to worship a God who is as judgmental and unforgiving as we are; who knows? At any rate, it didn’t take long for the ancient religious leaders to turn God into someone who insisted that everyone follow the rules, no matter whether those rules helped people or hurt them. There was no room for mercy or grace in their understanding of God; and “slow to anger” went out the window! There are still people like that around today, who insist that if you don’t fit into their own religious box, then God will punish you. Is that really who God is: a strict, mean, old curmudgeon who raps us on the knuckles whenever we don’t measure up? Jesus says “no,” that's not who God is! Jesus says something else entirely. Jesus says that God loves us as much as a mother loves her child. Jesus says that God loves us as much as a shepherd loves the animals he cares for. Jesus says that God loves us as much as a father who runs as fast as he can to reunite with the son who took half of his money and spent it all on booze and broads; and then throws a party for his son and invites the whole neighborhood to celebrate with him. That’s who God is. God is love.

If you don’t believe me, all you have to do is to look at Jesus. Don’t even bother with what Jesus said; just look at who Jesus was. Jesus was God who came to be with us in a form that we could understand. Jesus was God who came to be with us so that we would get over the notion that God was aloof and distant and dangerous. Jesus was God who came to be with us and put to rest once and for all the mistaken notion that rules are more important than people.

If you’re still not convinced, all you have to do is to look at the cross. If you were worshipped in our chapel on Good Friday evening, you heard me say that Good Friday could have turned out very differently. God could have crushed us like bugs for the dreadful act of killing his own son; and a completely just God would have done just that. But God is not only just, God is loving. Not only did God spare us the punishment that we deserved; God reconciled himself to us and gave us a way to become new creations by raising Jesus from the dead on Easter morning.

God is love. That’s the heart of it all. That’s who God is beneath and beyond anything else we might say about God. Of course, God is just. Yes, God wants us to behave as decent human beings, and gives us rules so we know how to do that. Absolutely, God in God’s fullness is beyond our ability to understand. The heart of it all, though, is what God says to us through Jesus’ life and death and resurrection – the essence of God is love! And beyond the law, the prophets, and all our sophisticated biblical interpretation, that’s all we really need to know. Thanks be to God!