“Revenge is my domain, so is punishment-in-kind,
    at the exact moment their step slips up,
    because the day of their destruction is just around the corner;
    their final destiny is speeding on its way!”  Deuteronomy 32:35 (CEB)

     ^“Don’t pay back anyone for their evil actions with evil actions, but show respect for what everyone else believes is good. If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people.¹⁹ Don’t try to get revenge for yourselves, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. It is written, ‘Revenge belongs to me; I will pay it back, says the Lord.’”   Romans 12:17-19 (CEB)

                Revenge. Getting even. Making someone pay for a perceived or actual act against us. Avenge. Getting even. Making someone pay for a perceived or actual act against someone other than us. These are two very strong human emotions. You hurt me, so I’m going to hurt you – worse. This drive for vengeance is rooted in the cultural perspective of honor and shame. In this country today, we call it “winners” and “losers”. Sports teams particularly evidence this thinking. Rival schools, rival towns, rival teams. From the youngest player/fan to the most seasoned, we are constantly against one team and for our own. Some folks never actually leave high school or even college, because they continue to keep these rivalries alive.

                We give a great deal of honor and praise to violence. Movies, TV shows, video gaming, are all examples of the glorifying of violence. Characters are either evil or good. Evil must be destroyed and so the heroes go forth to conquer. We like these violent displays because they give us a sense of power over those things we cannot otherwise control. Of course, the good guys always win, generally because they have more power and might. The collateral damage is shrugged off as a cost of doing battle. If a good guy dies, well, he had an honorable death. If a bad guy dies, well, he had it coming, didn’t he? Beside all that twisted logic, the USA always wins. Just look at movies, or TV shows, or even video gaming and you will see that the USA always seems to emerge with the heroes.

                Acting upon a desire for revenge fuels war. Acting upon a desire to avenge someone else’s pain will also fuel war. The only way that doesn’t happen is when one side, although angry and desiring to “get even”, chooses not to show up and act on those feelings. Revenge is also about “saving face”. We don’t like it when someone chooses to mock us for our perceived cowardice in the face of violent actions. We have a primal need to prove ourselves more powerful than the originator, so that we are not seen as a “laughing stock” or weak.

                 The death, destruction, and damage to humans that comes with a war is devastating to the world. Truly in a war no one wins. Ever. One side may claim victory, yes, but the aftermath is expensive and heart-rending. The losing side? Well, Jefferson Davis, who served as the Confederate President in the Civil War, expressed the fervent hope that “the South will rise again”. That’s what happens in war. That’s what happens with violence. That’s what happens when conflict escalates, anger boils over, and the only acceptable outcome is winning. One side celebrates and the other takes their anger underground and plots revenge.

                  It is clear from Biblical teachings that God does not intend for us to seek revenge. We read in Deuteronomy 32.35, and the words are reinforced by Paul in Romans 12.19, that revenge is the sole privilege of God, not us.  If not revenge, then what are we to do when anger grips our hearts and the desire to avenge is so strong?

                 Micah 6.8 says the Lord requires of us that we “do justice, practice loving-kindness, and walk humbly with God”. This is the starting place for our lives as children of God. Justice, “mishpat”, is a complex concept, yet we are told that justice is caring for the poor and tending to those who are oppressed. It is standing up and advocating for those who are suffering and those who are accused. Seeing a need and filling it. Looking for ways to make life better and more equal for others, and helping to bring us together into a right relationship with one another . Loving-kindness, “chesed”, is a difficult word to translate, yet its sense is that of going the extra mile. Practicing “chesed” means seeing others’ needs, not just our own, and working to see those needs are filled. Caring for one another, being sincere, authentic, kind to one another – not just nice – and always extending a hand of help and encouragement even in the face of anger and evil.  Walking humbly with God, should be the easiest of the three and yet it isn't. Humbly walking with God requires us to understand and accept that we are never finished learning from God, that God is still speaking today. It requires us to understand and accept that we are NOT God, nor are we like God. Fearlessly, we place ourselves under the teaching of something much greater than we are and listen for that teaching in all its expressions. We don’t get “puffed up”, believing we have the only access to the ear and heart of God. We don’t believe that we worship a stagnant God, one who spoke once and then never spoke again. We take seriously Jesus’ admonishments that if it isn’t about love, then it isn’t God’s teaching but human sinful reasoning. (Matt. 22.34-40)

Now if all of this sounds like Jesus’ Beatitudes, that’s because it is. Jesus was a course correction for those who believed in YHWH, and for us today as well. We get lost along the way in our faith education. We turn to our own way and away from God’s love. We make those choices and because God loves us, God calls us to turn back.When we don’t? God allows us to experience the consequences of our choices.

“Be angry, but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” (Eph. 4.26) If we are heeding that warning, we will turn over to God our anger, our pain, and our desire for revenge. We will practice humbleness in our walk with God. We will practice loving-kindness. We will act in an just manner all the time, thus limiting the moments we might cry out for revenge. We will become Beatitudes people, not those who like the satan can quote selected Scripture yet never practice the teachings of Jesus, who resisted that satan. We would leave the sorting and the revenging to God and focus on loving others as we have been unconditionally loved. Bullying would cease. Power and greed would no longer be our motivators.  All would have enough and none would be found with nothing. Tribal thinking would no more reign supreme and God, as we each understand and love God, would be our measuring rod for life.

That would be the Kingdom of God made real in this world. What are we afraid of and why aren’t we eagerly doing this?

Shacking up with God

“Moses said to God, ‘Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is this god’s name?” Then what shall I tell them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.” Exodus 3.13-14

 The film, “The Shack” has been released. It is based on the book by the same name written by Wm. Paul Young. There was much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth about the book in some Christian circles. Now there is more of the same about the film. Pastors are telling parishioners not to see it and admonishing staff and volunteers not to arrange movie nights for their various small groups. Although the film had not even been released for public viewing, the bells of all Christendom began a cacophony of clangs and bangs. This should really come as no surprise. Do we Christians agree on much of anything these days, except that each of us is right and the rest of us are wrong?

This book, and the film that follows it, is an allegory. Allegory is a story that contains a moral or political virtue that must be revealed through the thinking of the reader. It is also analogy. Analogy is an example comparing some event or situation with another in some significant respects. It is a way to understand something that is otherwise a challenge to understand. The best example here is the understanding of God. Who or what is God? How do we understand the Eternal, the Divine? I don’t want to get into the philosophical exercise. Christians believe that God is One. There is one God. We believe that God is evident as Three in One, “Father, Son, Holy Spirit”. We call this the “Trinity”. At any time, we may encounter God in any of these three ways, and in those encounters we meet all three. Are you still with me? Good, because theologians throughout the history of the Church have wrestled with this idea and even they don’t all agree. Entire forests have surrendered their lives for the books written specifically about the “Trinity”.

Imagine explaining this complex concept to children! Many have tried. Years ago, someone came up with the idea of an apple. The apple has three parts: the skin, the meat, and the seed. All three of these are still the apple, even though they are different, they are the same. Except they aren’t. The skin of the apple is just that. The skin of an apple. Bite into it and all you will experience is the skin. The seed is an unrealized apple, yet no matter how hard you may try you can’t eat it and taste an apple nor does it impact you as an apple does. The meat of the apple? Well, an apple with parts missing! No matter what analogy, allegory, metaphor, or example we use to explain “Trinity”, they all fall short eventually. “Trinity” is a mystery of faith. Some theologians and bible scholars root this mystery in Scripture, citing as example Matthew 28.18-20, the “Great Commission”. Others cite Mark 16.15-16 as evidence that the Three in One concept is not biblical at all. Truthfully, every aspect you might want to embrace may well be supported by proof-texting Scripture, finding verses that seem to say you are right!

Young explores several moral dilemmas in the book, chief of them may well be why bad things happen to God’s people. He takes us into a world that might help to explain how we hold onto faith when the world is falling apart around us. These are powerful issues, and Christians struggle with them each day.

Young isn’t trying to write a theological treatise here. He is exploring creation and our place in it. He is asking us how we might faithfully endure and comprehend grief, guilt, loss, pain, joy, suffering. How do we make sense of the patterns and anomalies within creation. He is attempting to simplify a complex concept and perhaps make it more accessible to Christians and non-Christians alike. It is a story. It is an engaging way to explore the issues of faith. Reading the book presents the reader with questions and invites that reader to think about the possibilities for answers. The best books do provoke thought and conversation for those who read them. I suspect the film will do the same. Does Young present God as three separate “persons”? Yes. And, no. Young invites us to move away from a male-focused concept of God and into a mystery the Church is reluctant to explore. Does God have a gender? The introduction God gives to Moses for the Israelites would seem to say “no”. God decides who or what God is. We can have images, we can have metaphors, yet the fact remains that God is greater than any term or concept we can produce. In the John gospel, Jesus prays that we might all be one. He claimed to be returning to his “Father” and that the “Father” would send the Holy Spirit as a “replacement” for Jesus among humanity. That seems to indicate separate yet equal expressions of God. Although Young presents us with God in three different ways, as a means for exploring what and who God is in relationship with us, it is clear that God is present and interacting with the lead character through each of those different ways. Keep in mind that we have already suspended reality in accepting that the character has received a letter from God and has entered a place wherein God can be encountered without Mack needing to turn his face away as Moses was warned to do.

This is a story. A narrative that intends to evoke conversation and thoughtfulness. I know that there are pastors and Christian educators who will not want to discuss this story, and discourage their flocks from seeing the film. That is regrettable. It is a perfect vehicle for a roundtable small group discussion. Allowing folks to share what they have experienced in reading or watching, and then listening to their stories of encountering God, is perfect food for discipleship. Theologians and Bible scholars argue and debate doctrine and dogma. The rest of us find ways to support folks on their faith and life journeys. Those debates and arguments help to inform our approach but should never be the goal of our approach. Many of us truly love the debates. Folks in our care just need to know that they are loved. They are loved by God and that love is manifested through the rest of us. They want to know that their struggles for answers are not theirs alone. They need to know that we are one in the body of Christ and that they are free to explore and debate historic doctrines and Church dogma. They are also free to shrug their shoulders and go on loving God and one another. That’s what matters. Loving God and loving one another. The book, and no doubt the film, focus on that love.  Surely, we can agree to that, can’t we?