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Savaoph, God the Father, by artist Viktor Vasnetsov (1885-1926)
Nov 27, 2011
First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 64:1-9, Mark 13:24-27
Here’s the trouble with God: Just when we think we know what God’s going to do, God does something else. Or, as it often seems, nothing at all.
When we think we know what God is like, God shows us another personality. When we want God to be a kindly old father, God turns out to be an avenging judge. When we want God to pass judgment and set things right, God becomes a mother hen gathering her chicks, good and bad, under her wings.
Even when God’s prophets lay it out as it’s going to be. God reserves the right to do the opposite of what the prophets believe God told them. The trouble with God is, we just can’t pin God down.
Left with the mystery, we search for signs God is present and active somewhere. We might even pray,
“O that you would tear open
the heavens and come down,
so the mountains would quake at
your presence …” (Isaiah 64:1)
We used to be taught the classics of the western world in school. Now, most of us meet Hercules in cheesy TV series like, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
At the beginning of each episode, the narrator spoke of the “days when the gods were petty and cruel.” Humanity needed someone to protect the innocent from the games the gods played. Hercules was the go – between who defeated the monsters of divine vengeance.
Our God isn’t like the gods of the Greek myths. But sometimes we think and act as if God is like Hercules’ unpredictable father, Zeus. Or his jealous stepmother, Hera.
Sometimes we see Jesus as a Hercules, half – god and half – mortal. Working miracles to save people from cruel fate. Fate God must have ordained.
We read words like our gospel today. We get a picture of Jesus, riding in on a cloud, like Hercules on TV. Coming to rescue us from disaster.
When the Bible raises the image of an intervening God, it’s always clear the people who want God to intervene are in for it, too!
When we believe in an intervening God what we really believe in is a God who steps in to set them straight. We try hard to make this God choose what we think is right.
If we call on God to come down and fix the mess the world is in, we’d better be quick to add what Isaiah prayed,
“Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand …
Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember iniquity forever.
Now consider, we are all your people.” (Isaiah 64:8 – 9)
Don’t be too hard on us, God. We know we’re sinners, too.
When we pray mercy for ourselves we have to ask it for others, too. God will give it anyway. That’s the trouble with God. God loves the people we don’t, just as much as God loves us.
When God acts to save, there’s enough love to save everyone.
Surely in Advent we can remember God has already intervened for the judgment and salvation of the world. God intervened, decisively, in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God is with us!
In C. S. Lewis’ classic, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a girl nervously awaits the advent of Aslan the lion, the Christ – figure of the tale. She asks Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, “Is he safe?”
Mr. Beaver answers, “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”
That’s the trouble with our unpredictable God. God’s not safe, but God is good.
