Stop Being Sorry

A month ago, just as I took a temporary, unplanned break from blogging, I scribbled down this question: “Must we be sorry forever?”

Psalm 38:20 was part of my reading, that day:

“Those who render me evil for good are my adversaries because I follow after good…” (NRSV).

Friends, this is not a claim that I have it all together.  Have you read me? But in fairness, I do think we need to come to pivotal moments in life when enough is enough.  What do we think redemption is, anyway?

Fast forward to today…

God doesn’t stay angry. 

This seems like a strange thing to say, in more ways than one.  I struggle with the image of an angry God, and I think even our Scriptures paint God in a certain light precisely because of antiquated theology that was appropriate for the cultural context of the time and place in which Scripture was penned.  This doesn’t make it any less true, but it does cause me to pause and seek the point of the words more sincerely than the words, themselves. 

Psalm 30:5 seemed helpful to me, today:

“For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime.  Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (NRSV).

OK.  I can live with that.  We all can literally live with that.  These words are God breathing fresh life into broken stuff… into broken us.  I don’t really know how angry God gets, but I suppose if there is anyone who has a right to be angry, it’s God.  And I guess I have to think that God does get angry about injustices and suffering and evil in the world that brings pain, but I also have to be careful not to make God into me.  I have to be so careful.

This moment, though, has me considering what it is to accept that God might get angry but to also allow for a scenario in which God’s anger dissipates.  It is most difficult when I think God is angry with me.  It is most difficult when I think God has reason to be angry with me.  It is helpful to know that even if that line of thinking pans out (and I actually don’t know whether or not it does), it’s not permanent. 

Ezekiel 39:28-29 is telling.  After the author details the ways in which God has been angry with Israel… with God’s own people…  After the author details the ways in which God has abandoned God’s people…  We get these words:

“…I will leave none of them behind; I will never again hide my face from them, when I pour out my spirit…” (NRSV).

This…  Oh, friends… this…

It’s the answer to my question.

Must we be sorry?

Yes—personally, communally, systemically; we must be sorry.

Must we be sorry forever?

Well, maybe still yes, but that doesn’t mean we must be overwhelmed with guilt or shame.  God is done with that!  We, also, need to be done with it.

Today, as people greatly forgiven, may we offer mercy.  May we choose not to hide our faces, but to accept forgiveness and to launch ourselves into the center of the hurting in order to bring healing, not because we need to be continually apologetic but because we have chosen now to follow good… to be the examples of love in our homes, in our communities, and around the globe. 

Let’s stop just being sorry and start being salvific.  This is what confession looks like.

L.

Let's Talk About Article of Faith #4

So, the slightly OCD part of me is having difficulty doing this without first talking about the preceding three articles, but this was Debby's question:

"Can you put the following in layman's terms and then share some of your personal thoughts on this? Naz Article of Faith #4 'We believe in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, by which we understand the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation, so that whatever is not contained therein is not to be enjoined as an article of faith.'"

I set out to answer this question by first entering into various discussions with other theologians.  You should know that we are painfully bad at putting things into "layman's terms".  Our conversations are funny.  However, I'm going to give it a try.

We (The Church of the Nazarene) believe the Holy Scriptures, which we recognize as the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, are fully inspired by God.  They sufficiently contain everything necessary for our salvation.  We do not teach that anything else is required for salvation, as a part of the governing principles for the Church of the Nazarene.

I think to really understand this, we have to start with the recognition that we all bring assumptions with us when we talk about Scripture.  As Nazarenes, we are not fundamentalists.  We do not take a literal view of Scripture, and that is sometimes difficult to defend, because many people do not understand that literal and true are not synonyms.  Before I get myself into all kinds of trouble (which, let's face it, is bound to happen anyway), perhaps I should take a step back and say that I am not speaking for the Church of the Nazarene when I give my personal thoughts, but I am a Nazarene, and I have been trained in a Nazarene school, and although you certainly don't have to agree with me about everything, I think I do have some insight to offer.

I believe that all Scripture is true.  I think it is irresponsible to say that all Scripture is literal.  This ignores the vast diversity of genres found in Scripture (another post for another day).  Where does this leave us in regard to inspiration?  I think Scripture, itself, is helpful here:   

II Timothy 3:14-17  "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (NIV).

"God-breathed".  I think, perhaps, that is the key.  The Scriptures were written by people who had intimate relationships with God.  God breathed life into them.  God spoke into their stories.  God walked with them.  They listened and they recorded the things they knew about God in such a way that those things convey something important about God, to us, even today.

You may note that I did not use the word, "inerrantly", in my re-worked definition.  It's not because I do not think it is true that Scripture is soteriologically inerrant (everything we need for salvation is there).  I most certainly agree with this.  However, I think the word inerrant lends itself to a misinterpretation.  It is, perhaps, slightly deceptive, appeasing those who insist on a literal interpretation but not really saying what we mean.  We could use different language.  We could say that the Scriptures are sufficient for our salvation, and that would be just as true.  But we're never quite satisfied with what is sufficient (or, just enough), are we?  Maybe we should be.

This also begs the question, however, "What is salvation?"

I don't want anyone to misunderstand me.  Crisis moments matter.  But I think we get way too wrapped up in conversion, sometimes, and we miss what's really going on.  When we say that Scripture contains everything necessary for our salvation, we are not talking about "the sinner's prayer," which is notably absent in Scripture.  If that was the case, we would only need to read Scripture once, say the prayer, and get on with our lives as we see fit.  Actually, there are theological perspectives that line up pretty well with that kind of thinking, but if you want to know what the Church of the Nazarene teaches, that's not it.

Returning to the above passage in II Timothy, clearly salvation is through faith in Jesus, but look what it goes on to say directly after that!  The Scriptures give us what we need "for every good work".  Salvation continues beyond faith.  We need the Scriptures to train us to continue in a life of salvation in which we have been saved and continue to be saved.  How we live matters.  At least, that's what we believe in the Church of the Nazarene.  We are a holiness denomination, and unapologetically so, after all.  Salvation is about the redemption of the world, which is a process that takes us on a journey over the course of our lifetimes.  The same God who spoke into our stories allows us to become a part of God's story of redemption.  What we believe about salvation, and what we do with it, has implications that reach far beyond ourselves. 

I think this is a practical overview of our fourth article of faith.  I'm happy to discuss specific points in more depth as readers would like.  Just leave me a comment.

If you're interested in a scholarly perspective on how the language in this article of faith has come to be and been adapted, Tom Oord's post found here is much better than anything I could hope to put together, myself.

L.