2 Corinthians 9:8-9
God can pour out blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done.
God’s right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out.
Way back in the long-ago times when humans were first gathering into what we call early civilization, we recognized that sometimes things went well, and sometimes they didn’t, and we also recognized that we didn’t have much control over that and so gods came into our lives.
There were gods for everything – and when things went well for us, we credited it to the gods and thanked them – and when things went badly for us, we put the blame on the gods. Then later down the historical road, we switched up that second part a bit. The gods still created whatever disaster had befallen us, but now it was all our fault. We had done something terrible and the gods had been forced to punish us.
This was how the world was viewed in the Late Bronze/Early Iron age in which the earliest biblical stories are set. In the millennia since the beginnings of the Judeo-Christian worldview a lot of things have changed in how we Judeo-Christian humans see the world.
We’ve gone from multiple gods to one God, and we, mostly, no longer blame God for earthquakes and tornados. You’ll notice I qualified that last statement as “mostly”. There are, unfortunately, still many who call themselves Christians, who are quite ready to blame such catastrophic events on God – but only because we have somehow angered God with our bad behavior and disobedience and God is therefore required to punish us.
Have you ever been told that God is a loving God – but then – in the same discussion – been told that God has given us rules that absolutely must be obeyed or else? -- that ‘or else’ generally involving some form of punishment? Even as a child, hearing those bible stories, I recognized the punishment was usually all out of proportion to the supposed sin, and it all left me with a very confused idea of the God who supposedly loves me.
Over the years I have gradually eliminated any tolerance for teachings that choose to depict God as an abusive parent. I do not believe God is an abusive parent. Period.
There are scripture stories that depict God as drowning an entire civilization, or ordering babies to be killed in brutal ways, or lashing out in anger when one of God’s most devoted servants accidentally transgressed a rule while trying to save something created for God.
Just take a minute to think about Noah’s Ark – and notice that we call it “Noah’s Ark” when we teach it in Sunday School, not “The Great Flood.” Noah’s Ark sounds all cute and cuddly – all those little animals – but in reality it is a horror story in which God is depicted as little better than a toddler having a temper tantrum and destroying a large part of the world because he’s mad. Where is the love in that?
Stories like these tell us less about God than they tell us about ourselves. These are stories where the writers seem to have created God in their image, with all their pettiness and their hunger for power.
The are more examples of a loving God in scripture than there are of the abusive parent variety. The writer of First John, for instance, wrote this:
That pretty much says it. This particular bit comes out of the 1st Letter of John, chapter 4. I suggest you read the whole chapter. It’s pretty good. There is a whole lot of love to be found there.
If you want to see God’s love made real in this world, just stop for a moment and actually see the world around you. Watch a sunset or sunrise. Look deeply into a flower and see how carefully it is formed. Watch children playing and laughing together. Observe how complete strangers can come together to help each other after an accident or a larger disaster. Find an opportunity to serve food to hungry people. I could go on and on.
Before we finish here I want o go back to the reading with which we began this message. It comes form Paul’s 2nd letter to the Church at Corinth:
God can pour out blessings – I love the sound of that.
God loves us – that’s the base of it all.
May God pour out blessings.....
There were gods for everything – and when things went well for us, we credited it to the gods and thanked them – and when things went badly for us, we put the blame on the gods. Then later down the historical road, we switched up that second part a bit. The gods still created whatever disaster had befallen us, but now it was all our fault. We had done something terrible and the gods had been forced to punish us.
This was how the world was viewed in the Late Bronze/Early Iron age in which the earliest biblical stories are set. In the millennia since the beginnings of the Judeo-Christian worldview a lot of things have changed in how we Judeo-Christian humans see the world.
We’ve gone from multiple gods to one God, and we, mostly, no longer blame God for earthquakes and tornados. You’ll notice I qualified that last statement as “mostly”. There are, unfortunately, still many who call themselves Christians, who are quite ready to blame such catastrophic events on God – but only because we have somehow angered God with our bad behavior and disobedience and God is therefore required to punish us.
Have you ever been told that God is a loving God – but then – in the same discussion – been told that God has given us rules that absolutely must be obeyed or else? -- that ‘or else’ generally involving some form of punishment? Even as a child, hearing those bible stories, I recognized the punishment was usually all out of proportion to the supposed sin, and it all left me with a very confused idea of the God who supposedly loves me.
Over the years I have gradually eliminated any tolerance for teachings that choose to depict God as an abusive parent. I do not believe God is an abusive parent. Period.
There are scripture stories that depict God as drowning an entire civilization, or ordering babies to be killed in brutal ways, or lashing out in anger when one of God’s most devoted servants accidentally transgressed a rule while trying to save something created for God.
Just take a minute to think about Noah’s Ark – and notice that we call it “Noah’s Ark” when we teach it in Sunday School, not “The Great Flood.” Noah’s Ark sounds all cute and cuddly – all those little animals – but in reality it is a horror story in which God is depicted as little better than a toddler having a temper tantrum and destroying a large part of the world because he’s mad. Where is the love in that?
Stories like these tell us less about God than they tell us about ourselves. These are stories where the writers seem to have created God in their image, with all their pettiness and their hunger for power.
The are more examples of a loving God in scripture than there are of the abusive parent variety. The writer of First John, for instance, wrote this:
- Let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God... Dear friends, since God so loves us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
That pretty much says it. This particular bit comes out of the 1st Letter of John, chapter 4. I suggest you read the whole chapter. It’s pretty good. There is a whole lot of love to be found there.
If you want to see God’s love made real in this world, just stop for a moment and actually see the world around you. Watch a sunset or sunrise. Look deeply into a flower and see how carefully it is formed. Watch children playing and laughing together. Observe how complete strangers can come together to help each other after an accident or a larger disaster. Find an opportunity to serve food to hungry people. I could go on and on.
Before we finish here I want o go back to the reading with which we began this message. It comes form Paul’s 2nd letter to the Church at Corinth:
- God can pour out blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done.....God’s right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out. (2 Cor 9:8-9)
God can pour out blessings – I love the sound of that.
God loves us – that’s the base of it all.
May God pour out blessings.....
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