Wrath Vs Grace

So for all my commentary on Heather Zempel's fantastic sermon from last weekend, I actually haven't unpacked wrath yet and put some thoughts to it. Obviously it's awesome and you should check it out. http://theaterchurch.com/media/video/wrath/

I've been reading Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christianity and really enjoying it. And while I haven't agreed with everything I've read there's a lot of good insight and reframing that's really nice. McLaren's chapters on the concept of God being violent are actually where he and I disagree most... Not because he's wrong or off his rocker, but I've just had an issue wrapping my head around his points. They're not bad points or far fetched, I'm just still working through what he had to say.

But that is all beside the point. And you'd think if I was going to use something from his book in my talking about God's wrath you'd think it would be from his chapter about God as violent. But it's not. Because McLaren, when talking about reframing the narrative of the bible, used the same text Heather used when talking about God's wrath. So let's go to Genesis 3.

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life."

This story, as most of us have been thought, is about when man rebelled against God and sin entered the world. But both McLaren and Zempel reframe this story a little differently. Eve and Adam disobey God by eating of the tree of knowledge. In Genesis 2:17 God says "But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die."

Eve confirms this is Genesis 3 when she responds to the Serpent. And I don't think I'd ever really thought about it until reading McLaren's book that Adam and Eve don't die when they eat the fruit. Genesis 3 isn't just the story of sin entering the world. It's more importantly the story of God's grace entering the world! God doesn't kill Adam and Eve for their mistake. Instead, he offers grace and shows his love. He not only doesn't kill Adam and Eve but he also makes them clothes to cover their nakedness. As Heather pointed out, there is a sacrifice made in Adam and Eve's place. An animal did have to die to make those clothes for the two of them. But God, in this moment of mans first downfall, extends grace and shows his love.

And then I start thinking about all the times in the Old Testament when God extends his grace and doesn't pour out his wrath.

"At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the LORD let him alone." ~ Exodus 4:24-26

On top of that, how many times does God, in his frustration say he's going to kill the Israelites but Moses intervenes on their behalf and prays that God won't destroy the people but will remember his promise that they would be his people? How many times did Abraham pray for Sodom and Gomorrah before God, who can't even find 10 righteous people, destroys it? And before he destroys it, shows grace to Lot and his family by making sure they escape the city before he destroys it.

Now there are consequences for sinning against God and that's where we see his wrath. Lot's wife disobeys God and turns to look upon the city as they're fleeing and turns into a pillar of salt. Israel wanders the dessert for 40 years so that an entire generation dies before they can enter the promise land. Adam must now work the earth. Eve has to endure the pain of childbearing. But where God's wrath is, his love and grace are intertwined.