We tell our children over and over to be nice to the other children on the playground. We teach them not to hurt others. We teach them to express their frustration in constructive ways, but never to take it out on another in anger. And the stakes are high, right? If they don’t follow these teachings, they might become the bully.
Why do we hold our children to a higher standard than God?
We’ve heard of pastors here at The Holy Craft who have had people in their churches literally fight for the wrath of God. Wrap your mind around that. Sweet old church ladies deeply concerned that God isn’t wrathful enough. Teenagers arguing for the need for hell. Old white men explaining that sinners have to pay.
It doesn’t make sense.
Churches have been emptying and we wonder why. We can’t help but wonder if it is in part due to the sub-par theology (see 4 toxic theologies) that portray an awful, vengeful God.
Nice people are getting tired of being nicer than God.
But think about it. It goes back to the Great Awakening with Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He says, “God is under no obligation to keep such a person from eternal destruction, not even for one moment. It doesn’t matter how religious the man is or how many prayers he makes. Until he believes in Christ, God is not obligated in any way to protect him.” The God of Jonathan Edwards has no moral or emotional connection to humans. In fact, according to Edwards, God would rather destroy humanity than protect. God has to be convinced to protect certain people.
Belief in the wrath of God is dangerous.
As Elizabeth Johnson says, “The symbol of God functions.” If we believe in a God who is wrathful, vengeful, and capricious, we will seek embody those qualities too. The opposite is also true: if we believe in a loving God, we will seek to embody that love too.
If Elizabeth Johnson is correct (and frankly, she is always correct), then it is dangerous to claim God is wrathful or ever responds to humanity with wrath because it justifies our own wrath and vengeance. If the God we believe in and seek to be like is wrathful, whether we intend to or not, we will take on those qualities. Our world doesn’t need any more wrath or vengeance.
Julian of Norwich was a 14th century English mystic who offered a critique of the wrathful God of her fellow countrymen (men used here intentionally). Writing after the Black Plague, her voice was among those who were trying to make sense of the plague. The preachers of the time were attributing the plague to God’s wrath, saying that God caused the plague because the country had gone astray from God’s will. Let’s be really clear about what they were saying: God caused people to die because they were being bad. Yet, somehow to them, God was still loving. (Sounds like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell today).
Julian’s message was different. She said, “In God, I see no wrath.” Not only were these men wrong, they were defaming the name of God saying that this mass murder was God’s making.
She goes on to say,
“And so in all this contemplation it seemed to me that it was necessary to see and to know that we are sinners and commit many evil deeds which we ought to forsake, and that we deserve pain, blame and wrath. And despite all this, I saw truly that our Lord was never angry, and never will be. Because he is God, he is good, he is truth, he is love, he is peace; and his power, his wisdom, his charity, and his unity do not allow him to be angry. For I saw truly that it is against the property of his power to be angry, and against the property of his wisdom and against the property of his goodness. God is that goodness which cannot be angry, for God is nothing but goodness.”
Revelations of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich
For God is nothing but goodness. Julian shows us that God is never angry at us. It is indeed against God’s very identity to be angry at us. God is nothing but good. God is nothing but love.
Sometimes we have to repeat that over and over to ourselves because the message of God’s wrath is so toxic and so widespread.
You might say, “But what about all of those passages in the Bible where God gets angry and people are killed?” You have a point. But keep in mind that the writers of the Bible were writing their experiences and perceptions of God. In that time, the perception of God as violent and vengeful was par for the course. They were writing according to what they’ve always known, while simultaneously trying to fit the mystery of God into finite words.
Richard Rohr says, “We project onto God our way of loving.” This explains so much. The people in the Bible were projecting onto God their own anger and violence toward their neighbors. If they put that anger on God, it sanctioned their own violence. Julian addresses her audience with a similar proposition. She writes that while she realizes that humans sin and cause problems in the world for which they should be punished, but she also realizes that the feeling of the need of punishment is a human perception and not a reality in God’s eyes. We may feel like we need to be punished, but God feels like we need to be loved. We may feel like our wrong cannot be overcome, but God feels like love, not anger, can overcome all.
This brings us to a translation issue in our Bibles. Proverbs 9:10 says “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The word for fear here is better translated as awe. We were never intended to be afraid of God. It is a very different idea to say that we are afraid of God and in awe of God. Awe commands respect, but also conjures images of mystery, greatness, and most of all goodness.
In God, I see no wrath.