I think Jonathan Edwards was a little unhinged, but I've never understood the wholesale rejection of an angry God. There are days when things are just wrong, and I want someone to regulate. Don't misunderstand me-- I've been the recipient of misdirected rage and violence, and that's not how I want to see God's character. But that's not all anger is-- anger is also an appropriate response to deep injustice. When someone I love is treated badly, I want the person responsible to fall down in a gutter from a heart attack, and have their face eaten off by rats. That's how I know it should be God doing the regulating, and not me.
If God gets angry when we hurt each other, I don't have to fling myself onto the nearest horse and turn to outlaw justice. It also saves me from being a kangaroo court: God gets to decide who's guilty, and what should be done about it, not me. Plus, God gets to make the corrections, because God knows everyone's souls-- mine and yours and even the soul of that dirtbag I'm mad at. God knows where and how we need to turn around.
This matters today, because someone was a complete ass to a person I love, and I wanted a baseball bat.
But it's not my bat. And the rats aren't mine to control, either. Thanks be to God.
amen, Diana.
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