God almighty! (Part 2)

I believe in Jesus Christ,..

who…suffered…died, and was buried.

—2^nd article of the Apostles’ Creed

Blessed are the peacemakers: 

they shall be recognized as children of God.

— Matthew 5:9

As I stated yesterday, within the “biblical symphony” there are two themes competing for our ear. One theme consistently supports the idea that God is violent and wrathful. The other theme resonates with God’s mercy, peace and non-violent nature. Yesterday, the question I left unanswered was “How do we know which theme represents God”?

When we check with Jesus, our chief source for understanding God, we see that Jesus had the option of violence at his disposal. He could have used violence to achieve his aim at any point along the way. But no. Jesus did not advocate for or give in to violence.  More so, Jesus chose to embody the melody of God’s non-violent nature.  Listen to how author Derek Flood describes Jesus’ approach to violence:

“The Gospels’ frequent accounts of Jesus’ confrontations with the Pharisees demonstrate that Jesus made a habit of questioning and rejecting how Scripture was read and applied whenever he saw that this was hurting people. This led Jesus to embrace… certain narratives that speak of restoration and mercy, and reject other narratives found in those same Scriptures which instead uphold committing or justifying violence in God’s name.

John Dear, an American peace activist, lecturer, author and Catholic priest suggests that Jesus teaching in the Sermon on the Mount is a complete repudiation of any depiction of a violent, wrathful God. Dear writes:

With this Beatitude [Blessed are the peacemakers] Jesus announces that God is a peacemaker…With this teaching, Jesus describes the nature of God as nonviolent and peaceful. This one verse throws out thousands of years of belief in a violent god and every reference to a war-making god in the Hebrew Scriptures. It does away with any spiritual justification for warfare . . . . Instead, it opens vast new vistas in our imaginations about what the living God is actually like, and what God’s [peaceful] reign might be like . . .

Digging deeper, uncovering the radical source, Jesus, we see embodied in his life and teaching, the way of peace, God’s way of peace. This is the theme we are to attend to as we seek new understandings of God. 

So, neither the Bible, nor God has a “violence”—problem…Rather, there is an interpretation problem. Violence still abounds. With whom then does the problem lie?  

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Dove of Peace by Banksy. Photographed in Bethlehem by Eric Murray.

Disarming Scripture: Cherry-Picking Liberals, Violence-Loving Conservatives, and Why We All Need to Learn to Read the Bible Like Jesus Did Paperback – November 27, 2014 by Derek Flood.

Children of God, Wednesday, February 7, 2018, Center for Action and Contemplation (Sermon on the Mount: Week 2)