Why Does it Feel So Good When My Enemies Fall or Fail?

 

Why Does it Feel So Good When My Enemies Fall or Fail?

 

Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21
15:1b "I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.

15:2 The LORD is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.

15:3 The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name.

15:4 "Pharaoh's chariots and his army he cast into the sea; his picked officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

15:5 The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone.  

15:6 Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power-- your right hand, O LORD, shattered the enemy.

15:7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrew your adversaries; you sent out your fury, it consumed them like stubble.

15:8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up, the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

15:9 The enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.'  

15:10 You blew with your wind, the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

15:11 "Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?  

15:20 Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing.

15:21 And Miriam sang to them: "Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea."

 

 

Matthew 18:21-22
18:21 Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?"

18:22 Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

 

 

“The horse and the rider are thrown into the sea”…sounds victorious, doesn’t it? Actually, it sounds war-like, frankly. At this stage in my life, I’m questioning almost daily, some of the “assumptions” I’ve made about a lot of things, but most especially things about God. These assumptions were often born of my upbringing in a fairly large, generally more conservative Methodist Church (of course, it didn’t become “United Methodist” until I was almost in high school). Others of them were cultured in my theology by young adult years lived in the midst of the “Jesus People” revolution that came East from the “Maranatha” (Calvary Chapel) revival on the West Coast, and through the Charismatic revival that grew out of happenings right here in Pittsburgh, and at Notre Dame (The South Bend, Indiana one). The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association had a hand in it, too, as I was involved as a “counselor” for one of their youth-aimed, major motion pictures (“Time to Run”) that played in my home town. 

 

Seminary was certainly the genesis of much of my “questioning” of some of the assumptions evangelicalism had planted in me. My two degrees from a major seminary in the Protestant tradition taught me how to more properly and ethically interpret the Bible, and for this, I am indeed most grateful. Seminary exposed me to numerous ways to understand and view what evangelicalism calls “the atonement.” In classic evangelicalism, the accepted view is “substitutionary” atonement, meaning that Jesus served as a “substitute” sacrifice on the cross, propitiating for the sins of us all. This is one of the things I have pretty much rejected, in my latter-day questioning period. Let me explain.

 

Evangelicalism focuses so heavily on the “substitutionary” model that it makes two major mistakes, in my view. First of all, it posits that God “hates” sin, and therefore “hates” sinners, to the degree that God doesn’t want to “look” at us. I would call this the “Angry God” view. Jesus serves as the “meat sacrifice,” with his blood “washing away” our sins so God can tolerate us. While even a little bit of theological reflection will point out numerous shortcomings of this view, one big one is that with the “Angry God,” we are always living in fear that something we do or say will get God riled up again. We may be motivated, therefore, to live our spiritual lives in fear, and not the kind of fear the Bible means, which is a respectful, awe-inspired “fear,” not meaning that we have to “be afraid” of God. If this is what is meant, wouldn’t this be a sign that we are living in an abusive relationship with God? I can’t buy that.

 

No, I have come to believe that the Christ Event “redirected” the focus of our relationship with God to understand God as a LOVING God, who, in Christ Jesus, is helping us realize that God loves US, and desires that we “mimic” God’s reconciling with US, by reconciling with OTHERS, and loving THEM the way God loves US. This is the on-going, atoning work of the Christ Event. It introduces a whole new way to SEE the reality of the kind of relationship that God wants to have with US, and would like us to have with OTHERS, and also with the whole of CREATION. In the Christ Event, God makes a “connection” with humanity that is both efficacious and eternal. It re-focuses us on God’s LOVE, not God’s anger. While a matter for another sermon (or a hundred more sermons!), the on-going and wide-reaching “effects” of the Christ Event are so much more than could possibly be confined to something as narrow as the “substitutionary” view of the atonement, or even to a single set of “orthodox” doctrines. The Christ Event continues to “live out” in our midst, and widens, proactively, to include more and more of the created order. God’s goal, according to II Corinthians 5 is to “reconcile the world to Godself.” Is not this an on-going process? 

 

This broader view of the atonement and the Christ Event is much harder to “live into” than the substitutionary model. In the latter, it is simple: we are sinners, God hates sin, so God needs a sacrifice to atone for our sin. Jesus is that sacrifice. Believe in him, “plead the blood,” and your sins are forgiven, and God is no longer angry with you. Now go and tell someone that they need to do this, too. If they don’t? Tough luck. I got mine; sorry about you. (I realize that this is an oversimplification, and that most “evangelicals” witness to their “salvation” out of a concern for their “fellow man,” and feel compelled to offer them the same salvation they have found, but I submit that it is still a model based on fear, and angry God who needs appeased, and includes a “hell avoidance” clause.) 

 

The “God is Love” model of the Christ Event posits a God whose motive is nothing but love for us and for the creation. “For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son, that WHOSOEVER believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.” Heard that before? This view operates on the idea that our witness is that God loves us all, and that in Christ, God IS reconciling the WHOLE WORLD to Godself, and desires that we “pay it forward” by offering God’s love and acceptance to others via reconciliation. It’s not easy, as I said. Honestly, there is something in us that likes to think that we have something that sets us apart, and our natural tendency is to “lord it over” others, because of it. And if we DO offer it to them, we want them to believe it and accept it just the way WE did (and do), otherwise, they are still “lost in their sin.” (This “natural” tendency to operate out of the “anger” model may very well be the original sin!) It’s so much harder to “fix” all of our relationships, love people we find easier to dislike, and be willing to forgive those who we believe have wronged us. 

 

Now, here is the “title point” of this message, given our first text, and my opening paragraph: We have such a tendency to want God to stand up and be the “final authority” defending our views, and in doing so, obliterate our opposition. This may be the central reason we so quickly gloat when “one of our enemies” goes into the sea on their horse! When someone we have an issue with, or we just can’t abide, “gets his.” (I’ll do my best to steer clear of the political realm in this message, but clearly this principle may well be what is behind our “fighting” opposition between the parties, with each hoping the next election will “vindicate” our “side.”) Religious leaders, though, are just as bad. Remember a few years back when people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell suggested that natural disasters like hurricanes or earthquakes were God’s “anger” over the “liberal, sinful directions our country was taking”? And AIDS was “God’s punishment” for homosexuality? 

 

In the midst of some of Jesus’ teaching about reconciling, Peter, the “great mouthpiece” of the human condition, asked Jesus how many times he “had to forgive” someone who “sins against” him. I’m sure he was hoping for a number, even suggesting a generous one would be “seven” (a good Bible number). Peter, like most of us, was willing to extend a small olive branch to some “lousy sinner” who has wronged us, or is at least WRONG, but at some point, we should get God’s “go ahead” to smite them, when they don’t capitulate. Jesus gives one of those answers to which he is prone, making our lives more complicated, yet loving, ultimately. His “seventy times seven” is a neat way of saying, “ALWAYS.” We aren’t called to offer olive branches OR smite people, but to keep on forgiving and loving them, even if they nail us to a tree. We have an example. 

 

Friends, this is hard stuff! We WAY too often LIKE retribution, especially if we have been granted immunity, but our enemies are in the crosshairs of a “Rambo” God! We get an adrenalin rush when someone we despise (or even someone we are having a temporary grievance with) “goes into the sea,” and if it seems to be GOD who puts them there, even better! But that is not the God of the Bible. We must recognize that these tales of God’s “fighting our battles” or being so vengeful are some of that “history written by the winners” we hear so much about. They are feel-good verses for “bad victors,” in the worst case, or are in the Bible more as a warning to us that we shouldn’t gloat when even a short-term adversary falls on their face, in the best case. If God IS love, the human bias toward vengeance and its celebration is, in itself, sinful behavior.

 

A couple more thoughts. First of all, watch for those Christian people who DON’T gloat when bad things happen to “bad” people. These are your mature Christians. Look for those who pray for and exhibit compassion toward even some of the world’s greatest and most universally-despised “scoundrels” when things go very wrong for them. These are your stronger disciples. And keep an eye out for those who just keep on forgiving, even when they are being consistently victimized. (This doesn’t mean they don’t seek justice, but they DO focus on the justice, rather than growing a pack of hate toward the one doing the victimizing.) These are the people Jesus says we should emulate them, for they are emulating HIM!

 

A second thought. Years ago, a wise preacher told me, “I preach to myself. If you get in the way, that’s your own business.” What I took from that is that I would be wise to expose my OWN sins and preach toward their resolve, and many in my congregation just may find a degree of identification with this. They will, therefore, make their own connections with any convictions which may occur. Friends, this is what I’m doing here today. I WISH I could say that I’m one of those mature Christians from the last paragraph. I am not. I still gloat too much when an “enemy” falls, and store up some anger and even hatred for the worst “offenders” on my national or global list of “scoundrels.” One element of maturity that I have tried to manifest is the willingness to admit when I’M wrong, or have done something harmful, hurtful, or even ignorant toward another, and not deflect blame. These admissions are more than confessions--they are part of an effort to build compassion for “the other” by understanding that any of us may give in to less than godly attitudes and behavior. While being willing to receive appropriate “blame” for my own faults (“sins”), I confess to still feeling “too good” when an adversary stumbles, though. I have a long way to go! 

 

One fine word. This process of being reconciled AND becoming a reconciler is largely a human process. Oh sure, the Holy Spirit is quite involved, both in convicting me of my faults, and then in prodding me to forgive and love others like Jesus does for me, but I have to make the effort, and KEEP making the effort, until doing so becomes a lifestyle. But through it all, I am eternally absolved AND loved by God. God’s love has trumped any judgment that should have come my way—and YOURS, TOO! This is a love-based process. If it is fear-based, it will fail. And it will take practice to get it right, so let’s stay at it! Like it or not, God loves Pharoah’s army, too! Amen.