The LORD is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him, even in a rushing flood.
Nineveh is again in trouble. After Jonah’s efforts, and Nineveh’s repentance, they’re back to doing all sorts of trouble. At one point the prophet Nahum exclaims that there will be “devastation, desolation, and destruction!” I’m not sure what to make of all of these prophets and their dire predictions, and their confidence in a wrathful God. The God I’ve learned about through Jesus is far more forgiving and merciful. Because I’ve expressed this conflicted thought, I’ve had a few friends who are accompanying me on this year-long read through the Bible offer their thoughts.
One suggested that God actually learned about our humanity through Jesus’ humanity. God always loved us, but through Jesus, God’s love was made perfect. I like this. My only challenge is that this means that God’s love was imperfect or incomplete before Jesus. This feels to me like a slippery slide, as it becomes easier to dismiss the God of Hebrew Scriptures, if I don’t like what God’s saying or doing. This means I can whittle God down to the God that perfectly fits in my understanding, and I’m sure that’s a dangerous thing. But in general, I do like the idea that Jesus is God’s love made perfect.
Another friend suggested that these rants say more about the prophet, than God. In every instance, I’m sure there were bad things happening, and the people needed to be reminded of what God’s kingdom looks like, in contrast to their environs. And I believe all of the prophets heard the word of God. The question is what they did with that word. If there was a prophet who was like Eeyore, his recounting of God’s message might be something like, “you’re all going to be smited. We’re all doomed.” If the prophet was more like Rabbit, it might sound like, “we need to get going! Bad things are going to happen! Change your ways! Let’s go now!” And so on. The prophets recounted God’s message through the prophets’ lenses; how could they not?
The prophet Nahum is suggesting that God will take care of those who take refuge in God, but the guilty God will punish. What about us? Aren’t we all guilty of things? And like the poor people of Nineveh, aren’t we guilty of repeating our sins, after we’ve tried to turn back to God?
The accompanying reflection for the book of Nahum is from Kierkegaard and he focuses on the act of confession. He points out that God already knows of our sins, and knows of our motives when we make our confession. Kierkegaard suggests that we make our confessions not for God, but for ourselves. God already knows all, our intentions and our motives. God learns nothing from our confession. But at their best, we can learn from our confessions. We learn about our intentions and our motives.
This changes things for me. There are time when I’m offering a confession, either at church or by myself, I do get the sense that I’m providing a reckoning for God, so God’s aware of what I’ve done. God’s going to check my confession and it’s thoroughness against God’s knowledge of what I’ve done. I’d better list all of the things I did wrong, because if I do, I did it right. If I miss things, God knows, and that’s not good.
I do think this is partially true, that we are expected to take a thorough inventory, and place it before God. But I don’t think it’s so God can check it against God’s cosmic list of my sins. Rather, I think it’s because I need to take stock of my motives, intentions and behavior. I can learn from my past behavior. It’s like the business adage, if you don’t measure it, you can’t change it. If I don’t have any sense of what I’ve done in the past, I can’t change what I’ll do in the future.
This morning, I’m thinking about confession, and the gift it could be to me, if I’m able to stop thinking about God’s cosmic list of when I’m naughty or nice.
One suggested that God actually learned about our humanity through Jesus’ humanity. God always loved us, but through Jesus, God’s love was made perfect. I like this. My only challenge is that this means that God’s love was imperfect or incomplete before Jesus. This feels to me like a slippery slide, as it becomes easier to dismiss the God of Hebrew Scriptures, if I don’t like what God’s saying or doing. This means I can whittle God down to the God that perfectly fits in my understanding, and I’m sure that’s a dangerous thing. But in general, I do like the idea that Jesus is God’s love made perfect.
Another friend suggested that these rants say more about the prophet, than God. In every instance, I’m sure there were bad things happening, and the people needed to be reminded of what God’s kingdom looks like, in contrast to their environs. And I believe all of the prophets heard the word of God. The question is what they did with that word. If there was a prophet who was like Eeyore, his recounting of God’s message might be something like, “you’re all going to be smited. We’re all doomed.” If the prophet was more like Rabbit, it might sound like, “we need to get going! Bad things are going to happen! Change your ways! Let’s go now!” And so on. The prophets recounted God’s message through the prophets’ lenses; how could they not?
The prophet Nahum is suggesting that God will take care of those who take refuge in God, but the guilty God will punish. What about us? Aren’t we all guilty of things? And like the poor people of Nineveh, aren’t we guilty of repeating our sins, after we’ve tried to turn back to God?
The accompanying reflection for the book of Nahum is from Kierkegaard and he focuses on the act of confession. He points out that God already knows of our sins, and knows of our motives when we make our confession. Kierkegaard suggests that we make our confessions not for God, but for ourselves. God already knows all, our intentions and our motives. God learns nothing from our confession. But at their best, we can learn from our confessions. We learn about our intentions and our motives.
This changes things for me. There are time when I’m offering a confession, either at church or by myself, I do get the sense that I’m providing a reckoning for God, so God’s aware of what I’ve done. God’s going to check my confession and it’s thoroughness against God’s knowledge of what I’ve done. I’d better list all of the things I did wrong, because if I do, I did it right. If I miss things, God knows, and that’s not good.
I do think this is partially true, that we are expected to take a thorough inventory, and place it before God. But I don’t think it’s so God can check it against God’s cosmic list of my sins. Rather, I think it’s because I need to take stock of my motives, intentions and behavior. I can learn from my past behavior. It’s like the business adage, if you don’t measure it, you can’t change it. If I don’t have any sense of what I’ve done in the past, I can’t change what I’ll do in the future.
This morning, I’m thinking about confession, and the gift it could be to me, if I’m able to stop thinking about God’s cosmic list of when I’m naughty or nice.
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