Year A, Proper 19
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
North Andover, Massachusetts
The Rev. Stephanie Chase Wilson

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

I wonder how many of us remember the movie “the Ten Commandments” with Charlton Heston? I’ve always loved that movie. Seeing the grandeur of Egypt, feeling the pain of poor Moses left for dead in the desert, marveling at the cast of thousands leaving Egypt, being astounded at the waters of the Red Sea parting as the Israelites flee the Egyptian army. The characters are memorable, the sets awesome. Even the casual dialog is inspiring. At one point Nefretiri, wishing to encourage Moses says to him, “You will be king of Egypt and I will be your footstool!” Moses replies, “The man stupid enough to use you as a footstool isn’t wise enough to rule Egypt.” It’s a great movie and it comes from a great story. This is the foundational story of the Jewish people, how God remains faithful to the Israelites and the promise of Abraham, even when all seems lost. They have their backs against the wall, or in this case the water, the situation is impossible, and God still finds a way to save them and lead them from slavery into freedom.

There is one part of the story that is troubling, however. That is, all the suffering that God causes the Egyptians. When Pharaoh won’t let the Israelites leave, the Egyptians suffer from 10 plagues, ending with the most terrifying one: the death of the firstborn. I always felt very sorry for the poor little son of Pharaoh who in death was laid limply on the arms of his pagan God. And when the Israelites finally cross the Red Sea, God allows the waters to fall back over the Egyptian army and kill them all. On one hand you are thinking “Yeah, the enemy is defeated.” On the other hand you are wondering why would a loving God engage in this sort of violence? Couldn’t the Egyptians been saved too?

This reading from Exodus today is in sharp contrast to the New Testament reading. Here Peter asks if when someone sins whether he should be forgiven as many as seven times. Jesus answers “seventy-seven times.” Jesus’ point is that God is merciful and so we too must be merciful and forgiving to others. So then, why weren’t the Egyptians forgiven? Why when they sin are they drowned in the Red Sea, but when other people sin Jesus says to endlessly forgive them?

Putting these two Bible stories together forces us to wrestle with some seeming contradictions in the Bible. Because of these and other passages, some people have even argued that there are two different Gods in scripture: the vengeful, violent Old Testament God and the gentle, loving, merciful New Testament God. After all, the Old Testament God is the one who said, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” while Jesus said, “turn the other cheek.” Are there two different Gods? Are there two different messages in the Old and New Testaments?

I think one of the keys in understanding what’s going on here is found in a reading from Luke, which is similar, but not exactly the same, to the one we read today from Matthew. In it Jesus says, “If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.” The difference between the Luke passage and the Matthew passage is the need for repentance. In other words, Matthew says we must forgive seventy seven times, but Luke says we must forgive only when there is repentance, and then, of course, that forgiveness must extend endlessly, for as many times as one repents. We are to be merciful and forgiving to those who sin against us and repent, but even our God does not forgive the unrepentant sinner. Yet we tend to gloss over these uncomfortable stories about God because they don’t fit into our understanding of gentle Jesus meek and mild. Are there passages in the New Testament where God sounds like the vindictive God of the Old Testament? Actually, quite a few.

For instance, in Luke 21 Jesus says, “for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfillment of all that is written.”  Jesus also tells lots of parables like the one we heard today in Matthew where the antagonist, the unrepentant sinner, in the story is thrown into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The Old Testament, of course has many passages like this. So we have to ask ourselves, why on earth is this good news? Why do we worship a God who drowns Egyptians, sends fire to the earth, and seeks vengeance? I don’t think this is the God I signed up for! With a model of God like this it’s not surprising that some Christians find preemptive strikes a good thing, or beating up gays a Christian responsibility, or firing a semi-automatic into the crowd of “liberal” Unitarians understandable, as was done in Tennessee a few weeks ago. What are we to make of this? What is the message we are getting from this?

I spent a lot of time this week looking up scripture passages to find out what sort of vengeance and violence were portrayed and why. Turns out this is a bigger topic than can be fully addressed in a single sermon, but here are a few thoughts along the way:

First, whatever God may do in the matter of vengeance, we are not to engage in it ourselves. In fact, it was the God of the Old Testament, in Leviticus 19 who first said, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” God may decide something needs to be done to someone in the manner of vengeance, but our job as mere humans is to love our neighbor. Some Christians interpret this to mean we must be pacificists. I would suggest that we need police and a military. However they are not for the purposes of gaining wealth, power or revenge, but only as a defense against evil, and using force only reluctantly as a last resort.

A second observation is that God seems to engage in vengeance and violence only in response to the unrepentant sinner. For instance, the Egyptians were punished in the Red Sea, but they had been given warning after warning in the manner of the ten plagues, and still they insisted on oppressing the Israelites as slaves. They found nothing wrong in killing and enslaving the people for their own profit. God could not permit this evil to continue. He had to kill them in order for the madness to end. In fact, there is an ancient Jewish story about the Exodus in which an archangel in heaven was celebrating the defeat of the Egyptian army in the sea and God asks, “"Why do you celebrate while the work of my hands is being destroyed?” Their deaths may have been necessary, but God does not take pleasure in it.

Now there are all kinds of sins, but all of them boil down to Jesus’ summary of loving God and loving neighbor. And the sins which most anger God, which most bring about God’s violence and wrath, are the sins where one person or group oppresses another. Where the law to love neighbor is fundamentally ignored. This is said over and over again throughout both the Old and New Testament.

Psalm 94 “O Lord, you God of vengeance, you God of vengeance, shine forth! Rise up, O judge of the earth; give to the proud what they deserve! O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast. They crush your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. They kill the widow and the stranger, they murder the orphan …He who disciplines the nations, he who teaches knowledge to humankind, does he not chastise?” God is not capricious about violence, it is with a purpose. Evildoers will only receive what they deserve.

To the people who are suffering, to the people who are cheated, and oppressed at the hands of the wicked, the punishment of the Lord is a GOOD thing! To the people of Zimbabwe, to those suffering in Georgia, to those in our own country who are cheated by unscrupulous investors, or identity theft, or suffer racism, sexism, or injustice – to all of us this is great! The Bible is filled with the stories of the suffering rejoicing that what was wrong will be made right, that evil will not prevail.

Even Charlton Heston as Moses, when speaking to his father Pharoah says, “No son could have more love for you than I.” and his father asks, “Then why are you forcing me to destroy you? What evil has done this to you?” and Moses answers, “The evil that men should turn their brothers into beasts of burden, to be stripped of spirit, and hope, and strength - only because they are of another race, another creed. If there is a god, he did not mean this to be so.”

We worship a loving God, but love is not a feeling, love is a commitment. And our God is committed to humanity. And when certain parts of humanity commit evil over and over, love demands a response. The Bible speaks of a day of judgment. A day of darkness. But also a day of joy. It is a day when all wrongs will be made right. When goodness will triumph over evil. God, in love, will ultimately ensure that the world will be made right. As a loving parent, God wants us all to be part of that Kingdom, but some will not wish to, and God grieves their loss.

I believe the Gods of the Old and New Testament are the same. Jesus himself said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Jesus’ message was to clarify the old covenant and give us specifics on how to live in the Kingdom. For instance, in the ancient near east it was common for people of a higher status to harm those of a lower status, and those who were lower had no recourse. If you took out a nobleman’s eye, you would loose your life in response. While a nobleman could accidentally kill your son and only loose a finger in response. The God of the Israelites, however, said that all people are equal. No one gets preferential treatment, therefore “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” was a revolutionary and progressive law. No longer could the rich and powerful trample on the lives of the weak. God demands justice. Jesus simply took it one step farther and said, love isn’t just about justice, it is also about humility and service. It is about turning the other cheek. The God of both Testaments has a love and justice ethic, but Jesus just takes it one step farther.

God is not capricious, God judges. There are repercussions for our actions, particularly those which hurt and oppress others. Those are most egregious types of sins. Throughout the Old and New Testament God balances judgment and promise. We are judged by how much we unrepentantly cause the suffering of others, and are promised joy and wholeness when we repent and follow God to the best of our abilities. This is great news. God sticks up for us against evil. And God loves us enough to expect that we love others as they are to love us. If we sin and make a mistake, we need only repent, and God will forgive. We will be welcomed into the kingdom with open arms. Thanks be to God.
Amen.