The God I Know

As news of the tragedy in Aurora, CO continues to unfold, I am gratified that so many people have spoken out in these first hours and days about the importance of not using this tragedy to forward a political agenda.  Tragedies such as this are only compounded when they are used as craven political tools.  The President and Gov. Romney both showed patriotic leadership by suspending their political activities and calling for a day of mourning and respect.  

Unfortunately one politician has already tried to make hay of these events.  An advocate for making the United States an exclusively Christian nation (and likely only his particular brand of Christianity), Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas was on the radio today and forwarded his theory that this senseless tragedy is a symptom of “ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs.”  The foolishness of that statement is manifest.  What is really troubling is what Gohmert says later in the interview.  He goes on to claim that God has been pushed out of national life and ask, “what have we done with God?”

Just a few days ago, George Zimmerman, the man who has admitted to shooting teenager Treyvon Martin on February 26 of this year.  Whether or not Zimmerman bears any criminal liability remains to be determined.  In the midst of the media frenzy, Zimmerman and his attorney went on FoxNews recently for an interview with Sean Hannity.  During the interview Zimmerman was asked if he had any regrets about that night.  Zimmerman responded that he did not saying, “I feel like it was all God’s plan.”  Zimmerman did later offer his prayers for Martin’s family.

Both Gohmert and Zimmerman invoke the name of God in reference to their narratives about world events.  Gohmert fears that God has been somehow banished from public life.  Zimmerman recalls an image of God as divine puppeteer drawing and relaxing the strings as world events unfold below.  These two conflicting images of God, one of a weak deity powerless before the forces of politics and one of a controlling deity manipulating human events without regard to consequence, are the two faces of a god of convenience invented to support the civil religion of modern America.

Although Zimmerman’s evocation of God as the cause of the events of that tragic night is troubling, more troubling still is the image of God Gohmert and so many others promote.  According to this narrative, a generically Judeo-Christian God wills that this be a Christian nation, however the evil forces of secularism have sidelined all things religious and banished God from the scene. 

Is this the same God who parted the seas and let the people of Israel pass from Pharaoh’s hands?  Is this the same God who, when the people strayed, sent prophet after prophet after prophet to call them back even in the midst of captivity?  Is this the same God who, in love and devotion, sent God’s only son into the world to live and die as one of us only to defeat death and rise again on the third day? 

There is a great song in the 1970's musical "One By One" which tells the story of Noah and his family.  Noah, whose confidence in God will not be shaken, sings the song "The God I Know."  The God he knows will never abandon them.  I thought of that song when I read Gohmert's remarks.  The God I know and the one he was talking about seem like very very different things.

This image of God as victim may be politically convenient but it is hardly biblical.  God’s covenant is not negated because no one particular understanding of the divine is forced on our public life.  God is not a victim of secularism.  God is God no matter what happens or what the world may do.

One of the reasons this narrative of “God as victim of secular humanism” finds such purchase in culture is that there is not a competing narrative.  If the only flavor of ice cream you taste is vanilla, then it is easy to think that all ice cream is vanilla.  The same is true for the gospel.  If the only gospel that is publicly proclaimed is the gospel of God as victim, it is no wonder that so many people view the church as little more than a cranky old man railing against the loud music and “progress.”

In truth, the narrative of Jesus Christ is more powerful than any politically expedient pseudo-theology can ever be. 

Jesus Christ says, “I am with you always.”  In the beauty, in joy, in sorrow, in hope, in despair and, yes, in a crowded midnight movie where human brokenness takes a deadly turn.  Christ is with the victims, their families, those who care for and treat their wounds and those who are charged with bringing a measure of safety and normalcy back to the city of Aurora and to us all.  Christ promises to be with us always and Christ is as good as his word.

Jesus Christ says, “You will be with me in paradise,” to the convict on the cross next to him.  In our shining moments of faith and in our deepest prisons of sin, Christ does not abandon us.  Christ is in the prison cell with the troubled young man who did this unspeakable thing, with his family and friends who seek some measure of understanding and with all who, captive to the brokenness of this world, need him most.  He is not there because any of us deserve for him to be there.  He is there because he is the Christ and the Christ does not forsake us.

Jesus Christ says, “put your sword back in its place for those who live by the sword will die by the sword.”  It is not upon us to exact vengeance on this young man but to fervently and ceaselessly pray for him and for the victims.  To pray, like the persistent widow and the faithless judge’s door, without ceasing.  Jesus Christ calls us to live a different way to live.

The God made known in Jesus Christ is not a weak willed generic deity hoping to be found worthy of political and social acceptance.  And God is not a petulant child who storms away because we do not do just as God expects us to.  No, the God made known in Jesus Christ is a God who, when floods, commandments, exile and prophets do not work, sends his only son to live, die and rise for us all.

That is the story of Christ and the story of Christ is the story of the church.  Christ does not wait for permission to love us or give himself for us.  And nothing, Congressman Gohmert, can relegate that story to the background.