When the Homily is about Immunology

Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God Irreparable State of Being

I can vividly recall reading this sermon preached by Jonathan Edwards in my High School literature class. We, as a class, made fun of its “fire and brimstone – repent or die” context, marveling at the naivety of the mid 18th century. I was not a Christian at the time, but once I became a Christian I still viewed Edward’s notion of God’s wrathful justice as being overly zealous. Curiously, his sermons (many of which shared a similar theme) were fuel for what would come to be know as a period of “Great Awakening” in America. Hmmmm....

Here is an excerpt:
They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell.

But, honestly, I have to admit that in my time in Youth Ministry with the Assemblies of God, I preached a few sermons that carried a similar theme – desperately trying to get teens to “sign on the dotted line (aka "praying the sinner's prayer") I regret those sermons now, and I would certainly take them back if I could. But really can we say that Protestant theology with its emphasis on substitutionary atonement contradicts Edwards’ sermon? Is it not God who is angered and offended by our sin? Is it not God who “sends” people to eternal torment? We break God’s law and we do the time…unless we “sign on the dotted line” BEFORE we die. So it is said.

Yesterday I made the mistake – again – of listening to the “Bible Answer Man” on the way home. And Hank was talking about atonement. The plethora of legal terminology that flowed from him was nothing less than astounding to me! He even used courtroom analogies and words found nowhere in scripture, but everywhere in modern legal documents. And then we are told how Christ essentially takes the lethal injection in our place and the wrath of God is poured out on Him instead of us. YIKES! It is as if the resurrection was kinda of a neat little trick God played after redeeming us so that we could ooh and ahh.

Now the Orthodox believe that atonement is ultimately a mystery and that the scriptures and the teachings of the church give us IMAGES (Icons if you will) of atonement. In other words, not literal or clinical or legal definitions of how it works but instead literary facets of a diamond which we cannot fully comprehend. Substitutionary atonement is certainly one of those facets, but it is not emphasized in Orthodoxy and in fact is downplayed a lot in favor of the other facets, which I will discuss in another post. The point being we cannot turn these facets into the whole nor can we give to them life unto themselves. One facet does not a diamond make, and for the Orthodox, the Resurrection is the very carbon of the stone.

I am reminded today that we are NOT “Sinners in the hand of an angry God” but instead sinners in a bad situation…a predicament. Unfortunately for some it is an irreparable predicament in which it has become ontologically too late. But as I have said before, it is never chronologically too late.

Lord, remember me in you Kingdom…