Today was celebrated as "World Kindness Day." And, although kindness seems to be currently out-of-style in the United States, it is a quality that is consistently associated with the God of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures. Indeed, in the one hundred and forty-fifth Psalm, we read: "The LORD is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness." (Verse 17) Moreover, in the book of Proverbs, we humans are advised that "Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you." (11:17) Paul also told the saints of Galatia that kindness was one of the "fruits" or evidences of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). In the Epistle to the saints at Ephesus, we read: "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So, we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding." (Ephesians 1:3-8) Likewise, in the first Epistle of Peter, we read: "In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So, after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation." (I Peter 5:10)
Your statement about God's kindness puts me in mind of the Wizard of Oz. He was able to project himself, though a timid man, in displays of great anger. In Baum's characterization this was the personal aura the Wizard decided to cultivate in order to lord over the munchkin population. Throughout my munchkin years, I witnessed many displays of calculated, manipulative anger from the pulpit.
ReplyDeleteIt always seemed that this anger from the pulpit was gratuitiously connected to God the Father. The pulpitmeister was thought by the credulous audience to reflect the character of God the Father. And the impression given was that the Father was demanding, strident, wrathful and derided his followers. His potency lay in his virility, masculinity and legalism. This was also thought to be true leadership. But it was all really just a grave calumny against God enacted by the pulpitmeister for Ozian purposes.
How refreshing is the Christian doctrine of Homoousion. God is one in substance with Jesus. If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father. The idea that the compassionate (maybe not so virile) Jesus has to protect us from the wrathful Father is a fictional though popular image among many religious denominations. This makes Jesus and the Father separate in character and being or bi-theistic. I have a theory that this stems from Arianist influences in the history of some denominations.
I don't believe that the God family is a dysfunctional family with a wrathful father and a kind son. Carrying the train of thought further, our atheist friends cannot understand why a kind father and kind son would permit the existence of a horrid world. This is where the Apokatastasis, God's ultimate act of kindness, comes into the picture but that is another topic.