The Wrath and Love of God and Prop. 8

In Judges 2:14 we read that because the Israelites turned to other gods, “the anger of the Lord was kindled...he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them; and he sold them into the power of their enemies round about so t hat they could no longer withstand their enemies.” But then, just a verse later, we read that in response to the suffering of Israel, God in his pity “raised up judges who saved them out of the power of those who plundered them” (vs. 16). It is interesting here that instead of withdrawing the Philistines and the other enemies of Israel, to whom God himself had handed them over, he raises up both judges and kings to stand against and defeat the enemies of Israel.

This is what is happening in the encounter between David and Goliath, the story of the young shepherd boy who defeats the giant Goliath and rouses the discouraged army of Israel so that with a great shout they rise up to pursue their oppressors and drive them from the land.

And this is the background to Romans 1, a chapter that in recent days invites much controversy.
In Romans 1:18-2:3, we learn that all society is thankless, we do not count our many blessings, and so, as he did with the Israelites, God hands us over to our enemies, not enemies of flesh and blood like the Philistines, but enemies that are ethereal but even more powerful. “We fight not against flesh and blood but the powers and principalities." Paul lists those enemies in his “vice catalogue” that begins in verse 1:24: “therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts...women exchanged natural relations for unnatural and men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.” But of course this catalogue of vices does not end there but goes to encompass envy and murder, strife and deceit, malignity and gossiping, slander and hating God, to name a few.

This understanding of Romans 1, helps me as a minister to answer some the questions that have been asked of me, especially as the debate grew heated around Proposition 8 in California.

Many have asked over the years if I thought men and women are “born that way” as ”lesbians or homosexuals.” The answer is is, yes of course that is possible. On the other there are also a large number of people, some known to me personally, who chose sometime in early adulthood to reject the opposite sex. But whether people have a genetic predisposition to it or whether they chose to go a certain way makes no difference to the apostle Paul. God can hands over ALL society even the littlest child in the womb to sins that range from passion for those of their own sex to a predisposition for deceit. Just as the littlest one in Israel was oppressed by the cruel and continual raids on Israel by the Philistines so from the littlest to the oldest we are all harassed and harried by the vices that attack us constantly.

And here I must emphasize that it is ALL society, including you and me, that have been thankless. ALL of us have been handed over to the vices that the Apostle Paul lists in Romans 1. Chief among them to be sure, is the unnatural relations between men and men, women and women. These unnatural relations stand like a Goliath above all the others but we must remember an entire army of giants is behind him! Perhaps we love and admire the opposite sex, we are not perhaps DIRECTLY oppressed by this “Goliath” of a vice, but we necessarily fall prey to one of the other giants on the list. If we are not envious, we are faithless; if we are not disobedient to parents, we are heartless; if we are not liars we are gossips. Not one of us can avoid the cruelties of the enemy that lies within and without.

But is this bad news? No! and no again I say!

When God in his anger against our thanklessness betrays us into the hands our enemies, in his pity he raises up a savior to stand against these enemies and give us the victory! God has raised up such a savior and his name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

He is our victory over all our enemies, including the Goliath of unnatural relations that we meet everywhere and know so intimately. But it is not just Goliath who is felled, but his many brethren. I can testify personally, I was, and am and would be in the power of many of the vices listed EXCEPT for Jesus. Except for Jesus I am bossy and mean to name just a few of my sins (some of which I believe I was born with), but that “except” makes all the difference in the world.

Many among my friends and extended family have told me that they believe there to be “nothing wrong” with so-called “gay marriage.” They say, “why not live and let live? No one is harmed.” I completely understand their point of view because I was once of the same opinion. But the Lord Jesus knows better. The Bible is as the theologian N.T. Wright points out “a love story.” How true that is, not just between Adam and Eve, but also between the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 and “Lady Zion” of Isaiah 54, between Jesus and his bride the church. There is no other book that cares so much about men and women liking and loving one another. In fact, the gospel itself is inseparable from the romance between God and Zion. We cannot proclaim the cross without proclaiming the love a man (God, the suffering servant) for a woman (Zion, the church).

Sometimes our troubles seem and indeed are, overwhelming. Our enemies, Paul’s entire catalogue of vice, poison our lives. But we are no different from the army of Israel standing utterly cowed before Goliath and their powerful enemies... and then comes someone entirely unexpected, a young shepherd going down to the stream to pick out five smooth stones for his slingshot. And suddenly when no expects it the giant falls flat, dead. And we rise up with a shout of victory, driving the cruel armies of the Philistines away. If it was such with Shepherd David, how much more is it with the Shepherd Jesus? The Israelites chased the enemy to their own gates, but with the Lord Jesus, even the “gates of hell shall not prevail.”

Little Poems for Little Ones

The Red Sea

The Lord led Israel out to the Sea
He wanted those slaves to be happy and free.

The Israelites were scared, they thought they were stuck!
But the Egyptians instead got stuck in the muck.

The Israelites were saved! They stood on the shore!
But the cruel Egyptians were no more!

And in God and Moses they were believin’
Because of the wonders their eyes were seein’

Jonah

Jonah was mad ‘cause God was so kind
“God would forgive those Ninevites!” “Was He blind?”

So out on the sea Jonah set sail at once
“No! I won’t prophesy”
“I’m no dunce!”

But our good Lord had other plans
A storm was brewin’ to beat the band.

And the prophet Jonah was thrown into the sea
He sat in the belly of the whale
days, one two and three!

And when he got out, Jonah was sent
To warn the Ninevites, they had to repent.

And the Ninevites did, both great and small
And Jonah learned something about God’s love for us all.








The Call

Fishermen, fishing on the sea
But Jesus said, Follow me!

When they heard his voice, they followed him then
He would make them fishers of men.

Jesus Rules the Sea

The waves of the sea crashed up and down
The great storm made a horrible sound!

The disciples were scared, “We’re going to die!”
And to Jesus asleep, they did fly.

And Jesus awoke and heard their plea
They didn’t know: God rules the sea!

Then Jesus stilled the storm, made the wind cease.
And all around was perfect peace.

Jesus, Our Friend

Jesus came down to the seaside that night
And helped the disciples in their plight

No fish had they caught, they were lost indeed
Silently they prayed, “Help us please!”

And Jesus came and stood on the shore
“Cast in your net, you’ll find fish galore!”

And he gave them breakfast there on the sand
And told them all about his good plans.

That all the world might be happy and free
It all started there on the sea of Galilee.

God’s Throne

God’s throne sits on a crystalline sea
He watches over us all, for he loves you and me.

A Letter to the Presbyterian Layman newspaper

Brothers and sisters,
Jesus said on the night he was betrayed, "Fear not, I have overcome
the world." That is the word for us Presbyterians in this dark night
following the actions of the most recent General Assembly.
Presbyters, elders, deacons, deaconnesses, janitors, PW members,
ministers, do not be afraid! Let nothing terrify you! Stand! Stay
in your presbyteries, resist the temptation of non-geographical
presbyteries where we can give one another false comfort, saying to
one another, "peace, peace," where there is no peace. These are the
troubles of the world today and we are not of the world but we are FOR
the world.

Remember the story in 2nd Samuel 10, Joab told Abishai his brother,
"If the Syrians are too storng for me, then you shall save me, and if
the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and save you.
Be of good courage and let us play the man for our people and for the
cities of our God; and may the Lord do what seems good to him."
Presbyterians,we must be soldiers like Joab and Abishai now. So let us
play the man, back to back, fighting the good fight. This is no time
to grow weary. I'm in the Presbytery of the Twin Cities, come and
save me from powers and principalities that are destroying it...and I
will come and with God's help, save you right back! May God do what
seems good to him!

Amy Flack, minister Ellsworth and Hager City Wisconsin

A Special Providence--Article

A Special Providence

Talking with a friend the other day, I happened to ask
him how he dealt with worry. His answer was
interesting. He said, "I know that if things don't
work out in my life, God has something better in mind
for me.” A noble thought, but is there something
lacking in it? God does have something better in mind
for us always, but that “better” must include “the
fall of a sparrow.”

Think of Hamlet. What is it he says in the last act
of the play? He says, “there is a special providence
in the fall of a sparrow.” In the final scene he
goes to the fencing match with Laertes, not knowing
that the king, his uncle, has contrived with Laertes
to poison the tip of the foil. Somehow Hamlet half
senses the evil that the king means for him. But what
Hamlet has learned in the course of the play is that
in “the fall of the sparrow” too, there is the grace
of God. It is around this understanding of suffering
that the play revolves. Should Hamlet immediately
revenge the murder of his father or not? Christianity
wars with the old pagan ways. Educated by the church,
Hamlet knows not which way to turn, to the old pagan
ways of vengeance, the old way of “fairies and
witches” or to the new way begun by “our Saviour’s
birth.” (Act I, Scene I) He does not know whether to
“suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,”
or to revenge himself, or in despair to commit suicide
over his inability to do either. But I think it is
Jesus and the Biblical understanding of suffering that
is victorious in Hamlet’s heart and mind. Yes, in
open combat he does slay his murdering uncle before
dying under the poison foil; there is a time for war,
as the Bible says, but Hamlet has also seen that
sometimes the suffering and the oppression of the
enemy is the loving will of God for us, a “special
providence.” In suffering his uncle to live, in
suffering under oppression, Hamlet has played the part
of Jesus on the cross. Moreover in these sorrows he
is loved, not hated by God. God does not mean
Hamlet’s sufferings as a curse but as a blessing upon
him and his kingdom. “There is a special providence
in the fall of a sparrow;” this is a truth that comes
only in Jesus.

Let’s remember again what my friend said, “if things
don't work out in my life, God has something better
for me.” Yes, but only if part of that “better”
includes a cross. As I understand the cross in light
of Isaiah 53, the suffering and death of the man of
sorrows is not reflective of the anger and displeasure
of God, but rather his “good pleasure.” In other
words, God is not angry with the man of sorrows but
loves him deeply. God loved Joseph but sent him into
slavery and jail, that through his sufferings all
Israel might be saved. Yes, Joseph’s brothers
“meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”
God meant Joseph to be in that prison cell, where he
would have his dreams, where he predict the future.
His prison cell was a necessary part of the salvation
of Israel and even the world. It is the same with
Jesus. It is the same with Hamlet and with us.
Without Jesus, we could well imagine our sufferings
are a curse, the displeasure of fate or the gods, or
of God himself. But with Jesus opening scripture to
us, then can we understand and even rejoice in our
sorrows. We do not suffer “the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune” but rather we are Joseph in his
prison cell in Egypt, we are Abraham and Sarah in
their long wait for a son, Samson in his death, Moses
in his suffering in the wilderness, Jeremiah in his
cry of grief, Jesus on his cross; all these, these
who were at every moment delighted in, truly loved by
God. They were put into the shadow of death on
purpose and for a purpose, a beautiful purpose by the
God who so loves the world. "What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has in store for those who wait on him."

Beauty is Truth?--Article

Beauty

Did you know that scientists have discovered tiny
chips of paint on the great statues of the ancient
western world? We are inclined to think of Greek and
Roman statues as bone white, unpainted, but it turns
out the statues were definitely done up in glorious
color. And now scientists and scholars have been able
to recreate the way they looked originally. In the
new show at Harvard, we see a copy of the statue of
the goddess Athena. She is dressed in bright green and
yellow. With golden hair and determined eyes she looks
strong, wise and terrifying. A bust of the Emperor
Caligula is also recreated. In color we are able to
see the look of sheer cruelty and perversion on his
petulant yet supremely regal face.

To go into any of the temples and see these statues
must have been overwhelming. The unpainted statues
were beautiful, but painted their beauty is rachetted
up several notches, they become truly awe-inspiring.
It was the Greek belief that in the faces of these
statues one could truly experience the divine. Seeing
the restored versions, I begin to see their point.

It was a painted statue that the cruel Antiochus
Epiphanes(“The Shining One”--215-164 B.C.) put into
the temple at Jerusalem. Let’s look at the situation
for a moment from the Greek point of view. To quote
Keats memorializing this belief in his poem “Ode on a
Grecian Urn”, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty-- that is
all ye know on earth and all ye need to know.”
Antiochus Epiphanes probably really believed that he
was saving the Jewish nation through the sheer
loveliness of the statues of the gods. He believed he
was force for the enlightenment of the whole earth,
bringing truth and glory to benighted Israel. He
despised their lack of imagery, their silly rules for
the Sabbath and their strange belief that pork eating
was forbidden. He would show them what civilization
really meant, and so into the sanctuary he brought the
“abomination of desolation.”

Antiochus Epiphanes did not understand or accept
Israel’s critique of the whole notion of beauty as
something of supreme value. The Greeks and the Romans
believed that beauty was “where it was at.” It was
this belief in beauty that helped to cause so much
confusion in the ancient world. In Sparta for
instance, women were lovers of other women and men
with men, because marriage between a man and a woman
did not matter much. It was a low thing in fact. The
Spartans seemed to have believed that beauty
transcended any relationship between the two genders.
It was beauty alone in either man or woman which was
to be worshipped and adored as the pathway to truth.
We can see the same viewpoint in the great Socratic
dialogue, “The Symposium” and throughout the great
writings of the ancient Western world.

Where does the Bible stand? We find that it has
something very surprising to say on this issue.
Beauty is demoted. In what must have seemed almost
inconceivable to the ancient world, to Israel what is
of prime importance is relationship between men and
women. God puts humble Adam and Eve, Jesus and his
bride the church front and center; it is Jesus who is
“the Way, the Truth and the Life” and his first order
of business is to bring truth and life to “Lady
Jerusalem” . In his suffering and death, he carries
away our sins, and makes a sad and grieving woman
(Zion) happy at last (see Isaiah 53 and 54). The
apostle Paul speaks of Jesus and his bride the church
whom he will one day present to himself “a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any other such
thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish”
(Ephesians 5:27).
God’s critique of the sophisticated Greeks works
itself out into everyday life. We read in Proverbs
31, “charm is a delusion and beauty is vain.” It is
the woman who knows the great goodness of the Lord
that is to be honored, not the Paris Hilton
look-alike. To the pilgrim on his way to visit the
gods and goddesses of Olympus, their images might well
have caused his knees to buckle and his breath to come
short so inspiring were they, but the Bible says these
things are vanity, dust and ashes.
It is the trustworthy woman “who sees that her
business goes well, who buys a field and plants a
vineyard out of her earnings...who reaches out her
hands to the poor” that is truly beautiful. Not to a
statue of Aphrodite does a man sing praises but rather
to his loving wife (Proverbs 31:27).

In the clash between Jerusalem and Athens, and even in
the societal clashes today God is teaching us how to
see. What is truly of value is the woman of Proverbs
31; then as now, it is the not the Playboy bunny
transfixed on glossy magazine pages, but the living
breathing woman who is to be adored and cared for, a
real non-airbrushed woman not a painted image. It is
in the love and liking between men and women that we
see a reflection of God’s glory, not in the beautiful
golden, stoney-hearted Athena.

Thoughts on Saturday's Special Presbytery Meeting-- Essay

I really am praising God; listening to Dr. Capetz'
answers and the comments upstairs helped me
tremendously in understanding this issue Biblically.
I didn't understand before Saturday WHY the apostle
Paul speaks the way he does in Romans 1 and 2. Paul
does not speak the way he does because he is
a)homophobic or b) relying on traditional Jewish
attitudes towards homosexuals but rather, he speaks
the way he does because he has met Jesus on the road
to Damascus!

On the road to Damascus, Paul meets the Lord God,
Jesus who had died on a cross. This fact, effectively
forces Paul to open the Bible to Isaiah 53, where Paul
reads about a suffering servant. But the direct
result of the sorrows of this God and man is 1) the
justification of "many" and 2) (and here's the kicker)
the happiness and freedom of Jerusalem who is pictured
as a woman. Basically we are getting an updated
version of Adam and Eve here. Turns out, Adam and Eve
are not only in Genesis but in 2nd Isaiah!

Where the rubber meets the road in all of this is that
far from being an issue of relative unimportance,
right relationship, indeed, healed relationship
between men and women is at the very heart of the
Bible, hand in hand with the cross itself, not to
mention justice and mercy.

I just have to say how amazing this is; in an earlier
time I was a classics student and you know, there is
simply no other book in the world that centers on
making a woman happy and free and victorious. Oy vey,
that's for sure.
Believe me, Socrates had absolutely no idea of making
any woman happy and Sappho had no idea that a man
could ever possibly do this! There is simply no
precedent in any of the ancient writings for "this
now is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone"

It was only in the car ride home on Saturday that this
all started to sink it...and there's a lot more to go.
I think we've just begun to mine all the treasures.

Letter

An Appeal to My Presbytery, the Presbytery of the Twin
Cities Area

On Saturday, Professor Paul Capetz’ asserted that
affirming “chastity in singleness” (Book of Order
G-6.0106b) was tantamount to taking a vow of celibacy.
This assertion at its heart calls into question the
words of the angel Gabriel, “with God nothing will be
impossible” (Luke 1:37, RSV). As Jesus reiterated,
“with men it is impossible, but with God all things
are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
And yet, in restoring Professor Capetz as minister
member in the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, we
say to the church and the world that there is at least
one thing that is impossible with God, namely,
redemption for men who desire men and women who desire
women (see Romans 1:26-27).
That “homosexual orientation” is unchangeable goes
largely unquestioned in Western society today, but God
mercifully calls into question all our
impossibilities. Romans 1 tells us that our savior,
Jesus, “the just who shall live by faith” lives in
order to save us from our enemies. (Romans 1:17). As
King David saved the ancient Israelites from the
Philistines, themselves sent as a manifestation of
God’s wrath (see Judges 2:14, Romans 1:18), so the
clear implication of Romans is that the King of Kings,
Jesus, saves us from enemies far more terrible than
the Philistines, enemies not of flesh and blood, but
the powers and principalities of this world. God’s
mercy does and must abound in his son Jesus.
Romans chapter 1 shows us the glory of just Jesus
against the black background of universal sin (all we
like sheep had gone astray). But the just Jesus is
also the justifying Jesus. Romans 1 begins with the
resurrection of the dead and this is no accident. The
resurrection of the dead is inseparable from
restoration of right relationship between men and
women (R. 1:4,17ff).
Remember the woman of the city who was “forgiven
much” and therefore “loved much” bathing Jesus’ feet
with her tears, anointing him with precious oil (Luke
7:37-50). Somewhere she had heard the word of
forgiveness and in the gospel stories we see a woman
redeemed, transformed. Jesus said of such a one,
“wherever the gospel is preached this will be told in
memory of her” (Mark 14:9). Simon the Pharisee called
this woman a sinner as her tears fell on Jesus’ feet.
One could well guess that in Simon’s view it was
impossible that this woman be anything but what she
was known to be, one whose body and soul were corrupt
But what is inconceivable and well nigh impossible
with men is more than conceivable and do-able by the
word of God. As Luther said, “the word, the word, the
word will do it.” God the father delights, “sings
with joy” over what he has done and is doing in Jesus
(Zephaniah 3:17).
But not only that, it is “these sinners” who go
first into the kingdom and in so doing provide a
shining hope for us all. For when these are saved,
those to whom salvation was accounted by church and
society an “impossibility,” then hope springs up in
our own hearts; perhaps we in the pews and pulpits
and choir lofts too can be saved from our innumerable
miseries, weaknesses, sins and burdens that have grown
to heavy for us to bear. Our heart rejoices in Jesus,
the Anointed One, anointed both by God and by the
sinner who “once was lost but now is found.” Who can
doubt that that unnamed woman is now crowned in light
at the throne of the Lord of hosts?
Beloved brothers and sisters of the Presbytery of the
Twin Cities Area, I appeal to you by the mercies of
God. Let us not be conformed to this age but
transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Amy Flack (Minister Member of the Presbytery of the
Twin Cities Area, Ellsworth and Hager City, Wisconsin)