18^th December 2009

Sunday 13 December 2009: Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley
Lessons - Zephaniah 3:11-20; Luke 3:7-22
Who warned you brood of vipers to flee from the wrath to come? (Luke 3:7 NRSV)
Sensible Christians cringe at talk of the 'wrath of God'. We have come to think that, in contrast to the
wrathful God of the Old Testament, the New Testament is about the God of love. It comes as a shock to find
the 'wrath to come' in a sermon preparing the way for the love of God in Christ. We think that 'love' and
'wrath' are incompatible.
This seems to be borne out when we turn to the Hebrew prophets. In every age they rail against evil,
irrespective of whether it is done by barbaric pagan rulers or pious Hebrews. They hold accountable religious
and political leaders who dishonour God or demean others. The holy God will not be mocked! Smug or
casual religion, corruption in business, sexual irresponsibility (inside or outside marriage), neglect of the
poor and strangers and like transgressions are not to be taken lightly. We are responsible before God!
'God' is not the name we give to a Being who meets our needs. Such 'gods', of which there are many, are
made in our image. In effect, we regard ourselves as 'gods'. Deciding what 'God' should do for us, we expose
the fact that we don't really believe in God!
Our unbelief is evident whenever we agree with Catherine the Great who said that God is 'good because he's
bound to forgive us - that's his job'. This amicable divine figure, so highly praised recently by Liberal
politician Joe Hockey, is no less popular now than in 610BC when Zephaniah invoked the wrath of God and
tore strips off his pagan and pious contemporaries.
Nobody is excluded. Pagan idolaters, slack worshippers, false prophets, dodgy priests, fraudulent traders,
arrogant leaders and dishonest judges are among the populace of Judah and her neighbours who will
experience the 'great day of the wrath of the Lord'. As the prophet saw things, God in 'fierce and jealous
anger' would 'overthrow the wicked and cut off humanity from the face of the earth' (Zephaniah 1:3b).
The severity of God's wrath is carried forward in the New Testament. In Revelation 14 we find 'some of the
most violent expressions of God's wrath found in all literature' (DA Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the
Love of God, p75).
When some Protestants made the wrath of God central to their theology it was not surprising that the 19th
Century theologian A Ritschl reacted by dispensing with it altogether. The love of God in Christ, he said, is
incompatible with God's wrath.
It is a view with which most of us would agree. Wrath is an all-too-human vice to attribute to God. It
encourages Crusades and holy Jihads. However, without it we miss what is distinctive about God's love as it
has been disclosed to the Hebrews and embodied in Jesus. The God who is slow to anger and who loves us in
Christ is the holy God who hates evil.
It is not as simple as separating wrong-doing from the person or people who do wrong, saying (as we usually
do) that God 'hates the sin but loves the sinner'. In many places in Scripture God is said to have a 'fierce
anger' which 'destroys the wicked'. Unrepentant evil-doers will meet a sticky end when God comes to 'judge
the living and the dead'!
This is tough stuff, especially as we Christians have come to believe that God loves people no matter what
they do. In the Herald-Sun on 29/11 Bryan Patterson noted how 'the word "Christian" had been hijacked over
the centuries ... ' so that it now 'described a good and virtuous person, not necessarily someone who believed
in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus' (p91). He also noted that the word 'love' had met a similar fate.
What he says is relevant to our theme. The 'God of love' that many 'Christians' have come to believe in is
amiable, easy-going, unendingly merciful and kindly to all. He wouldn't hurt a fly! Talk of an angry God is a
primitive hangover from a time when ignoble human characteristics were attributed to God. No wonder we
cringe at talk of God's wrath. It doesn't fit the image we have of God who tolerates everything, expects
nothing of us and accepts us as we are.
What if the prophetic testimony of Scripture as a whole insists that 'God' is not the projection of our natural
desire for an easy, undemanding and comfortable life? What if belief in the love of God is the most difficult,
challenging and unsettling activity of life? What if God's gracious love in Christ is the basis of true freedom
for all because in him the extent of our 'unholiness' is first exposed and named?
We can believe in the love of God and understand the true significance of God's wrath only if we first
recognise the holiness of God and our failure to live a holy life as it has been lived in Christ. We must first
acknowledge 'the infinite qualitative distinction' between God and humanity. God is 'holy', a term used to
designate the uniqueness of God's mode of being in contrast to that of the creature. Holiness thus describes
the incomparable majesty, goodness and purity of God - in contrast to us.
The astonishing thing therefore is that unholy people are called by God to be holy: to do what is right,
merciful and pure in a world where wrong, revenge and impurity besmirch our humanity and cause so much
grief to God, to others and to ourselves.
Being holy doesn't mean being sanctimonious or turning away from the world. It does mean that God - and
God alone - has the right to require of us holiness of life in the midst of the world. We are called to be holy
as Christ is holy: that is, to live a fully human life!
When we do not practise this worldly form of holiness God - and God alone - has the right to react by
exercising his wrath. Sin is not a mere trifle to be amiably tolerated but an offence against the holiness of
God: God revealed to Hebrew prophets like Zephaniah and John the Baptist and embodied in the perfect
humanity of Jesus.
The severity of God's wrath is not lessened in the New Testament by John the Baptist's announcement of the
coming of One who is to put things right. People who come to be baptised are called a 'brood of vipers'
(Luke 3:2) 'fleeing from the wrath to come' because they are afraid of jeopardising their eternal security.
Instead of alleviating their fears, John the Baptist says that they shouldn't expect things to get easier when the
Christ comes. 'His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his
granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (v17)'
These are strong words. As we are to see in Jesus' entire ministry and fate, the Holy One of God comes, not
only to require holiness of us, but to display in himself the holiness of God. He is the measuring stick by
which all humanity is judged by God - a point that is often made in his parables.
Much more could be said about the wrath of God. Now though we do well to see an unexpected note in the
otherwise unrelenting concentration on the judgment of God. In the last two verses of the lesson in Luke
(vv21,22) {added to the set Lectionary} we learn that the One who will 'burn the chaff with unquenchable
fire' is baptised by John the Baptist with 'all the people who were baptised for the forgiveness of sins'. It is as
if he too needed to 'flee from the wrath to come'.
This is an unexpected twist on the story of God's wrath! The Holy One who is to be the instrument of God's
wrath (in destroying evil and restoring goodness) identifies himself fully with our unholy humanity. Here is
proof that the bearer of God's hatred of evil embodies both the holiness of God in the world and the righteous
humanity for which we have been created.
Here we see what later becomes apparent on the Cross: that Christ, in obedience to and with the approval of his
heavenly Father (v22), willingly takes upon himself the sin of the world, as if he were a sinner, and forgives us.
If 'wrath' is God's righteous reaction to idolatry and inhumanity then we see the sign here, confirmed by the
Holy Spirit, that the beloved Son of the Father (v22b) experiences our unholiness as if it were the wrath of God.
Such is the measure of God's love for us, as proclaimed by prophets like Zephaniah and John the Baptist and
embodied in Jesus. The Holy One who rightly comes to judge the living and the dead comes among us as if
he were a sinner deserving the wrath of God. In a way that defies easy logic, he displays the love of God by
taking wrath upon himself, thus stripping it of its power to determine our destiny and enabling us to rejoice
in the freedom of sins forgiven.
If God who is slow to anger were not outraged by evil and angry with us for doing wrong, then God would
not be worthy of praise! God is implacably opposed to all our attempts to make God in our own image or
demean human dignity. God's holiness must not be mocked. We should stand against the many schemes in
our society today that ridicule Christ and demean human dignity - without detaching ourselves from our
fellow sinners.
We are free to do so because we are called by the One who identified himself with the unholy 'brood of
vipers' and bore the hatred of the world as if it were the wrath of God. That surely is the mark of a holy love
which is incomparably gracious and costly!
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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia.
Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.