Advent 6…Judgment

(My husband suggests I include the readings. If you "click" on the blue, underlined word "readings" you will be re-routed to the Daily Lectionary readings. Any blue, underlined word will take you on an internet journey.)

For many years, I preferred to ignore texts of God's judgment. I chose God's grace, God's love, God's generosity. And God, I'm sure, laughed because 1) "I chose"…really? it's up to me? and 2) God's judgment is God's grace.

Judgment is pronounced in today's readings. These are the parts we might like to skip. Seems we are willing to wait or look for God, to live in hope and anticipation, even to cry out for justice--but for "others," always judgment and justice for others.

This could be such a long entry. Scripture offers so much to be explored, so much to be explained. But perhaps exploring and explaining judgment provides just one more way to avoid it. So I'll tell a story instead. One of my children recognized through the "judgment" of another that she "fights dirty." Refusing to acknowledge the validity of the judgment, excusing the dirty fighting as "just part of who I am," blaming it on others--"if you hadn't pushed me so far…," all of these were possible responses. Instead, she listened, recognized the truth of what had been identified, and spent some time figuring out how and why she learned the fighting technique. In accepting the judgment, she also knew she had to make different choices. In the telling of her story, she encourages others to do the same. "You can't have healthy relationships unless you are willing to change the unhealthy ways you interact," she says." I'm going to work on this. Y'all are going to have to help me."

Grace abounds. A "couple" learns how to disagree without destroying each other. Siblings change a terrible habit that has held them apart at one level. The absence of disagreement is not the goal; the ability to disagree in love is possible.

I've learned to love texts of God's judgment. God's anger and judgment are kindled against those God loves…and that's us. God wants shalom for God's people, and holds up all our behaviors that circumvent that shalom so we might see and repent, turning from our broken ways back to the ways of God that give us life and health and wholeness in a community of life and health and wholeness. And we who typically stop at the individual need to hear that God's judgment always pulls us toward the wholeness of community. It's never just about us. God's grace and judgment are the same thing.

The ancient peoples lived mighty different lives than we live. Not all the images make much sense to people of 21st century, first-world consumer cultures. What we read as disturbing images of God doing bad things, they understand as God's sovereignty, God's complete control over all of life, not just what we tend to define as "good." A scientist once reminded me (and I'd document if I could remember who or where) that the earthquake we see primarily as tragic, senseless destruction, is the earthquake that made it possible for life to exist on this planet, the earthquake that continues to renew the earth in ways most of us simply don't understand.

Listening for God's correction and responding is the grace I seek. May it be for you as well.