Wondering, Wandering, and Writing

If you’re around a group of Christians very long at all, you’re bound to hear, “My favorite verse is _____________”

 Often the favorite is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Someone who is in the midst of a struggle will often quote Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Music leaders tend to like Psalm 100:1, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.”

My favorite is Lamentations 3:22-23, “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease.Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”  (NLT) Yes, my favorite verse is from a book that is about lamenting – sadness.  However, the verses focus on the goodness of God in spite of the sorrows. 

On the flip side, I don’t know that I have ever heard anyone mention a LEAST favorite verse.  Maybe we have too many we don’t really like to hear (especially when directed at us).  Perhaps we dare not let slip from our lips that words exist in sacred scripture that we don’t like.  Well, if you believe in the Bible and in God, you know he already knows you don’t like it; you might as well fess up.

So …. What is my least favorite verse? The gist of it is that God shows mercy and compassion to whomever he chooses, and that good and bad happen to people who follow him and those who could not care less if he exists or not.  It turns out those are two separate verses.  In Exodus, toward the end of the desert wanderings and very shortly before Moses’ death, Moses asks to see God’s glory.  God says, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” (Exodus 33:19 ESV). Centuries later, during his longest recorded sermon, Jesus tells us to love our enemies (a very familiar verse) and continues with, “he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  (Matthew 5:45b ESV)

Why don’t I like these verses?  I blame it on being human. There are some people that I think God should strike with lightening and burn them up.  Sometimes I’ve thought a big rock should fall on some folks and oh so slowly squish the life out of them.  Or maybe that person who hurt my child should slowly rot with a terrible disease. Or the person who talked bad about us should have paralysis of the mouth and spread no more ill will. Somewhere in the midst of my grumbling to God about how these bad people should be treated, he (thankfully oh so gently) reminds me that I have done those things.  Not exactly the same acts, but with the same end result.  I have done things that hurt people.  I have said things that were harmful. And that means that I deserve that same punishment, if I’m to be fair, and don’t we all want more fairness in life?

And then God reminds me of another verse.  It’s sandwiched between a favorite of many people, “Judge not,” and a very funny verse about a plank sticking out of your eye.  Given the times the verse was written, Jesus may have been telling people that to honor God they needed to be fair in their business practices. He may have been telling us, again, to treat people the way we want to be treated, and that includes judgement and mercy.

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?  (Matther 7:1-4 ESV)

#bgwww23