As ELCA Lutherans, we define God as love (1 John 4:4b). We believe God’s love was best seen through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus, The Christ. We also believe God’s love is seen throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. We also believe God’s love is for all of creation. Through this faith formation blog, we will delve into our faith beliefs as ELCA Lutherans to help nurture us in our definition of God. Like Martin Luther, I feel there is a great need for us all to know more about our faith beliefs. Then, as we grow into our ELCA faith beliefs, the other purpose for this blog is to equip us to live the faith God gives us, to live our definition of God, to love all as God does.
If you have specific questions about the Bible (specifically the hard-to-understand verse or stories), our Lutheran faith beliefs, and living our lives of faith, you can, anonymously if you want, add your questions below in the comment section. I am looking forward to this time of nurturing and growth in the faith God gives us.
Pastor Rick Roberts
St. John’s Lutheran Church, ELCA
Nashville, TN
Pastor, Can you please explain what God is saying in Jeremiah 17:4? Is God going to really be angry, at us, forever?
ReplyDeleteMarianne, thanks for your question. I believe one of the best ways to answer this and other difficult Bible verses is by looking at the context of when and why it was written, and, in the context of God’s salvation story found throughout scripture. The context of Jeremiah 17:4 is, God is angry because God’s people had, again, forsaken God to follow other gods. Remember, God is a “jealous” God who only wants the best for His “very good” creatures. God knew as they followed their idolatrous ways, their sin would lead them to be enslaved to their enemies, again (like the Egyptians). Why were they following their idolatrous ways? Because of their free will to make those “sinful” choices. Sin is the cause for all our idolatrous ways which leads to all the destructiveness in our lives. We then have to ask the questions: What is God doing? And, why is God there? I believe God is doing, what God had always done; being there, to help them know their sinfulness (one of the purposes of The Law); helping them to repent of their sins and be turned back to listen, learn, and love God; by putting God first in their lives (another purpose of The Law). Why is God there. Because God has never left God’s people, ever. God was always with them, and us, helping us all know God’s unconditional love for the world. As we look at this story in the context of God’s overall salvation plan, we see the fulfillment of God being with us, by becoming one of us, in the human person, Jesus. Jesus came, not to abolish The Law; rather, He came to fulfill The Law. Jesus perfectly lived God’s Law of Love (The 10 Commandments). In doing so, Jesus showed us just how sinful we are, by crucifying Him, killing Him, on His Cross (yes, our sin, also sent Jesus there). On Jesus’ Cross we see the fullness of God’s anger. However, God’s anger is not unleashed on all the people who put him there; including you and me. We believe that because Jesus said, as He was dying, “Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) We believe God’s anger, that day, in Adam and Eve’s day, in Jeremiah’s day, and in our day - is always directed at sin - and never at the sinner. We believe, as we learn to know God’s anger is on sin, and not the sinner, a third purpose of The Law is to help us live the statutes, the mandates of The Law: to love God and love all people. By doing so, we partner with God to help us bring more hope and peace into our world. Again, thanks for your question.
DeleteHow come in Genesis 1 Adam and Eve were created as equals with domain over all creation but then in Genesis 3 (?) Eve was create out of Adam's rib as caretakers of creation but Eve was not equal to Adam, was submissive to Adam.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your question. I will send a reply tomorrow.
DeleteTo begin, Genesis One clearly states an ideal creation of the world with the man and woman, both, equal in their relationship with one another, and, having dominion, caring for all creation. In Genesis Two we see the close-ness of Adam and Eve and God’s desire for them to be “one” flesh. Then, the “fall” happened in Genesis Three; they became broken and suffered the consequences. As for Eve not being equal to Adam after the “fall”, despite the greater pains in childbirth, God desires for them to still be “one” flesh; to be in communion with one another; helping them live together in their broken lives. As for being submissive, for him to “rule” over her, that was not the divine prerogative (see Gen. 1). It is the result, again, of our brokenness. And since the biblical authors of most of the Bible, even though it is God-inspired, they wrote from a male-dominating patriarchal system. Our calling is to help reverse all of our world’s dominating ways; partnering with God to help us all be “one” flesh.
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