Revenge Is Not the Answer

Chasing Our Golden Calves

¹⁵ Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, written on the front and on the back. ¹⁶ The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets. ¹⁷ When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is a noise of war in the camp." ¹⁸ But he said, "It is not the sound made by victors, or the sound made by losers; it is the sound of revelers that I hear." ¹⁹ As soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. ²¹ Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?" ²² And Aaron said, "Do not let the anger of my lord burn hot; you know the people, that they are bent on evil. ²³ They said to me, "Make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' ²⁴ So I said to them, "Whoever has gold, take it off'; so they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" ²⁵ When Moses saw that the people were running wild (for Aaron had let them run wild, to the derision of their enemies), ²⁶ then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. ²⁷ He said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "Put your sword on your side, each of you! Go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill your brother, your friend, and your neighbor.' " ²⁸ The sons of Levi did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand of the people fell on that day.²⁹ Moses said, "Today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of a son or a brother, and so have brought a blessing on yourselves this day." ³⁰ On the next day Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." ³¹ So Moses returned to the Lord and said, "Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. ³² But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written." ³³ But the Lord said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. ³⁴ But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; see, my angel shall go in front of you. Nevertheless, when the day comes for punishment, I will punish them for their sin." ³⁵ Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf—the one that Aaron made. Exodus 32:15-35

I'm certainly glad I'm not having to preach on this text anytime soon; although there are some pastors out their who would find this passage from Exodus right up their alley of thought, I assume. It's a Hollywood epic just waiting to be produced; one filled with all the blood and death and mayhem that we seem to long for on the cinematic big-screen nowadays. Worldly people gone astray, and God's bloodletting revenge upon them. The special-effects folk would have a field day with this lectionary scripture.

Although I may personally struggle with this biblical account of God's reaction to the waywardness of humankind, I can clearly see within this text the civil-havoc that the divine payback that day did not seem to abate. It's all around us as I write these words. Political divisions, as we all try to assert control over our worldly circumstances and set into our own stone tablets our agenda for the way things will be for the future and for everyone else. Our chasing after our own golden calfs as the new gods to bless our lives, as seen in the financial corruption on Wall Street and throughout the coporate world. Our allegiance to the profitable bottom line for our own survival, while ignoring the survival of our brothers and sisters around us. God's revenge may have rained down upon them generations ago, but the same old whoring after other un-Godly gods is with us still.

So, how do we face up to and bring about a more just and righteous world in the midst of the sinful persistence of the human race? Or, are we suppose to? Do we have a role to exercise – as did Moses and the sons of Levi – in providing corrective direction to the downward spiral our world seems so intended upon taking?

First, I want to unequivocally say “Yes!”. We, like the faithful who have journeyed before us, do have a decisive part in the human drama which continues to degrade this world which our God created. And, secondly, I strongly believe that that role is not one of continued bloodshed and disregard for the life and well-being of our neighbor. That is not to say that God might not play a vengeful hand in the misdirections of this world. But, it is to say that such a response is God's purgative and must be left to God.

Our second lectionary passage for today – Jude 17-25 – gives guidance to us, I believe, of our human response to the destructive sins of the world. In the context of this writing, the same issues which plagued Moses time are still addressed in the author of Jude's generation. Not much has changed over the progression of the ages. But two things strike me as very important in how we respond to the chaos around us. First is Jude 9:

⁹ Not even the archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil about who would have the body of Moses, dared to judge the devil guilty. Instead, he said, "The Lord punish you." (New Century Version)

Here, even the archangel is saying that what will happen in the end is God's purgative and not ours. The Archangel Michael refuses to condemn even Satan, and does not respond in ways that bring about injury or harm.

And secondly, Jude 17-25 lifts up a much different warrant for us than did our Exodus passage.

¹⁷ Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said before. ¹⁸ They said to you, "In the last times there will be people who laugh about God, following their own evil desires which are against God." ¹⁹ These are the people who divide you, people whose thoughts are only of this world, who do not have the Spirit. ²⁰ But dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up, praying in the Holy Spirit.²¹ Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ with his mercy to give you life forever. ²² Show mercy to some people who have doubts. ²³ Take others out of the fire, and save them. Show mercy mixed with fear to others, hating even their clothes which are dirty from sin. ²⁴ God is strong and can help you not to fall. He can bring you before his glory without any wrong in you and can give you great joy. ²⁵He is the only God, the One who saves us. To him be glory, greatness, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord for all time past, now, and forever. Amen.   (New Century Version)

Throughout this section from Jude, the author speaks to our responses as ones of compassion, mercy and love – even towards those who hate us. These reactions in our human drama are ones that can empower a new outlook and righteousness in our neighbors, without the need for our judgments of outcasting and death. These new roles open up un-though-of possibilities for reconciliation of all God's people, and for the breaking down of the barriers of class/faith/race, and all that sort of stuff, which have divided us all for eons.

If there are to be ways of death and destruction, it seems to me that our sacred scriptures point towards leaving that solely in God's hands, as we instead share in ways that build up society and all our neighbors.