lifeasmission

The “Greatness” of the United States

November 7, 2008

I was reminded on Wednesday night in the midst of a discussion with some friends about the wrath of God about something else Soong-Chan Rah said at CCDA during his talk.  I may not get this verbatim, but it’s close enough.

We often talk about the “greatness” of the United States.  Afterall, when you consider that we are a nation built on free land (which we robbed from the Native America people by killing and displacing them) and free labor (which we secured by enslaving Africans), it is little wonder we have managed to become so “great.”  But one wonders what happens when those sins return to visit us?  Perhaps an economic crisis?!

This quote returned to me as we were thinking through the idea of God punishing families to the third and fourth generation.  It’s the idea that just because you don’t directly reap the consequences of your actions, that doesn’t mean someone, perhaps those who mean the most to you, your family, won’t.

Biblically, it would seem that the wrath of God is precisely what we experience when we turn away from God and God’s ways.  It’s not so much God doing stuff to get even or settle the score.  It’s more like what we are left with when we choose against living in harmony with God’s design for the world.  Afterall, what could be more awful that the gradual (and for some, the eternal) distancing from the Spirit of God who constitutes the image of God in humanity?

… the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Posted in: CCDA, God, conference