DOES GOD MAKE MISTAKES
Was God a horrible planner and made a critical mistake in choosing a “no people to be God’s people” and was Jesus replicating that mistake in establishing the church with his flawed disciples? It doesn’t exactly confirm the doctrines of God being omniscient and omnipotent, does it?
Was God a bad judge of character when it was said that David (who broke all of the Ten Commandments) was a man after God’s own heart? (I Samuel 13:14) or does the fact that the adulterous and murderous affair between David and Bathsheba planted the seed that eventually gave birth to the Messiah suggest that God is not defeated by sin?
I’m intrigued that on the cross Jesus chose to draw upon a passage from Deuteronomy to utter the prayer, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” I explore that in more depth in exploring what I call “redemptive theology,” in my book Racism and God’s Invitation, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FRSXKV8 .
A lot of time is expended in webinars convicting the church and society of their guilt for the sin of racism. However, the natural tendency of humans when accused of sins is to grow defensive, as many pastors have experienced. What if the focus could include an invitation for confession of sins and the hope of forgiveness that led to the healing of racial division? I have recently published a novel, Shock and Awe: A Church Recognizes Its Racism and is Awed by God’s Invitation, (soon to be republished in a new interactive format on September 17) trying to imagine what that might look like in our contemporary society. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08VF9KRPK
My fantasy is that some group in the church might use the novel in a book study together with the additional resources listed at the end of each chapter, and then be enticed to ask “Could something like this work in our church?”
If that happened, then they or the church leadership would be directed to my recently published companion book, Racism and God’s Grace: Truth and Reconciliation for American Churches. This offers a step-by-step guide to how the church might use the Internet to invite a congregation (or several congregations) to participate in church-wide conversations. Those conversations would invite them into a conversation about their faith and the implications of a faithful response that addresses one of the most heinous sins of both our church and society, but in this case not without hope. It draws upon Tutu’s work on forgiveness and explores a possible adaption of the process of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The link to that book is http://bit.ly/RacismandGrace. I really don’t think God was mistaken when God created the world, and I don’t think Jesus was a poor judge of character when Jesus chose his disciples. The sins of Israel and the sins of the church were and are real, but I don’t believe that God is defeated by our sins. If I am right and grace is more powerful than our behavior, then we can confess and learn from our sins but live with hope that God can lead us in a healing response.
