When God Changed God's Mind

First Presbyterian Church of Titusville

September 11, 2016

The Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost

Sermon:      “When God Changed God’s Mind”

Exodus 32:7-14               Luke 15:1-10

Let us pray:

Holy God, by the gift of your spirit show us the truth that you desire and teach us wisdom in our hearts.   Amen.

All of our words are totally inadequate to explain or describe God.  I say that as someone who has spent years reading, writing and preaching words about God. But then I’m Irish so we try to use words to describe all sorts of indescribable things!

I also say that as a Presbyterian, a member of a tradition that upholds formal education as a path to understanding.  We have 1700 years of creedal statements enshrined in our Book of Confessions.  We now recognize twelve confessional statements ranging from the Fourth Century to the Twenty-First. 

Although I treasure the words found in some of them as accurate representations of my faith, the most important thing about the Book of Confessions is the clear demonstration that our views of God’s impact on the world and the world’s relationship to God have changed over the centuries.  Having said that, the two oldest statements still represent the very core of our faith.  Those first two creeds described God’s actions on our behalf in the world.  Everything that came after the Nicene and Apostle’s Creeds were efforts to use words to confine God to the understandable circumstances of human life. 

The progression of the creeds, especially the 10 that followed the Apostle’s Creed, either redefined or expanded what we saw as God’s presence, God’s actions and our responsibilities within our relationship with God. 

A major point of contention between our brand of Presbyterian and some of the others is the Westminster Confession of Faith.  Several of the other Presbyterian groups demand that Westminster alone be given the status as THE statement of faith for all Christians.  What I find interesting about that is the wisdom of the very men who drafted Westminster.  In Chapter 33 it says: “All synods or councils since the apostle’s times, whether general or particular, may err, and many have erred; therefore they are not to be made rule of faith or practice, but to be used as a help in both.”  In other words, since 1643 the world may have changed and while the words of the Westminster Divines may be helpful in trying to understand our relationship with God and how it was verbalized 500 years ago, those words are not to be seen as a rule of faith or practice forever. 

We change our minds about many things over the centuries.  The world is a different place.  Evil hides in places and things that weren’t even dreamed of in 1643.  Idolatry is more subtle than it was in 1643.  Temptation takes more and different forms than were possible in 1643.  Loving personal relationships are much more complicated than they were in 1643. 

We change our minds.

What about God?  Has God ever changed God’s mind?  One of the things that Westminster spent a lot of words on was attempting to define the traits and attributes of God.  It calls God “immutable [Ch 2, para 1],” which means “unchanging,” but mostly in the sense that we cannot limit the nature of God.  It says “nothing is to him contingent, or uncertain [Ch. 2, para 2].”

Several times in the Hebrew scripture as we translate it God does appear to change God’s mind.  In the Christian translations of this morning’s lesson from the book of Exodus we read: “14And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people. [Ex 32:14]”  Jewish translations of that same Hebrew passage say this: “And YHWH let himself be sorry concerning the evil he had spoken of doing to his people [Ex 32:14; The Five Books of Moses, Tr. By Everett Fox].”

That same word sequence that can be translated “changed his mind” and “let himself be sorry,” is also translated as “repented.”  God repented. 

Now if you are still with me or at least awake, let me tell you that I pursued this issue down a very deep academic rabbit hole.  I discovered that there had been a great deal of discussion amongst PhD scholars regarding the difference between God’s “decrees” and God’s “announcements.” 

Here’s the deal.  There are a number of verses throughout the Hebrew scriptures that seem to refer to God changing his mind or repenting of some evil deed.  That notion doesn’t really fit well into our broader theology and picture of God.  Since so many people think that their job is to defend scripture or even funnier to defend the honor of God, theologians have carefully crafted an explanation.  If scripture reports that God said something and it happened, it’s a decree.  If God says something and it doesn’t happen, well then it was just an announcement.  God didn’t really mean it.  There may or may not be some obscure grammatical or syntactical basis for telling them apart, but the reality is that the choice between “decree” and “announcement” is really a matter of whether or not the scholars can understand what happened. In an announcement perhaps God  was just thinking out loud or letting off a little steam. 

Think about that picture:  God letting off a little steam!

I’m about to commit heresy – of a certain type – and hopefully it will prove to be more interesting than what has gone before.

The message for us from this story in Exodus is found in God’s conversation with Moses.  God said “leave me alone” and Moses said “No. Let’s talk.”  We are invited into conversation with the Lord.  We are – or can be – the limbs of the Lord in this world.  One definition of judgment is God allowing us to have our own way.  We are always locked into the consequences of our actions.  But we can repent and turn back to God and be welcomed home again.

Just as Moses and the Lord had many conversations, so too Jesus was in constant conversation with his Father.  We’re never told what the Father said to the Son, but we are told by the Son to pray.  When we need strength from the Father, pray.  When we need comfort, pray.  When we want to give God thanks for the good in our lives, for the joy in our lives, pray.  Remain in conversation with God.  Like Moses, you may be surprised at the outcome. 

I guess I promised you some heresy and I haven’t delivered yet.  Here it is:  the older I get the more I believe I’m more a Wesleyan not a Calvinist.

What.  That’s not heretical enough for you?  Calvin and the Reformed tradition believe that we are justified before God in the forgiveness that we have been granted through the suffering and triumph of Jesus.  From that point on we live as sanctified – that is holy – creatures being led along by the Spirit.  How we live our lives as sanctified beings is a bit of a mystery because the Spirit has claimed us for God.  Since Calvin had a radical opposition to “works” theology, the mark of sanctification (our holiness)was often interpreted in terms of the blessings – especially material blessings -  that came into one’s life.

Wesley had a different point of view.  He and Calvin don’t depart significantly from one another on the notion of justification but their views of sanctification don’t come together easily.  Wesley believed that the mark of a sanctified life was the extent to which you showed God’s love to the world around you.  To accept Wesley’s view you must engage in a conversation with God because you need to be continually asking God for the strength you need to live as a representative of God’s love.  It’s only through the grace of God that you will find the strength to live that life.  It’s not about salvation by works:  it’s about constantly asking God for the strength to live as He wants us to live in this world. 

For a Presbyterian minister to say that he believes that Wesley’s view seems more biblically sound actually is heresy.  I hope you don’t turn me in!

Moses had a conversation with the Lord, and came away pleasantly surprised.  Jesus lived His life in continual conversation with the Father, and He found the strength to pass through terrible and humiliating suffering on to victory in the resurrection. 

You can argue all you want about the theological and linguistic intricacies of scripture, but the consistent message is this.  God forgive the Israelites again and again. God forgives us and through Christ has adopted us into the family of his people.  God invites us into conversation for our sakes.  In that conversation we invite God’s Spirit to enter into us and lead us to love as God loves us. 

Everything else is just words!

I can’t guarantee that any of us have any reason to want to change God’s mind, but I can guarantee you that if you pursue that conversation faithfully every day, the conversation will change your life.

Let us pray:

Lord God we give you thanks and praise for life in your presence.  We thank you that through Jesus’ life and triumph we have been given a new chance to live as the creatures you created us to be.  We live in a world surrounded with so many temptations to abandon you:  greed, idolatry, envy, and fear filled hatred of Your children who do not seem to look or sound like us.  Forgive us Lord.  Fill us with your Spirit and lead us so that all the world may see Your love through us.  In Jesus’ name we pray. 

Amen.