The Godless Confusion and the God of Justice

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, July 28, 2013 | Carl E. Olson

Readings:
• Gn 18:20-32
• Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 6-7, 7-8
• Col 2:12-14
• Lk 11:1-13

According
to atheist Richard Dawkins in his best-selling book The
God Delusion, the God
of the Old Testament is “arguably the most unpleasant character in
all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving
control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a
misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal,
pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously
malevolent bully.”

That remark indicates far more familiarity with
the dictionary than with the Bible. I wonder, how much fiction has
Dawkins read? More seriously, how carefully has he actually read the
Bible?

Sadly,
Dawkins merely appeals to the tired notion that the “God of the Old
Testament” is a cruel tyrant with little love for His creation. I
suspect that even many Christians have the vague sense that such is
the case. And today’s reading from the Old Testament is the sort of
passage that can, rather easily, be misinterpreted to provide
evidence for that view.

In fact, some commentators have understood
the conversation between the Lord and Abraham about Sodom and
Gomorrah as a case of the cool-headed patriarch talking the
hot-headed deity out of rash, murderous judgment—or, as Dawkins
might put it, “an act of vindictive genocide.” But as difficult
as the text is, it actually presents something quite different: a
calm and deliberate conversation between the “Judge of all the
world”, responding to the outcry of those anguished by the deviance
practiced in those infamous cities, and the bold servant of God,
whose questions seem as much theological as personal in nature.

Far
from being petty and unjust, God was responding with patience and
love to two different but related sets of questions. The first, as
noted, came from those inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah crying out
for justice, apparently due to a combination of sexual immorality and
social inequality (Gen 19:4-11; Ez 16:46-51). God did not intend to
simply destroy the cities and all
of their inhabitants. Rather, as in the days of Noah, He desired to
put an end to lawlessness, yet with the knowledge that a few just men
could be found among the wicked. And so Genesis 19 depicts two angels
sent to rescue Lot and his family from the coming destruction—and
that after saving them from the advances of a lustful mob.

The
second set of questions, from Abraham, was concerned with whether or
not the Judge of all things would indeed be just. That remarkable
conversation reveals an intimacy between man and God that is unique
among ancient religious literature. “After that, once God had
confided his plan [Gen 18:17-21]” the Catechism
of the Catholic Church
notes, “Abraham's heart is attuned to his Lord's compassion for men
and he dares to intercede for them with bold confidence” (CCC
2571). Through both divine revelation and his natural intelligence,
Abraham learned what it meant to be just and compassionate. Satisfied
that God would act justly, Abraham did not stay to witness the
salvation of his relatives, but returned home (Gen 19:33).

The
intimacy between the Creator and the recipient of the Abrahamic
covenant (cf., Gen 12, 15-17; CCC 72) foreshadowed the unique
revelation about the Father given by the Son, who not only prayed to
the Father but also taught His disciples how to pray to the Father.
Luke’s account of the “Our Father,” in today’s Gospel, is
shorter than that in given by Matthew, which is the version commonly
known and said. It first acknowledges God as Father, as well as the
holiness of His name, along with the desire to see His kingdom
realized in fullness. It then asks for three basic needs, without
which man will perish, both physically and spiritually: nourishment
(“our daily bread”), forgiveness, and salvation—“do not
subject us to the final test.”

Their
heavenly Father, Jesus told the disciples, gives good gifts to those
who ask and seek with the humble, trusting heart of a child. It is a
humility and trust based in prayer and conversation with God, who is
not an unpleasant fictional character, but a caring and merciful
Father.

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the July
29, 2007, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)