Readings: 1 Samuel 4.1-11; Psalm 44; Mark 1.40-45
Sometimes people say they do not believe in God because he is not Santa Claus. Of course those are not their exact words. But because God does not behave in the way they think he should they decide that he does not exist. He is making a terrible mess of things. There is so much innocent suffering which he does nothing about. If he is either useless or perverse, what's the point of believing in God? If you are good or bad you get or do not get what you deserve from Santa Claus. And the same with God. If he does not perform as supposedly good and all-powerful deity ought to do, then he is either a perverse monster or he does not exist at all.
Today's scripture readings bring us straight into the heart of this perplexity. Having suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of the Philistines, the Israelites decide to bring the Ark of the Covenant - their holiest object, the presence of God himself - into the midst of the fight. They are buoyed up by this and the Philistines are terrified. But then the Israelites suffered an even more catastrophic defeat, losing not just 30,000 soldiers but the two sons of Eli the priest and even the Ark itself. What kind of God is that? It is a loss that foreshadows the even more radical defeat of the Babylonian Exile.
Saint Paul describes the Mosaic Law as a teacher, preparing the people for the fuller revelation of God which comes with Jesus. We can say that the whole of the Bible is a teacher, a pedagogical journey, which leads us on to an ever deeper understanding not just of morality but, more fundamentally, of the nature of God himself and the character of God's relationship with us. We are learning more and more about what God is not, often through seeing the mistaken understandings of God expressed not just by 'the peoples round about' but by the chosen people themselves. They are in relationship with God but constantly misunderstanding. They try to fit him into their concepts of what 'God' ought to mean and how 'God' ought to behave, and they fail continually.
As we fail continually also. We believe that a definitive revelation of God has been given in the life and teaching, the actions and sufferings, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God has never come nearer to human beings. In today's gospel reading we read of Jesus stretching out his hand to touch the leper. Horror of horrors! As a consequence they change places, the leper restored to human society and Jesus unable to go openly into any town, as if he were a leper. Jesus tells the cured man not to speak about it, a command which the man immediately ignores. The theme recurs throughout the gospel: even the disciples continually fail to understand.
he issue of understanding and misunderstanding God and God's actions continues, even though Jesus is the one closest to the Father's heart who has made him known. The journey continues, with the scriptures as a guidebook to what we can expect along the way. Perhaps the fundamental problem is that we, inevitably, try to fit God into our world, we reach out to touch him and to bring him in. But the reality is that God is God and we are creatures. So it is more a case of God fitting us into his world, he reaching out to touch us and to bring us in. If we set the terms of the relationship - the terms in which we decide God ought to be and to act - then, just as inevitably, we misunderstand. Only by letting God set those terms, accepting that he knows better what is for our happiness, can we enter into a new space. In that new space we will 'let God be God', allowing him to reveal his face beyond all the idols we set up, idols which serve only to obscure and hide God's true face.
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