what waterboarding tells us about God

'And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.'

- the ninth chapter of Luke

INTRO

My apologies for the image. It has the unfortunate attribute of portraying a horrific activity in a somewhat docile way. Honestly, it's part of what interested me about the image, but I realize it may affect some readers adversely.

With all of the renewed attention surrounding waterboarding over the past couple of weeks, a thought occurred to me as I was preparing this last Sunday's message: God's Word, the Bible, is markedly non-coercive. Although, as we discussed, knowing and trusting God's Word is an essential part of knowing God, there are no mechanisms in the Word itself or even in Christianity to force us to read and study it. Shoot, most followers of Christ didn't even have their own Bibles until after the Reformation.

Human beings, on the other hand, have the tendency to use all kinds of force when they think it's necessary or even just useful. Whether you want to talk about waterboarding or other forms of coercion, humans seem to have a hard time figuring out how to accomplish things without at least the threat of power. And, I think, most people would argue that God is not that much different. After all, what is Christianity if not an attempt to keep people in line by threatening them with eternal punishment?

THE IDEA

The nature of God's Word, however, gives us reason to pause before assuming that that is how God operates. God's Word, though it is living and active through the Holy Spirit, is still a written medium, and no matter how many Harry Potter or Twilight fans tell me they "couldn't put the book down", I can tell you from experience that they're wrong. You can always put a book, even The Good Book, down.

In other words, God's Word simply does not force us to do anything, much less read it. It encourages, it warns, it offers deep wisdom straight from the heart of God, it tells us the compelling truth about God's son, Jesus Christ, but it doesn't hold us down and pour water into our breathing orifices until we comply with it. By its nature, you can close God's Word and put it back on the shelf any time you want for as long as you want. You can believe it or not and your life will continue.

The funny thing is, if you do open and read it carefully, what you'll see is that not only is God's Word not coercive, neither is God. Jesus, when he is rejected in Luke 9 by the inhabitants of a village, does not permit his disciples to call down fire on them. Nor does he allow his disciples to fight when the authorities come to arrest him on the Mount of Olives. Yes, throughout the gospels Jesus teaches, challenges and warns people, but never does he use coercion to make people follow him.

Sometimes we interpret God through our human lenses, but the truth is it's got to be the other way around. Though we as humans have shown that we love to use force to make things happen, that is not the way God works. Yes, his Word is clear: he is omnipotent. But his Word also makes clear that, for some reason, he does not use power the same way we do. God is not a waterboarder.