God of Wrath or Steadfast Love?--Nov. 4, 2014

I must confess, O God--it is

hard for me to reconcile

your wrath and your

steadfast love.

Even the parable

of the unfruitful fig tree

does not convey much comfort.

You know I am a sinful man, and you

know I live in a world of sinful people,

but does that cause you to relish

swinging sickle or axe?

Blood for 200 miles, as

high as a horse's bridle?

God of my life, I pray

it is not so.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 42; 146; 102; 133

Zeph. 1:14-18

Rev. 14:14-15:8

Luke 13:1-9

Selected Verses

Ps. 42:8

By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
          and at night his song is with me,
          a prayer to the God of my life.

Zeph. 1:15

[The great day of the LORD] will be a day of wrath,
     a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
     a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness…

Rev. 14:19-20

So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.  And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse's bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles.

Luke 13:7

"…So [the owner] said to the gardener, 'See here!  For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none.  Cut it down!  Why should it be wasting the soil?'  …"  [from Jesus' parable of the unfruitful fig tree]