Based on Jeremiah 2:4-5 & 11-13, Hebrews 13:1-8, Luke 14:7-14
Theology is the study which seeks to understand how God and creation interact in our world. Until the last 100 years or so, one aspect of theology that was firmly taught and believed is that God is unchanging (which originates from the Nicene Creed). Along this line, some of you may have learned the answer to the question “What is God?” from the Westminster Catechism which states: “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” Christian orthodoxy has long taught that God is impassible and not subject to suffering, pain, or anguish. The more recent doctrine of the passibility of God has to do with the theology of the “suffering” of God. Depending on the theology that formed you, you might believe either in God’s passibility or impassibility – or might never have considered it at all. Yet, I contend that belief in a God who suffers is essential to understanding the Crucifixion and God’s compassionate presence in all of our human suffering.
Not surprisingly, theologians and denominations are all over the map on this issue. Those who favor impassibility strongly suggest that those who believe that God suffers with us imply that God changes. The impassibility theologians contend that whatever change might be suggested with respect to God’s essence, knowledge, or will, would create a diminishment of God’s independence, simplicity, eternity, omniscience, and omnipotence. Thus, the immutable divine nature is removed from God, and Christian religion of its firm foundation and comfortable belief in a God who is unchanging.
Today, many more Christian theologians have begun to argue on the side of a God who anguishes over and suffers from our sin both individual and communal. They (and we) can find support in this throughout the Bible and in our readings for today – readings which also offer us some life-choices that might lessen God’s anguish. The prophetic literature is filled with examples of God speaking God’s anguish to the people of Israel and Judah. In our reading today, the prophet Jeremiah speaks God’s own words to a people who have replaced the One, True God with idols. The LORD declares that the heavens should be “appalled” and should “shudder with great horror” because of this replacement. God is anguished because God’s “people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water….”
God’s anguish is clear from that reading and causes us to wonder how we can live differently to lessen God’s suffering. Thankfully, we have the readings from the Gospel according to Luke and the letter to the Hebrews to teach us how to live so as to not cause God to anguish. Jesus is invited to Sabbath dinner at an unnamed Pharisee’s home. Jesus heals a man in front of all of the guests and is not rebuked. He then notices how the invited guests are jockeying for positions closest to the seat of power (i.e., that of the host). Jesus reminds those gathered that it is better to be humble and take the seat farthest from human power and to invite to our gatherings those who can never repay us with a similar invitation - those who are poor, crippled, lame, blind or otherwise marginalized, outcast and oppressed.
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews concludes his sermon with an exhortation to proper living as disciples of the Christ. We are encouraged to love one another as brothers and sisters and to show hospitality to strangers who are often angels sent by God to help us grow in our faith and love. Like the reading from Jeremiah, we are encouraged to live lives free from idols, especially the idolization of money - and instead trust in God’s provision for us. Finally, we are to remember that Jesus shows us the way to please God in all we do.
With all that having been said, where are we on this theological question of whether God is anguished – whether God suffers, and what lived difference that makes as followers of the Christ? To believe in a God who feels anguish, we must understand passibility. To be “passible” is to be “capable of feeling, especially suffering” or to be “susceptible to emotion.” When theologians speak of God’s “passibility” versus “impassibility,” they are referring to God’s freedom to respond compassionately (com-passion: to suffer with) versus a perceived lack of empathy.
Both sides of the issue face the danger of pushing things too far. When the doctrine of divine impassibility is pushed to an extreme, the result is deism, which views God as cold, distant, impassive (see Plato) - a God who cannot be bothered to interact with humanity. Conversely, when the doctrine of divine passibility is taken to an extreme, the result is a God who is not omniscient and thus is as surprised as we are by each turn of events.
However, arguing for the doctrine of God’s passibility are many scripture passages that lead us to believe that God does respond compassionately to the anguish caused by events on earth. It’s impossible to read the First Testament in general and the prophetic books specifically, without realizing that God’s people cause God to anguish (e.g., Isaiah 14:1); that God feels wrath against sin (e.g., Psalm 38:3); and that God is anguished by the rejection of God’s grace (e.g., Luke 19:41–42). Jesus, who is “fully human and fully divine” weeps at the tomb of Lazarus. The author of Hebrews in our reading for today tells the church to “continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering”. It is this compassion for those who suffer that truly defines passibility. “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” as Paul wrote to the believers in Rome. As God’s people are compassionate towards each other, they share in the compassion of God. The doctrine of the passibility of God does not teach that God is fickle, has mood swings, or cannot control God’s emotions. The doctrine of passibility teaches that God is emotionally invested in creation; and that God is fully present in the world because God loves unconditionally and abidingly.
It is clear that humans cause God’s anguish with our sinful natures and violent tendencies. God destroyed almost all of creation once over the amount of evil that was present in the earth. Yet, God saved a remnant of creation both human and non-human and repopulated the earth through them – creating a covenant with Noah that God would never again eliminate life from the earth. God gave consequences for poor choices and sinful behavior but always accompanied the people and ultimately led them back into relationship with God. God forgives us our sinful shortcomings through God’s grace. God’s anguish over our fallen nature appears to cause God to always seek new ways to transform us through God’s Almighty love into the beloved children God created us to be.
What difference does it make to our faith journeys that God feels anguish – that God suffers? I believe that a God who is compassionate helps me to be more compassionate. I believe that a God who looks at our world through the empathic lens of suffering is the only kind of God who can truly be in relationship with us. A God who was humble enough to enter the world through the pain of childbirth in order to fully share our lives is the only God who can truly save us. The only God who can truly call to our better selves and help us to live lives that are fruitful, forgiving, reparative and blessed.
I believe that God feels anguish every time there is a mass shooting as there was this week – and for too many weeks since 1966. For me, it is impossible to believe in an unconditionally loving God and to not believe that God accompanies us in all of our personal and communal suffering. I for one will not follow a God who is impassible – for it ignores God’s resurrection response to the Crucifixion, and it provides me neither comfort nor a way to grow into the mind and heart of Jesus. Unconditional forgiveness is God’s response to God’s anguish (“Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”) – and models how we should respond to each other when we suffer. The abiding presence of God is how we are called to be present to one another to try to heal the woundedness around us and to accompany one another as each of us suffers. This week, let us each try to unconditionally love each other and our world and thus lessen God’s anguish. May God the Holy Spirit give us strength and wisdom to do just that. Amen!