“Does God Really ‘Zap’ People?”
II Samuel 6:1-11
July 12, 2009 + Sixth Sunday After Pentecost
Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ
400 Glenwood Drive
Chattanooga, Tennessee 37404
Rev. Dr. David Brown
Years ago, when “Mainline” church youth groups had lots of members those young people had far more knowledge of the Bible than most young people or, for that matter, most adults do today. Occasionally they played a game called “Bible Baseball.” The group was divided into two teams. When the first team’s player came “up to bat,” the “pitcher,” usually the youth minister, would “throw” a question taken from the Bible. If the player answered the question correctly he or she would advance to “First Base.” The next player would then come up to bat and hope to do the same thing. As players answered questions they advanced themselves and other runners “on base” and eventually scored “runs.” Of course, if a player missed a question he or she was “out,” just as in real baseball.
Just for the fun of it, let’s have a “practice game” this morning. If you know the answer to the question I’ll pitch, just say it out loud. Let’s begin with a few easy ones.
1. How many books are there in the Bible?
(Answer: 66.)
2. Who is the acknowledged author of the most books in the Bible?
(Answer: the Apostle Paul.)
3. Who was Adam and Eve’s third son?
(Answer: Seth.)
4. What is the last book in the Old Testament?
(Answer: Malachi.)
I told you it wouldn’t be easy for us to play “Bible Baseball” these days. To be brutally frank, the Baptists would beat us badly! But here’s a tough question to which we all know the answer: “Who was the man whom God killed when he accidentally touched the Ark of the Covenant?” As we just heard in our scripture lesson that poor man was named “Uzzah.” But why did God do it? Let me set the scene for you.
About a thousand years before Christ David, king of Israel, had consolidated his power over most of Israel. He was the acknowledge leader of the Twelve Tribes, each of whom had control over a part of the country. Being a shrewd politician David did not want to offend any of the tribes by choosing a capital city located in the territory of another: Instead, David chose to make Jerusalem the new capital of the united country because Jerusalem was never connected with any of the tribes.
To give his new capital city not only political but also religious significance, David decided to move the Ark of the Covenant from where it had been kept in the city of Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem. The Ark was a small rectangular box revered by all the tribes as their most sacred object. It probably contained the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments and other artifacts from the Exodus. The Ark was also believed to be the actual dwelling place of God. To use modern language, what better way for David to unite “church and state” than by bringing the Ark to Jerusalem?
With a great religious procession David began to bring the Ark up into the hills to Jerusalem. The sons of Abinadab who had been the guardians of the Ark accompanied the cart on which the Ark was borne. Ahio was leading the oxen and his brother, Uzzah, was walking beside the cart. Suddenly the cart began to pitch and sway on the uneven rocky road. It looked like it might fall to the ground. Uzzah inadvertently shot out his hand to steady the Ark and he died instantly. As our text says, “The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him (dead) there because he reached out his hand to the Ark . . .” (II Samuel 6:7)
What on earth is going on here? To the biblical literalist the answer is simple: God killed Uzzah on the spot because he touched the Ark, the dwelling place of the Almighty. Though he meant well and intended to keep the Ark from falling off the cart and being broken in pieces that was no excuse. Rules are rules and Uzzah got what is coming to anyone who profanes the things of God.
This moment reminded me of my summer job when I was in college. I worked in the K.V.P. Sutherland paper mill on one of the electrical maintenance crews. That sounds more impressive than it actually was. The eight college students who made up this crew were sent up into the rafters of the plant to clean the light fixtures and replace any burned-out bulbs. We usually stood on the platforms of twelve-foot ladders. Our foreman warned us that up where we were working there were open electrical conduits powering large cranes to move massive rolls of paper. Those open conduits carried thousands of volts of electricity. If we accidentally touched one of them the luckiest thing that could happen was we would be knocked flying onto the concrete floor below. But most of the time we would be instantly killed. As my Dad used to say about the plant where he worked, “You may forget but the machine never does.” So the literalist would say that Uzzah’s good intentions were no protection against his impiety. God “zapped” him and let that be a lesson to us all.
By the way, lest you think this story is the product of some ancient superstition from which we modern folk are happily free, this past week I accidentally tuned into a religious radio program where the teacher – a well-known Evangelical – was warning his listeners about what he called “The Wrath of God.” The message was simple: break God’s rules and God’s going to get you sooner or later in various unpleasant ways. Like the man who hit his mule in the head with a two-by-four to get its attention, harsh, even cruel punishment is God’s way of getting our attention. God according to some people’s faith is the ultimate believer in the dictum: “Spare the rod and spoil the child.”
Do you believe that? I don’t. I have no faith whatsoever in this God with a short-fuse and a hot temper who inflicts terrible punishment on those who break the rules this God has established. Of course, to the argument that this God of wrath doesn’t always settle accounts with lawbreakers in this life, the literalist and traditionalist believers say that God will take care of them in an eternity of torture in Hell. Believe that if you like, but hear me very clearly: I want no part of a God who is not at least as nice as I am. I can’t imagine inflicting eternal or even temporary cruel punishment on anyone, even those who have “done me wrong.” The Man of Nazareth taught me that I am supposed to forgive my enemies “seventy times seven,” In other words, give them unlimited forgiveness. Shouldn’t God be held to the same standard?
Of course, modern Liberal scholars get God off the hook for Uzzah’s death. One of my reference books (The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Abingdon, 1962) in its section on the Ark of the Covenant written by noted scholar G. Henton Davies says “the shock of realizing what he (Uzzah) had done in sacred procession and before everybody’s eyes kills him.” (Volume A-D, page 224) In others words, because of Uzzah’s belief in a God of wrath he had a heart attack.
Friends, while that may relieve God of the responsibility for Uzzah’s death, what does it say about any faith – then or now – that would cause any human being such anguish? Isn’t that the challenge facing those of us who profess a Liberal progressive faith today? We are surrounded by people who believe passionately in a God who really does “zap” people. And such a belief affects profoundly the way they treat other people.
The equation is a simple one: if God has people whom God hates enough to kill, aren’t we justified in assisting God in getting rid of them? Wasn’t this the justification cited by the man who murdered the doctor in Kansas who performed abortions? God’s enemies become our enemies and they deserve to get what’s coming to them. The list of those throughout history who have taken it upon themselves to punish and kill those whom they believe are flouting God’s laws is endless.
Friends, this is no theoretical theological discussion we are having this morning. The kind of God we believe in profoundly affects our human attitudes and behaviors. The greatest irony is that it isn’t God’s fault at all! Sigmund Freud pointed out (Cf. “The Future of An Illusion”) that we human beings have often projected out own unfulfilled wishes into the heavens and called it “God.” If our own lives are filled with frustration and rage and hatred the God we worship will have the same passions. Mark Twain, that most cynical of all authors, had it right: “God made man in his own image and man has been returning the favor ever since.”
There is another way, such a better way, and it is simply this: read the Jewish and Christian scriptures with an open, informed, inquiring, and compassionate mind. Realize that the only God worth knowing is the God whom Jesus taught us requires only two things: to love that God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Maybe that is the real challenge: we have to learn how to love ourselves and one another as much as God loves us. If only poor Uzzah had known that God he wouldn’t have shown up as a question in Bible Baseball!