Caught in a Moment

Field Notes From A Religion-Less Christian

February 13, 2022

Why I Pray for Help When I Know God Will Not Give It

“But as for me, I am poor and needy; come to me speedily, O God” (Psalm 70)

I don’t actually think or believe God will supernaturally change my circumstance or condition. So why does this prayer of Psalm 70 still have significance, vitality and value? At least this: it speaks to the truth of God’s total power (omnipotence) in determining my destiny (aka eternal salvation) while stating then too the corollary: my total lack of power (impotence) in the same. Rather than speaking of where I do have agency and impact, decisions to go the store or not, decisions to change careers or not – all things in the temporal order – this prayer speaks of where I have no effect, in the realm or place of what will become of me in any or all eternal order. 

Martin Luther was able to untie or unravel the Gordian Knot of how God could be God (omnipotent and benevolent)  while suffering, death, malevolence and all kinds of evil find footing everywhere. He did it by letting revelation, as embodied in the written Scripture, say what it says without equivocation, without having the God of the Bible live within the definition or straightjacket of being the Law itself. God is not subject to another and greater power, the Law, with its livelihood found in obedience and merit. God is God – powerful and loving – and calls all things to subjugation to that, to Godself. Luther called this powerful love “Promise,” as opposed to Demand. All Law is subject to God, not the other way around. God is not the Law. Who or What is God? Unadulterated and Unmerited Mercy, one who lives by a different set of rules (Steven Paulson calls this the “Outlaw God” See Luther’s Outlaw God, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3). God is an Outlaw. God is the Outlaw. God gives to the undeserving, all. 

The problem then, of course, and the reason we resist this outlandish assertion, is that this makes God responsible for evil and makes us responsible for nothing. If, rather than Promise, God is the Law then that which disobeys has the potential to obey (obedience is the holy grail) and is not itself God but could potentially be God if and when obedience is attained. And, if God is the Law, we live with the possibility, the potential, of engaging the transactions, finding the correct ingredients, to reach and meet God on God’s terms. 

But, if, rather, God is pure Promise, all things happen for and in promise. 

God cannot help being God – totally above our pay grade. This is a problem for us for a couple of reasons. First, because evil is, well, destructive, not redemptive. There is no silver lining in that dark cloud. None. Evil is not a path or does not provide a path toward righteousness, but is rather purely unrighteous. Secondly, because we have no say in the matter of God’s relation to us, God’s decision(s) about us. We do not like being taken out of the game. Luther called this “above our pay grade” God the “unpreached God.” What’s a God to do when by God’s very Godness all hell breaks loose and all creatures hate God? God can only redeem this madness by engaging and defeating Godself: showing up with bells on to dispel the silent and sleeping God (Silent: no answer comes to the call for help. Sleeping: sets things in motion and takes a nap waiting to see if anybody can make good on and with those things) who lurks, awaiting our obedience. What loudness do the bells bring? All kinds of noise about the undeserving getting what they don’t deserve. Mercy! In other words, showing up in Jesus. Luther called this the “preached God.”

If we cannot see Jesus as the pure expression of the Outlaw God, the one who declares absolution on all whether deserving or not – “preached” – we will be left with God as the Law – “unpreached,” no word declared but rather word withheld until we make the grade. 

God has dealt the deathblow to Godself (the unpreached finds fulfillment, is complete, is done, dies, not because it is satiated, but because it is extinguished). The Promise eliminates Demand. The Preached overrules (overshouts?!) the Unpreached.

Will we but hear?

We did not listen then – we killed Jesus. The fact that something happened wherein and whereby the Promise was not forsaken – they said Jesus was raised from the dead – is why we can listen now and be transformed, go from death to life.

Will we but hear?

I know that I am desperately and daily all ears.