He sits enthroned upon the cherubim;
let the earth quake! (Psalm 99:1)
Those of us wearing the label "progressive Christian" are sometimes a bit squeamish at the notion of God making folks tremble. "God is love," we say. Jesus loved people and helped them. He didn't try to scare them. And plus there are enough people running around talking about a God who has it out for anyone who doesn't have her beliefs nailed down just so.
However, as true as all this may be, we sometimes end up with a very safe, user-friendly, manageable God. And even sweet, loving Jesus scared folks badly enough that they thought it necessary to kill him.
One a those paradoxes inherent to a deep, mature faith is the experience of a God who is loving, merciful, and filled with endless grace, and yet is awe inspiring, wild, dangerous, and not the least bit manageable. No wonder Jesus said that following him meant losing yourself, allowing your life to be taken over by this strange new thing that begins to happen in Jesus.
In my own spiritual life, I'm often more than happy with a hint of God. A wisp of spiritual warmth will do. I'm not sure I want to meet a God with the power to transform me, to spin me around and drive me in some direction I'd prefer to avoid at all costs. God is supposed to grease the skids of my comfortable, middle-class, pastoral enterprise, not startle me or unnerve me or demand that I change.
Yahweh is king; let the peoples tremble! Actually, just the thought that God is actually in charge, rather than me, is enough to make me tremble just a bit.
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