A colleague-friend told me just this week that he was once raked over the coals in a Sunday School class for suggesting that the book of Jonah was a parable rather than a piece of literal history.  That’s reflective of a source of tension in our churches now.  There are those who suggest that if you don’t take every word as literally factual then you deny the authority of the scriptures.  Atheists and fundamentalists have that in common – Bill Maher (an avowed atheist and former Catholic) asserts that “you either believe in the talking snake or you don’t,” and that if you’re going to believe then you “have to swallow the whole wafer.”

I don’t think it’s as simple as that.  There are truths that metaphor, narrative and parable communicate far more effectively than historical, biological claims can.  Jesus understood that.  He didn’t expect his listeners to believe that the parable of, say, the wicked vineyard workers was an event that really happened in history – he expected them to hear some truths about God in the narrative.

One of my seminary profs had a great saying.  “All those people who want me to take every word literally ought to read this one – ‘God is love.’ Why can’t they seem to take THAT one literally?”

Here’s one for you.  “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

That’s problematic for Christians.  Nearly all of the “acceptable, orthodox (small o)” theology in our churches is centered around sacrifice.  Get yourself washed in the fountain filled with the blood of the lamb who died on the cross because you are bad, as a propitiation for your sins and your sinful nature.  God sacrificed his son for YOU, the least you can do is be a Christian.  Look at them nail-scarred hands.  He suffered for you and because of you.  The sacrifice of the sinless, spotless lamb appeased God who is angry at you to keep you from God’s wrath.

I can’t help but think that Jesus would take one look at our hymnals and say, “What is up with all those blood hymns?  What part of ‘I DESIRE MERCY, NOT SACRIFICE’ do you not understand?”

Yes, I know Paul writes a lot – an awful lot – about the sacrifice of Christ.  But never forget that the most common sermon he preached (three times in Acts alone) was about his encounter with the risen, LIVING Christ.  Not the dead, bloody one.

We have conflated God’s mercy with sacrifice.  Sacrifice is now considered a good thing.  Describing someone as being self-sacrificing or longsuffering is a compliment.  Therefore asking people in churches to engage in mission and ministries is literally asking them to sacrifice.  In order to visit folks in the nursing home they have to sacrifice time with their children or the ballgame or Dancing With the Has-Beens.

But is being merciful really such a sacrifice?  Honestly, yes.  In order to be truly merciful we may have to make sacrifices.  We have to sacrifice our negative attitudes about our neighbors.  Our stereotypes and prejudices.  Our racism, sexism, ageism, etc.  Our preconceived notions about others.  Things that are worth sacrificing.

What if we took Jesus seriously here?  What if it’s not all about the blood and the suffering and the sacrifice?  What if it’s not about appeasing an angry God?  What if God isn’t a monster, but a merciful and loving God?