Reflection - Tolerance

By Steve Hall

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070420.cfm
Amos 9:11-15
Matthew 9:14-17

It would seem that God should be more tolerant.

For years people have beenq criticized because they only saw the world in terms of black and white — and that’s not a racial comment. Rather it’s a judgement on a person’s moral stance. One source explains it this way: “To see the world in black and white is to live within the contours of extremism. This outlook neatly divides the world into right versus wrong, good versus evil, and yes versus no. This thinking is dependent upon such words as always and never.” Clearly, such a person is lacking in tolerance; and, since God divides the world into “right versus wrong, good versus evil, and yes versus no,” then tolerance can hardly be attributed to God as one of His virtues. He’s a black and white sort of guy. Maybe he needs a seminar in diversity.

Now, just so there’s no misunderstanding, we are not talking about the traditional meaning of tolerance, as the old-school meaning simply referred to the act of allowing — as tolerating a child’s wild and loud behavior. The term ‘tolerance’ today has been appropriated by some who insist that the allowance be accompanied by approval. So, in today’s world of moral relativity, God is not tolerant.

Our current Old Testament reading makes the case. It sounds great on the surface:  

“I will raise up
the fallen hut of David;
I will wall up its breaches,
raise up its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old.”

But this is the final chapter of the Book of Amos; and that final chapter was preceded by eight — that’s eight — chapters expressing intolerance of the social behavior of the Chosen People.

“. . . they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes.” (Amos 2:6)
“. . . they trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the afflicted.” (Amos 2:7)
"They . . . store up violence and robbery in their strongholds." (Amos 3:10)
“They trample upon the poor and take from him exactions of wheat. . . “ (Amos 5:11)
“They have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.” (Amos 6:12)

So . . . God complains about social injustice and promises retribution. He then promises a return to happier days.

What’s with that?

As I said: God should be more tolerant. After all, what’s a few social problems? We all need to look out for number one, don’t we. Didn’t Jesus Himself say that the poor will always be around?

As I said: black and white, right and wrong, good and evil, yes and no.

Hey! There must be grey areas somewhere.

Is God just fickle? Certainly some have accused him of such.

When Paul preached to the philosophically burdened city of Athens he had this to say: “Yet he [our God] is not far from each one of us, for 'In him we live and move and have our being' . . . 'For we are indeed his offspring.'” (Acts 17:27-28) 

The words offer a distinction between creation and Creator which is difficult to ignore. It is one which we already know, and which we consistently find to be beyond our grasp. It reminds me of what Jean-Jacque Rousseau said more than a century ago: “God created man in his own image. And man, being a gentleman, returned the favor.” No wonder we can’t understand the Creator/ created distinction; we can see only from the created side. Nevertheless, as Paul said to the Athenians: We have life only because of God. We can physically exist and interact with a physical world only because of God. We have the nature we have, and we continue to have that nature through time because of God. Moreover, we are his offspring; that is to say, we have no existence on our own. God doesn’t have such issues even though we may prefer to return the favor.

We may think — or hope, or wish — that God was more tolerant; but it ain’t gonna happen. Why? Because God can’t compromise. (Another problematic issue.) There is no haggling, or accommodation, or bartering. God is lacking in tolerance. He divides the world into “right versus wrong, good versus evil, and yes versus no.” Make your choice. God can’t compromise because, even from a flawed human perspective, it would make no sense. It would, in fact, be contradictory. Right cannot be right if it includes the wrong. Good cannot be good if it includes the evil. Yes cannot be yes if it allows for no. Love cannot be love if it includes hate.

Ultimately, that is why God does not punish even though we resort to proclaiming it. We declare it to be so while relying on our flawed image and using our flawed language because we have nowhere else to go. Inflicting evil contradicts the essence of God. So, whether the evil is within us or without, what we endure is only a reflection of our self and our world.

Perfect love has invited us to participate in perfect love and has given us the means to do so. Part of that means is our ability to choose. The other part is the gift of his Son, through whom we can have perfect life and have it in abundance.