Lent is, as Stanley Hauerwas notes, a dangerous time for Christians. With talk of ashes and repentance, renewal and sin, we can soon turn the Good News of the Gospel into the bad news of God’s dangling us over the fire pit of damnation. And, despite the fact that there are, indeed, scriptures that describe God’s wrath (particularly toward those who are responsible for injustice), the strange new world of the Bible as a whole paints a rather different picture.
From the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of the New, we encounter and are encountered by the God who simply refuses to give up on us, who goes to lengths beyond our comprehension to remain with us, and who is willing to die on our account because it means our salvation.
In other words, God has no damns to give because God is love.
