A funny thing often happens when someone begins reading the Bible in earnest.  They discover that a lot of the things in the Bible are ‘not nice.’

For lots of us, even those who never miss a Sunday, our exposure to scripture happens primarily by hearing it read in church.  Perhaps we also will get a short passage to read in our daily devotional from the Upper Room or Our Daily Bread or a book of devotional reflections.

The lectionary readings on Sunday and the inspiring verses cited in devotional literature are curated collections of scripture.  They have been selected because they are concise and clear, because they tell a familiar story or relate a familiar quote of Jesus, because they are hope-filled and encouraging. 

The selections that make up the lectionary and which are used for devotionals are well selected for good reasons.  I’m not suggesting that there’s a secret conspiracy to keep you from being exposed to the parts of scripture that some hidden cabal doesn’t want you to see.  After all, who would want to reflect on a chapter of genealogy for their morning devotions?

But if you want to read the Bible more widely, not just a verse or two here or a story there, you will notice it is not always nice.

By ‘not nice’ I am not referring to the fact that it is clearly adult reading, replete with warfare, personal violence and adultery, incest, rape, murder, torture and treachery.  No book that tells the truth about people could fail to mention these aspects of our collective and individual stories.

The Bible is frequently ‘not nice’ in the sense that biblical characters express intentions that are mean and vengeful.  They harbor fierce, burning hatred towards their enemies.

These intentions are often expressed in prayer form:  “Let death come upon them suddenly; let them go alive down into the grave.” (Ps. 55:16)

Here’s one that was popular to quote in some circles as a prayer against Barak Obama when he was in office: “Let his days be few, and let another take his office.  Let his children be fatherless and his wife become a widow.  Let his children be waifs and beggars; let them be driven from their homes…” (Psalm 108:8-9)

It’s not just the Bible that can be ‘not nice.’  So can we.

That’s why I’m glad in a way that the Bible has so much in it that is ‘not nice.’  It speaks to me in a language I can understand.  It speaks often from the perspective of people who have been deeply oppressed and victimized, whose experience is one that thankfully we have not shared.  The Bible portrays us as we are, without rose colored glasses.

I can pray out of my anger, my desire to get even, my shameful hope to see my enemies fall and fail.  I can bring this all to God just like these psalmists of old.  If I don’t bring my whole heart as it is, how can God and I have a real conversation?

Sometimes though, the Bible portrays God as being just as cruel and unpitying as we are at our worst.  What to do with these passages?

Here’s what I do.  Some of them I attribute to the tendency we all have to imagine that God endorses everything we do or desire.  So, if I got to the top of the heap by slaughtering my enemies, then I tell myself they were also God’s enemies.  How else could I have been so successful if God hadn’t been on my side?

Some of them I take more seriously.  I am reminded that God hates our injustice and sin.  God deplores our neglect of the refugee and widow, our greed that exploits the vulnerable.  Don’t kid yourself; the Bible clearly condemns paying people less than a living wage.  Justice, not ‘whatever the market will bear,’ is the standard God sets for paying wages.

But how does God deal with injustice?  How does God’s fierce hatred of selfishness and sin get resolved?

I believe it was resolved not in violent retribution, but in sacrificial love that conquers sin by transforming sinners.  I believe, “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”  (2 Cor. 5:19)

Prayer: I would rather not think about things that are not nice: in others, in the world, in me.  I hold fast to your love: that while we were not nice Christ died for us.