God's True Seat

The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  Psalm 103:8

God's True Seat

By Rev. William Dohle

It's Christmas time and the radio is filled with Christmas favorites.  There are so many.  White Christmas.  Rudolph.  Frosty the Snowman.  Not to mention all the religious ones.

One of the songs sung this season really makes me cringe.  Its a popular song too, so many people know it.  It goes something like this...

You better watch out.
You better not cry.
You better not pout. I'm telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
He's making a list and checking it twice.
Gonna find out whos naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town
He sees you when you're sleeping.
He knows when you're awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good.
So be good for goodness sake!

Have you ever listened to the lyrics to that song?  The man described in that popular Christmas song is insane.  He's a stalker.  He keeps a record of what you do right or wrong.  And he punishes you accordingly.  He's right too because he watches you when you're sleeping and when you're awake.  And he's going to be right too because he's checked his list...twice!

Talk about a scary guy!

Maybe that's why my youngest is so afraid of sitting on Santa's lap.  He knows who this guy is.

Most of the time we don't pay much attention to the lyrics we sing here.  Santa is seen as a jolly happy soul in other songs.  A dear old man.  An elf bringing gifts to the young girls and boys.

But occasionally we let our theology into our Santa songs and then...disaster strikes!

You see, this vision of Santa Claus is the way many people view God.  An old man in the sky keeping record of our wrongs, to punish us when we do bad and to reward us when we do good. 

Many people(and I put myself in this category at one time) view God as a Being eternally angry with humanity.  With his eye on us from his judgment seat in the sky, he sets out to record the rights and wrongs we do.  The rights he might reward(if he feels like it).  But the wrongs he will surely punish!

And so must repent. We must come groveling back to God.  We have sinned against him.  God is angry with us.  And, even if we believe that Jesus somehow deals with this anger, we're still left with a God who, like the Santa in the song, is eternally upset and on the watch for what could possibly anger him.

So what do we do with this?  Is this biblical? Is this the God we find there?  Or not?

Perhaps a better question to ask would be...where does God sit?  If mercy is in one seat and condemnation in another, does God sit in the seat of condemnation, to destroy us?  Or does he sit in the mercy seat, to show us mercy?

The book of Numbers tells us plainly where God sat in the tabernacle.  And, I would argue, where God still sits.

"When Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak to the Lord, he would hear the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat..."(Num. 7:89)

The "mercy seat'.  That's what they called the place between the two cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant.  The MERCY seat.  Not the judgment seat.  Not the seat of condemnation.  Not the place where God sits when he's REALLY mad at you.  No.  God's voice comes out from the place where mercy sits.

What if we saw God sitting here instead of in the place of condemnation?  What if God was seen as being first and foremost merciful(as he is described all over the Scriptures), instead of first and foremost condemning?  What if this was our view of God?  How would we live our lives?  And, better still, how would we treat our neighbors?

This is where God resides...in mercy.  His mercy is given first, even before we come to repent of our wrongs.  God forgives and loves and gives of himself before we can even respond.  "While we were still sinners..." Paul tells us.  And that mercy doesn't stop either. God's mercy, his steadfast love, endures forever and ever!  It never ends.  Even when we don't respond to it.  Even when we turn away.  Even if we stop repenting, God's love remains.

That's just who God is.  God is gracious and merciful.  He sits in a better seat than the Santa in the song does.  God sits there instilling, not fear, but love and trust into our hearts.

So, as you sing this carol with your friends, keep in mind.  Someone more good and righteous and giving and compassionate and loving is coming.  Someone greater than even Santa Claus himself is already here.  He is here to show us mercy, not judgment.  To give to the good and the bad alike his greatest gift, eternal life, not because of what we have done, but because of what He has done for us!

Merciful God, shower us with your mercy.  Give us grace to see you smiling down upon us.  And help us to be merciful to others, as you are to us.  Amen.