God was a lot easier to figure out 25 years ago. He seemed logical and predictable and safe. Today, well, let’s just say I’ve got fewer easy answers when it comes to explaining God’s behavior. Maybe I’m just less satisfied with the simple answers I would have believed or spouted when I was younger in my faith.

For example, how do you explain 2 Samuel 21:1-14? There’s a famine in the land, so David asks God what the problem is. God says the problem is Saul, the king before David, killed some people called the Gibeonites.

David discusses things with the Gibeonites and then agrees to turn over two of Saul’s sons and five of his grandsons to the Gibeonites for them to kill. I don’t know if it was God’s idea for David to hand them over to the Gibeonites, but I do know the passage ends with: After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.

Contrast that with Matthew 9 where Jesus is accused by the Pharisees of hanging out with tax collectors and sinners. I like the way Todd Agnew says it in his song “My Jesus”: He spent His time with thieves and sluts and liars. The same God who seems to have been appeased by the murder of seven men for something their father and grandfather did also enjoyed spending time with sinners.

Feeling any tension between the two?

I do.