Seeing God Through a Different Lens

We've all seen them before.  The people outside of concert venues, large community gatherings, college campuses, and street corners.  They might have a bullhorn or a portable microphone system and are railing away so that everyone can hear them. 

They are the Christian protesters and street preachers who show up uninvited to places and spaces where they feel they can "reach the most people."  Or tick off and disgust the most people, as the case may be. 

I can't tell you how many of these people I've seen over the years, doing their thing and waving or wearing their signs---signs with not-so-loving statements on them like "God hates f*gs" or "Repent all you Sinners!" among other things. 

One sign that I have seen over and over again goes something like this: "God is angry at sinners every day." 

That particular sign can tell you everything you know about what a person believes about God.  And it also makes me feel sorry for whoever is waving it.  While I might be inclined to be frustrated and angry at the person, I have to remind myself that they were taught about God's anger toward "sinners" from an early age.  

They see God as angry and vengeful--a God who is ready to smite anyone who is a sinner at any moment.  These people might believe they are outside of the scope of God's anger because they are among the chosen and "saved," but deep inside they wonder whether God might be angry at them, too.  

For many, faith began with an image of God as perpetually angry—ready to strike down anyone who strayed. That picture lingers in sermons, in childhood lessons, even in our inner fears. But what if that view misses the deeper truth of God’s heart? 

Brian McLaren helps us reframe when he writes:

“If we speak of an angry God at all, we will speak of a God angry at indifference, angry at apathy, angry at racism and violence, angry at inhumanity, angry at waste, angry at destruction, angry at injustice, angry at hostile religious clannishness. That anger is never against us (or them); it is against what is against us (and them).”

This is a radical shift. God’s anger is not aimed at you or me—it is aimed at what diminishes us. 

God is angry at injustice because it crushes God's children. God is angry at hatred because it poisons relationships. God is angry at apathy because it keeps us from loving fully. God's anger is not destructive wrath against people, but protective passion for life and justice.

Scripture echoes this vision. The prophet Micah reminds us what God truly desires: “to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Jesus himself, in the temple, overturned the tables not out of petty rage but because exploitation of the poor in God’s house was intolerable (Matthew 21:12–13). Paul exhorts believers: “In your anger do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26), showing us that even righteous anger has a redemptive purpose.

When we reframe God’s anger, we begin to see that it is really God’s love burning fiercely against whatever harms God's beloved creation. And as followers of Christ, we are invited to carry that same righteous anger—anger at racism, violence, destruction, and injustice—while embodying mercy, justice, and love in response.

May we release the fear of an angry God looming over us and embrace instead the God who stands with us, for us, against everything that is against life.

Prayer

God of justice and mercy, help me to see You clearly—not as an enemy to fear, but as a loving Father who stands against all that harms Your children. Teach me to share in Your righteous anger and to work for Your justice with compassion and grace. Amen.

Reflection Questions

1. How has your understanding of God’s “anger” shaped your spiritual life?

2. What injustices or wrongs stir righteous anger within you, and how might that be God’s Spirit at work?

3. How can you live out God’s love in ways that confront injustice without falling into bitterness?