Transcendent Grace

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.
Francis of Assisi
Texts:

Psalm 110:1-4

"The LORD says to my lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.'  The LORD sends out from Zion your mighty scepter.  Rule in the midst of your foes.  Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains.  From the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you.  The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."

Exodus 19:4-25 (appointed verses for today are 7-25)

⁴You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. ⁵Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, ⁶but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites." ⁷So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. ⁸The people all answered as one: "Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do." Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD. ⁹Then the LORD said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after." When Moses had told the words of the people to the LORD, ¹⁰the LORD said to Moses: "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes ¹¹and prepare for the third day, because on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. ¹²You shall set limits for the people all around, saying, 'Be careful not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it. Any who touch the mountain shall be put to death. ¹³No hand shall touch them, but they shall be stoned or shot with arrows; whether animal or human being, they shall not live.' When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain." ¹⁴So Moses went down from the mountain to the people. He consecrated the people, and they washed their clothes. ¹⁵And he said to the people, "Prepare for the third day; do not go near a woman." ¹⁶On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled. ¹⁷Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. ¹⁹As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder. ²⁰When the LORD descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the LORD summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. ²¹Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people not to break through to the LORD to look; otherwise many of them will perish. ²²Even the priests who approach the LORD must consecrate themselves or the LORD will break out against them." ²³Moses said to the LORD, "The people are not permitted to come up to Mount Sinai; for you yourself warned us, saying, 'Set limits around the mountain and keep it holy.'" ²⁴The LORD said to him, "Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you; but do not let either the priests or the people break through to come up to the LORD; otherwise he will break out against them." ²⁵So Moses went down to the people and told them.

Hebrews 2:1-4

Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. 2 For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, 3 how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, 4 while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will. 

The holiness of God finds an uneasy home amongst humans.  It seems we spend most of our time struggling between our experience of who God is and our experience of who we are.  Is there evidence that "every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty"?  Or is there evidence that "From the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you.  The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek"?  Can we reconcile these two images of God's engagement of humanity?  

Time and again, God establishes that God's justice and mercy do not work the way in which we understand justice and mercy to work.  Between Exodus 19 and Moses receiving the 10 Commandments, we see apostasy amongst God's people, who proclaimed "Everything the LORD has said we will do."  God threatens to destroy the people of Israel, but Moses intercedes, and "the LORD changes his mind about the disaster he planned to bring on his people," (Exodus 32:14).

Born "from the womb of the morning," we receive breath as gift, we receive spirit as blessing, we receive life as grace.  Again and again, we see God changing God's mind in favor of mercy over punishment, in favor of restorative justice over retributive justice.  Whereas we turn away from relationship, God turns toward relationship, binding Godself to us.  In binding Godself to us, we receive the immeasurable gift: forgiven, springing forth as new creatures, our first breath each morning is our baptism into a new day, in which we walk hoping and trusting in the Promise that it is not our promises our our righteousness that makes us holy, but the alien righteousness of Christ that proclaims the reality of God's grace transcends the reality of human existence and failure.