The Reconciliation and hope of Easter

Christianity does not call us to reconcile our lives to God's. That is the job of the Creator. He reconciles.  The Creator takes the created and bundles the heartbreak, the mess, the anger and the trivial into something Divine. The wonder and mystery of Easter is the voluntary yoking of our mess to the most physical embodiment of Deity the world had ever seen. Jesus 

Christ, a man who needed nothing of ours, who needed no spiritual lessons on forgiveness, humility, forgiveness and the quest of God, stepped into the story of humanity as a baby. He grew into a man, still harboring none of our baggage, and then in a supreme act of grace we do not deserve, died on a cross, beside the broken, for the broken, and assumed our mess. 

We like to define our sins. We list them. Greed, jealousy, adultery, murder, drunkenness, homosexuality. The list is long. And yet, there's this: what if all the law is  our human response to defining a God that is uncontainable and unknowable.  The ten commandments? A mortal's responses  to a divine encounter. Divinely blessed to be sure, as in the way we take our children's clean up efforts and say,"yes," but go behind them with a broom.  Because their efforts are important. They tie them to the vision, the process. 

 God reconciles with one breath. We show our work, as in a math problem. He does it in His head. 

He needn't show his work. The cross? That was for us. We needed the visual for the buy in. 

I often think about what is required to fully express my voluntary yoking of my messy life to God's vision. I go back to the basics.

 Deuteronomy 6:5-love the Lord with all my heart, soul and strength. 

Micah 6:8- do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. 

Mark 12:33- Not only will I love God, I will lovely neighbor as myself. 

Ephesians 6:4- be kind and forgive be another.

That is our yoking. When we live out the grace and mercy that has been poured into us, when we live out the call we hear in Christ,  we are marked as distinct. When we take the rest of the Law, it is because we desire a fence. There is no shame in a fence. It defines and guides our movements. I have a fence in my backyard, but not in my front. My neighbor to one side has none. My fence helps me define quarters for my dog and children, so that our freedoms do not encroach on our neighbor's right to the same. 

Law. Definition. Good things, that help me shape my life so that my footprint is small enough to allow God ample room to work in the world. The Law is not my tool to oppress, condemn and otherwise shame my neighbor. My voluntary fence does not exempt my Biblical call to love my neighbors and to really love them means I must know them. I must know them in their messy, uncontained, undefined struggling lives. I am to meet them, whoever they are, with whatever they have, whatever they wear, and with whomever they associate. Just as Christ my Brother, my Lord, met me. And then, and only then, if they decide any part of who they are does not allow them to comfortably follow God, then I may help them bring that burden to Christ. No questions. No judgments. No reconciliation. Because THAT IS NOT MY JOB! 

And so it's clear, I'm really bad at this. I'm impatient. I overplan. I try to structure the lives around me to my liking. I often fail to give God room to be Divine. I want God manageable, just like I want my spouse, my friends and my children. The manageable is safe and predictable. 

Holy week. Our mess reconciled, traded in for a chance to bring a living, resurrected

God to the ends of the earth. 

May God forgive me of my transgressions that I might be a better house for the most beautiful vision-  a full expression of His being of earth. 

May the peace, power and joy of the resurrection challenge us all to seek and know the Creator.