Lent Day 11 – unCommon Grace and Do-Overs

Jesus’ great re-creation project to undo death is the central need of mankind and my central need. It is what is referred to as the Good News or Gospel. Again, we come across a very Christianese word, “Gospel.” For some religious people, there is a hypervigilant protection with a myopic definition of this Good News. It usually starts with the fact that we are bad and God hates bad. God punishes bad, so Jesus came and took on our badness and God’s punishment so we don’t have to pay the price for being bad. That is a bad news story that turns slightly better. We have to be convinced of our badness first, then see how mad God is at our badness and see how good Jesus is to take on our badness. Then, somehow are not punished for being bad. It all seems like really bad news.
The good news of God does not start with Easter Sunday, it starts at the beginning of the entire story. It is clear! God created and it declared it good. In fact, the sixth day in which he created mankind, He declared it VERY good! The entire story starts good. The story, according to the ending (Revelation) also ends good. Evil is defeated, pain ends and goodness reigns eternal. It is a good news to a great news story. Of course, we can’t live on planet Earth for too long to realize how tragic the middle part gets. All great stories have a struggle. Again, that struggle is the death all around us and inside of us. All of the goodness of God becomes threatened by death. The really, really good thing of God’s creation gets overtaken by a really bad thing that tries to destroy the good thing. Then, an amazing thing happens. God, in His goodness, love and bigness uses the powerful weapon of mercy to make the bad thing powerless. Mercy then becomes the invitation into the re-creation of all the good things. This is the good news!

It is so strange to say, but I am something amazing. Like all other human-beings, I am the crescendo of God’s creation. We are the one thing made “like” God and declared VERY good. Yet, as mentioned yesterday, the amazing things called "humans" face the constant threat of death. So, after creation and death there is a re-creation. This is something God has done and will continue to do. He will continue to re-make. Many theologians call it the redemptive cycle. I call it mercy. Mercy is the force of re-creation. In the midst of incredible tragedy both personally, culturally and spiritually, the prophet Jeremiah declares (in Lamentations!), “The Lord’s mercies are new every morning.” As certain as the sun rises, God’s mercy moves on as the force of His re-creation. It starts a new day. It re-creates within me a new start with new opportunities, new perspectives and newness. Mercy is the grand invitation to begin again. It invites me to embrace my do-overs and get back to work. So, I grab hold of it so that the death of the previous day doesn’t carry over today. Mercy provides an eraser for the mistakes, errors and badness. It breaks open God’s continual work of creating life. Mercy is the doorway to the Artist’s studio. Mercy keeps the “do-over” alive, as many times as I need it. And, I need as many do-over as I get possibly get. This is good news for me. The Gospel declares that I am good and the death that seeks to un-create me is constantly being defeated by the unending force of mercy. I get to participate in mercy and be a part of making everything new.

What makes all this Good News is how unbelievably merciful the Artist is. He is patient with me and my endless do-overs. He is leading and loving me all the way through the enteral re-creation project. He even asks me to participate. Today, it sounds like this, “Our Father, who reigns in Heaven, how incredible and indescribable you are! Your re-creation project come, your life-producing plans be carried out in here in my home as they are being carried out in your eternal house. Give all of us what we need, just for today, and please give us more do-overs (mercy) as we will give more do-over (mercies) to others. Lead us all away from the pull of destruction and rescue us from death. For it all belongs to you and Your goodness will rule forever and ever, AMEN!”