2025-02-14 A Meditation on Hard Law

“17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:17-20 ESV)

The compromised estate, the fact-facing around past compromises, immorality, things illogical on any moralist’s ledger: Christians embrace a doctrine wherein All—all peoples, all comers, all witnesses—stand no chance against the Reckoning. More, it just “feels natural”, to abide in our compromised estates, to absolve ourselves, to overlook infamy and precarious Decisions Made. God weeps to foment a Creed of unconditional Love that likewise, at simultaneous time, makes no moral compromise. That begins right where the false doctrine begins: Embrace the mercy rather than embracing the convenient explanation. We are all of us forgetful. We are all of us compromised. We are all of us simple in advancing notions positive, and reluctant in advancing notions negative.

The soldier’s weeping Morn spent in prayer, then, is a Morn that sees no totem pole nor hierarchy around just who is “Innocent” and who “Compromised”. It was a marvelous game, after all, wasn’t it? That to have earned Anything in this lifetime, was borderline criminal on the flipside. That our under-appreciated “Good deeds” met with spiritual Attack most sublime: “Ill deeds”, “Weird recollections”, “Standing offers of Mercy”. Indeed, the standing offers Embrace and Fulfill a Contract, one we were hesitant to acknowledge, to fess up to, to cope with. That God is for us. That we are no longer measured by our neck-and-shoulders Above the fray innocence. That we are no longer measured by our Quality of contrition, or of our New Face turned over: a face unguilty and inspired to live boldly into the New Innocence.

Therefore the vacuum makes no winners, per se, no competitive spirits rewarded per se, except that we are rewarded in a giant winnowing and gasping Acceptance of His oxygen, His patience, His Sublime Doctrine, Teaching, that He would just be glad to do the honors for us, of Taking the Blame, of some strangely never-seen Exchange of a good man for a litany of sins. Who ever, in our lives, goes this far? Who ever, in this Time and Place, strikes up such a contract? Who ever, in reflections of times past, Ends their lives for the sake of Increasing our freedoms and restoration?

We are restored because we have ceased to boast of past moral qualities, but also ceased to boast as though we were “more forgiven”, “more holy”, “more astute”, than Any of our peers. We are in the vacuum and in the “Oh, yeah”: God died for me, God was the perfect Soldier, God was the Lifeline to some dialog entrusted to Him as our ambassador in chains, as our ruler-amidst-His-enemies, as our prevenient Savior, in an exchange Horrific and Avoided by the standard fare of the day. Except for that News Outlet called Holy: that His holiness is something we can reach, fifty percent of us might just Reach It, twenty-five percent, a sizable portion nonetheless, even if ten percent. And it is “In the air”, “On the channels”, “On the television”: New ways Doctrine adapts and shows itself stubbornly Victorious, never conceding, self composed as Holy, as Inducted into the predestined state of things, as cheerful to a fault, as Impenetrable. For, we had our youthful times, and we had our reflective times. Now, as lovely as it is to Reflect, we must go to the front: we must wage spiritual war. Because we are not consigned forever to live in the light of our childhood of sin. Because we are not all that different from the tempted and fifty-percent Holy estate of our peers in the pews. Somehow, our deepest thoughts they Surface and stammer and humble the Personage called “We”. Called we the church. Called we the Body. Called we the forgiven.

All customs: easily imitated. All dichotomies, church versus society: easily fumbled. All “new leaves turned over”: easily prescribed. No, our new leaf is a long pass, a Hail Mary throw, to Embrace the End of our ambitions to be holiest, the end of our ambitions to Earn our keep ‘round here, the end of our ambitions to cubby-hole, hide out in, a blase mildly tepid Temperature called ease, going with the flow, settling for the status quo. Today, is the loving call to live as though for today alone; to be Firm and In Touch with the message of that sin-bearing substitute; to offer up even our lives unto the tragic Exchange, Barter, that He made for us, that we so rarely acknowledge in a peer of contemporary times, even though so many are laboring for people other than themselves.