into the mess

Sunday September 15^th, Exodus 32: 7 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'  The people were liberated from slavery and brought to the holy mountain.  While the leader was absent for a short while up on the mountain, the people went back to slavery and began worshiping that which they had made, that which seemed to be under their control.  God sent Moses down out of the mountain to deal with them.  Things haven’t changed much and it seems sometimes as if God is forever either coming down into the messes we create, or is sending someone down as a messenger to lead us out of those messes.  From our point of view the answer is to create systems that blame others for our misfortune.  For God, the answer is always Grace.   God is always coming down into a world where we are trying to configure a god we can control. The frenzied insanity around guns is simply our latest attempt at god creating, our present “golden calf” (which it is for the gun manufacturers). Our calling as the children of God in this world is to, as God does, come down.  Come down out of our Church towers and self-induced righteousness and into the dirty lives of those around us, those who live in fear and therefore need a fear inducing firearm, and in the process, into our own dirty lives also.  Lives filled with the gods we created so in times of stress we can seem to be in control.  We are called to come down into that mess and while down there be messengers of Grace, messengers of God’s grace in the world.