Musings on the Daily Lectionary

O LORD, who may abide in your tent?
Who may dwell on your holy hill?
Those who walk blamelessly,
and do what is right.

How good it is to sing praises to our God;
for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted,
and binds up their wounds.

These verses from Psalm 15 and 147 seem to me to describe two aspects of God that are often difficult to reconcile. In the first, one can come before God only if she is good and follows the Law. But in the second, a gracious God reaches out to gather in the outcasts. In a sense, here is the dichotomy of Law and Grace. Do we relate to God because we keep on the straight and narrow? Or do we relate to God because God pursues us and rescues us?

I think that a lot of denominations and traditions seek to resolve the conflict between these two views by featuring one component -- Law or Grace -- more prominently than the other. And so in some churches faith is mostly about following the rules, and in other churches faith is mostly about accepting God's freely given love. Problem is, the Bible never resolves the tension between these two poles. The call to purity and God's forgiveness and love are not either/or but both/and.

We humans tend not to like paradoxes, and there is a paradox here. But I think that this paradox serves as a powerful corrective for those of us gathered around either pole. If we emphasize Law and right behavior over all else, we need to be reminded of God's embrace of those who are undeserving. But if we tend to think that God simply loves everyone no matter what, we need to be reminded that God calls us to live holy lives.

You sometimes hear the tension between these two poles explained as the "God of the Old Testament" versus the "God of the New Testament," as though they were different Gods. But instead, what we see in this tension is a God who will not be conformed to our labels, who will not be as we would prefer, but who is more than we can imagine and comprehend. And I know that for me, it is a good thing to be reminded that God embodies more than I can take in at one time.

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