Talk about a God of second chances - or third, or fourth, or hundredth...
Today in Deuteronomy Moses tells the people that the only reason they're getting the chance to go into the land of milk and honey is because the people who lived there before were even worse than they are and are being booted out. The land happens to be free right now. It's not because they earned it or deserve it - in fact, Moses describes well the multiple infractions against God's law these people have committed. Why, even at the very moment Moses was up on the mountain receiving the commandments written in stone, the people were down below merrily messing up big time once again!
Yet, God still gives them another chance to come into a better place. The whole 40 years in the wilderness was one instance after another of the people screwing up and God giving them another chance.
Which brings me to Mark Sanford. Remember him? He was the governor of South Carolina that "disappeared" on a hike in the Appalachians few years ago, but then it turned out that the married governor wasn't hiking, but using state funds to go visit his mistress in Argentina. Sanford resigned in shame back then, and he's now divorced, has paid the state back for his South American romps, and is now--- wait for it --- he's now running for congress in South Carolina's 1st congressional district.
"I've experienced how none of us go through life without mistakes. But in their wake we can learn a lot about grace, a God of second chances and be the better for it," Sanford says in an ad that is currently on the airwaves in South Carolina.
OK, a space has opened up, and Mark Sanford does now have the chance to enter it. And who knows, maybe he has 'wandered around in the wilderness' long enough and is ready to enter politics again (not to say that politics is a land of milk and honey). But you can see the Biblical references he's calling on here, right? In his ad he says he's humbly stepping forward and asking for the voter's help in getting another chance to change Washington.
OK, although I absolutely believe that God gives Mark Sanford (and even people who've done far more heinous things than he has) second, third - even seventy times seven chances in life - that doesn't mean I'd vote for him as my congressman. Try some real humility, Mr. Sanford.
Today's Readings: Deut. 9:4-12; Heb. 3:1-11; John 2:13-22
Elsa is reading The Message translation this year.
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