Jack Hardaway
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Falling from grace.
That turn of phrase, falling from grace, it carries a whole bunch of baggage.
Falling from grace, originally it was a reference to Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the garden, choosing to elevate themselves in God’s place rather than being in communion with the Holy One.
The turn of phrase gets used all the time, alluding to Adan and Eve, while comparing the fall to current day people and events, usually someone loses their privilege by being caught doing wrong, or simply being on the wrong side of fickle opinions.
Falling from Grace, losing favor, losing status. The turn of phrase has lost its theological roots, and simply has to do with money or popularity now.
But Grace, that is something else, communion with the Holy One.
Falling from Grace is always about rejecting God. It isn’t about losing privilege, it is about forsaking freedom, it is about being shackled and chained, it is about bondage, being enslaved.
Scripture is full of that rejection.
It wasn’t just Adam and Eve.
It was Cain and Abel.
It was Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
It was Moses.
It was the disciples.
It was the crowd at the Cross on Good Friday.
It was the Apostle Paul.
Falling from Grace is a way of life for the people of God.
The story today from First Samuel is one of those moments.
The people of Israel were a tribal confederation, and when needed God would raise up Judges to gather the tribes to face any threats.
Because God was their king, and survival, victory, liveliness were all Grace, all gift, always looking to God. Every day was manna, bread from heaven.
Always listening to the Spirit, always trusting, never really knowing what would come next, always being free, it grew tiresome.
They wanted a king to rule them, all the time, someone, anyone other than God. They wanted to be like everyone else, all the other nations, they wanted to be powerful, to feel powerful, to have other people bow before them like they had bowed before God.
They escaped Pharoah and bondage, only to make their own Pharoah, and to trade their freedom for being powerful.
The fall from grace. Saul became King, and Saul had to carry the insanity of rejecting God and choosing power. Saul descended onto madness by the end. One of the first tragic heroes.
The story of God and the account of scripture are about much more than that though. It isn’t about pointing the finger and gloating. In fact, the turn of phrase, falling from grace, misses the point completely.
The Good News of God is that we don’t fall from grace, we fall into grace.
We fall into the waters of baptism and are born anew.
As the parable from Mark today puts it, the strong man has been bound and the house is being plundered.
God is stealing the world back. Jesus is the thief stealing us away.
We always trade our freedom for something else, and God finds us there in our bondage and breaks the chains.
We are set free to love, free to serve, free to lift one another up, because that is who God is, and where these things happen, God is there.
Falling into grace, that is what we do.
Every day is manna, every day is communion, every day we fall into the waters.