Lent, Week One

During this season of Lent, I'm writing reflections based on the psalm assigned for each Sunday by the Revised Common Lectionary (look it up, if you want), and sharing those with the congregation I serve when we gather for Evening Prayer on Wednesday evenings. This reflection is from March 12, week one, and is based on Psalm 32.

There’s truth embedded in this psalm

      truth about our human nature

            truth about who we are

            truth about how we make our way through the world

we love, so much, to be right

      to be without fault

            to be blameless

      and when we can’t be faultless,

            we love to at least appear to be

And it eats us up

it tears us up

it rots us from the inside

      like a relational conflict ignored for generations

            that festers as a family feud

                  which no one understands any more

            but still it festers

      until we acknowledge

            where we ourselves fall short of the glory of God

                  appearing, unfortunately but necessarily,

                        no longer without blame

at which point we are open to receive

            instead of condemnation

      we receive respite

            we receive relief

                  we receive grace upon grace

      and a solid place to stand

            from which we find ourselves compelled to share

                  that which we undeservingly

                        have ourselves received

      a return to the Lord our God.

            Amen.