Reluctant Redemption

During the Christian season of Lent, a scriptural resource that forms a central theme is Psalm 51. It seems that the psalmist has been looking into our business as he writes, "I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me," and "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." This psalm remains one of the most popular, during Lent and throughout the year, because it expresses humankind's timeless hope of salvation.

But do we truly accept the Easter gift: the supreme atonement offered for us by Christ, in fulfillment of that hope? Christ's sacrifice for sin was made once and for all, still we inflict on ourselves the weight of judgment and the burden of guilt. We suspect that eternal damnation is waiting for us based on every word of gossip that we speak. We fear that we may have to wait in line for eternal life while St. Peter reviews every time we cut someone off in traffic. We continually say, "I was bad," to describe everything from eating a piece of cake to spending too much money on our clothes.

We find it hard to escape the images of a God of wrath lying in wait for us to make mistakes, lightening bolt in one hand and express ticket to eternal fire in the other. We acknowledge our unworthiness and our undeserving, without moving on to accept the mercy, love, and grace of Jesus' taking our place. If God can forget our sins, why can't we?

God decided we were worth saving, not as a reward for our goodness, rather as an investment in our greatness. Not that one of us is greater than another, rather that we all are children of God, and God sees in every one of us the potential to create in us, with us, and through us something truly great. Right now God is using someone's talent to create a composition of art or music; moving a small group to design an offering of worship that leads others to Christ; activating in a young woman the compassionate listening that delivers friends from despair; moving the heart of a believer to a moment of praise and prayer.

Just as we confess our sins, those breaks in our relationship with God, how about listing among them our reluctance to claim the life of promise that Christ's atonement makes possible? Let this Lenten season be a time of repentance and also of real renewal – of claiming with Christ the path that leads to God's creation of new life for all.

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Over our heads

Overheard on a plane in 1995: "You start getting money, then you start living the money, then the money's got YOU."

Grounds for Separation

In the current swirl of turmoil that has so many people whipped into a lather, or just plain whipped, why focus on worry over the latest dire predictions? Why not separate from the hysteria of the mainstream?

Focus instead on what has not changed: the constancy of God; the wonder of creation; the opportunities for service; the abundance of new chances at survival that come with living one more moment.

The French roots of the word survive (sur + vivre) mean to "live over." Isn't that what we all want, to transcend mundane fear and step over the paralyzing quicksand of despair? I think so.