Monday, March 2, 2026

 

 

 
Then I turned to the Lord God, to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, 'Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments, we have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land. . . . ' Daniel 9:3-6

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’ Luke 6:36-38
 
 
There is something deeply satisfying with the prayers of confession in the Sunday service. For me, it is cathartic. Something about "miserable offenders"… We have not loved you with our whole heart … We have done those things which we ought not to have done" … and others, helps me to breathe a little easier.

It’s almost as if, during the week, we maintain the façade that we have our act together, but as we prepare for communion, the mask comes off, making room for grace and forgiveness.  At a Bible Study years ago, the leader described her approach to the Communion rail as almost the opposite of the Peanut’s character Pigpen.  As in, each step towards the altar is a shedding of all the burdens that have blocked us from the divine love that God has for us all.

Lent is an opportunity to do a deep inventory of the clutter of our hearts, including our unhelpful judgments of not only ourselves but others. The acknowledgement of where we have messed up, on our own, but with the full assurance that God’s mercy can fill every crack. That he can do infinitely more that we can ask or imagine.

And so, I end with…

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.
 
Sylvia Besplug
 
 
Only a Shadow | The Love I have for you, my Lord   Carey Landry 

 



 

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