Friday, March 16, 2007
From AscensionNYC
Friday in the Third Week of Lent
Psalm 81:8-14
Hosea 14:1-9
Mark12:28 -34
What does a healthy regard for the chasm between the known and the unknown have to do with Lent? I believe it lies in a simple question; how well do we know ourselves? The familiar parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector at prayer in the temple serves as a cogent commentary on the ongoing struggle within each and every one of us to define our 'person' relative to God. In a culture pervaded by what Augusten Burroughs penned as a 'raging sense of entitlement', we assign potency and texture to our connection with the Divine through a process of comparative study of our neighbors. While "I am not like other men" may not as readily cross our lips as those of the Pharisee is Jesus' illustration, it surely is tightly woven in the fabric of our frail human psyche. Left to our own devices and desires, our resolve to love God and our neighbor fades like the morning mists in the passage from Hosea. We are all, in our own ways, broken spirits in need of our Savior's redeeming love and guidance.
"O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise." The Psalmist's beautiful words called me to worship during the Matins services of my youth. As an adult, God still calls me through words and witness to manifest my wonder at his unknowable love for me through a life of praise and humble service. God sees to the very depths of our souls, and loves and cherishes us despite all of the imperfection and self-deception. With that knowledge of His divine nature, may we hunger to glimpse our Savior as He is revealed daily in our neighbor's face and the confounding wonder of his creation, hoping, through faith, to share in the final revelation of the complete wonder that is our God at the end of days.
Hosea 14:1-9
Mark
What does a healthy regard for the chasm between the known and the unknown have to do with Lent? I believe it lies in a simple question; how well do we know ourselves? The familiar parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector at prayer in the temple serves as a cogent commentary on the ongoing struggle within each and every one of us to define our 'person' relative to God. In a culture pervaded by what Augusten Burroughs penned as a 'raging sense of entitlement', we assign potency and texture to our connection with the Divine through a process of comparative study of our neighbors. While "I am not like other men" may not as readily cross our lips as those of the Pharisee is Jesus' illustration, it surely is tightly woven in the fabric of our frail human psyche. Left to our own devices and desires, our resolve to love God and our neighbor fades like the morning mists in the passage from Hosea. We are all, in our own ways, broken spirits in need of our Savior's redeeming love and guidance.
"O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise." The Psalmist's beautiful words called me to worship during the Matins services of my youth. As an adult, God still calls me through words and witness to manifest my wonder at his unknowable love for me through a life of praise and humble service. God sees to the very depths of our souls, and loves and cherishes us despite all of the imperfection and self-deception. With that knowledge of His divine nature, may we hunger to glimpse our Savior as He is revealed daily in our neighbor's face and the confounding wonder of his creation, hoping, through faith, to share in the final revelation of the complete wonder that is our God at the end of days.
David Cholcher
