Lent Day #2

Ephesians 2:1-10
2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.


THOUGHTS:
I realize more and more that I am no better than anyone else. I know that I don't measure up. I know that I'm a sinner. But I also know that God meets us in our brokenness -- God always comes down to meet us where we are. In the Hebrew scriptures, God came down to Noah, Abraham, and Moses. God met them in the midst of their lives and used them for God's purposes. Later, God clothes himself in skin and comes down to earth in the form of Jesus to hang out with the destitute and those on the margins...to suffer and die in one of the most humiliating and degrading ways that humankind has ever devised...and in doing so created a bridge from our sinful world to God. This all happens while we are still undeserving sinners! At church last night, the pastor told of a time he offered someone communion, and the person looked down saying "I'm not a good enough person for that." He explained that that's exactly right, and that's the point. None of us are ever "good enough". It's not something we could ever "earn". We are saved by the grace of God reconciling world through the death of Jesus the Christ.

Father Robert Farrar Capon describes this as something like "propping open the gates to heaven with the corpse of Jesus". The result is that we are made righteous through the work of Jesus the Christ. We don't earn it, but through God's grace, we are clothed with the Christ's righteousness. So even though we are still sinners, God views us through the same lens as Jesus -- God sees the righteousness of Jesus when looking at us! In the Lutheran tradition, this gets summed up in saying that we are always both Sinner and Saint at the same time. Somehow, even the faith we need is a gift of God. This may open another can of worms and questions -- and that's OK. Part of this journey is living amidst our questions.

God loved you so much that even though you are a sinner, it was God's will that Jesus the Christ should die to reconcile you to God -- through no work of your own whatsoever! Therefore, as Martin Luther wrote "Sin boldly, but believe and rejoice more boldly still." In more detail, "God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world." (Martin Luther writing to Philipp Melachthon in 1521.)


PRAYER:
Lord God, we offer our thanks for your awesome mercy, knowing full well that we don't deserve it. We ask that you continue to sustain us when we are faltering. We trust in you to provide the nourishment we need to live. We plead for help in forgiving those in our lives in the way that you have forgiven us. We pray this in the name of Jesus the Christ, who suffered for our sake. Amen.


NOTES:
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