First Sunday of Lent
February 21, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 25, a prayer full of humility, thanksgiving, and hope.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
Psalm 25: 4-5
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
On this First Sunday of Lent, the psalm is set between the wonderful Noah story, its interpretation by Peter, and the proclamation of Christ’s redemptive mission.
Like Noah, humankind has come through the storm of an ages-long messianic longing. Jesus is the Rainbow rising out of that darkness. His Light passes into us through the prismed waters of our Baptism. Indeed, as our Psalm declares:
Good and upright is the LORD,
Psalm 25: 8-9
showing sinners the way.
God guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble the godly way.
When our psalmist first begins to pray, the light within seems shadowed and the vibrancy of his soul perhaps fractured. At times, we have felt the same way.
But the psalmist’s sincere and humble prayer catches God’s Light, allowing the passage from shadows to to the full rainbow of Mercy. May it be so for all of us as well as we journey with Jesus through Lent.
Poetry: on a separate post today due to its length — but so worth the time to read and savor.
Music: Rainbow by Robert Plant – Let God sing this song to you, perhaps the way God sang in Noah’s heart when he was delivered from the flood.
I found a lucky charm I dressed it up with love I crossed the Seven Seas to you Will it be enough? And I will be a rainbow Oh, now your storm is gone And I will bring the song for you And I will carry on Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh I'm reachin' for the stars In the sky above Oh, I will bring their beauty home The colors of my love And I will be a rainbow Now your storm is gone And I will bring my song to you And I will carry on (Hummed interlude) Love is enough Though the world be a wind And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining My hands shall not tremble, my feet shall not falter The voyage shall not weary, the fish shall not alter Hmm, It's rainbow, oh it's rainbow Oh, can't you see the eyes are the eyes of a lover Pocket full of hearts A world that's filled with love A love that carries all before The passion and the flood I lie beneath the rainbow Now your tears have gone And I will sing my song for you And I will carry on (Repeated interlude)
Lavish Mercy 