Day 8
Second Sunday of Lent
Romans 8:31-32
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?
God is for us. God has given everything to reclaim us as God’s own. God has born the shame and bitterness of the cross. God has carried the burden, the terrible weight of every sin and sorrow. God has endured the hatred and cruelty that comes too easily to humanity. God has suffered the betrayal and abandonment that also comes too easily to humanity. God has borne the spittle, the prejudice, the ignorance, the hardness of heart. God has felt every secret shame, every regret, every violation, every tear. God knows the brokenness of soul and spirit, the frailty of body, the despair and alienation, all the afflictions that we inflict and endure. God has carried it all. Freely. Fully. In love.
And if God has done all this, what would God withhold from us? What blessing, what mercy or kindness, what portion of God’s Spirit, what share in salvation?
Does one give up a kidney for a loved one and then begrudge a $20 debt? Does one risk life and limb to save one’s child and then not provide them shelter?
Will Christ, the living word of God, stretch forth his hands upon the cross saying “Father, forgive them,” and unite us with himself in death and resurrection through our baptism, and then decide to withhold forgiveness? Will God not teach what needs to be taught? Will God not lead where we need to be led? Will God not heal what needs to be healed? Will God allow anything to stand between God and ourselves? Having given everything to be reconciled with us, will God then send us away? What is left to break God’s bond with us? We may be the rebellious child who runs away from home, but God’s heart will ever yearn for us, ready to embrace us in love, calling for sandals and a robe, and bestowing the ring that marks us as a member of God’s family.
We will always have a home in the heart of God.
And what shall we say in the face of such immeasurable love?
Mighty Rock, Wondrous Redeemer
grant us wise and grateful hearts
to treasure your goodness.
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Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
© David K Bonde, 2021, All rights reserved