No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
—Jeremiah 31.34
From a lectionary reading for Lent 5: Jeremiah 31.31-34
Reflection for Tuesday, March 20 (Day 24 of Lent)
This God who writes a new word on our hearts. This God who knows us and whose hope is built on a time when we will know God in turn. This God who holds onto us with such persistence and love and calls us to live into this love, yet does not keep tally of the times we have turned away. This God who knows the tally we keep in our own hearts of the occasions when we failed to live into the love that fashioned us, the times that are seared into our own memories with embarrassment or despair.
When we remember our shortcomings and sins so keenly, how do we trust in the God who graces us with forgetfulness? How would it be to take this up as a Lenten practice: to repair what we have damaged in our sin—as far as it lies within our power—and then to rest in the God who does not eternally hold against us the harm we have caused? We may not be able to forget certain memories entirely, but how might it be to cease to be bound by them—to allow God to release us from the memories that hold us hostage? What would you like to trust that God forgets?
This reflection is part of the daily series “Teach Me Your Paths: A Pilgrimage into Lent.” If you’re new to the series, welcome! You can visit the first post, Teach Me Your Paths: Entering Lent, to pick it up from the beginning. If you would like to receive these blog posts via email, simply enter your address in the subscription signup box near the top of the sidebar.
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March 21, 2012 at 9:00 AM |
Beautiful!
March 23, 2012 at 2:50 PM |
Thank you, Tom! Blessings to you.
March 23, 2012 at 3:13 PM |
Jan, again and again God uses you to whisper what I need to hear. Thanks be to God for the needed word and thanks be to you for bearing it forth.