It's Easy to Stray
AM Psalm 119:145-176 • PM Psalm 128, 129, 130
Jer. 25:30-38 • Rom. 10:14-21 • John 10:1-18
Like it or not, we children of God are paradoxical beings, and the Lenten season starkly reminds us of that fact. As we all know, even in the strongest communities of faith, a certain amount of weeping and gnashing of teeth is organic. The Bible reminds us that we are, indeed, a stiff-necked people.
Today’s readings reveal our frailty, our continual need of discipline, our vulnerability toward complacency. We are reminded that our journey of faith is often rough, for we are not designed to be masters of our own fates.
In Psalm 119, the longest in the entire Psalter, the author is in anguish, and calls out to his Lord. On the one hand he “rejoice[s] at your word like one who finds great spoil” and proclaims,“My soul keeps your decrees; I love them exceedingly,” yet, on the other hand, he admits, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep,” and “I cry to you; save me….” Don’t we all find ourselves in this predicament? I fear, at this point, an analysis of original sin is above my pay grade. I just know that we can all feel a kinship with the psalmist. And Jeremiah continually warns against the apostasy that has brought about the “fierce anger of the Lord” and resulted in the exile to Babylon.
And Paul, in his final epistle, exhorts the Gentile Christian community in Rome to embrace its fellow Jewish Christian community, which had been expelled from the city under Claudius only to return and face discrimination from within their own community of faith. And in John, Chapter 10, Jesus warns that one who enters the sheepfold by avoiding the gate and “climb[ing] in by another way is a thief and a bandit.”
Life is tough. It seems we continually hover between obedience and disobedience, between faith and faithlessness. (I often resort to that familiar prayer, “O Lord, help my unbelief.”) Our tether must often be jerked. But stumbling has a purpose. It reminds us of our innate dependency on God. We must cling to these words of Jesus: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Written by Grimsley Graham
...who must pray constantly.