focusing on the missteps misses the point, keeping us fixated on achievement (the ego’s M.O.), participating in pointless purity contests—when instead we have been invited to a Love Fest.
Sin is a condition more than it is a series of moral failings. Like illness, sin flares up.
As we prepare to enter the holy season of Lent, growing awareness of our own sinfulness can begin to weigh heavy on our hearts and souls. The poem Love (III) by George Herbert offers a helpful reminder that God meets us where we are- messy and broken- and welcomes us with an invitation.
The sin is not that we oversimplify and stereotype Pharisees and tax collectors from long ago, the sin is that we do it to one another.
I wonder about the use of the word “my” before the word “peace.” It seems that just leaving us with “peace” would have been a good gesture in advance of Jesus’ lift-off. But Jesus seems to own the brand. Jesus has a kind of peace that is not like the peace offered by “the world.” And what we know about the term “The world” in John’s gospel and in the early church writings is that “world” does not refer to the planet on which we live, but to the noise in which we live.
More good news is that God loves us enough to forgive us even before we ask for it. The confession and prayers for forgiveness aren’t for God, they’re for us, as funny as that sounds.