Saturday of the Second Week of Lent

Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt
and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance;
Who does not persist in anger forever,
but delights rather in clemency,
And will again have compassion on us,
treading underfoot our guilt?
You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins;

Who delights in clemency? Who delights in forgiving people? Do you know anyone who takes positive pleasure in being wronged and then giving forgiveness? Don’t most people just prefer all-around niceness without the messy cycles of betrayal, disappointment, hurt, anger, healing, atonement and forgiveness?

Of course we do. And I suppose God does too, but God is not nearly as stuck on his preferences as we are.

So when we sin he just wants to forgive. He skips right passed all that other stuff. Although we are created in God’s image and likeness there are a few things in us – like the tendency to take things personally and its attendant predisposition to resentment – that do not come from God.

I love the part about, “You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins.” There is another passage in scripture that reads, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our guilt.” (Psalm 103: 12)

I see God as this little boy in front a vast lake. What does a boy do when he comes down to the edge of the lake? He looks around for something to throw into it! That’s just as natural as birds building nests and mice ducking into crevasses.

So here is God. He comes down to the edge of infinity, snatches our sins away from us, and skips them across the waters of chaos as far as the east is from the west until they settle into emptiness and are gone forever.

I went down to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico one time and, like any other boy, I looked for something to throw. Well there wasn’t much, nothing but sand. Now that’s disappointing. I wanted to throw something. With my hands in my pockets I discovered a quarter.

I thought about that.

I thought,”If I throw this quarter in the water, will it ever be found?” I didn’t suppose I could throw it very far but I have heard the Gulf is moving northward toward Lake Charles. By 2099, the city might be underwater. And my two-bits will be forty miles from shore.

But perhaps the seas will withdraw or the land will push up and someone might find it millennia from now.

Or perhaps not.

I was spooked. I couldn’t do it. Forever seemed just too long to comprehend. It seemed too real a possibility that this image of George Washington might never be seen again by any human being; and my souvenir from the 20^th century might disappear into the emptiness of time forever.

So far does he remove our sins, who delights in clemency.

Let God be God. let God forgive you.