Saturday in the Third Week of Lent

Psalm 87 • Jeremiah 13:1-11 •  Romans 6:12-23 • John 8:47-59           

Paul’s letter to the 1^st Century Church in Rome resonates as surely to the 21^st Century church. What are we to make of this freely given gift of grace? Is this license to indulge any appetite or impulse: To sin in the face of the law because redemption is assured? “By no means!” Artfully he uses a metaphor of slavery to illustrate this dual sense of freedom then step by step traces a sequence that contrasts the march from Law to sin to death and contrasts it with the freedom to choose obedience yielding sanctification and life in/with God

Deep in this Lent                                 in the bosom of Christ

of temptation and wandering,             washed in God’s

searching for answers,                             righteousness,

for promise, for grounding,                  from our baptism forward

                                                            defeating death’s darkness.

Paul’s powerful letter

echoes Damascus’ road.                       Sin’s impunity streams

the choice is at hand                            to iniquity and the void

and it’s clear: BEHOLD!                     But the waters of grace

                                                            sanctify as death is destroyed.

Practice the Law coldly

or be warmed by God’s grace;           The choice remains ours,

one tempts us with sin                         to follow law’s bitter strife

the other secures us a place                  or walk humbly with Christ

                                                            to obtain eternal life

— Peter Dennison