Posted on 03/07/2006 7:31:37 PM PST by sionnsar
From Lent and Beyond, today we have I Tremble, by Rick Harris who posts on the Stand Firm Alabama blog. This is another excellent meditation in the "Anglican Bloggers' Collaborative Series" of Lenten meditations--please check it out!
“God, be merciful to me a sinner!” Luke 18:13
When he encountered the tax collector in the temple, the Pharisee could rightly say that he had done everything just as he had been taught to do. He scrupulously gave one tenth of his income to God. He prayed. He fasted. And, although Jesus doesn’t say so, this Pharisee was almost certainly much like his fellow Pharisees– an ardent student of Holy Scripture, a careful keeper of the law, and quite involved in his community.
He lacked only one thing. He lacked awareness of his own fatal pride. Like everyone else, he was a fallen sinner. The Pharisee had done many good works, and he believed God would honor him for them. He didn’t realize that what he needed most of all was mercy. He was doomed.
By contrast, the tax collector was convinced that God is just, and he knew that he had but one hope. He could only acknowledge his sins and throw himself on the mercy of God.
God’s grace is wonderful, but it also strips us naked of all those good works, good thoughts, and good intentions that we in our sinful pride believe can shield us from God’s wrath. It requires of us that we surrender any notions of our own worthiness. God is not only just, He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and uncompromising in His holiness. He can forgive sin, but He cannot accept it. To stand before His throne is to be balanced on a precipice. If we demand a just reward for our earthly good works, we are instantly lost.
But if we stand with St. Paul, prepared to suffer the loss of all things, all our possessions, all our accomplishments, and all our lives, and account for them as garbage, (Phil. 3: 7-8) if we instead base our entire hope of salvation on God’s mercy, then He bestows us with a robe and a ring and welcomes us home.
In his later years, Thomas Jefferson began reflecting on the ramifications of slavery. His famous conclusion: “I tremble when I consider that God is just.” We want to fight God’s battles for him, to smite the heretics, to bring peace and justice to the world, to save the lost, to be a hero in God’s eyes and everyone else’s. We want to do everything but fall prostrate and let the full impact of our sinfulness wash through our consciousness.
Are you standing proud, or are you trembling?
Heavenly Father, I am a disobedient child who has no right to ask anything of You. I am willful and prideful. I know I need to change but I can’t do it. Without You, I can do nothing. Please erase my pride and teach me humility. Grant me conscious awareness of Your immense power and holiness, and grant me knowledge of my own craven sinfulness. Grant me a repentant and grateful heart. I am unworthy to be the most menial of servants in Your house, but in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, I ask that you make it my fondest desire to serve you. Forgive me, Father, and have mercy, for I have sinned. Amen.
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–Rick Harris, O.P., is a novice in the Anglican Order of Preachers, a religious community within the Anglican Communion dedicated to St. Dominic. He is a layman and worships God at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Montgomery, Alabama, where he serves on the vestry and leads a men’s Bible study.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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