Suggested Readings: Isaiah 42:1-9, Psalms 36:5-11, Hebrews 9:11-15, John 12:1-11
Self-inflicted privation is a hallmark of Lent. We give up, give away, and go without select comforts and pleasures in an effort to replicate Christ’s forty days in the wilderness. We know that these acts are a dim reflection of what Christ endured; our short-term exercises in austerity-removing a slice of our regular indulgences and activities from a daily experience that remains overall very comfortable-is by no means equivalent to Christ removing himself from crucial life-sustaining habits. Yet it was His chosen journey to reject the utter basics of food and shelter. It is difficult to grasp the scale of His vulnerability in an uninhabited, and uninhabitable, desert of utter deprivation.
Against this scene of absolute desolation and corporeal defenselessness, the lush language of Psalm 36 washes the imagination with imagery of abundance, plenty, and power. The entirety and immensity of nature is summoned to impress our finite human brains that have only an earthly experience to offer some slight comprehension of the infinite and unearthly love, righteousness, and justice of God, which spreads vast as the heavens, stands mighty as mountains, plunges deep as oceans, taking in the entirety of the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. The slim existence of all humanity in the biosphere is sated with lavish supplies of food and drink beneath the sheltering wings of a perfect provider. He is the very fountain and source of life itself and the light that breaks the hold of darkness.
These illustrations remind us of the inestimable and incomprehensible grace that is provided to all who, irrespective of place or position, are welcomed and belong under God’s protective embrace. God’s bountiful supply of and for all things reminds us to share our own compassion and gifts, our physical resources as well as our privilege and power, laying them freely at feast tables at the center of communities as we advocate for justice in a world that is so often lacking it.
I pray that the psalmist will inspire our collective embrace of God's unfailing love and all-encompassing grace as we strive to live out the principles of justice, inclusion, and compassion, bringing a measure of warmth and light to a world that is too often cold and dark for too many.
“Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O LORD. How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings. You feed them from the abundance of your own house, letting them drink from your river of delights. For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see. Pour out your unfailing love on those who love you; give justice to those with honest hearts. Don’t let the proud trample me or the wicked push me around.” (Psalm 36:5-11)
Jhennifer Amundson
