Shards of colored and painted glass
fused together in patterns to craft
a vibrant, reflective mosaic
that tells the marvelous story
found in your Word.
Broken and sinful people
bound together by the rushing
breath of Your Holy Spirit
creating a vivid, living tapestry
that speaks and shares the Gospel.
© 2012. Annabelle Peake Markey. All rights reserved.
Today is the first Sunday in Lent. Ash Wednesday, only 4 days ago, marked the beginning of my journey. With quiet time for prayers and reflection, as well as a cross smeared on my head in ashes, my season of Lent started.
Ash Cross from Google Search
In general, I look forward to Lent – to the quiet and penitential season which allows us to examine and rest in our relationship with God. “Examine” and “rest” don’t seem like two words that should go together, but reading Psalm 51 (the first Psalm I’m working on memorizing and the Psalm read at the Ash Wednesday service), has helped me to understand Lent in a different light:
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being;1 therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God1 is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
This is a song of penitence – a prayer that God might turn God’s face from the psalmist’s sins, that God, in God’s “steadfast love” and “abundant mercy,” might blot out or erase the psalmist’s transgressions. This is the examining part of Lent, and what Lutherans would call “the law.” We are all sinners. We have all done things we know we should not have. Moreover, we have all committed sins that we may not even recognize as sins. We have also failed to do the things we should have. In short, as Paul writes, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
But this is not, thankfully, the end of the story. There is also the resting part of Lent, or, as Lutherans, would call it, the gospel part of “law and gospel.” This is the good news that God does indeed forgive us – no matter what we have done or failed to do. The good news that God can and will create clean hearts in us and restore the joy of salvation to us. Joy. That’s a word we don’t often hear in Lent, but I believe it is crucial. In examining our sins and noting how we have fallen short of God’s glory, we are driven back to the cross of Christ, forgiven of our sins, and it is there, at the foot of the cross, that we know the joy of God’s salvation – of God’s grace, mercy and love. This is the love and comforting embrace in which we can rest – holding firm to the promises of God.
I am really enjoying reading the Psalms carefully and trying to memorize them. It’s difficult and can be frustrating, especially when I don’t get it right even after many attempts, but once memorized, it’s been amazing to speak Psalm 51 aloud and actually think about the words I’m saying. To recite the psalm not just as a monologue, but as a prayer has made helped me to appreciate the Psalter not just as a thing of the past, but as a collection of prayers and songs to be used in conversation with God.
As for being off of Facebook, what a blessing! Surprisingly, it’s been easy to avoid it and I don’t miss it much, although it is hard to break the habit of compulsively checking it every 5 seconds. Sigh. I think I may limit myself to once a week once Lent is over because I’m enjoying the detachment. Over time, I think I may notice that being disconnected from Facebook will encourage me to connect on a deeper level with family and friends – that it will help me to really be present with them, not thinking about something else or multitasking while we talk. We’ll see, I suppose!
© 2011. Annabelle Peake. All rights reserved.
I am absolutely in love with “Hosanna” by the Soweto Gospel Choir!
Here are the lyrics:
Let the weak say, “I am strong”
Let the poor say, “I am rich”
Let the blind say, “I can see”
what the Lord has done in me (Repeat 3x)
Hosanna, hosanna
To the Lamb that was slain
Hosanna, hosanna
Jesus died and rose again
Hosanna, hosanna
To the Lamb that was slain
Hosanna, hosanna
Jesus died and rose again (Repeat 5x)
It’s simplicity, sweeping dynamics and incredible harmonies really convey the beautiful message of the Gospel. In the midst of a stressful and hectic semester, I’ve found rest and calm in the lyrics and tune of this song. In times of stress or great pressure, what brings you peace?
This song reminds me that God is already at work in the world, changing the lives of people by bringing hope and peace through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Lord is busy at work in people, making the weak strong, the poor rich and the blind able to see what God is doing. Lest we think, “oh, that doesn’t include me,” let’s not forget that the words “weak,” “poor” and “blind” can also pertain to our faith lives. After all, how many times do we struggle with doubts or trusting God, or forget to make time with the One who created and cares for us? How often do we miss what God through the Holy Spirit is up to because we’re looking at the world not through God’s eyes or the eyes of faith, but with human ones?
This song is a reminder that God is already transforming us and that the kingdom of God has already been initiated. And for that, we can say “Hosanna, Hosanna!”
Let us pray…Gracious Lord, we give thanks for the gift of your Son Jesus Christ and for your beautiful work in the world. Strengthen us by your Spirit to be a part of this work and move in our hearts that we might be filled with love for you and our neighbors. May we at all times and all places give glory and praise to you, shouting and singing “Hosanna” with all of creation. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
© 2010. Annabelle Peake. All rights reserved.
Driving down Route 15 today, I saw something that struck me as odd and yet very fitting. What was it, you might ask? On the side of the highway, there are three wooden crosses, two white ones and one yellow/gold one in the center. Perhaps you’ve seen these elsewhere. I drive past these crosses nearly every day, but today was different.
Today, there was someone pulled over by a police man directly underneath these crosses. At first I thought, “that’s an odd place to stop,” but the more I thought about it, the more appropriate it seemed. Here was a man, caught breaking the law, parked at the foot of the cross. Aren’t we all guilty of breaking the law, i.e. God’s Law? Don’t we all run the risk of being caught by the long arm of that law and being punished? The answer? Yes.
That is, until Christ came. Until Christ bore our sins and burdens on the cross, we were in bondage to sin. However, through his death and resurrection, we have been miraculously set free to have new, abundant life and the freedom with which to live it. As Paul says in Romans 6:3-11:
3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Being raised to new life in Christ means that we have forgiveness and that we are free from sin, but it also means that we are free to respond joyfully to God’s magnificent grace. We are free to live boldly, loving without bounds and giving of ourselves to others.
In effect, I see the man pulled over under the cross as a fitting picture of all of us being caught in sin under the Law. We all need to come to the foot of the cross to find forgiveness for what we have done or what we have failed to do. It is only there, with the cross in plain view, that we can begin to understand what being forgiven for our sins and what the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, really means. All things revolve around what Christ has done for us on that tree.
I’m pretty sure the man who was pulled over wasn’t focused on Law and Gospel or thinking too much about the crosses, and I hope he had a safe and uneventful trip. For my part, I am thankful that I was reminded once again how important it is to keep the cross of Christ ever before us.
© 2009. Annabelle Peake. All rights reserved.
As anyone who knows me well can testify, I love Law and Order! I particularly like Special Victims Unit, but the original with Sam Waterston as Jack McCoy does the trick, too. There’s just something about solving the puzzle and catching the bad guy that gets me hooked – no matter how predictable a formula it may be. I love these shows so much that when I was studying abroad and couldn’t watch them, I had my younger brother, who is also a fan, put the phone up to the television in the States so I could hear the opening theme!
In Law and Order, the lawyers and cops don’t always see eye-to-eye, even though they are supposed to work together in order to achieve justice. Sometimes, the individual characters are personally affected by the crime, the victim or even by the criminal. These interactions and encounters color their decisions and actions, even if they know that they’re not following standard protocol.
In one episode of Special Victims Unit, for example, Casey, the D.A., doesn’t want to take a mentally ill man to trial because her ex-fiancée was seriously mental ill. Olivia, the detective, wants the man to be punished for what he has done, especially because he had injured her partner, Elliott. In both cases, Casey and Olivia act based on their personal feelings about the situation, causing tension and strife between them. Since it’s a television show, this quarrel was put to rest by the end of the episode and a reasonable solution was found. Both Casey and Olivia wanted a solution to the problem, but they approached it from different experiences and angles, coming to conflicting conclusions.
The concepts of Law and Gospel, like Law and Order, can also seem at odds with one another. They are both, however, working toward the same goal: to bring people to life with God, to instate peace, usher in justice and the kingdom of God on earth. The law was given to Moses and Israel as a covenant between God and His people to serve as a road map on how to live so that one might live a life pleasing to God. Did this use of the law work for God’s people? As Paul so eloquently writes:
9What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13″Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16in their paths are ruin and misery,
17and the way of peace they have not known.”
18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:9-20)
Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding “no.” No one could live up to the law – all turned away and fell short of achieving the law. Not even Paul, the author of this letter to the Romans, could uphold the law, though it wasn’t for wont of trying. As he stated in his letter to the church in Philippi:
4If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
Paul had done everything the law prescribed, including persecuting the early followers of Christ in pursuit of righteousness. Still, he could not attain righteousness or perfection through upholding the law. If no one can live up to the law, how on earth can we attain all that the law tries to lead us to – life with God, peace, justice, salvation? The answer to the riddle, Paul explains, is Christ.
21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (Romans 3:21-31)
This is the gospel. In Christ crucified and resurrected we find the hope, peace and redemption we could not and cannot acquire through our own works or the law. It is God’s love, mercy and grace, shown on earth in the person of Jesus Christ that brings us once again into life with God. As John writes in his gospel, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17). Jesus brings salvation, not condemnation, to the world.
What then of the law? Do we throw it out the window? No. The law continues to guide and shape our lives, pointing out those areas where we have fallen short, not in order to bring us to despair, but rather to bring us to Christ that we may begin anew each day. God is at work through both the law and the gospel, that good news that Christ’s death and resurrection have brought forgiveness and healing to a world broken by sin and death. Whereas the law outlines how we should live our lives, the gospel proclaims the love of God to and for each and every one of us. The law seeks to destroy the sin in each of us, while the gospel sets us free from bondage to sin and leads us to become new creations in Christ.
When we hear the gospel proclaimed and hold firm to its promise, we walk in the light of Christ. Walking in this light, we seek to follow and uphold God’s law – as Scripture explains it, we seek the face of God. We long to follow Christ, our Savior, and in this longing, we seek to hold to the law as He did. Thus, law and gospel work together to bring us into life with God.
The acclaimed show Law and Order begins with the following narration: “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.”
In law and gospel, God, in effect, narrates the following to us: “In the world I have created, I speak to people in two separate yet equally important ways: through the law, which convicts people of their sins and guides them to my son, and through the gospel, which proclaims the good news of my love and mercy in the person of Jesus Christ. This is my story.” In spite of my love of the television show, I believe without a doubt, that the narration God offers, the truth that it contains, and the divine mystery of God’s love for us are far better than fiction.
© 2009. Annabelle Peake. All rights reserved.
Eating Gelato in Florence!
ELCA Daily Bible Reading
