Wednesday, March 5, 2014

A PRAYER FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

Lent 1

NT
Romans 5:12-21
The Message

18-19 Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.

20-21 All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.


Adam
We would like to blame him
for the mess we are in
all the ways we have 
messed up our life

Would be nice if we could
pass on the responsibility for
hurting the people we love  
manipulating and scheming 
to get what we want

More convenient to find somebody else at fault
for all the apathy and carelessness we exhibit 
not involving ourselves in the pain of the world
or caring for its hungry 
and homeless and helpless 

Adam
Would be nice for him to shoulder all the blame
Take our place at the defendant' stable
Accept our sentence 
for all our sins and wrongs 

We can't
We can't blame someone else
for what we have only ourselves 
to blame

We will face the sentence 
of the Divine Court
Stand in the dock
and take punishment for our sins

Glory to you, O God
We are pardoned
our sentence set aside
our guilty verdict overturned

Glory to you, O God
Jesus has taken our place 
on the lonely hill
on a brutal and lonely cross 

Glory to you, O God
Jesus conquered sin and death 
rose from the depths of hell
to bring us life, eternal life

Glory to you, O God
for the gift of grace
freedom from sin
and the joy of forgiveness

Amen


No comments:

Post a Comment