Sunday 15 September 2019
24TH WEEK | Week IV Psalter
Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14. Psalm 50(51):3-4, 12-13, 17, 19. 1 Timothy 1:12-17. Luke 15:1-32.
I will rise and go to my father – Psalm 50(51):3-4, 12-13, 17, 19
‘His father saw him and was filled with compassion’
‘God’s love for the world. Vast / flood of mercy / flung on resistance’, writes poet Denise Levertov. In another image, Levertov describes God’s mercy: ‘… it / Becomes the steady / air you glide on, arms / stretched like the wings of flying foxes.’
How far removed this is from the fear of a harsh judge God who pardons grudgingly. Yet how well it resonates with images of a father rushing out to embrace a long-lost son, a shepherd searching for the one lost sheep or a woman looking for a lost coin. Jesus laboured the point. His listeners may well have been as reluctant to accept the wonder of unconditional love as we can be.
Jesus, break down my reluctance to believe. Let me live in awareness of the immensity of the Father’s love and mercy. Give me a spirit of understanding and peace in your presence.
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