But God’s love is unfailing  March 11, 2024

Psalm 103:11 The Lord’s unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

Other English translations render checed or hesed, “unfailing love,” as mercy, kindness, lovingkindness, steadfast love, faithful love, gracious love, and loyal love (also in verses 8 and 17). How does God make his love visible in the world? Through us, his Body, his hands and feet, animated by the Spirit within us, not motivated by any agenda other than love. But is this possible? Can we in fact, messy, broken, proud, self-centered and self-deceiving as we are, come even close to imaging God’s hesed love?

Litany of Penitence 7

For our blindness to human need and suffering,

And our indifference to injustice and cruelty,

Lord, have mercy upon us:

For we have sinned against you.

I like the fact that today’s confession comes after we’ve acknowledged our pride, vanity, hypocrisy, dishonesty, exploitation of others, self-indulgence, and all the rest of the sins named so far. Because it’s so easy

1) to reach out to others to be noticed for how good and generous we are and

2) to blindly believe we know best what other people need, without taking the time to listen and understand their stories or their deeper wounds and struggles and to respect what they say they need, and

3) to unconsciously feel and project that we are somehow “better” than others because we think we have to be better to earn God’s favor or approval and to feel OK about ourselves. Too often we re-write history to favor ourselves, when in fact the reality is appalling.

Such “helping” may not help at all. It may cause more harm that good. I’ve been there. I struggle with these three vulnerabilities all the time. All the time. They push me back to the mercy of God and his love for me as his child, with nothing to prove, everything to learn, and only gratitude to express.

Jesus walked, sat, listened, ate, played, laughed, grieved, danced, wept, and shared himself with people. He didn’t worry about what was PC or would win him likes. He dared to speak truth to power, with integrity, from his heart. He freed people from all kinds of oppression and lies, in many unorthodox ways, including from the unbearable rules of performative religion.

And his unfailing, compassionate, faithful, gracious love took him to the cross, where in the midst of his agony he said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).