We enter into the season of Lent, and a series focused on “Forgiving and Forgiven.” Today we give thanks for the ultimate source of all forgiveness …
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click here to listen to the early service audio
click here to listen to the Sermon Audio
click here to listen to the Childrens Sermon Audio
God is the well-spring, the ultimate source of all forgiveness. There is a forgiveness in God that may well be beyond our capacity to achieve in our own experience of life in the world. Yet in God, is the wonder of forgiveness, full and complete. This is the One who separates from us anything that might separate us from God, from one another and from God’s world. “As far as east is from west,” says the Psalmist. From a distance, we hear the loving invitation: repent, “turn” and receive the embrace of forgiveness.
Below are the Prayer of the Day and Readings.
This may be the aspect of theology and faithful living with which people struggle the most. Let’s explore it together in the sojourn of Lent!
- Pr. Brad Highum
bhighum@abidinglove.org
PRAYER OF THE DAY --------------
God of grace, you invite us to repent of anything that threatens to separate us from your love and goodness. Help us to live in the blessing of your forgiveness and to share it as freely as we receive it from your hand. Amen.
READINGS -----------------------
First Reading: 2 Chronicles 7:11-17
11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house; all that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he successfully accomplished. 12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
Psalm 103:6-17
6 The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who revere him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
14 For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who revere him, and his righteousness to children's children.
Second Reading: 1 John 1:5-10
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Gospel: Matthew 9:2-8
2 And just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven." 3 Then some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." 4 But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Stand up and walk'? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" — he then said to the paralytic — "Stand up, take your bed and go to your home." 7 And he stood up and went to his home. 8 When the crowds saw it, they were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings.
