ASH WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5 Psalms 95, 32, 143 Amos 5:6-15 Hebrews 12:1-14 Luke 18:9-14 Lent is a time for both personal and societal repentance. We Christians have gotten good at the personal part. We can pray through the Ten Commandments, and it dawns on us that if Jesus is right in his heightened definition of “adultery” and “murder,” we all have much material for repentance. But when it comes to societal sin, the Church gets tongue-tied. We are afraid of being viewed as taking sides politically, or saying anything against The Free Market. It is true that societal sin is often intertwined with legislation and public policy or business practices that are part of how our world is assumed to function. Yet Lent is precisely the time that we let God expose our utterly unconvincing rationalizations. For individual sins, “it’s my personality” and “I’m only human” are favorite excuses that must give way during Lent. Fortunately for those of us who pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth,” we can let God do the same liberating work with our societal sins. We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world and the last Superpower. Yet we have more people in prison, more children in poverty, more unequal school systems and more income disparity than almost any advanced democracy. We and our churches may be hesitant to confess our societal sins and work to remedy them, but God is not a bit hesitant to deal with politics or business. The Bible writers spent much of their time decrying corporate sins and pointedly addressing those who have their hands on the levers of power: kings, rulers, the wealthy and those with military might. In a democracy, we are the kings and rulers! Isaiah 58 lets us know that God is not content with our participation in a canned food drive here or a backpacks-for-poor-kids event there. God calls us to repent of our inaction on a societal level and “loose the chains of injustice… do away with the yoke of oppression.” If we can’t think of an injustice to fight or oppression to do away with, then this Lent is just the time to begin to pray that God would soften our hearts and open our eyes. We do not want it to be said of us as it was said of old, “They seem to be eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right.” TODD LAKE Vice President, Spiritual Development
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