Joshua 21:43-45: Completion
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
In Genesis Chapter 15 God promises many descendants to Abram who is childless, a land of goodness and plenty to his descendants when he is a nomad, and renown that will reach to all corners of the earth when there is nothing to declare him as special other than his abiding love for this one true God. God also warns that Abram’s descendants will live as slaves in alien lands before this promise is fulfilled. Today we read about the completion of this promise. We might want to pause to think about promises we have made, oaths we have sworn . . . pledges and vows we have fulfilled or left empty.
Psalm 51 reminds us that we are all prone to err, forget and omit. It also asks God for mercy and forgiveness. We know these qualities to be infinite – both our propensity to sin, and God’s willingness to forgive.
From MAGNIFICAT: The most difficult part of ongoing conversion is admitting that we really are sinners and allowing God to see and forgive us as we are, with all our faults unmended and all our flaws showing, especially the ones over which we seem to have no control.
From today’s MAGNIFICAT Morning Prayer: I John 1:8-10. If we say, “We are without sin”, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. If we say, “We have not sinned”, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
We humans are always struggling to be complete, whole and perfect. This is unreasonable since, by nature, we are meant to be wandering people in constant process and conversion, in search of that which heals and cures both self and companions. We are built for conflict; yet not the kind of conflict in which we put ourselves. We are meant for big promises, big struggles . . . not the petty quarrels in which we enmesh ourselves. We are created for conversion, for promise, for love.
When we meditate on the oaths we have taken . . . kept and not kept . . . we might want to reflect on our capacity to forgive, to endure, to be vulnerable, to be honest . . . to love. We might want to think about the promise God has created in us for the world. What are we meant to accomplish in his name? What are we meant to complete in his name? What and whom are we meant to love in his name?
Only conversation with God will clarify for us our own oaths made . . . vows kept . . . pledges left undone . . . promises completed.
We all seek completion. We all number promises. We all ask the question, When, O Lord, will you answer my call . . .
Let us today begin with ourselves as we ponder . . . vows . . . oaths . . . omissions . . . commissions . . . promises . . . completion . . . fidelity to self and to others.
A re-post from February 13, 2012.
Image from http://phoenixrescuemission.org/2009/05/07/mays-free-book/
Cameron, Peter John, Rev., ed. “Morning Prayer.” MAGNIFICAT. 13 February 20o8. Print.
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