Grace and Freedom

            There is a wonderful story behind the writing of Psalm 51.  In the First Book of Samuel, we hear that after David had seen Bathsheba bathing on the roof of her home next to his palace and had invited her to come over and had an adulterous affair with her and then had her husband Uriah the Hittite killed by sending him into the front lines of the war that was being waged with the Ammonites.  The prophet Nathan came to David and told him a story about a farmer who had a lone lamb that he had raised and treasured.  The master of his land had a flock of many sheep.  A visitor came to visit the master, and the master took the farmer’s only lamb and sacrificed it and served it to the visitor in a meal.  When David heard the story, he said what a travesty it was and that the man who had done this ought to be killed.  Nathan pointed at David and said to him: “you are the man,” alluding to his adultery with Bathsheba and the killing of Uriah.  According to the story, David was devastated by this accusation by Nathan and went back to his room and wrote Psalm 51, confessing his terrible sin and asking for God’s mercy.

            I’ve always loved that story because it so perfectly mirrors our own experience during this season of Lent when we are trying to confess our sins and to get back on the right track with our God.  It isn’t easy to look our sins in the face.  We suffer because of them much of the time. We hide them from one another, but we still keep them in our heart. There are extremes of this.  I have a friend who is in prison with a life sentence because of a murder that he committed many years ago.  I have been working with him to find some way that he can forgive himself for this, but it is a very difficult thing to do.  That is also true for those of us who have lesser offences.  Forgiveness is a wonderful, freeing thing that can bring us enormous benefit.  It can result in a more fruitful life, much goodness and better relationships.  God has offered this great gift to all of us.  All that we have to do to receive it is to say yes.  What makes it so difficult is that we persist in not being able to forgive ourselves.

        This season is a time to get rid of our sins by confessing them and receiving the forgiveness that God has promised to each of us. Psalm 51 is used in our Ash Wednesday service and it is there for us during all of this Lenten season as we get ready for the great festival of Easter with all of its promise of resurrection and eternal life.

            There is another story about the great hymn Amazing Grace.  It was written by an Anglican priest, John Newton.  Newton had been a slave trader, picking up slaves in Africa and transporting them to the United States.  One day when he was watching those slaves leaving his ship and the remains of those who had died on the journey being carried away, he was seized suddenly with terrible guilt when he all of a sudden realized what it had been that he was doing.  He carried this with him for years after abandoning his work as a slave trader.  Finally, later in his life, he was ordained as a priest and then wrote that magnificent hymn with the words:

                         Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

                         that saved a wretch like me.

                         I once was lost, but now I’m found,

                         was blind, but now I see. 

            Every time that I hear that hymn, I think of John Newton and how he came to see his own sin and found forgiveness through prayer and his confession of what he had done.  It enabled him to live a valuable life as a priest who heard and understood others who confessed to him the things that they had done.  He experienced and then taught about that incredible intangible element that we call Grace: that touch of God’s love that lifts us out of the messes that we create and brings us back as the beloved children of God that we all are.  Grace is the blessing that awaits us when we look hard at ourselves and realize what we have been and what it is that we can be. 

      Lent is the time of the year when we are reminded of this great treasure that is ours simply for the asking.  The wonderful freedom that Grace gives us is nothing that we can create by ourselves.  It is a free gift from God to those who turn and confess what they have done and who ask to be included in that glorious love.  If there are things that are keeping you from receiving that love, simply confess them and hold out your arms.  You will find the freedom magnificent.