Lent Reflection
March 21, 2020
Rev. Elaine Julian
Psalm 130 (from The Inclusive Bible)
Out of the depths I cry to you, YHWH!
God, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice, my cries for mercy!
If you kept track of our sins, YHWH,
who could stand before you?
But with you is forgiveness,
and for this we revere you.
So I wait for you, YHWH –
my soul waits,
and in your word I place my trust.
My soul longs for you, YHWH,
more than sentinels long for the dawn,
more than sentinels long for the dawn.
Israel, put your hope in YHWH,
for with YHWH is abundant love
and the fullness of deliverance;
God will deliver Israel
from all its failings.
Usually I prefer The Inclusive Bible that seeks to be the “first egalitarian translation” but today I find myself drawn back to the more familiar language of the New Revised Standard Version:
“…my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.”
That haunting repetition draws me in, draws us all in – not just the sentry fighting sleep but alert to the ever-present possibility of the thief in the night, but all of us who are only too familiar with the anxiety of the early morning.
Wakeful God of the 5 am watch,
The soldier imaginingthe sudden, silent gun at his back,
The sleep-deprived new father walking the floor with the colicky baby,
The recently bereaved staring at the empty bed,
The mother waiting for the teenage child to call or show up at the door, preferably without a police escort,
The keyboard warriors searching for love, or a cure for cancer, or peace on earth,
All of us feeling the anxiety of pandemic, isolation and lost wages,
The women waiting at the tomb,
Those who pray and those who curse, knowing that sleep is now an impossibility and all that is left to us is to wait for the dawn and the first cup of coffee,
Whisper love to us,
Whisper forgiveness,
Whisper hope,
Until the light returns and we know again, in our deepest being,
that“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” (from Julian of Norwich)
Amen.
