Saturday of the second week in Lent

Who is a god like you, who pardons iniquity

And passes over the rebellious act

of the remnant of his possession?

He does not retain his anger forever,

Because he delights in unchanging love.

He will again have compassion on us;

He will tread our iniquities underfoot.

Micah 7: 18-19

 

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him

and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him

and kissed him.

Luke 15: 20

 

. . .

 

Here we are in Lent, 'still a long way off'; Easter is weeks away, and the penitential season stretches further ahead of us than behind. Lent has only just begun, it seems, and I have not been wholly faithful to the discipline I set for myself.

 

Yet even while we are yet a long way off, the Father sets out to meet us on the road. If the transfiguration shines some resurrection light in the midst of Lent, the parable of the prodigal son is an eruption of mercy in the midst of our examination of conscience. Before I have even recognized my sins fully, God is on the way to meet me in my contrition, to 'tread [my] iniquities underfoot.'

 

More could certainly be said about these texts, and about the prevenient grace of God (Calvin was right about that, but he certainly didn't discover it!); but the only thing that really needs to be said is: Deo gratias.