25 March 2015 - sign us up

Jesus you draw our attention back to a specific moment of our salvation this morning. You ask us to receive the sign that you are born to set your people free.

We are reluctant to ask for a sign at the best of times. We say "I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!" not out of reverance. We say it because we don't believe either that you can work or sign or that you want to work one. You say that it can be as high as the sky or as deep as the netherworld but the greater the sign the more we are afraid to ask. 

You yourself are the highest and deepest sign we can imagine. You want us to have the strength to comprehend "what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" (cf. Eph. 3:18-19). For this reason you yourself are the sign for which we are the most afraid to ask. You are simply too good to be true. It is Lent. We are focused and even fixated on sacrifice and offering, holocausts, and sin offerings, but these should all be secondary. We get wrapped up in what we're doing and become unable to welcome what you are doing. We become paralyzed, unable to ask for new signs and wonders.

But you insist that this sign be seen. As we risk turning inward and doubling down on our own efforts you remind us along with Mary that all is grace and gift.

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.

How can it we give ourselves to you in complete obedience? We keep working at these sacrifices which don't work. We keep trying so hard on our own and failing.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Jesus, your Spirit is ready to fill us. You bring true virtue to birth within us. You make impossible obediance possible (cf. Mat. 19:26).

It is a little strange at first to be so close to the cross and look back to the infant in the manger. But this is just the reminder we need. We remember that all of our sacrifices have meaning only because the one who says "behold, I come to do your will, O God" gives them meaning. The sign is given! Help us to thank you for it.

I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know