Is.43:18-19, 21-22, 24-25
2Cor. 1:18-22
Mk. 2: 1-12

I Make All Things New
For a long time I held tightly in my fist angry stories about my Dad. I felt self righteous about my anger and somehow felt that this self righteousness was what he had coming for decisions that he had made. In the midst of this unresolved pain my dad had the nerve to die about nine years ago. However, that did not stop me from continuing to carry the unhealed memories. I worked very hard to forgive my Dad after he died. I found it very hard to use God’s vision to look at my situation… mainly my self righteousness was reluctant to be open to the healing in me that needed to happen in order to free my Dad.

In the reading from Isaiah today, God says to me (and perhaps to you too), “Remember not the things of the past, see I am doing something new… Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” The fact is that I can’t always see the whole picture nor am I always a refuge of forgiveness. This hampers my ability to receive God’s bigness when it comes to divine love. Paul says, “the first installment of God’s yes to us is the installment of His Spirit.” This Spirit of God has no intention of being limited by our small mindedness. It is the same Spirit who gave courage to the friends of the paralytic man in the gospel of Mark today, the courage to lower their friend down in front of Jesus that he might be healed.

Here I am face to face with a God who says, “I have let go and I am doing something new.” The same God who also says to me, “let go of that which is unfinished.” Then there is Jesus who pushes me to the edge with His healing of that which kept the man lame physically and spiritually… and He said to the man, only after forgiving him his sins, “pick up your mat and walk.”

In the presence of such love and mercy, I can only respond, not for the first time… but once again, “Gracious God, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.”