Seen

In the shadows of the garden,
I've been hiding in the leaves.
If you see, how will you pardon?
I am Adam; I am Eve.
I am Jonah bound for Tarshish,
but the sea brings no relief.
I am stiff-necked and hard-hearted,
and I'm hanging like a thief.

When you call, how can I answer?
I am naked to your sight.
Do not look at me, O Master;
do not turn on me your eyes.
I have loved the works of shadows;
I have told the world my lies.
All my making is disaster,
and I cannot bear your light.

Further to the shadows driven,
yet you call me, and I come,
and the hands that I have riven
still reach out for me with love.
Like a Father for his children,
you have mercy on our dust.
All there is is this forgiveness;
this is all there ever was.

Fall of man Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie ;;;fot. By After Albrecht Dürer – National Museum in Warsaw, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98886658

Seven Times

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
Matthew 18:21-35

How often, Lord, should we forgive?
Is seven times enough?
As often as we are forgiv'n 
by your unfailing love,
as often as you send our crimes
as far as east from west?
Yes, seven times and seven times
and seven times again.

For when you came to seek and save,
you fell beneath our doom,
but you bring life out from the grave
and mercy from the tomb.
Yet shall you look upon out crimes
and still forgive us then?
Yes, seven times and seven times
and seven times again.

And all that bears us down to death
from Eden to the tomb
shall fall and sink down farther yet
while we rise up with you.
Our hearts, unbound from all their crimes,
lift up a great amen!
Yes, seven times and seven times
and seven times again.

This depiction by Jan van Hemessen (c. 1556) shows the moment when the king scolds the servant. By Jan Sanders van Hemessen – http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1959-sl-1.108/1959_1.108.JPG?from=index;lasttype=boolean;lastview=thumbnail;resnum=1;sel9=ic_exact;size=20;sort=relevance;start=1;subview=detail;view=entry;rgn1=ic_all;q1=hemessen, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54308916

Foes

O Shepherd, set your table
in sight of all my foes;
break for us all the same bread,
as each cup overflows
with pardon for the sinner
and healing for the sick.
O, let me drink forgiveness,
and heal me where I sit.

For where you go, I follow,
but I have fallen, too—
my prayers and praises hollow,
betrayed by what I do.
You pour the cup of mercy
and let me drink it dry,
but all of us are thirsting
beneath the desert sky.

Give us the bread we ache for,
let mercy's waters flow
before we reach the shadow
where each of us must go:
the pilgrim bread unleavened,
the blessed wine we take,
and every crumb is heaven,
and every sip is grace.

A Kremikovtsi Monastery fresco (15th century) depicting the Last Supper celebrated by Jesus and his disciples. The early Christians too would have celebrated this meal to commemorate Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection. By Edal Anton Lefterov – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15129262

The Law Is Heavy

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.
Matthew 5:17-37

The law is heavy, Lord:
I cannot bear it all
or keep it, whole in every word.
Beneath its weight I fall.

But you have borne its dread,
fulfilled its every jot,
and set before us life and death—
Choose life, for I cannot!

I am not clean within:
My brother knows my guilt;
against my sister I have sinned
and cannot pay the debt.

Forgiven I must be
and washed, as if a child.
To lay my gift before your feet,
I must be reconciled.

Come, earth and heaven's son
who bridged the great divide—
In you alone could they be one,
and so, in you, can I:

At one with earth and heav'n,
with sisters, brothers, too.
In mercy, let me be forgiv'n;
let me be whole in you.

A an etching by Jan Luyken from the Phillip Medhurst Collection of Bible illustrations housed at Belgrave Hall, Leicester, England (The Kevin Victor Freestone Bequest). Photo by Philip De Vere. https://www.flickr.com/groups/the_phillip_medhurst_collection_of_bible_prints – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20116195

How Will It Be?

Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’?
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”
–he said to the paralytic,
“I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.”
He rose, picked up his mat at once,
and went away in the sight of everyone.
Mark 2:1-12

How will it be when healing comes,
O Christ who came to save?
What can you do with those who jump
alive into their graves?

What, will you lift us from the earth,
or give us strength to rise?
Or spit your grace into the dirt
and smear mud on our eyes?

You'll gently tug it from our grip
when we cling to your robe,
or turn and strike us on the hip
when we will not let go.

Just drag your shadow over us,
who lie here at your feet,
or write your mercy in the dust
'til our accusers flee.

You could just say our sins are gone,
but we would lie here still
who know too well what we have done,
the measure of our guilt.

And so you say, “Get up and walk,”
to show us you forgive.
The prison doors at last unlock,
and we can rise and live.

Jesus heals the paralytic at Capernaum (Galway City Museum, Ireland) By Sheila1988 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88909829 WWL

You See Into My Secrets

Riffing on Psalm 32:

You see into my secrets,
forever open-eyed;
what I have buried deepest,
from you I could not hide.
You see into my failure,
my anger, and my shame;
you know the sins I cherish,
and still you call my name.

O God, I have been silent
while embers burned in me:
I have not wept or cried out,
nor set my anger free.
But you, who hear the stars sing,
hear what I do not say:
You know my heart still hard'ning,
but have not turned away.

Then, Lord, hear my confession
of sins you know full well.
O, hear and give me blessing,
though things unblessed I tell.
Put out the burning embers,
the buried bones renew
as softness I remember
and turn again to you.

The page from the Seven Pentiential Psalms for Five Voices by Simon Bar Jona Madelka. – Madelka, Simon Bar Jona; Michl, Jakub (preface) (2007). Sedm kajících žalmů pětihlasem vyzdobených. Prague: Editio Bärenreiter, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5633440

Forgive

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test.”
Luke 11:1-13

Give ear unto the words
you once taught us to pray:
Forgive me all my debts, O Lord,
for I cannot repay.

My crimes have justly earned
the anger of your flames,
but listen to the pleas you've heard
for glory of your name!

Forgive me all my debts
and teach me to forgive—
and if, as well, you give me bread,
then I will eat and live.

The breath that fills my lungs;
the blood that in me moves;
your praise in every earthly tongue:
All this I owe to you

but cannot pay a cent,
nor could I ever earn
enough to buy my innocence
or make you a return.

Not if my debtors paid
and filled my hands with coins
could I afford a single day
or reason to rejoice.

Then let me cancel, too,
the trespasses I'm owed,
for all of it is first your due.
Forgive us all, O Lord.

The Lord’s Prayer, ink and watercolor by John Morgan Coaley, 1889. Library of Congress. By Coaley, John Morgan, artist – Library of CongressCatalog: https://lccn.loc.gov/2004662429Image download: https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/ppmsca/23100/23124v.jpgOriginal url: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004662429/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68414975

Mercy’s Measure

Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.
Luke 6:37-38

Come forgive and be forgiven:
Gentle Lord, I hear you tell
that the measure I have given
shall be guven me as well.
But the meager grace I offer
cannot fill my wounded soul.
Though I cling to all my profit,
it can never make me whole.

Come unbind me, O my shepherd,
from the chains I bound myself.
Come and teach me mercy's measure,
overflowing every breath.
Turn my heart from condemnation;
turn my mind from judgment's scales,
for you came to bring salvation
even to the soul that fails.

Come and show me, Christ my savior,
love that does not count the cost.
That same love teach me to render,
for I, too, am blind and lost.
Oh, how infinite your treasure,
yet how little I can see!
God of love beyond all measure,
measure mercy out to me!

By Work Projects Administration Poster Collection – Library of CongressCatalog: http://lccn.loc.gov/98517015Image download: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3f00000/3f05000/3f05500/3f05508v.jpgOriginal url: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3f05508, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31925246

Peter II

You said that you would serve me,
the cleansing water poured
though I could not deserve it—
but wash me now, O Lord.

While you awaited Judas,
I laid me down and slept,
but I have heard the rooster,
and bitterly I wept.

For I have failed my tempting;
my own heart I denied,
and now my nets are empty,
though I have fished all night.

You call out from the shoreline
beyond the night of grief.
I plunge into the ocean
let it wash me clean.

You ask me if I love you;
you ask it yet again.
Three times your ask it of me,
as you foretold my sin.

And three times I have answered,
and will a thousand more
through all the years advancing:
You know I love you, Lord.

Raphael, *Christ’s Charge to Peter*, 1515. – Victoria and Albert Museum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1718074

Peter I

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He then said to Simon Peter a second time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
Jesus said to him the third time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was distressed that Jesus had said to him a third time,
“Do you love me?” and he said to him,
“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger,
you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted;
but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go.”
He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”
John 21:15-19

To the tune NON DIGNUS:

O Lord, you know I love you,
though human hearts are frail.
You know how I turned from you,
when all my courage failed.

You now how I denied you;
you saw when I turned back,
but now I sit beside you—
and will you take me back?

Oh, how can you believe me?
What promise could I keep?
But somehow you receive me,
and tell me feed your sheep.

So I will be a shepherd
and all the world my field,
as I have been a fisher
for all the seas would yield.

Forever I shall follow
where you have gone before.
I am reborn from sorrow,
because you love me, Lord.