Purging our sin

There has to be some allure with guilt and the need for repentance that gravitates me towards the season of Lent. I’m not a glutton for punishment or a sadist by any means and growing up in the Anabaptist tradition provided very little in the way of mapping out the Lenten journey and it’s importance. It wasn’t until I was in college that I attended my first Ash Wednesday service.

Maybe it is because in my own experience the modern church has under-emphasized the role of sin in our lives in order to make the church more user/seeker friendly. In doing so, we may have also under-emphasized the role of repentance as well. I know that these are Christian buzzwords that carry baggage and I usually don’t like to use them either. For the last seven years, I’ve made the Lenten season one of intentional repentance for my spiritual journey. Yes, I do choose to give something up and use the time for “going deeper within”, but I am learning that my need for deep repentance isn’t something “bad” or to be ashamed of rather it something that allows for a fresh space inside in which there is room to grow. So I ask myself, “What is my attraction to guilt and repentance?”

The Lenten devotional I am reading from uses the 51^st Psalm as the guide. Today’s meditation focused on verse 7a:

Purge me from my sin, and I shall be made pure.

Purge meaning includes: thorough, total, complete elimination. As a word it’s a very good one to use in relation to sin. I can only think of one other instance today that we use it; when we talk about a particular eating disorder known as “binging and purging”. Without dispelling all the details of the disorder, there is a very vivid image that comes to mind when we speak of it. I believe the Psalmist is being very graphic in relation to our sin and how it is embedded deep within our being and therefore must be purged from within us. I know, the image you are getting here is one that can make you queasy, but maybe that is why there is such an interest for me in the chance to re-penetrate the Lenten journey every year. Maybe it’s because I have not properly purged from myself the sin within.

In this time of emptiness, God empties us (Think of Christ's kenosis in Philippians 2:7). In doing so, we are made pure, opened to receive the fullness and abundance of new life in Christ. There’s a great prayer that was at the end of todays devotional that I believe sums up the Lenten journey.

My God,
I love you.
You are the only thing.
Please forgive me
of everything else.