call me hephzibah [010]

heavenly father, pull us near to you this morning.

 god, we confess that we often forget that the scale is broken.  that you broke the scale by which we measure ourselves.  and we confess that we often choose not just to measure ourselves and our worth by that scale, but we choose to measure our neighbor by it.

 god, we also confess that we have done it again.  the thing we know you don’t want for us.  that which was not ours to do.  the thing we promised we’d never do again.  that which we know does not align with your love.  and god, we confess that we have allowed that thing, that act, that thought to drive us away from the people you have placed in our lives--the people you know we need.  

 but lord, it is not about what we have done--what we have done well, or what we have done poorly, or even about that which we have left undone.  instead, it is about the fact that you have chosen us, and you love us, and you are with us--shaping us and using us to bring your kingdom near.

 father, the hope of your promise springs from the very ground you made.  the ground from which you formed us, when you gathered the dust and breathed your breath.  your breath, which you breathed into each and every person we meet, regardless of where we would rank them on the scale you have broken.

evidence of your power and grace and beauty is all around us, and we praise you.  we pray that paul’s words, this morning, would not fall on unhearing ears and hardened hearts, but that we would be the people who seek to bring your kingdom here on earth.  we pray this is jesus’ holy and lovely and enduring name.  amen.