October 18, 2019

Flannery O’Connor was a notoriously bad speller, which is a funny quirk in such a brilliant writer. Her trademark wit and insight was already apparent as a young schoolgirl when she told her mother, “Mother, I made an 82 in Geography but I woulda’ made a hundred, if it hadn’t been for Spellin’; I made a 85 in English, but I woulda’ made a hundred, if it hadn’t been for Spellin’; and I made a 65 in Spellin’ and I woulda’ a hundred, if it hadn’t been for Spellin’!”

The penchant to find excuses for ourselves is present from the Preschool to the Assisted Living Facility – and at all points in between. When someone makes a public statement about a wrongdoing or failure, the preamble to “but that’s no excuse” (I was tired, we were short staffed, times have changed….) is usually an excuse. It’s about as effective as Steve Martin’s sarcastic “Well…EXCUUUUSE ME!”

The law of God judges us and finds us uniformly guilty. “Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are….” (Romans 2:1) Thankfully, in Christ (“whose property is always to have mercy”) we are…well… always given mercy, even in the face of lame excuse. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4-5) Stick that story today and you just can’t go wrong.

“Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our consciences is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Proper 22 – BCP p. 234)