March 6, 2023

“Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.” (Romans 4: 4-5)

Hard to get any clearer than this lectionary passage from the second Sunday in Lent. Our “work” is simply to trust. And trust isn’t even work; trust is a gift. By trusting another you are dispossessed of any agency. You are trusting someone else to do something for you, something that you cannot do yourself.

In this case, you are trusting Jesus Christ for his death and his resurrection in your very stead. He IS your righteousness. All that is His is yours.

“O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”(Second Sunday in Lent – BCP)