This time of the year, throughout the Season of Lent, is a time for us to pay attention to our relationship with God, underscoring our offenses before God and our deep need for repentance. An honest look at ourselves will align our perspective with the biblical insight of the psalmist: there is something fundamentally wrong with humankind. Upon prayerful examination of our condition, we are inspired to perceive that the root problem with human living grows out of our deliberate attempts to re-define our relationship with God in ways which are not pleasing to the Almighty. It follows then, as the night the day, that our relationships which one another are adversely affected. We sin against God and necessarily damage our life with others, too. We truly need to repent! And the action of repentance will lead us down a `three-way’ street.

The one-way down the street is traveled by God and the offender. The intimate truth about sin and repentance originates between God and each one of us. In a primal posture of honesty (usually labeled, `confession’), the proverbial `I’ acknowledge the God who sets the standards for human life as the Judge of all persons and, especially, my (again, proverbial) Judge. He it is who declares me guilty and demands my change of heart, with accompanying action to amend my ways. Even more than this, God also, and God alone, forgives me and remembers my iniquity no more. This one-way down the street, by the way, is traveled daily.

The second-way down the street is traveled by God and the victim of the offense. Our God is the One who befriends widows and orphans and who, by His very nature, comes to shield any human being who has been wronged by another. Though our human relationships suffer `rips and tears,’ we are never forsaken by our loving Heavenly Father. Our God lovingly hovers, as on a rescue mission, seeking the lost and the distressed. Even though the relational damage between persons may, at times, appear irreparable, the offended one is always welcomed to throw himself into the lap of the sustaining one, the caring Heavenly Father.

The third-way down the street is traveled by the offender and the one he has offended. Sooner or later, for genuine repentance to be accomplished, the two human parties are brought together for reconciliation’s sake. It is not enough to plead for God’s forgiveness without seeking reconciliation with the one offended. Thus there comes that painful, yet honest moment in our life together, when the offender comes forth, from a position slightly below human dignity. He comes to the one he has offended and awaits the uplift that only the offended one can grant; and grant he must. Even so, in this moment of reconciliation, God is present.

This time of the year, throughout the Season of Lent, is the time designed for us to examine our lives with God and with each other. We shall do well to put on our walking shoes and sincerely travel down the `three-way street of repentance.’

Pastor Kopp

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Rodney S. Kopp, Pastor
Wayne Lutz, Church Administrator
Karl Schneider, Shut-InMinistry
Sheila D. Booker, Director of Music
Rebecca Ehrlich, Parish Associateociate

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