Midweek Lenten Devotion

Week 1 - Forsaken

And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, 

“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Matthew 27:46

“Blessed” by Paul Simon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-D3diwmS34&list=RDL-D3diwmS34&index=1

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit
Blessed is the lamb whose blood flows
Blessed are the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on
Oh, Lord, why have you forsaken me?
I got no place to go
I've walked around So-ho for the last night or so
Ah, but it doesn't matter, no 

Blessed is the land and the kingdom
Blessed is the man whose soul belongs to
Blessed are the meth drinkers, pot sellers, illusion dwellers
Oh, Lord, why have you forsaken me?
My words trickle down
From a wound that I have no intention to heal

Blessed are the stained glass, window pane glass
Blessed is the church service, makes me nervous
Blessed are the penny rookers, cheap hookers, groovy lookers
Oh, Lord, why have you forsaken me?
I, I have tended my own garden much too long

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Maurice White / Jerry Peters

Blessed lyrics © Paul Simon Music

Grace and peace to your from our Lord and Savior - Jesus, the Christ.

Lent – 40 days for what? Why?  This Lenten series will explore the human condition through the lyrics of Paul Simon and address the malady suggested by the song with the Gospel. 

 Forsaken

Who are the ‘blessed?’  With bitter irony Simon’s lyrics point out the human malady and the hypocrisy of the Church:

Simon depicts the forsaken in the first two stanzas: the meek, the sat upon, the spat upon, ratted on… (Christ-like images – the lamb whose blood flows) – forsaken, he wanders in So-ho (a neighborhood in New York City).

‘Land and kingdom…soul belongs to,’ churchly images, are juxtaposed to the forsaken meth drinkers, pot sellers, illusion dwellers – the God forsaken.  While the churchly folk’s words trickle down from a wound they have no intention to heal.

 Blessed is the stained glass window pane glass.

Blessed is the church service makes me nervous.

His final stanza is yet another set of juxtaposed images of the church over against those forsaken and the church that has ‘tended its own garden far too long.’

An indictment of us: You and I – the church as we have so often forsaken principles for survival, forsaken truth for political expediency, forsaken solidarity with the marginalized to maintain our white privilege, forsaken Christ for the comfortable pew.

Dare we look at the wound we have no intention to heal, the garden we have tended much too long?

These 40 days are an existential moment to take a deep look at ourselves and indeed our forsaken ways.  It is a particular time when the Divine will engage us in the process of confession, forgiveness, and movement into the way of Christ.

Lent is a call to repentance:  not a season to give up stuff like not eating chocolate for 40 days.  No!  Lent is at turning from one direction to the opposite direction.  It is a shift of our modus operandi – our mode of operating.  Repentance is a change of mind and heart.

The One who is forsaken for our sake moves our hearts and our minds and our lives into a new way.

Our new MO becomes participating in God’s gracious rule in the here and now.  Our new MO actively engages us and all our resources in order to stand with the forsaken marginalized and remain in solidarity with the least of these.

“Blessed” points out the malady of the Church in the 21^st Century.  The One forsaken for our sake is out to love us into a new way of being blessed.

@Copyright 2021 by Kenn Storck

May be used with permission

kennstorck@mail.com