We have met the enemy and he is us.” This phrase was used by Walt Kelly, the creator of the Pogo comic, on a poster for Earth Day in 1970. Kelly strikes a chord with that insight. I think the writer of Psalm 51, our psalm for this week, would also resonate with the Pogo cartoon. Although the psalm does not deal directly with environmental issues, it does deal with our behavior. The psalm is an intense poem of repentance and remorse. It is a desperate plea for forgiveness. And the source of the drastic, shaming, disorienting sin to be forgiven is the writer/prayer of the psalm. It boils down to, “I have no one to blame but myself.”
The sentiments in this psalm are intense. Clearly the writer is extremely heavily burdened. And the writer takes full responsibility for the iniquity. The guilt is deep and broad and ingrained. The writer is really almost self-flagellating over the extremity of the sin committed. The enormity of the sin involved is captured in phrases like:
my sin is ever before me
I have done what is evil in God’s sight
I was born guilty
purge me with hyssop
The prayer is steeped in sin and remorse. There is no self-justification as we sometimes see in the psalms. There is no self-defense. There is no blaming of others. There is no blaming of God. The writer takes full responsibility. “I have met the enemy and he is us.” The writer is his (her) own worst enemy.
This is something important for us to remember. It can be convenient to blame circumstances for the ways we stray from God’s way. We can blame our cultural environment. We can blame our upbringing. We can blame someone else. With all the suing going on in our country, it is clear that we have become masters at blaming, making others pay, and expecting others to be accountable. But this psalm brings us back to ourselves. Which is where we should be in this season of Lent. We should be examining ourselves and taking full responsibility for our behavior, our shortcomings, our neglect of God’s will, our ignoring of God’s dreams. We can’t fix everything in the world. We can’t fix all of our relationships. But we can come a far piece in fixing ourselves by being honest and seeking to be transformed. We may be constantly expecting others around us to change. Psalm 51 and Lent remind us to “be the change you wish to see” as Gandhi said it.
Prayer
It is not easy to be honest. It is not easy to admit guilt, or wrong-doing, or neglect of goodness. Yet until we do so, our sins weigh us down like a sack of rocks. Our faith invites us to take responsibility for the burden and lay it down. May we be honest with ourselves, with God, and with others, and seek freedom from our shame, guilt, and sin. Amen.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 