broken eggs

2 samuel 12:7-10,13; Psalm 32 Lord, forgive the wrong I have done; Galatians 2:16, 19-21; Luke 7:36-8:3

One thing that my little nephews and nieces love to do when they go to the farm to visit grandma and grandpa is to pick the eggs. They are fascinated with egg picking. they can't wait to track down to the chicken pen, or rummage through the barn behind bales of hay and feed sacks looking for their treasure. For them it is like a safari hunt. With great eagerness and enthusiasm they will grab the hand and go, no fear just excitement, picking eggs to their little hearts delight.

One SUnday I was at home and one of my little nephews couldn't wait to go to the chicken house to pick eggs. SO he came and grabbed my finger and away we went. This day, rather than pick the eggs, he wanted to hold them in his shirt. His shirt became a basket and I would pick the egg and hand it to him and would place it gently in his shirt. Every egg collected became a source of excitement. He was beaming as his belly swelled, pregnant with chicken eggs.

He was so excited that in his excitement he grabbed one the eggs a little to tightly and it cracked. As yolk ran between his fingers, he was devastated. He thought that the broken egg would brake his grandma's heart. Tears rolled down his eyes. There was nothing I could do to put to the egg back and make it whole and there was nothing i could do to convince my nephew it was going to be alright.

He simply stood in the middle of the yard, yolk on his fingers, sadness in his face, sorrow in his heart.

Hold on to this image...

Being a priest over the past four years, i have met many of men and women who have come to me with a world of hurt on their shoulders. They came with the impression that they made such a mess of their life that their was no way God could make it right. Forgiveness for them was to be only imagined and never realized. Because of their decisions, forgiveness would always be within their grasp but beyond their reach. They could dream of it, but never embrace it.

Their decisions weighed heavy, pressed hard and strained their spirit. In fact, in their eyes there was only one word to describe their life. Like the woman in the gospel, they were sinful.

One particular person I remember came with the feeling that he could never or would ever be the same. That his past decisions and mistakes had left him in an irrevocable reality. He came saying, "Father, I can never live a normal life again. Even God can't unscramble a broken egg."

Perhaps yo have met people that feel that way about their life. They have closet full of skeletons. And they spend their life marred by their mistakes and they are in such darkness they are afraid to hope.

As we look to the first reading and the gospel we discover a truth that is essential for us today.

As we read about King David and about the sinful woman, two things come to the front.

One, there are consequences to our decisions. David because of his murderous affair is left with the agony of his son dying. The woman because of her sinful lifestyle is left with a bad reputation and has to deal with those hurtful glances and judgmental stares. Consequences are real. When we make decisions we set things in motion. This is part of life and part of the web we choose to live.

Secondly, even with the consequences that David and the woman have to deal with they both find a reprieve. When you approach God in repentance forgiveness is granted.

Jesus, when the woman comes to him, does not hold her bound in her sins. He does not define her by her past mistakes or sinful life but rather he simply offers her a new beginning.

The one phrase that is constant through the pages of the gospel on the lips ring true, "your sins are forgiven...faith saves."

Human freedom is continually pursued by the grace of God.

Christianity, Christ teaches us not only how to live but teaches us how to start over, begin anew, how to live again, and again, and again.

With Jesus the door never closes. "Your sins are forgiven" and learn to live again.

God doesn't have to unscramble the broken egg. When we come to him he strengthens us and empowers us to start anew and learn to pick up the pieces and live again.

Here in lies good news, in Jesus name, hope remains.

As St. Paul tells us, "I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God."

As JEsus offers a new start to all those who come to him, should not we do the same. Could not we refuse to define others by their sinfulness and offer them hope and strength to begin a new, to live again and again.

The grace of God keeps hope alive and this is what makes living possible. The great tragedy of life is sometimes we forget that learning to live is about learning to hope no matter the consequences. In Jesus, hope is eternal and thus life can always begin a new.