No Penance Do We Owe

It has only taken four years to get to this point - posting the first complete hymn text I wrote (out of only two) more than twenty years ago.

The hymn was based on some sermons I had heard about a somewhat non-traditional interpretation of Lent, where the season is not about "giving up" things (a concept invented much later by theologians). Repentance, in this context, was about turning away from behaviors and other things that separate us from grace, rather than about a particular rite or litany that we must perform. This turning away then turns us toward the path of Jesus, rededicating us to following his example and learning from his life.

Your forty days of trial,

We mark, O Christ, with care;

As once you braved the wildrness,

New challenges we dare.

This season of repentance will

Inspire us as we pray;

We turn from all that mars our lives

Toward all that points your way.

No burdened obligation,

No penance do we owe,

Your gracious liberality

Is what we strive to show;

That everyone who enters here

May know the hope we feel,

Of all the world together joined,

Communion yet more real.

Our passion for God's justice

Leads on through storm and strife,

As once your passion guided you

To sacrifice your life.

No longer must we suffer thus,

You freed us from that weight;

To build your loving commonwealth

Our lives we dedicate.

Help us to know your freedom,

To understand your grace,

To feel your gentle, guiding hand

That leads us from this place;

That as we live our daily lives

As witnesses for you,

We weave the gifts we've gathered here

Through everything we do.

Text: C.W.S., 1990

Tune: ST. CHRISTOPHER (7.6.8.6.8.6.8.6.)

Frederick C. Maker, 1881

Text Copyright © 1990

This may not be your theology, but it is proclaimed in many churches and there are not many hymns for this particular kind of Lenten season.

P.S. The drawing above is Jesus is Tempted by Satan in the Wilderness, a nineteenth-century engraving by Francis Holl..