A Prayer for Ragamuffins
I
love to read and one of my all time favorite books is “The Ragamuffin Gospel”
by Brennan Manning. Manning is a former
Catholic priest whose life was changed by the transforming power of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. Manning loves nothing
better than speaking with people about the unconditional love and grace that
only Jesus gives.
“The
Ragamuffin Gospel” is a provocative title, isn’t it? Manning makes it very
clear that this book was not written for the super-spiritual, those who are
leading the so-called victorious Christian life where every problem is swept
aside and every crisis easily averted.
Instead, Manning writes to Ragamuffins – those who are burdened by guilt
that won’t go away…for those who need a touch of God’s love but are too proud
to ask for it…for those followers of Jesus who so desperately want to follow
the Lord but get so easily sidetracked by people and things that seem much more
attractive…for those who have fooled people into thinking that they have a strong
faith but are as fearful and timid as a little child.
“The
Ragamuffin Gospel” is a treasure trove full of valuable nuggets of God’s
grace. I particularly like this
heartfelt confession of sin that Manning offers in the following prayer: Lord Jesus, we are silly sheep who have
dared to stand before You and try to bribe You with our preposterous
portfolios. Suddenly we have come to our
senses. We are sorry and ask You to
forgive us. Give us the grace to admit
that we are ragamuffins, to embrace our brokenness, to rely on Your mercy no
matter what we do. Dear Jesus, gift us
to stop grandstanding and trying to get attention, to do the truth quietly
without display, to let the dishonesties in our lives fade away, to accept our
limitations, to cling to the Gospel of grace and to delight in Your love. Amen.
Confession
is good for the soul, so they say. The
Psalmist David would agree. In Psalm 32
he writes how a guilty conscience leads to misery. Here’s how David puts it: When I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long. For
day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the
heat of summer. Those are the words
of a miserable man.
But
then David’s misery is lifted by the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness. In verse five David writes: Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did
not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I
will confess my transgressions to the Lord’ – and You forgave the guilt of my
sin. David’s misery is replaced by
God’s peace and comfort.
In many churches, it is no accident that worship begins each Sunday with confession
and absolution. We ragamuffins are not
strong enough to carry the burden of our sin on our backs. We have not the power to remove it and keep
it from weighing us down. So we confess
our sin, our guilt and our shame and we leave it at the cross of Christ where
our Lord paid for the guilt of our sins with His own blood. And having done so, we hear the comforting
words, “For the sake of Jesus Christ, God forgives you all your sins.” With forgiveness, there is life – life in
Christ now and life with Christ in eternity.
And with forgiveness there is something else – joy. At the conclusion of Psalm 32, David writes: Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart. Knowing that there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love, we can sing and praise the Father for our relationship with Him through faith in the Son. Let that promise from God’s Word give all you ragamuffins’ faith and hope for today.
