Lent 4

Lord and God,

We desired middle men. We wanted kings and prophets and priest, lest we see you, lest we hear your voice again. We were too close to you, we thought, in our sin. Yet our sin would find us out. And the men we put between us themselves became blind guides, faithless shepherds.

Help us to see and know it is what comes out of us that defiles us. We cannot stand before you, not because we didn’t observe the rituals just right, but because of our sin. Let the prophet like Moses stand between us, the perfect priest, the king whose heart is not simply like yours but is yours. Heal us, Jesus Christ, represent us, and speak to us. For in yours, we hear the Father’s voice and do not fear.