Click picture to Enlarge

"Woe is Me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts!"

--Isaiah 6:5 NRSV

When the prophet Isaiah went into the temple to pray, he was overcome with a powerful awareness of that he was in the presence of God.

Immediately following Isaiah's sense of God's nearness came a flood of guilt and shame. He felt unclean and sinful and confessed his unworthiness. Our human nature--and our sense of self--is put in the spotlight in the presence of God.

Gaze for a moment at Beckmann's painting of "Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery." What feelings emerge as you view the scene? Which character catches your attention the most . . . the least? The voluptuous small red-headed woman? The stone throwing angry man? The half-hidden helmeted character with the pointing finger? The mocking jester? The restraining disciple? Jesus with one hand raised in protection or protest; the other hand offering help, or inviting the diminutive woman to rise? Which character in the picture most represents your? How might your emerging feelings form the basis of a prayer right now?

Confession