The Equality of Sin

In guiltless ease,
unfettered by fault,
free of any reasoned complicity
(or so I told myself), I sat…

(having feasted on the morning’s servings,
the headlines, as always, bleeding and, thus, leading
with age-old stories daily made new
of the malfeasance of mortals
and of mayhem most immoral;
all of it, I confess, slaking my human morbid thirsting)

…considering the sins of others;
imagining how folk,
surely unlike me
(or so I told myself),
could contemplate
and e’en more (e’en worse)
carry out so heinous a series of deeds.

Then it struck me:
My liberty, ‘twas,
at least,
self-righteous, self-granted charity,
and, at most (e’en worse),
the fictive musing of one who believes himself better
than another
simply, only having not acted on grievous impulse
and, thus, tho’ not charged at the bar of worldly law,
nevertheless, convicted,
for ‘tis impossible, at the least, not to be implicated
(or so I believe)
at the Seat of Heaven’s Justice;
‘stablished astride that strict and straight bright line,
eternal and ethical,
of recompense for wrong and reward for right.

Thus, with the faith that is laced with
(based on) the reverence of righteous fear,
I pray that Love Unconditional,
tho’ fairly judging me wanting,
at a loss of any of mine own goodness,
is willing to grant me welcome
in Zion’s Land where Grace,
by timeless design, consumes all worldly dross
and gold, refines.

Endnote: My wording, “…where Grace, by timeless design, consumes all worldly dross and gold, refines,” recalls the text by George Keith (1639-1716) of the hymn, How Firm a Foundation, in which Jesus assures his followers:

When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,
my grace, all-sufficient, shall be your supply;
the flame shall not hurt you; I only design
your dross to consume and your gold to refine.