Consider the poor mule. Through no fault of his own, he has gotten the reputation of being stubborn. Truth be told, mules are highly intelligent animals who are cautious and act out of a sense of self-preservation. Unlike the horse, whose first instinct is to flee, a mule will carefully consider his options for safety. If an instruction seems illogical or risky, he will refuse it. Unlike Yellow Labs, who just truly are stubborn for stubborn’s sake, the mule is a considerate thinker. We need to change our cliche to “stubborn as a Lab.”

It is amusing to see David use that phrase about mules in today’s lectionary passage. He tells us not to be like the “senseless horse or mule” that has to be led by a bridle.

Read the first two sections for clues on what David says we are being stubborn about.

Psalm 32 (Common English Bible)

2 The one whose wrongdoing is forgiven,
    whose sin is covered over, is truly happy!
² The one the Lord doesn’t consider guilty—
    in whose spirit there is no dishonesty—
    that one is truly happy!

³ When I kept quiet, my bones wore out;
    I was groaning all day long—
    every day, every night!—
⁴ because your hand was heavy upon me.
    My energy was sapped as if in a summer drought. Selah

David asserted that keeping quiet about sin is an unnecessary burden that leads to great unhappiness. Refusing to confess and repent led him to groan all day and left him feeling wasted away. There is a simple solution to this, said David. Simply admit guilt, reveal your sin, and God will remove it.

⁵ So I admitted my sin to you;
    I didn’t conceal my guilt.
    “I’ll confess my sins to the Lord, ” is what I said.
    Then you removed the guilt of my sin. Selah

⁶ That’s why all the faithful should pray to you during troubled times,
    so that a great flood of water won’t reach them.
⁷ You are my secret hideout!
    You protect me from trouble.
    You surround me with songs of rescue! Selah

Many decades ago I had an opportunity to minister to a woman whose guilt had wasted her entire life away. We sat under a piano in a church’s Fellowship Hall until 3:00 in the morning as she poured out her life story to me. As a very young wife, she had an affair with a man of a different race. The affair resulted in a pregnancy that she was sure she could not pass off as her husband’s, so she had an abortion. Her deep guilt over the whole thing led her to self-medicate with alcohol and eventually drugs. One addiction fed another and she eventually lost her job, her marriage, and custody of her children. She met me after twenty years of this wasting. A church had reached out to her to attend the retreat I was leading, and she was working hard to live a clean life. But one thing was missing. She had never received Christ’s forgiveness, so she had never forgiven herself. Her new church had taught her about Jesus, but she was convinced that she was unworthy.

I began to talk about what happened on the cross. She was familiar with everything I said, but still stubbornly refused his forgiveness. The hour was late, the floor was cold, and the pastor was exhausted. Finally I asked her if she thought that she was so special that the redemption of the cross didn’t apply to her. I asked her if she thought that she was really so extraordinary that the power of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection was good enough for everyone but her. Did the power of her sin defeat the power of the cross because it was stronger? Then she broke. God broke that chain of being addicted to her past and set her free. The next morning she was a completely new woman. I ran into her years later and she was remarried, had finished her degree, and was a successful banker in her town.

Lent is about learning that you aren’t stronger than God. Lent is about understanding the damage of sin and how confession and repentance are the only things that will heal you. Lent is the time to uncover long-buried guilt and get rid of it.

⁸ I will instruct you and teach you
    about the direction you should go.
    I’ll advise you and keep my eye on you.
⁹ Don’t be like some senseless horse or mule,
    whose movement must be controlled
    with a bit and a bridle.

Don’t be anything like that!
¹⁰ The pain of the wicked is severe,
    but faithful love surrounds the one who trusts the Lord.
¹¹ You who are righteous, rejoice in the Lord and be glad!
    All you whose hearts are right, sing out in joy!

So let us repent and move on. Let us rejoice and be glad! Let us sing out in joy.

And let’s stop being as stubborn as a Yellow Lab.

Playing Keep Away by Ashten Ree Avery