Proper 14/Pentecost 12/Ordinary Time 19
Preaching
Hear My Voice
Preaching The Lectionary Psalms for Cycles A, B, C
Object:
(For an alternative approach to vv. 1-6, see The Transfiguration Of Our Lord/Last Sunday After The Epiphany, Cycle B.)
Imagine the shock of arriving for worship one Sunday morning and finding the doors of the church blocked by a sheriff's deputy.
"I am sorry," the deputy says, "but you cannot enter the sanctuary."
As the congregation gathers at the door, everyone wants to know what the problem is; why can't they enter for worship?
The deputy hands a legal document to the minister. His face becomes ashen as reads it. With a stunned look on his face, the pastor announces to his congregation, "God is suing us for breach of contract!"
As absurd as that may sound to our modern sensibilities, that is precisely what the psalmist is writing about to his congregation. God the righteous judge has a complaint, a legal complaint with the people. God entered into a covenant, a contract, with the people and they have not kept their end of the bargain. Therefore, God has a complaint, a suit. And God plans to be judge, jury, and chief witness: "Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God" (v. 7).
But what is the breach? If we return to our scene outside our local church, the minister might continue by saying, "We are being sued for a failure to be faithful."
"But how can that be?" the congregation responds. "We are here for worship, aren't we? We maintain this worship place with our tithes, don't we? We give to missions and benevolence. We teach our children and youth in Sunday school. Where is our failure?"
The minister scans the document and announces, "God's complaint is not what we do in church. His complaint is what we do after church."
The psalmist put it this way to his congregation, "Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me" (v. 8). The problem is not the people's ritual worship. The problem is their covenant fidelity.
The psalmist writes, "Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God" (v. 23).
Thanksgiving as a sacrifice points to a quality of worship. God does not want mere ritual attendance. God desires the hearts of those who call upon God's name. Simply going through the motions, offering lip service is not enough. God wants us engaged to the point that we are deeply aware of what God has done for us. If we are, we will bring "thanksgiving" as the first fruits of our lives.
And it does not end in the worship place. Worship is but the first step on what the psalmist calls "the right way" (v. 23). What we do in worship, we must also do in life. What we celebrate as truth in prayer, we demonstrate in the daily practices of our lives. We cannot be holy in worship only. We are God's people every day, all day, everywhere we go.
It is what we promised to do when we agreed to the covenant. God will be God, the agreement says, and God is faithful. God does his part, and we are God's people. Our part of the covenant calls us to worship and to observe faithfully the demands of worship. But the covenant also calls us to integrity: to be God's people the way God wants us to be God's people. That means that our words and our lives must show we are God's people.
-- J. E.
Imagine the shock of arriving for worship one Sunday morning and finding the doors of the church blocked by a sheriff's deputy.
"I am sorry," the deputy says, "but you cannot enter the sanctuary."
As the congregation gathers at the door, everyone wants to know what the problem is; why can't they enter for worship?
The deputy hands a legal document to the minister. His face becomes ashen as reads it. With a stunned look on his face, the pastor announces to his congregation, "God is suing us for breach of contract!"
As absurd as that may sound to our modern sensibilities, that is precisely what the psalmist is writing about to his congregation. God the righteous judge has a complaint, a legal complaint with the people. God entered into a covenant, a contract, with the people and they have not kept their end of the bargain. Therefore, God has a complaint, a suit. And God plans to be judge, jury, and chief witness: "Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God" (v. 7).
But what is the breach? If we return to our scene outside our local church, the minister might continue by saying, "We are being sued for a failure to be faithful."
"But how can that be?" the congregation responds. "We are here for worship, aren't we? We maintain this worship place with our tithes, don't we? We give to missions and benevolence. We teach our children and youth in Sunday school. Where is our failure?"
The minister scans the document and announces, "God's complaint is not what we do in church. His complaint is what we do after church."
The psalmist put it this way to his congregation, "Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me" (v. 8). The problem is not the people's ritual worship. The problem is their covenant fidelity.
The psalmist writes, "Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God" (v. 23).
Thanksgiving as a sacrifice points to a quality of worship. God does not want mere ritual attendance. God desires the hearts of those who call upon God's name. Simply going through the motions, offering lip service is not enough. God wants us engaged to the point that we are deeply aware of what God has done for us. If we are, we will bring "thanksgiving" as the first fruits of our lives.
And it does not end in the worship place. Worship is but the first step on what the psalmist calls "the right way" (v. 23). What we do in worship, we must also do in life. What we celebrate as truth in prayer, we demonstrate in the daily practices of our lives. We cannot be holy in worship only. We are God's people every day, all day, everywhere we go.
It is what we promised to do when we agreed to the covenant. God will be God, the agreement says, and God is faithful. God does his part, and we are God's people. Our part of the covenant calls us to worship and to observe faithfully the demands of worship. But the covenant also calls us to integrity: to be God's people the way God wants us to be God's people. That means that our words and our lives must show we are God's people.
-- J. E.
