**Hey everyone--due to some sickness in the end of the week, the preached version of this sermon was pretty different than the written version. I didn't get the time to type up a full manuscript. If you're really interested in hearing it, you can click here. It will be posted soon.**
Psalm 118
1O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!
2Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”
3Let the house of Aaron say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”
4Let those who fear the Lord say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”
5Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.
6With the Lord on my side I do not fear. What can mortals do to me?
7The Lord is on my side to help me; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
8It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in mortals.
9It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
10All nations surrounded me; in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
11They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of theLord I cut them off!
12They surrounded me like bees; they blazed like a fire of thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
13I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me.
14The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.
15There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly;
16the right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.”
17I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.
18The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death.
19Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
20This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.
21I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.
22The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
23This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25Save us, we beseech you, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!
26Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord.
27The Lord is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar.
28You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you.
29O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
In two weeks, we
will celebrate Sarah Ivey's second birthday. It will also be the
100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, a boat
whose sinking was made all the more tragic by the builder's claim
that it was unsinkable. This arrogance led to the outfitting of the
boat with too few lifeboats and not enough consideration given to the
fact that, as they say in Downton Abbey, every mountain is
unclimbable until someone climbs it, just as every ship is unsinkable
until something sinks it. If you are interested, for a mere $189
million you can purchase over 5,000 artifacts collected from the sea
floor around the wreck. The pride of the builders of the Titanic
almost certainly was responsible for the deaths of many of the
passengers on that behemoth, and its tale is still a warning to us
today—let us not get so caught up in our own certainty that we
forget that we are not truly in control.
It is the height
of human folly to believe that we can endure the trials and
tribulations of life based on our own strength and cunning. We can
certainly make it a certain distance, and achieve some remarkable
things—but just as the Titanic failed to complete it's journey, we,
too, will fall short if we believe that our endurance can be based
upon our own strength. Trials await each one of us in this life—and
how we fare in the midst of those trials is largely based not on our
own strength and wit, but rather on the strong hand of God holding us
up.
In today's Psalm
reading, we find the Psalmist looking back at his life, and it isn't
one that is free of strife—he talks about being surrounded by all
nations, about being surrounded like bees and pushed so hard that he
was falling. I don't know exactly what his lament is, but I can
imagine that each of us knows personally what it feels like to be
besieged by problems, by strife and by stress. Our problems may have
little in common with the Psalmist's problems, but they have the same
root—turmoil in the world that surrounds us and inundates every
corner of our lives, leaving us wondering if we are even going to
survive. It's times like these that test our faith, that leave us
questioning, begging, wondering where our hope is. I don't know what
is going on in your life, but if you're not in the midst of a crisis
now, I guarantee that you remember what it feels like to be in the
midst of one. Yet, despite all the language of crisis that is in the
Psalm, it's clear the Psalmist lives now in a place of deep trust and
peace, not worried about chaos and turmoil, but completely trusting
God's grace. Why?
Let's take a
moment and link this to the reading we heard earlier about Palm
Sunday—Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, rides into the
midst of Jerusalem on a donkey with people around him praising his
name. Jesus, being all-knowing, knows full well how this week will
end—that those who worship him now will soon abandon him and cry
out for his crucifixion. If it were you or I, we might be looking
for a side exit to escape the coming wrath. But Jesus rides calmly
into this mess. Why?
There is a deep
trust displayed here—one that it would be wise for us to emulate.
For the Psalmist, it's based upon a wisdom gained over a lifetime of
experiences—a wisdom that knows not to trust too fully in human
strength, in human wisdom. He knows that there is ample evil in the
world to overcome his human strength, but he has learned of a greater
strength than his own, and it is this strength to which he has
committed his life.
Jesus, too, knows
of this strength. He knows that the forces of sin and death will bow
before God's power, that they will be shattered. He has complete
confidence in God's strength, and so he can ride into the coming
storms, not looking forward to the turmoil, but trusting in God's
providential grace.
And so the
question for us today is this: How do we acquire such wisdom, so
that we will learn not to trust ourselves and our human strength, but
rather will trust God to help us endure the trials of life, not by
our strength, but by God's strength?
shortcuts—we
can't jump from Palm Sunday to Easter without going through Good
Friday any more than we can leap to a place of wisdom without going
through the trials that produce it. Wisdom is gained through a
lifetime of discipleship, through making faithful choices day after
day. We can't just leap to it or find a way—this life is about
growing in Christ day after day. It's about growing towards what is
really permanent—our character in Christ, our eternal life with
God. We're not going to make a shortcut and become the disciples
Christ calls us to be by just saying the right prayer or showing up
once a week—we grow in our Christian character and wisdom through a
lifetime of faithful choices, of enduring through trials, and
recognizing God's loving presence with us every step of the way.
There is no shortcut—but the end result is permanent, and it's
permanent because God has made it—it's not something we can product
on our own. It's permanent and offer to us freely, not on account of
our merit, but on account of God's grace.
It's that grace
that leads Christ to the cross, that all of humanity might be invited
into eternal, permanent, lasting relationship with God. It's that
grace that has helped the Psalmist endure through life's trials, and
it's the same grace that is offered to you every day of your life, if
you will only choose to accept it.
Let us pray.
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