May 8, 2023 — Psalm 25 

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long. Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O Lord! Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.” Psalm 25:1-10 

“The 25th psalm is a psalm of prayer in which the righteous pray that God will make them godly, forgive their sins, guard them from sin and shame, and finally deliver them from all enemies and all evil. Along with this the psalm mocks the false, self-centered spirits and teachers.” (Martin Luther, Reading the Psalms with Luther) 

When was the last time something you did, or said, got you into a lot of trouble? Your first thought was to ask G-d for help and guidance but perhaps you were too ashamed of your sin. Or maybe your problems were not due to deliberate sin, but rather because of immaturity or stupid decisions. Sometimes, even though we have prayed for guidance and wisdom, we still have to face the facts that what we have done is hurtful — and sometimes hurtful beyond measure. What should you do at such times? 

Psalm 25 teaches us to seek G-d and G-d’s forgiveness in such times: “Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O Lord!” It appears that the book of James 1:5-6 might also give us some guidance: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” This is what the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 25: “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.” 

We should not live in fear of the Lord’s presence thinking we will be punished for sin — but instead seek the Lord’s presence and guidance putting all faith in a G-d who is forgetful of our past sins and promises forgiveness for those who love and obey the Lord. And then we may have the strength to ask for forgiveness from those we have hurt.

Prayer: O Lord, our most merciful Father in heaven, be gracious to us and forgive us our sins. Rule in our hearts by Your Spirit, that we may hate and forsake all manner of evil. Restrain our enemies who would deprive us of our salvation, and be to us, and Your whole Church on earth, a very present help in time of need. Amen. 

Pastor Dave

May 7, 2023 – Easter +4A, John 14:1-14

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.”Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if you do not, then believe because of the works themselves.Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

Wolf Blitzer spoke at my nephew’s graduation. As he spoke I sat there, waiting anxiously for a good joke, an amusing anecdote to share with you, and I was sorely disappointed that he gave me nothing of the sort. So we were sitting at the celebration afterward, and my brother-in-law leaned toward me and shared this story. He said that his nephew, little 4 year old Calvin asked his mommy one day what a version was. His mother, a good and solid college educated Catholic told her son that a version was different examples of the same thing – you might have this version, and then this version and then this version. Her son shot back at her, “Do you mean there are more than one Holy Mary?”

On my drive to church most Sunday mornings, I see a flock of turkey vultures sitting on a group of trees in Dauphin, along routes 322. They are usually just sitting there, watching and waiting – sometimes sitting there with wings outstretched either drying or warming themselves. In fact, one Sunday, I drove by and there must have been 30 or more sitting, watching. Every time I see them, every time, I think to myself “how ominous”. I can’t help but look at them, with their steely stare and large appearance, and appreciate how they have been understood for many years as harbingers of doom because they feed off the “recently dead” or its official name, “carrion”. 

Death is just that for us as humans – death is that thing that hangs over our head, looming, watching over us, like the sword of Damocles. We can’t help but fear death because there is so much about death that we do not understand – except this – as good Lutheran Christians, we understand death in dualistic terms: death is final, it is the end – but it is also the beginning.

Today’s text from the Gospel of John has so much good stuff in it that the good preacher has a multitude of material for three or four good sermons. We have these sayings of Jesus:

Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father’s house there are many rooms

I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life

One of the things that Wolf Blitzer did say to the Penn State graduates in the Bryce Jordan Center that day was this: “Don’t be afraid to hold onto and to follow your dreams.” And that will be difficult for many of them because these graduates are entering a world that is rife with things to be afraid of. Rising gas prices, a lingering recession, a suffering housing market, a shrinking job market, and on and on and on – the same things we worry about, Amen? There is so much to trouble our hearts, and yet Jesus says to us today “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” 

Jesus commands us to do this: be instruments of G-d’s love and mercy and compassion on this earth – before death comes knocking on our door. Yes, one day we will cease to enjoy the rooms of this life, on this earth – but in death, we simply are beginning our next journey knowing that Jesus has gone before us, preparing in heaven, another version of our favorite room on this earth. But, for us, that time hasn’t come yet, either we missed the rapture that Harold Camping predicted (look it up) or we have more time to learn G-d’s will in our lives. That gives us the opportunity to embark on this: looking for opportunities to “be the miracle in someone’s life”, or more simply put, to do works of love, mercy and grace.  What will those works look like?  Well, just like we each have our own favorite room, and they will not all be the same, so too do we all have our own individual gifts and they are not all the same.  But we need to use those gifts, we need to share our talents – we don’t want them to waste away, or worse yet, to be buried with us.

Let me leave you with these words from Martin Luther:

Christian faith is the utter submission to God’s grace which is …granted to us by…Christ.    Consequently, there is no repentance, no satisfaction for sins, no grace, no eternal life except by faith alone in Christ…faith that he…won…for us, and saved us.  Only then can we do works freely…”

Pastor Dave