People In the Know: The Bad Side of Pride

 October 26 2025

Jeremiah 2:4-8, 11-13

         This past while my Mom has been cleaning out some cupboards at her house. She came across some of my Dad’s trophies from when he showed dairy cattle at the County fair when he was a teenager, which was quite awhile ago. She asked us kids if any of us were interested in them but for most of us they simply don’t have the meaning and value that say, my Dad placed in them. Trophies and show ribbons are just those things which cause the person who won them to remember a time when they were proud of what they had accomplished and rightfully so. As Yogi Berra was known to say, “It ain’t braggin’ if its true”. So trophies, like the ones awarded to my Dad so long ago, remind us of what we might say is the good side of pride. This is the pride we feel when we, or someone we love, has indeed accomplished a win or a victory. The mementos we are given when we claim that victory are what takes us back to those moments when we did something worth braggin’ about, because it is true.

         Well, the proverbial coin always has two sides, and so, as we can expect, there is a bad side to pride. We may have heard before Proverbs 16:18, which says that, “…pride goes before a fall.” We may have even witnessed this wisdom being played out in real life when someone who was too full of themselves was brought down off of his high horse through his own arrogance. Well, it is this bad side of pride which is hidden underneath these verses of scripture that we read from the book of Jeremiah. For the next couple of weeks, right up until the beginning of Advent, we are looking at the prophet Jeremiah in this series of messages entitled, “People in the Know”. This title comes from the fact that the prophet Jeremiah’s message, given to him by God, was for the very people who were in the know about God. Only problem is is that they were no longer even aware that they no longer even knew God. They were living a terrible lie. This tragedy helps us to understand just why did we need God to give us a a Savior. Well, this morning, this necessity we have of a Savior may become more apparent as we consider the effects of the bad side of pride on our life.

         The reason why the bad side of pride has been brought to our attention, is that Jeremiah has given us a rather disturbing image to consider. I mean, here is a fresh, cold mountain stream flowing off the snow melt, so bubbling and fresh you can almost taste it. Set right beside this beautiful fountain of life, there is set, in comparison, a hole dug in the dirt, that has caught some rainfall, and now has set and stagnated, so that all kinds of debris and algae, and insects are now floating on top of this foul smelling puddle. Jeremiah tells us that the people of God have left the first stream of life-giving water to drink of the puddle that has all kinds of life floating in it. We are rightfully disgusted at imagining a person even attempting to do such a thing. Yet something just this cringe worthy was going on right now with God’s people. Jeremiah is saying that it is if the whole nation of God’s people are found gathered around every stinking mud hole, slurping up this fetid, putrid, water. This wasn’t just an image that Jeremiah conjured up though; no, we can not forget that these are the very words of God who was now speaking through Jeremiah.

         Well, for us to figure out what this disgusting image is referring to, we need to remember what Jeremiah has been called by God to do at this time. Last week, we may recall, as recorded at the beginning of the second chapter, God told Jeremiah, to go and proclaim throughout all of Jerusalem, that it was time for the people of Israel to remember how they used to know God. There in the days when Israel walked with God in the wilderness, she had come to know God as a bride knows her husband. The people of God had, at one time, loved God with a passionate and vibrant affection, always longing to grow in her knowing of this God who first loved her. Now, what may have escaped us when we read of Jeremiah calling the people of Jerusalem to remember how they used to know the Lord, is that the Temple took up the most space in the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is better thought as being a city gathered around the worship place of God. This worship place of God, his Temple, we are told in the eighth chapter of First Kings, we built as a house for the name of of the Lord, with the hope that all the peoples of the earth might come to know the name of God and fear him. Instead of fulfilling this hope God had when the Temple was built, we now find Jeremiah walking all along the outside of this Temple calling those who call themselves the people of God, to remember how they were the ones who are to be the people in the know about God. This is almost as tragic of a scene as watching someone drinking from a mud puddle, don’t you think?

         Well, it becomes apparent then, that something has happened to the people of God, because they no longer are in the know about God and they no longer hold God to be their very source of life. The answer to this strange behavior of those considered to be the people of God is found in the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, where, beginning at the eleventh verse, we hear God tell his people to, “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God….”. So, here God anticipates that somewhere in the future, the people in the know about God will be found to have forgotten him altogether. This forgetting of God happens when the people of God living in the land promised to them, “…have eaten and are full and have built houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied…” God is telling his people that there is a danger that lurks when ones life is on the increase. So we should be curious and wonder, just why this might be so? Well, God goes on to explain that when all that we have is multiplied, “…then our heart will be lifted up, and you will forget the Lord your God, the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, the God who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness….” God tells his people that it is at that moment, when their hearts are found to be lifted up, this is when the God once known is now, known no more. What is here called, “…hearts that are lifted up”, is what we know as being the bad side of pride. It is this bad side of pride that becomes evident in what God tells his people next because he warns them, “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” God finishes his warning by telling us of the terrible consequences if we end up forgetting God on account of the raising up of our hearts. We are told, “…if you forget the Lord your God and go and serve other gods and you serve them, and worship them then, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.” So, knowing this, we can all grasp the reason why the bad side of pride is indeed so bad because it leads only to death. This is exactly what famous author, C.S. Lewis also understood because he wrote that it is pride which is the chief sin because pride is the source of all other sins. Again, we can see in his words the seriousness we must have towards the bad side of pride. Yet, even so, when we consider just how deadly this pride is, we also must wonder what causes people to, nonetheless, fall into a life where pride takes over and God is no longer known?

         Well, what we do know about the bad side of pride is that it is a puffing up of ourselves, a putting on a front of superiority. In the New Testament, the Greek word for the bad side of pride, speaks of a person who is boastful and arrogant, one who exaggerates their own abilities. They are also people who have placed all of their trust in their own abilities and power. When we know that the bad side of pride is when a person begins to puff themselves up, boasting to others about what they are able to do and accomplish and perhaps even to the point of exaggeration, then we are not far from figuring out the root cause of this pride. The root of the bad side of pride, which may come as a surprise, is none other than fear, anxiety and worry. You see, it is a natural reaction to fear that we want to make ourselves to appear bigger than we really are. This comes out of our desire to protect ourselves as best we can from the danger we might face. You see this in cats who arch their backs and put their tails up, or as our dog does when she makes her hair on her back stand up like a fin. When our dog does this she wants to be seen as something bigger than the nine pound dog that she really is. The only real problem with this strategy is that when the fear subsides it is important to remember who you really are, that the puffed up version of yourself is nothing more than a reaction to fear. Herein lies the danger that God warns us about, that we will actually come to believe we are something greater than we really are. This is when we believe that we, all on our own, by our own hands, have gotten all that we possess. Forget any talk about the fact that it is God who actually gave everything to us. Talk about the danger of having a puffed-up, arrogant self!

         Now, to the person who enjoys exaggerating their abilities, it may be difficult to see just what all the fuss is about. So what if we take the credit from God, where the credit rightfully belongs and place it on some person caught up in the bad side of pride? The answer is deeper than God not just getting the rightful glory for what he has done. No, what the bad side of pride does is that it removes the blessings of God from our life. No more will we have the love of our faithful God to be the drumbeat of our life. No more will we have God, close by, to call on when we find ourselves in trouble. No more will God be the servant who provides for us all that we need for life. When these blessings are taken away, then the reality of who we actually are becomes painfully apparent. You see, no one is so great that they never fail. As we may have heard before, “All people have fallen short….” Oh, those who are all puffed up about who they are will no doubt, put on a good front, but in the end they will become tired, bitter souls who are quite dead on the inside. In much the same way, there is no one so great that they will never have troubles that they alone can conquer. You see, we live in a broken world where what we face on a daily basis can overwhelm even the best of us. The arrogant, boastful person can swagger as they go out the door but make no mistake, one day they will come home defeated. So it should come as no surprise that when these people who exhibit the bad side of pride set out to find all that they will need for life, they will find that doing so has left them anxious, and worried, so obsessed about the future that they lose their today’s. In the end, a life without the blessing of God just leads people to be tired, and bitter, defeated and anxious, worried about the future, finding it ever more difficult to keep up this show they put on that they have got life handled. Can you understand why Jeremiah calls such a life lived apart from the blessing of God to be much like a person drinking dirty, muddy, stagnant water out of hole dug in the dirt? Sure, such water may keep you alive but what kind of life is it to have to get up every day and know that such a life awaits you? What makes this scenario so tragic is right there, so close by, there is this ever flowing beautiful stream of ice cold, refreshing, life-giving water that flows without ceasing which is ours to partake of. This stream is the life of blessing which flows from the God of all blessing. How wonderful to have a life where the faithful love of God is the steady drumbeat of our life, so that we can know that our failures are never final nor fatal. No, we can find our failures as opportunities for us to experience the faithfulness of God and know of the wonder of his forgiveness. How wonderful to have a life where we never have to face our troubles alone for our God is a God who knows even when the sparrows fall to the ground, and we, rest assured are greater in the eyes of God than any sparrow. Our Heavenly Father is the searcher of hearts who knows what troubles us at the very center of who we are. How wonderful it is that we have a good shepherd who makes us exclaim, “Yes, I shall not want”. He is the one who will lead me to the green pastures, and the still waters, for his name’s sake. Yes, we know the name of our God, that he is the God who stands with us, in love, always faithful.

         Yet this is not what Jeremiah knew about his people for here he was walking all around this Temple shouting at the people of God to remember how they used to know God. We are right to wonder, just has happened to cause the people of God to forget their God, the very God they assumed that they already had known? Why are the people of God not drinking the fresh, cold, delicious, life-giving water of the ever flowing stream flowing from the throne of God and instead they are wallowing in the mud, drinking water barely fit to drink, and believing that they really are living the high life. Something has caused the people of God to no longer act as if they even knew God, for instead of knowing God, they have now forgotten God, caught up in their own abilities and power, a certain sign that fear has caught up with them. How has this fear infected their life, we are right to wonder? Well, Jeremiah tells us the root of the problem is found in the eighth verse of this second chapter, for their Jeremiah tells us, “The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?” Those who handle the Law did not know me. The rulers, who were like shepherds over my people, transgressed against me; the prophets spoke for the false god called Baal and they went after a life that is not worth the effort.” You see, the very people God anointed and appointed to watch over his people, no longer even knew God. The priests who served in the Temple were not even certain that God was there with them.So those responsible for bringing people into his presence, no longer even knew where the presence of God could be found. The prophets who were to speak for God now spoke for gods who do not exist. So, the purpose God had for his people was not proclaimed. The rulers who were to be like shepherds guiding God’s people on the path that leads to life now walked in paths of their own making. So, the people were no longer certain of being in the presence of God. The people were also no longer certain of the purposes of God. Neither were the people of God being led on the path of life by those God called to shepherd his people. So without being before the presence of God, hearing the purposes of God and being led on the path of God, the people became filled not with certainty, but with fear, a fear that led to them to have the pride found on the bad side of pride. But praise be to Jesus, who is our high priest who gave his life to bring us into the presence of God. Praise be to Jesus, the young and fearless prophet who declares the purposes of God to us. And praise be to Jesus, our Good Shepherd, who leads us on the path that leads to life eternal. Jesus reigns, so no longer let fear reign for we will not forget our God but live as people who truly know him! To his glory! Amen!

People In the Know: Knowing the One Who Knows Us

 October 19 2025

Jeremiah 1:4-10, 2:1-3 

         Today we are starting a new set of messages, and what I want you to consider as we begin is this: Am I a person who is, “in the know”, ? What I mean by this is this, do others consider you a person who has the scoop on what’s happening? You know, are you the person others say is, “in the know”, that you are the one with the answers if someone is looking for them. Is this how others know you?  Now, whether you realized it or not, we are to be people that others say are people, “in the know”. Here’s why I believe this is true. You see, its probably no secret to all of your family, friends and neighbors, that most Sunday mornings, the place where you will be found is sitting here in church. So it is fairly easy to assume that those watching you will perhaps come to the conclusion that you know something that they do not know. Well, actually what you are supposed to know is not a something, like, say, church doctrines or creeds. No, what I believe makes us people in, “the know”, you know, is that we are people in the know about God, specifically, the God whose name is Jesus. You see, we are to know not just something about God, like say, that he is a God of love; no, we are to be people who know God, himself. If we keep coming to church week after week then its fairly easy to assume that we are going to be the people who know God intimately. You see, why others should consider us people who are in the know, is that we have what might be called, “ insider information”, meaning that we have a knowledge that can only be found within this relationship we have with God. So, knowing all of this, can I consider you to be a person, who is, you know, “in the know”?

         This theme of us knowing ourselves as being people, “in the know”, is the underlying current in this book found in the Old Testament called Jeremiah.Now if you have read your way through the Bible, you will know that the books about the prophets are some of the weirdest reading of the Bible. Yet these odd messengers of God should not surprise us for even before the people of God had set foot in the Promised Land, they were told that the prophets would be coming somewhere in their future. In the eighteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, beginning at the fifteenth verse, Moses instructs the people, ‘The Lord your God will rise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers- it is to him you shall listen-….” Moses continues,”The Lord has spoken that he will raise up a prophet like Moses …and God, will put his words in their mouth, and they shall speak all that God commands them to speak.” God says further that even if someone refuses to listen to the prophet he has raised up he nonetheless will require of them what the prophet has spoken of. In other words, selective hearing is ruled out as a reason for not doing what God calls his people to do.

         So Jeremiah is one of these people, a prophet, who has been raised up from among the people of God. This is perhaps understandable as Jeremiah came from a family of priests.Jeremiahs family’s had served God in the Temple for centuries. Many of those raised up to be prophets by God were from the families of priests because they would have been those who stood between the ideal of the Temple and the people who failed to be less than ideal in the way that they acted. With all this in mind, we are told that Jeremiah heard a word from God, telling him this, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I set you apart for holy work. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Kind of amazing, isn’t it, that God tells Jeremiah that he has been known by God before Jeremiah was even born. So we could say that God is the one who is in the know about each of us. Perhaps it is no wonder that when Jeremiah objects to his calling on the grounds that he is just a kid, God understands Jeremiahs concern, yet nonetheless, he still expects Jeremiah to speak all that God has given to him to say. What Jeremiah will have to rely upon is the faithfulness of God who promises to rescue him and deliver Jeremiah when trouble overwhelmed him. This meant that Jeremiah would have to come to know God through his experiences with God.

Jeremiah, then, has been called to be one whom God will speak through so  that what comes forth from Jeremiah can be considered to be the very words of God. These words, we are told, will tell of some pretty bad consequences that await those who hear them. Yet even so, there is also the hope that beyond the plucking up, the breaking down, beyond the destruction and the overthrow, their will be a time of building and planting. Beyond the destruction, there is the promise of new life for this is the expectation of every seed that is planted. Even so, the people that God called Jeremiah to speak to would have not taken kindly to being told that this life they had built was now going to meet the fate of the wrecking ball. As Jeremiah understood so well, the anger the people felt towards God would certainly end with a call to kill the messenger. Yet, once again, we hear God tell Jeremiah that this is to be of no concern for as God tells Jeremiah, he will fight for Jeremiah and he will deliver him.

         As we think about Jeremiah and what God has called him to do, perhaps what will help make Jeremiahs work more understandable is that we simply consider Jeremiah to be like an attorney or lawyer representing God. You see, God is bringing a lawsuit against his people claiming that they have defamed his character and therefore they are no longer able to live as his renters on his property. Now this should have come as no surprise to God’s people because God had told them in advance what would happen if they failed to hold up their end of the bargain. Before the people of God even entered into the Promised Land, God tells them, as recorded at the beginning of the thirtieth chapter of Deuteronomy, that, “…these things will come upon you, the blessings and the curse, and you are to remember them when you find yourself among the nations where God will drive you…” It was apparent, at least to God, that at some point in their relationship, things were going to go south, and the people who once lived in the Promised Land would need to be evicted. Unfortunately for Jeremiah, he was the one who had been selected by God to deliver this tragic news that the time had come.

         Well, here at the beginning of the second chapter of Jeremiah then, we have God making his case to his people. He begins by asking his people to remember their honeymoon days, you know when God and his people were madly in love. Jeremiah went throughout Jerusalem calling his people to remember how things were in their early days of their relationship with God. They were to, “…remember the devotion of their youth, their love as a bride, how they followed God throughout the wilderness, in that land that was wild and untamed. Israel was set apart as holy unto the Lord, the very first fruits of his harvest. Anyone who attempted to devour them incurred guilt as disaster came upon them; do you remember this, asks the Lord?”. Now what is interesting, here in this recalling of their beginning, God portrays Israel, as being a bride. To our modern ways, it may not be apparent that here God is speaking about his people knowing him in a deeply, intimate way. Yet this is what we find in the first verse of the fourth chapter of Genesis, where we are told, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived, and bore Cain…” So, when God speaks of his relationship with Israel in terms of being his wife, he is saying that at one time, his people knew him in a very, deep and personal way. As is said about being married, in the end you end up knowing the good, the bad and the ugly about each other. I mean no one knows me as well as my wife does. Jennifer has had forty years of knowing all about me, so if anyone could be said to be in the know about me, it has to be her. Well, this is the very same way it was for the people of God as they tagged along with God out there in the wilderness. As they traveled the wilderness, packing up and moving every time God told them to, the people of God learned to trust God, and when they trusted God they came to know God. The people of God came to realize that God had a good reason for leading them to every new location. Yet, even when they failed to trust God as in that very ugly time in their relationship when they put God to the test, God was still faithful to provide for his bride. So throughout their travels together, God’s people came to know God in a way few may have ever known him. 

What the people of Israel came to know about God in the forty years of their wilderness wanderings were many things but they can be perhaps boiled down to three basic ideas. The first thing they knew about God is that his love for them was a constant in their life together. When they swore at God, and they questioned his very character, God nonetheless, never ceased to love them, desiring only the very best for them. Every morning God provided manna without fail, no matter if his people woke up with a heart full of love for God or if they could have cared less. The also came to know that their God came whenever they called for him.They did not need some special set of words or a spell to say in order to have God’s full attention brought to bear on the trouble they found themselves in. So, knowing God like this, then it just follows that they also came to know their God as always being faithful to provide all they needed. You see, they could witness that the shoes on their feet never wore out even after forty years. Their clothes were still in good shape, they had water to drink and food on their tables. There was no need for them to ever wake up and wonder where they would find what they needed for life. No, God was always faithful to provide all that his bride needed..

So the God who makes it his business to know all about us, desires that in our relationship to him we know him, and that we keep on growing in what we know about him. Just like people of God in the wilderness, we are to know that even when we fail God, God nonetheless remains faithful in his love for us. Through this faithful love shown to us we are to realize that God cares more about who we are than he cares about ability to return our love to him to him.That is an amazing thing to know about God. We are to also know that God is never, ever far from us. Whenever we cry out in God in our distress, God is found to be with us in our troubles. Just as God never required his bride to have all the right words to speak to him, we can know that even a sigh grabs God’s attention. So as the people of God we can know God in an up close and personal way. And as the people of God we also know that all we required for life is going to be given to us by the God who loves us. We can thus know God as being a servant who takes care of seeing to it that all that we need will be ready for us. 

You see, when we know what it is like to know God then it is no surprise that the people of God know themselves as being God’s holy people. These ones who once had been slaves became transformed by knowing God. They found themselves hopelessly devoted to the One who had set them free. This willingness to serve God was a natural response for the people of God who came to know this God who loved them unconditionally. You see, serving God was just a natural reaction for those who know the God who is always close by, listening for our voice. I mean, how could those who know that God served them by setting a table in the wilderness not desire to turn and serve him with a heart of gratitude. The people of God who know God of course, respond to God by serving God as God expected them to be, his royal priests. These former slaves had heard God tell them they were to be a nation of royal priests, those who served and worshipped God alone, and when they had come to know God, this is when they knew themselves to be what God desired. As God’s royal priests, they knew that they were to serve in the same way God has first served them. So, they turned and loved God as God had first loved them. They were quick to hear the voice of God and act on his desires. They served God by providing for others as God had first served them and provided for them. This was the hope God revealed to Abraham, the founding father of the nation of Israel, that when God would bless his family, then they, in turn, would serve God by blessing every family on earth. 

When we remember the hope God had for his people, then what God has told Jeremiah when he called him to be his prophet is very telling. You see, when God first put his words in Jeremiah’s mouth, we hear God tell Jeremiah that he was being appointed to be a prophet to the nations, not to the people of Israel, as one might expect. So, here is a clue to the reason for God raising up Jeremiah to be his prophet. Perhaps, Israel, who once was holy to the Lord, who once was set apart from the nations so that through her all the nations might be blessed, has now become sadly, just one of the nations, a nation waiting to be blessed like all the rest. You see, God seems to know something about Israel, his bride, something that she has not realized, that she has in fact, lost that loving feeling. God, through Jeremiah, calls his people to remember how long ago in the honeymoon days of her wilderness wanderings with God, they used to know God. Oh, yes, she may remember those days but now she her relationship with God is no longer defined as a time to know each other in ever an deeper intimacy. No, now the bride of God who should know God nonetheless has no desire to make God known to anyone else. You see, when Israel wandered about in the wilderness, following after her God like a love sick girl chasing after the love of her heart, this was seen by the watching eyes of the nations who may have wondered what it must be like to know this God like in this way. You see, when people want to know God, it makes sense that they will go to those in the know about God. Yet what happens when the people of God no longer act as if they even know God? I mean, just where are those who do not know God supposed to go in order to know God?  This has to make us wonder. I mean, if we say that we are the people of God who are in the know about God, then are we acting as if we are the people of God who are in the know about God? If we know God, then we know we have to love God as he first loved us. If we know God then we must act as if, yes, our God is close by, he is listening to us, he is hanging on our every word. If we know God then we show we know God by serving God, providing what others need just as God first served us and provided all we needed. The God who knows us calls us to make him known so let us do so, always to his glory! Amen!

 

                  

Worship in the Worst: Of, “Worth-Its”, and “Write-Offs”.

 October 12 2025

Psalm 118

         I like to watch NFL games any chance I get, and its expected that during the halftime shows often there is usually a feel-good story involving the players. A recurring theme to these stories is how players who have been written off by one team becomes known as a player who is worth it, worth what that player has always they were worth. Its hard for us Browns fans to watch as Baker Mayfield, once the famed quarterback of the Browns offense who nonetheless was written off, is now setting records and saving his team week after week down in Tampa. Sam Darnold, now the quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, was also written off by multiple teams but now has lit a fire under his team. 

         Now, it is easy to understand why stories about players who have been written off over and over but who now are being paid what they’re worth are so beloved by even those who aren’t sports fans because, you see, this is a universal story. Almost everyone has been judged unworthy by someone else, and written off. We all know how bad that hurts. We all probably know the indignation of being snubbed by someone, finding ourselves being somebody who is just not worth the other persons attention.These are the kinds of experiences that get under our skin. When we think of the worst this world has to offer, being written off is perhaps the worst of these because this wrong is one we can become fixated on until it takes on a life of its own. So it should come as no surprise that this worst experience, this being written off by someone, can certainly end up affecting our worship of God, who is always worth everything.

         Well, this very common experience of being written off, is, I believe, the key to unlocking the mystery found in the last Psalm is this series, Psalm 118. Now, much this song is a merely a wrap up of what we have previously heard in the earlier Psalms in this series. You see, on the night of Passover, as part of their worship, families would sing six songs which told the story of their humble beginnings as slaves and the wonder of the God who saved them. As expected, this last song, the one hundred and eighteenth Psalm, summarizes the lessons of this wilderness wanderings, yet it goes further, for here, in the last part of this last song, we discover the purpose God has for those who are his people. God is taking the cornerstone once rejected and and making this stone to be once more the very foundation of our life together. Just what this cornerstone is will become clear as we listen to this song.

With all of this in mind, we begin to take a look at the one-hundred and eighteenth Psalm. For the people of Israel, this song was one of the most beloved of all the Psalms. Those who sang this song at Passover would have thought nothing of it that they had sung this song twice in the course of the week. You see, the, “Hosannas”, sung by the crowds when Jesus entered into Jerusalem were merely the last stanzas of this one-hundred and eighteenth Psalm. These, “Hosannas”, are a cry, an earnest plea, for God to intervene and save us. This was their hope when Jesus came to town. Yet, if they would have understood this song I believe that would have realized the answer to their prayer was already there upon their lips. 

So, we should wonder just how God will save us and just what is it that God is saving us from. Perhaps the answer will be found in this thumbnail sketch of the wilderness journey that we find in the early stanzas of this song.  Well, the song begins with a celebration of the name of God. This is to cause us to recall that the first mention of the name of our God occurred after Israel put God to the test, when they failed to trust his promise of faithfulness to them. Yet, even though God suffered the indignation of having his very reputation called into question by the very people he had redeemed from slavery, God did not write them off. No, instead, God gave the very people who had shamed him, water out of a rock so that they might have life. 

You see, the failures of the people of God are important for in these times, the unchanging character of God is discovered. Through it all, our God is always found to be a God of steadfast love and faithfulness. In the stories of the wilderness journey, our God is always found to be a God who is steadfast, standing fast with us; loving us; and, always being faithful to us. This character of God is contrasted by the people of God who failed to have faith in him time and time again. Yet, God never would write them off; no, in every circumstance God found his people to be worth suffering for.

Well, as we look at this song we begin to realize that the clue to how this song is structured is found in the reference to the, “house of Aaron”. You might recall that Aaron is the high priest who spoke his blessing over the people so that they might bear the name of God. So this calls us to pay attention and discover this blessing interwoven throughout this song. Well, in the fifth verse, we find the songwriter taking a long, look back. He states that God had heard the cries of his people and has set them in, “…in a broad place.” When we hear of them now being in a, “broad place”, we are reminded of the first song sung this night of Passover. There the people of God were found to be in a narrow place, a tight spot, unable to go forward or back, as they were slaves down in Egypt. Now, in this last song, the people remember that their life has changed all because, in their time of affliction, God stepped into this situation taking upon himself the very affliction of his people. So, for a nation of slaves, people so easy to write off, God instead finds them worth stepping into their situation in order to save them. This is the Passover story,  a story that begins when God steps into our impossible situation, a situation of death, and he makes a way through death, the death of a lamb, so that his people might have a life beyond death. This is what is meant when the voice of Aaron says to us, ‘The Lord bless you”, 

Well, the song continues and in the eighth through the thirteenth verses, the song reminds us of how it is better to take refuge in God, than to trust in man. The reason for this confidence in God is that when the people of God were surrounded by their the enemies, they were able to cut them off by relying upon the name of their God. As the song exclaims, “When the enemy pushed hard against us, when the people of God began to falter, it was the Lord who was their help.” So, the people of God remembered how throughout their journey in the wilderness it was always God who guarded and protected his people. This is the truth Aaron spoke of when he said over the people of God, ‘The Lord keep you”.

         Well, as the one-hundred and eighteenth Psalm goes on, the songwriter calls us to remember the victory God won for his people when he parted the Red Sea and how they escaped from the Egyptian army.  You see, in the fourteenth verse, we hear Moses standing on the far side of the Red Sea, singing his song of triumph “…the Lord is my strength, and my song: he has become my salvation.” Yes, how wonderful to know that the God who is our strength and our song has now saved us when we were found in desperate straits. This is why the psalmist cries out, “Glad are the songs of salvation found in the tents of the righteous! The Lord has done his work with great power!” Now the psalmist knows that because of the great power of God to fight their battles, the people of God, “…shall not die, no, they shall live so that they might recount the deeds of the Lord.” Again, as they retold these stories of victory, they knew that  they did so only because God stands with them and fights for them. You see, this is just what Aaron is saying to us when he tells us, “The Lord be gracious unto you”. 

         Well, so far, this song is simply giving us a review of what has been sung about over the course of this Passover evening. Yet, here, in the eighteenth verse, the songwriter reveals a new understanding about God. You see, it is here where we hear of how God used those difficult days wandering about in the wilderness as the means to discipline us severely. Here we can sense the same train of thought found in the fifth verse of the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, where we are told,  “Know then in your heart, that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.” So, this discipline of God is done for the same reason that a loving father teaches their children. This is what is told to us in the third verse of this eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, that our Father God wants us to learn that the words he speaks to us are to be considered our very source of life. Through out the wilderness ways, Father God told his children, “I promise to always be faithful to you even when you continue to fail me.” It is as if our Father is whispering in our ears, “You my child, you are worth it”.  Our good Father simply refuses to consider us to be a write off. No, our Father is able to use our failures to teach us to rely upon his faithfulness, So, it only makes sense that our hearts find our Father God to be worth everything to us. This is why we are able to worship God in the very worst of what we are going through.

Well, when we know God as being our Heavenly Father, this gives us a clue to figuring out what the song means when it tells us, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” This stone, so strong, so straight and perfect is found to be, strangely rejected by those only called the, “builders”.. How very odd that the very best stone, one that is the ideal cornerstone, is found there on the scrap heap. We are right to wonder just why would something considered to be the very best, in one breath, be in the very next breath, so roundly rejected? 

         Well,  a clue that proves helpful in solving this mystery is found by understanding that in the Hebrew train of thought, the idea of building is often associated with family. The Hebrew words used for son and daughter both derive from the Hebrew word used for building. Perhaps, then, it is not a leap to believe that what is being built is a family whose Father is almighty God. So the cornerstone, the stone which holds everything together, what if this is the most important aspect of family life together? It is this most critical aspect of family life that those building families have rejected. To figure out just what this cornerstone might be, we find that the teachings of Jesus are of great benefit. At the end of the fifth chapter of Matthew, Jesus asks us, “If you love those who love you, what reward will you receive? Don’t those farthest from God do the very same thing? I mean, if you greet only those who love you, you really aren’t doing anything different from anyone else, are you? I mean, isn’t this just the way the people of the world do things?” You see, Jesus is telling us that the families of the world are constructed on the premise that some people are worth the effort and those who aren’t can be easily written off. The rule is, show some love or hit the road. What Jesus is saying to us then is that God expects more from us than this. The standard, the cornerstone of this family God is building is the same standard that God has for each one of us. The family of God is built on the words our Father continues to whisper to us, “My child, you are worth it”. Our Father refuses to write anyone off. So, it just figures, as the Father finds everyone to be worth it, then we too are to learn these words, and say to one another, “My child, you are worth it.” 

Now, when we understand that the our life as the family of God is built upon these words, then it makes sense that people reject such a notion. You see, all of us want to reserve the right to write people off. We want to tell people that they have messed up one too many times so out you go. We all just want to love only those with whom we are absolutely certain will love us in the same measure. The problem with such thinking is that it is not much of a leap from writing people off to hating them. Hatred, throughout the Bible is seen as a dangerous place for us because hatred can spiral out of control so that we end up having a burning desire for revenge. One only has to think of the story of Cain and Able found in the fourth chapter of Genesis. There, when God asks Cain where his brother Able is, Cain tells God,  “Am I my brother’s keeper?”,  Clearly, Cain had easily written off his brother Able. So it should be no surprise that Cain would end up hating his brother Able, and that such hatred would lead Cain to seek vengeance against Able, killing him with a rock. 

What most people are not aware of is that seeking revenge is an addiction much like an addiction to a drug. In a book entitled, “The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World’s Deadliest Addiction”, the author, James Kimmel, writes that revenge is sought after when we experience real or imagined grievances-perceptions of mistreatment, injustice, humiliation, shame, betrayal, you know, when people write us off. The result is that we seek revenge against a person who has hurt us. Now what is most interesting is that scientists have found that seeking revenge activates the very same circuitry in our brains associated with addiction. So seeking revenge just leaves us desiring to retaliate even more, so that we become consumed by the very hatred that rises up in us when people choose to write us off. The bottom line is that when we become addicted to revenge then we are no longer able to worship God. You see, when revenge consumes us then there will be nothing left with which to serve God who expects us to serve him with our whole self. In the end, God is the one who gets written off instead of being found to be worth it all.

          So, the reason we must find all people worth it, worth putting up with when they fail us, worth offering the gift of forgiveness to them, is that unless we find them worth it, then, in the end, we will no longer find God worth it. The Psalm tells us that we can only enter through the gates of righteousness when our Father’s words, “My child, you are worth it”, are the words we speak to everyone. Only then are we able to enter and stand before the face of God. The righteous are those who those who know that all people are worth it, because their Father God, has taught them these words.  God speaks these words without any expectation of love in return, and so should we. So, it is our worship of God which keeps us from being the worst to others, writing others off as those we find to be simply not worth it. You see, if God is worthy then all people must be found worthy, for if God does not write us off in our failures then we too cannot write anyone off for their failure to love us. This is the Word of the cross, the very place where our Father speaks to us, “My child, you are worth this”. Yet the breaking of the body of Jesus and the shedding of his blood is not just for us but this word is for everyone.Now all can be certain that God will never write them off. So, when we desire to write someone off, we must ask ourselves, is God worth it? Do we find God worth it all, worth even finding the next person worth it all? I pray that that our worship of our Father keeps others from experiencing the worst from us. Amen!

         

          

Worship In the Worst: Withstanding a World at War

 October 5 2025

Psalm 117

         You may have not been aware of this but there was a rumor floating around that the Rapture was going to happen on September 25^th. It turned out to be more of a rupture instead of a Rapture because it turned out to be a big bust. Of course I couldn’t help but think of the end days, and scriptures like Matthew 24, the sixth through the eighth verses, where Jesus tells his disciples, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars but do not be alarmed for this must take place, yet even still, this is not the end.” What Jesus tells us is a fairly evident fact, that even here some 2000 years later we are indeed a world at war. If you go to the website, “Our World in Data”, and find the section on, ‘War and Peace’, you discover this very truth.  I mean, did you know that since the year, 1800, over 37 million people have died as a result of war? It goes on to say that it has been centuries since the world has had just one single year when there has not been not some sort of armed conflict between nations. Perhaps the most alarming data found here is that every year there are, on average, 150 armed conflicts around the world. So, yes, Jesus we agree with you, for we do hear of wars and rumors of wars. Now, if it is true, as General Sherman was once quoted as saying, “War is Hell”, then for many people around the globe they are experiencing hell right here on earth. As we consider in these series of messages, “Worship in the Worst”, we must wonder just how does our worship of God witness to a world where so many people are experiencing war, one the very worst of human experiences? 

         An answer to the question of how we, as God’s people, can witness to a world of wars and rumors of wars, is as Jesus tells us, we are “…to see that we are not alarmed”. So, I have to ask, just how are we doing at not being alarmed while we live in a world at war? Well, there is a very important reason why Jesus gives what seems to be an impossible order. You see, it is here at the beginning of the fourth chapter of James, that you find a very good reason why we are to be people who are not alarmed all the while living in a world at war. James writes, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?”. The answer James gives is this, “…your passions are at war within you.” James goes on to explain, “You desire and can’t obtain, so you murder. You covet and cannot have what you desire, so you fight and quarrel. The reason you do not have is that you do not ask God for what you need. You do not ask God for what you need because when you do ask you do not receive what you have asked for. You have never stopped to consider that the reason why you have not received what you ask for is that you only ask for what fuels your passions; your wrong motives are so very evident. You are people who are trying to be a two-timer in your relationship with God. You are trying to keep your lover, the world, on the side all the while thinking you can still have a relationship with God. Do you not know that if you are a being all chummy with the world then you are, in that moment, making God your enemy!” You see, when one’s passions are at war in their heart then they will end up having a heart with a passion for war. So instead of having a heart that is contented with what the Lord provides, people will instead covet what they do not have. The burning desire to obtain what one does not have leads people to use and abuse others to get what they want. So when Jesus says for us to be, “not alarmed”, he is telling us to stop being part of the problem and start being part of the answer. The answer is, as Jesus says, for us to to not be alarmed for we are to have hearts at peace because there is no longer a war waging inside of our hearts. 

         You see, if we are to have peace in this world at war then our hearts must no longer be full of passions at war within them. This is what  James gives as the answer to our restlessness, found later in that same fourth chapter, “…purify your hearts, you double-hearted.” James is saying that we can indeed live in a state of rest; all that is necessary is for us to have a  heart healed of what is tearing it apart. This means that our hearts must be brought back to a state of absolute loyalty to God.  No longer are we to have a heart that chases after the world while still attempting to be in a relationship with God. No, now is the time to have a heart that desires only one thing, and that one thing is God. This is what it means to have a heart that is purified, a heart that desires only the one, true, living God. 

         Now, we should not be surprised at this this answer, that it is vitally important it is for us to purify our hearts because this answer is found the Psalm we studied last week, the one-hundred and sixteenth Psalm.This Psalm is part of a group of songs sung on the night of Passover. You see, it is here, in the seventh verse of this song that we are told, “Return O, my soul, to your rest and peace for the Lord has made you whole.” Here God calls us to come back to where our hearts are at last at peace, no longer alarmed even in a world at war. God calls us to throw the worry of the wilderness out of our hearts and to once again find God alone worthy of serving him with our life. When our hearts are purified then we are at last able to rest, to have a heart settled in perfect peace. 

Well, when we hear what God expects it sounds like not just a big ask but more like an impossible one. I believe that on our own, getting our hearts brought back to a state of rest and peace is beyond us. What a relief to know that God understands our limitations. This is why God created us to need other people. You see, God expects that we worship him every minute of every day. Yet, once every seven days God  calls us to worship together. This day is set apart given in order for us to experience a Sabbath rest. You see, God’s plan for us to withstand a world at war is for us to stand with each other in our worship of God. So when people ask us, why do you get up on a Sunday morning and gather together with your church family for worship every week, the answer is that we come to have our hearts healed.  We desire to once again be able to say that deep in our souls we have indeed returned to a place of rest. You see our witness is not that we are people who never mess up and in our weak state go out and chase after the world. No, our witness is that we know that in order to withstand the world and its hold on us, we have to stand with others in  our worship of God. As we stand together with each other in our worship of God, the wonder of God, his grace, righteousness and mercy is witnessed here among us. This is the promise we find at the end of the twentieth chapter of Exodus, where we are God says to us, “In all places, where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you, and I will bless you.” Those we stand with in worship cause us to remember that our God is a God whose very name is steadfast love and faithfulness. This is when we know that our God is indeed present with us, giving us the blessing of his presence. This promise from God is to be our most valuable possession, that which is worth everything to us. So as we ponder how we might stand on these promises of God, let us sing together, “Standing on the Promises”, found on page 410.

You see, the reason why we must stand on these promises of God is as the song tells us, here the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, this is just part of living in a world at war. These doubts and fears make us wonder, is God standing with me right now, in this trouble that I am facing? We worry that if we fail to witness to the wonder of God, will God still be found to be standing with us? You see, the worry of the world has a way of, “dissing”, on us. We go from being at ease to being dis-eased. We go from a state of comfort to being in a state of dis-comfort. We are no longer contented for we find ourselves quite dis-contented. Can you see how one can begin to look at their neighbors in such a state and say in their hearts, “I want what they have.” So when this world at war causes a war to stir up in our hearts we desperately need to stand together in our worship of God. Together, our worship empowers us to confess with the the Psalmist “ My soul has returned to a place of rest”.  

         You see, when we worship together, what happens is much like an activity we used to do in youth group called, “Car Wash. In this activity, I would have the youth group form two parallel lines, facing each other. Then, one by one, each person would walk down the line, past their friends and hear them say something positive and uplifting about them as they walked by each person. The negative insults of the world would get washed away by the overwhelming words of love. In a very similar way, when we come to worship together we gather to speak to one another words of love to help to wash away all the ways of the world has dissed on us. This is why when people find themselves dis-eased, we surround them in prayer, so they can once again stand on the promise of God that he is standing with them in their fight. When people are feeling dis-comfort, we comfort each other with the promise that we will be with them in life’s struggles.When we are dis-contented, together we discover a life of contentment when we care for one another, helping each other out when life is tough. 

         You see, it is in this time of gathered worship, that restless, anxious and worried souls like ourselves can come and have our hearts repaired and restored. As we worship, we are made whole once again so that we at last can experience a peace beyond our understanding. We discover that this healing is found when we stand with each other in worship and our brothers and sisters witness to us the truth of the promises of God. Jesus, speaks in the eighteenth chapter of Mathew, that where two or three are gathered, there is where Jesus will be. These two or three are the number of witnesses necessary to speak the truth. So, through their testimony then, we are certain Jesus is present, that God does indeed stand with us. What good news for those who come to worship God yet who also find themselves doubting the promise of God. When those who doubt stand together in worship with those who testify that the presence of God is there with them, they too can find the certainty that God does indeed stand with them as well. The hearts that come to worship divided in their loyalty to God are to find that their hearts have been healed, purified once more. 

When we stand together in worship in order to withstand the world, we experience our salvation. Salvation is when our hearts that were once filled with warring passions at last become purified. This is the power found when we experience the wonder of God, his grace, righteousness, and mercy. These actions of God cause us to worship the name of God, his unchanging character, his steadfast love and faithfulness. This is what the people of God learned as they wandered in the wilderness after they has been set free on the night of Passover. In this series of messages we are looking at the songs which were sung as part of the celebration of Passover. These songs, you see, were the songs sung by Jesus on the worst night of his life, songs that assisted Jesus to worship in his worst. We can know then that these songs can also assist us to worship in our worst. In our scripture for today, the one-hundredth and seventeenth Psalm, we are told that all of the nations are to come and praise our God. All peoples are called to come and glorify the Lord. The reason why the whole world is caught up in worship is that they have left their warring ways behind them because they too have experienced the wonder of God. Now they too know that the name of our God is steadfast love and faithfulness. This is good news for our world but imagine as Jesus and his followers sang this little ditty as part of their Passover celebration. Just what were their thoughts as those who were living under the harsh rule of the Roman Empire. I mean, did God really think for a moment that these occupying forces deserved to know the steadfast love and faithfulness of God? Even though this song is what was sung every year by God’s people, that all people, everywhere, were going to be praising God for his name, his steadfast love and faithfulness, they had to wonder, just how would God fulfill this promise.

         The answer is perhaps, that as the people celebrating Passover would have sung this one-hundred and seventeenth Psalm, they may have remembered how the people of God wandering in the wilderness had come into contact with the people of Moab. This story is found in the twenty third chapter of Numbers. You see, the king of Moab was distressed when he witnessed this great horde coming up out of Egypt and who were now wandering about in the wilderness. So he called a powerful spiritual man to place a curse on these intruders. Well, when this great spiritual man named Balaam went to place a curse upon Israel, God whispered in his ear that the people of God were unable of being cursed for God had blessed them. What becomes apparent through this story of Balaam is that the promises of God upon which we take our stand are founded upon the unchanging nature of our God. So yes, when we proclaim that God has blessed us, we do so knowing that there is nothing that can remove this blessing God has given to us. As the Holy Spirit then overtakes Balaam, we hear the Spirit witness that the people of God are a people who stand apart from the nations. Balaam sees that these are the upright people who stand with the God they know stands with them. As Balaam goes to speak to King Balak, we find that the Spirit comes on him a second time and this time Balaam learns that the living God is not like humans for he does not lie; God does not change his mind. The Holy Spirit also told him that the living God is not a God who requires us to say special words in mysterious ways to figure out what this God is up to. All one needs in order to discover what God is up to is for them to look at his people, this is where the nations can watch God at work. Our God is found in the worship of his people, this is just who our God is. If this is who our God is then this is why we can also know without a doubt we can stand on his promises. When we know this is who our God is, then yes, our God is indeed worthy of our worship. You see, these God inspired speeches spoken there in the wilderness speak to us of a God who can and will bring our world back to a state of flourishing for one day he will be king over all. This is the God who is able to bring the nations to know his name for he is indeed a God of steadfast love and faithfulness. This is our God, the very God we remember, the God who can be found in all places, the God who shows up anytime we stand together in worship in order to withstand a world at war. Amen!

 

Worship In The Worst: Our Witness to His Wonder

 September 28 2025

Psalm 116

         I have always loved history, especially American history. After you study history awhile, you begin to remember the significant dates in the life of America, like December 7 being the attack on Pearl Harbor, or November 11 is the official end of World War 1, or June 6 is when the invasion of Normandy in World War 2. Well, something happened in our American journey on September 15^th that I believe should be just as important to us not just as citizens but also as Christian’s as well. You see, September 15^th in 1963 was a Sunday, a time of worship. On this particular Sunday, just as the congregation was gathering, a bomb ripped through this Baptist church. On a Sunday when the youth of the church were slated to lead the service, four young girls died instantly in the blast. Another young lady survived with severe injuries. Now the reason why I believe we should remember this horrific even is that this terrible tragedy happened right here on American soil in a town called Birmingham, Alabama. You see, this bombing of a house of worship was the response to a court order requiring the end of the segregation of public schools in Alabama. As I pondered on this event, I thought this has to be one of the absolute worst scenarios, to experience such a loss of life in a moment when people were preparing to worship the living God. As I meditated on this some more, God seemed to ask me if such a situation would arise today, would I be willing to go and stand with those who had been attacked? In other words, would I be willing to worship with others in their worst even if in doing so could result in death? This is not as an unusual question as it sounds, for if you follow the outcome of this church bombing you will find that this tragedy led to a series of marches held in 1965, from Selma to Montgomery, the capital of Alabama. As they were preparing for the second of these walks, the organizer of them, Martin Luther King, put out a nation wide plea for clergy and citizens to join the marchers in this peaceful demonstration calling for change. The call resulted in people from all across America going to Alabama to march alongside those who were not even safe when they went to worship. One of the pastors who marched on the second march, James Reeb, was beaten so severely that he lost his life. As a pastor, I cannot but help but wonder, would I would have the courage to do what this pastor felt called to do.

         As it turns out, our worship of God is to create in us a heart of courage. This is what we will discover in this segment of this message series called, “Worship In Our Worst”. To help us to understand how our hearts might be strengthened we will look at the one-hundred and sixteenth Psalm. This Psalm is one of the six songs that would have been sung by the people of Israel on the night they celebrated Passover. As their families gathered around their tables, eating roasted lamb and unleavened bread, they would have sung these Psalms beginning with the one-hundred and thirteenth Psalm and finishing with the one hundred and eighteenth Psalm. As we  follow these songs along, we find that they are taking us on a journey through the wilderness, a journey which began on that fateful night called Passover. Passover is when the people of Israel ate their roasted lamb and unleavened bread with their sandals on their feet and their staff in their hands, waiting with anticipation of at last being free. In their freedom, they were to find God alone worth serving with this new life he had given to them. The people of God are to say, “Yes, God is indeed worthy”. God desires that we also know that he is worthy not just when life is all sunshine and smiles but also in the worry of the wilderness. You know, those times when worry consumes us and threatens to drown out our worship. The truth is that God is always worthy of serving because God does not change, there is no shadow of turning with our Heavenly Father as James so aptly put it in the first chapter of his letter. The character of God, his very reputation on which he stakes his good name, is that he is and always will be, a God of steadfast love and faithfulness. We experience this love of God as we take into our hands the life he gives to us. His faithfulness is found as day by day as our living God never ceases to give us evermore life. 

          So, those who know God as being a God of the steadfast love and faithfulness are to find God worthy of giving their very life in service to him. God desires that we might bear his name, carrying his steadfast love and faithfulness out to those who desperately in need of knowing that God cares deeply for them. God places his name upon us through the blessing of Aaron. In the sixth chapter of the book of Numbers, God tells Aaron, the High Priest, to place the following blessing over the people of Israel: The Lord bless you, and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you; the Lord rejoice in your presence. And give you peace. Through this blessing, the name of God is placed upon the people. 

We bear the name of God when we follow his lead, being people with the same character as the God that they worship, those who love others with steadfast love and faithfulness. We bear his name when we go to the place of human affliction and through our being present in their affliction, the afflicted can be certain that God is present there too. We bear the name of God when we watch out for the safety of others. We must be always willing to intercede for others in order to protect them from danger for God has done so for us. We bear the name of God when we we are gracious, and we show unmerited favor towards those we know are in need of our generosity. We bear his name and God rejoices for we have gone from serving dead gods doing deeds that only have a dead end, to serving the living God, showing steadfast love and faithfulness to others. We live this life of love not because all of the people that we meet are worth the effort. No, the reason we demonstrate steadfast love and faithfulness is that we are convinced that God is worth whatever it takes to serve him. 

Now, when we bear the name of God, God promises us peace. Now in a world where peace is often difficult to find, this promise is quite astounding, isn’t it? Well, what we must also know is that the peace God promises to us is only given to us when we are willing do something for God. You see, peace is ours when we turn and show God the same steadfast love and faithfulness he first demonstrated to us. This giving of our love to God is what is being sung about in the one hundred and sixteenth Psalm. We hear this right from the first line of the song, “I love the Lord my God…”. The reason given for this outburst of love is that God heard our cries when we so desperately needed mercy. So because God has inclined his ear to us, we are led to respond. Yet we should want to know, just how do we love God? The answer the songwriter gives to us is that we call on God for as long as we live. Right here is the answer as to how we are to give steadfast love and faithfulness to God. We demonstrate our steadfast love  to God when we cry out to God. Our faithfulness to God is demonstrated when we promise to continue to call upon God for the duration of our life. 

         You see, as the songwriter goes on to explain, our love for God is discovered in a moment when we come face to face with death. As the song so vividly sings of that moment, here in this time when death has caught us in its trap, when the grave has begun to pull us away from the living, when we have suffered distress and anguish, this is when, with no other options left, we decide to call on God. You see, in our worst, the way we show our love to God is to find him worthy of our trust. We must have certainty that it is only by trusting solely in the name of God, his unchanging character, only then will we find deliverance in this moment. So when we cry out, “O, Lord, I pray, deliver my soul.”, what God hears is, “I love you”. 

Yet, we might wonder, just how can we have absolute certainty that when we turn to God that God is going to deliver. Here the songwriter chooses three very important aspects about God that provide a foundation for our trust. These actions of God are what might be called the wonder of God because they cause us to be in awe of our God. The first of these actions is that God is gracious. What does it mean for God to be gracious? Well, at the beginning of the fifth chapter of Romans, Paul gives us one of the best images of grace. Grace, Paul explains, is our God-given place to stand. We are assured a place in this world and this place is right next to God. We are also told in the eighth verse of that chapter that God loves us because he chooses to stand with us. So grace is God’s decision that together we will take our stand against the world. When we understand grace in this way, isn’t it right for us to be in awe and wonder of our God? Yet this grace is not just for us, alone, because we are told that God is also righteous. This means that while God may show us his favor he, nonetheless, does not play favorites; anyone is someone who can stand with God. Again, when we know that God is willing to stand with everyone, how can we not be filled with awe and wonder? Yet God is not finished  because the Psalm also tells us that our God is merciful. The God who stands with everyone is a God who seeks always to bring more life never condemnation and death. This should absolutely cause us to be amazed and filled with wonder at what only our living God can do! So it is this grace, righteousness, and mercy of our God, this is what we might call the very wonder of God. This wonder of God  is what our lives are to witness to. You see the songwriter rejoices because they know of the wonder of God.  They are certain that the living God is the God who stands with those who cannot help themselves. Isn’t this wonder-filled news? Our experience with God should always fill us with the wonder of God. 

Now all that God asks of us is this: Be a witnesses to His wonder. Tell others about the God who is willing to save the desperate. We are to live a life that proves to the world that our God is a God of wonder because we stand in wonder of  his grace, his righteous and his never failing mercy. We are witnesses that when we needed God, God showed up, wonder of wonders. When this is our witness then as the songwriter sings, there in his soul, in the very depth of his being, he has found a state of rest, a peace like a river flowing within him even in the worst of life experiences. This is good lead in for us to sing, “It Is Well With My Soul”, on page 705 of your hymnal. 

When you sang the words of this hymn did you hear that the very reason we are able to endure those times when Satan buffets us, those times when trials come, is that Christ has regarded our helpless estate and has shed his own blood for our souls. Here this hymn speaks so wonderfully of the grace, the righteousness and mercy of God. This is what gives us the certainty to say, “It is Well with My Soul”, even in the worst. So we can join with the witness of the writer of this Psalm that the Lord has indeed dealt abundantly or bountifully to us. What the writer is saying to us here is that the Lord has brought our hearts back to a state of wholeness. You see, when we experience the worst life has to offer, our hearts are torn in their loyalty to God. Right then when our hearts languish is when we experience the wonder of God. Here in our worst, the grace, righteousness and mercy of God are given to us without measure. We become a witness to the wonder of God, the very wonder that has made our hearts whole once more.

         The importance of having a wholehearted love for the God who loves us is found in a story from the time of the wilderness wanderings. This should cone as no surprise because these Psalms sung on the night of Passover are a retelling of the journey of God’s people to the promised land. If you listen carefully to this one-hundred and sixteenth Psalm you can hear  an echo of the rebellion of God’s people in the wilderness. The full account of this story is found in the thirteenth chapter of the book of Numbers. There we find the story of when God told Moses to send spies from the wilderness to go and scout out the Promised Land. Well, after forty days, most of the spies return with tales of a land that to them was a good place to die and not much else. They told of how this land was filled with giants and fierce enemies, a land that devours all those who try and dwell there. Hearing such gruesome accounts, of course the people became terrified. They wanted nothing more than to turn around and head back to Egypt. Well, it was at this point, when all appeared lost, that one, lone, voice piped up. This voice told a different story. The voice was that of Joshua. He too had spied the very same land yet he had seen a land that was exceedingly good. Joshua had also known the wonder of the Lord, and he witnessed to this wonder. Joshua was strong and courageous because he never forgot that God stands with us. Joshua was certain that God’s people could absolutely count on God to bring them into this good land which flows with milk and honey. So Joshua urged his people to not fear what opposed them for these enemies would be the ones consumed. You see, it was the people living in the Promised Land, these are the ones who should be frightened for they had nothing to protect them. So can you see how Joshua witnessed to the the wonder of God? He told his people to take heart, there simply was no reason for the people of God to fear for God stands with them.

 Well, after Joshua witnessed to the wonder of God, God right on cue,  enters into their midst. He is rightfully angry with his people, because as God tells Moses, their eyes had witnessed the wonder of God ten times as God performed miracle after miracle. Ten times they had watched God work wonders yet they still worried.  So God rightfully had enough of them. As the Psalmist wrote of this situation, “I said in my alarm, all men are liars.” You see, when the people of God refused to witness to the wonders of God then they did not speak the truth about God and they failed to love God. So God told this generation that they would never enter into the Promised Land, the place the ninety fifth Psalm, describes as a place of rest and peace. 

As Jesus sang the one hundred and sixteenth Psalm as part of his Passover celebration before his death, I wonder if this song is what led Jesus to tell his friends around the table, “Peace is what I leave with you; my peace I give to you” How could Jesus speak of peace knowing he would soon be facing his very death? The answer is found at the end of the sixteenth chapter of John, where Jesus tells his friends, “I am not alone for the Father is with me. I tell you this so that in me you might have peace.” You see, it is the wonder of the Father’s presence which never leaves us, this is what we witness to even in our worst, even if the worst is death. This is why we can suffer with others even if doing so puts us in harms way, for even there we can witness to the wonder of our God. We can witness that God stands with all of us and he will bring us safely home. To God be the glory! Amen!

         

Worship in the Worst: My Worship for Your Worst

 September 21 2025

Psalm 115

         The twenty-ninth of August, 2025, marked the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in New Orleans. Most of us still remember how Katrina had first slammed into the Florida coast but then jumped over Florida to land in the Gulf. There Katrina quickly picked up strength from the warm waters. At one point Katrina was a Category 5 hurricane but fortunately it slowed down to only a Category 3 level when it made landfall. Despite it’s power, the biggest issue was not so much sheer destruction but rather the incredible storm surges Katrina created. Some areas had surges over twenty feet high. These surges caused the levee system that protected New Orleans to fail so that over eighty percent of New Orleans was quickly flooded. Over 1300 people in the Delta region died from the affects of this deadly storm. There was also an estimated 125 and 200 billion dollars in damages. This made Katrina one of the deadliest and costliest storm to ever hit the United States.

         Now it should come as no surprise that with a storm creating this much havoc that the government was soon overwhelmed in their ability to bring the substantial relief that the thousands of displaced people sorely needed at this time. Yet all was not lost because it was not long after Katrina subsided that there began a groundswell of activity pouring out, headed south to bring more life to a place where so much life had been lost. In the years that followed the onslaught of Katrina it was estimated that the Salvation Army assisted over a million people who had been displaced. The United Methodist church, for example, mobilized almost 60,000 people to go and aid in the restoration efforts. They fixed and repaired over 20,000 homes destroyed by Katrina. In the United Methodist church alone there was 66 million dollars pledged to bring assistance and relief to those who had experienced such devastating losses. Yet, this was but one denomination’s efforts. There were thousands more churches large and small who packed up there gear and headed south to help the rebuild. My Dad and his friends went to help several times and they even got to experience what Mardi Gras was like in Biloxi, Mississippi.

         Now, when we look back on that horrendous storm it is easy to focus on the death and destruction. Yet, we must not forget that in response to a broken world which brings forth such destruction there is a force which moves those not directly affected to go and to serve in times of need. We should be, I believe, be just as in awe of this force as we are when we stand in awe of the power that we witness in a hurricane. This force which moves people to respond to those who find themselves in the worst is called worship. You see, my worship of God is supposed is to have an affect on you when you find yourself in your worst. And, likewise, your worship is to affect me in my worst. It is in our worst that we are to discover that we do not have to suffer alone because someone, somewhere, has worshiped God. When your worship moves you to serve me in my worst then I find that even there in my worst I too am able to join in the worship of our God, praising him for sending people to serve others in their worst.

         This worshipping with others in their worst is what was witnessed in the aftermath of Katrina. This is also the same truth that we find in a song sung by Jesus and his followers. This song is what we know as being the one-hundred and fifteenth Psalm. In this series of messages, called, “Worship in our Worst”, we are looking at the songs sung by Jesus the night before he was to face the worst day of his life. That night before his crucifixion Jesus and his friends were celebrating a Jewish festival called Passover. This was a night to remember how these once former slaves down in Egypt had become Israel, the people of God. As part of the celebration the people of God sang six songs, what we now call the one-hundred and thirteenth Psalm through the one-hundred and eighteenth Psalm. It was these songs that I believe strengthened Jesus as he faced the worst this world had to offer. So we can follow the lead of Jesus and discover in these songs truths that assist us to worship when we face the worst this world throws at us. Today we come to the third song sung that evening as Jesus and his disciples sat around the table. 

         The one-hundred and fifteenth Psalm begins with a phrase that has been strangely missing from the earlier Psalms sung that evening. This phrase is this, “…steadfast love and faithfulness”. The song writer exclaims that it is not our name which is to receive the glory for only the name of God is worthy of being exalted. The name of God is his very character, this is what we are called to consider as having the utmost worth to us. The reason why the name or character of God is to be worth everything is that our God is a God of, “…steadfast love and faithfulness”. Now the reason why this phrase is so important is that steadfast love and faithfulness is God’s unchanging way of being with us. If you were to read through this entire book called Psalms, you would discover that this way of speaking about God is found everywhere in these songs. We even find this phrase in the first chapter of the gospel of John where we find that grace and truth, the same as steadfast love and faithfulness, this is ours through Jesus the Messiah. 

         It is important for us to realize that when this Psalm now sings of the name of God, it does so because of what was sung about in the previous two songs. We are to ask, just what has happened that we are now absolutely certain that the nature of our God is steadfast love and faithfulness. Well, in the previous song we heard about how God brought forth water from a rock. You see, it was here at this rock that the people of God questioned whether God was with them anymore. They had run out of water, things were getting desperate, the circumstances were yelling in their ear that God was nowhere to be found. Perhaps this God had brought these poor former slaves out into the wilderness in order to kill them all. These are rather disparaging thoughts about the God who had freed them from their slavery, don’t you think? Well, God was not pleased when the worry of his people drowned out their worship. Yet even though they did not find God worthy of their service, he nonetheless caused the rock to spring forth a river of water. Once again, the living God brought forth more life because this is just what a living God does. Jesus tells us this very same truth at the end of the fifth chapter of the gospel of Matthew when he says that our Heavenly Father makes the sun rise on the evil and the good and he also sends the rain on the just and the unjust. This life we are living is given to us by God regardless of whether we find him worthy to serve or not. This care of every life regardless of a persons relationship with God is what defines the very character of God. We can know God as being a God of steadfast love because he gives life when life is needed. This more life that is given by God is given in the hopes people might find God worthy of their service, willing to give their life  to a God who is worthy of serving. Yet even when we refuse to give our lives to him, God still remains faithful in giving life to us. You see, it is only in our failure to be faithful, only in those moments where we question the very faithfulness of God, this is when God shows up and proves us wrong. It is only when we realize that God gives us life regardless of our faithfulness, only then does the name of God becomes known as being steadfast love and faithfulness. This is why the name of God should be worth everything to us, because the name of God is our very lifeline in every sense of the word. 

         The importance of knowing the incomparable worth found in the name of God is vital when we compare the worship of our living God and the worship of the dead, so called gods. These gods, are as the songwriter tells us, the works of human hands. These dead and lifeless works of our hands cannot speak to us as they do not have a mouth, nor can they watch over us as they have no eyes. These works of our hands have no ears to hear us when we cry and they they have no hands to give us a gentle touch. They can neither walk with us nor talk with us as we go about our day. These are fairly obvious observations. Yet, here is the point the song writer is trying to make: Those who worship these works of their hands will become just like those very works. You see, the danger of not finding God worthy to serve is not that God will stop giving you more life. No, the danger of not finding God worthy to serve is that you will become like whatever you find worthy of your service. If the works of your hands are what you choose to serve then you will be come as dead as those lifeless works. You may have a mouth but you will be unable to speak up on someone else’s behalf. You may indeed have eyes but you will be unable to see someone who stands in need right in front of you. You might have ears yet you will never hear the cry of the hurting who are right beside you. So your hands will not touch another’s hand nor will your feet walk with another through the trials they are facing.They may be cry out in desperation but your voice will be strangely silent. 

Now, this may seem to be a bit much, yet we must ask, could this really be the way of those who refuse to find God worthy of serving? Well, Jesus gives us a parable which indeed proves this point. This story is found at the end of the sixteenth chapter of Luke. There we are told about an extremely wealthy man who dressed in glorious finery and who ate of the finest gourmet food. In contrast to this man, there was at his very front gate, one called Lazarus, who was covered with sores. This man could only get whiffs of the delicious food being consumed right inside this gate while just outside he found himself hungry and alone. Jesus goes on to tell us that even the dogs came and licked this poor mans sores. Think about this; here was a man called Lazarus who was invisible to the eyes of the rich man. The cries of Lazarus were never heard by the ears of the rich man because he had long ago quit listening to what lay outside his gate. No, it was only the dogs who came and cared for Lazarus  him as best they could. Just what does it say when a pack of dogs is more aware of a person needs than you are? It says, obviously, that this very wealthy man had found that only the works of his hands, his wealth, was worthy to be served. Over time he became one who was just as dead as the wealth that he had for so long found worthy of serving. So, it should come as no surprise, I guess, that in the end, this rich man found himself in a place where he was the one who could not be heard or seen as he suffered eternally.

         So, yes, Jesus’s does give us an image which conveys the very truth found here in the one-hundred and fifteenth Psalm. Those who find the works of their hands worthy of their service will in the end, become just as dull and lifeless as those objects they worship. Yet, the song writer does not leave us there for he calls Israel, the very people of God, to come and place their trust in God. As Israel places her trust in God then, just as the idol worshippers eventually discover, the people of Israel will become like the God that they worship.Now, the next two stanzas of this song center around the strange term, the, “house of Aaron”, and the theme of blessing. Here is a good time for us to pause and sing, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, found on page 11 of your hymnals. As we sing, let us consider what it means for God to be for us a fount of blessings. 

As you sang, were you able to hear the song remind us that God blesses us through his grace, by his streams of mercy, through his redeeming love that we are fixed upon and by rescuing us from danger through the giving of his own precious blood. If this is how God blesses us then we should not be surprised that these same blessings are heard in the wilderness experience where Israel was blessed by Aaron. This story is found at the end of the sixth chapter of the book of Numbers. There we find God instructing Moses to speak to Aaron, the high priest along with his house, his sons, that they were to bless the people of Israel by saying to them: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord’s face will light up at the sight of you and he will give you peace.” Then God tells Moses this, ‘In this way so shall they place my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” After we hear this blessing, doesn’t it become clear that the one-hundred and fifteenth Psalm is singing about this wilderness experience? The Psalm sings of the God who is our help and shield, the one who keeps us and rescues us from danger; such is the blessing of God. The Psalm sings that the Lord remembers us when we are weak and broken and in need of grace. So yes, we can proclaim that our God indeed offers us streams of mercy which never ceases and he saves us by his redeeming love; all of this is God’s blessing to us.

         Once we experience the blessing of God then the name of God is said to have been placed upon us. In other words, it should be obvious that we now carry with us the steadfast love and faithfulness of God.You see, we are set free to love because we now trust in God alone to keep us safe. We are to know God as being our shield, the very who covers over our life so that death will not harm us. We also find that we have faith because our Lord is faithful to remember us, always aware that we are fragile beings, easily broken, terribly in need of grace.  As the Psalm sings to us, we are to stand in awe of being given the very favor of God. It is this fear of the Lord that casts out all other fears so a perfect love can now live in us. As we go forth to live out his steadfast love and faithfulness we do so before the very face of God, a face that overflows with joy anytime we show up. Here in the presence of the God who rejoices over us, we cease our striving and discover a peace, a contentment that is ours as we live out the love of God before the face of God. So through this whole experience of God’s blessing, his being our shield, his gracious dealing with us, his rejoicing over us and the peace that is found in his presence, we are transformed into people who have upon them the very name of God, people abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. You see, as we find God worthy of give our very life to serve him alone, we will discover that we are known as being those who bring steadfast love and faithfulness to any person, in any situation, even in the worst this world has to offer like in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane. Our worship will be found to be exactly what is needed in the worst that others face. So we go to the hurting of this world so they might know that the living God has not changed, his steadfast love and faithfulness remain, this is who our God is forever and ever,Amen! Yes, the name of our God does indeed deserve the highest glory even in the lowest of circumstances. So let us go forth in the power of this name so that all people might praise the Lord! Amen!