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!