Romans 8:31 - 39

Second Christian Reformed Church, Fremont, Michigan December 31, 2006

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Brothers and sisters, happy New Year! This is a time of year when we often take stock of where we have been in the past year and look at where we may be a year from now. It is always interesting to me how much can happen in just a year. If we live for 90 or more years, just one year doesn’t seem so big in the grand scheme of things. But think of what can happen in a year. A baby can be conceived and born. A teenager can graduate, move out of the house, and go to college. A couple can become engaged and get married. A couple can also retire, sell their house, and move to Florida in just one year. A couple could even start and finish a bicycle trip across the United States. Think of what has happened to you in 2006. Now think back to New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2005. How many of your life events did you predict would happen?

There is so much that we don’t know about what is going to happen in our lives. Look at the next year ahead of you - 2007. You might get a new job. You might lose an old friend. You might come into a large sum of money. You might get sick. Your congregation might call someone as a pastor. All of this is completely unknown to you right now.

This can be frightening. We try to predict the future to make it less frightening. Some may read their horoscopes or visit a fortune teller. Well, that may be too superstitious for many of us. Still, we try to make the plans for our futures by ourselves. We plan our families, our jobs, our vacations. But try as we might, we have no idea about what the future will be like. It is beyond our control, and it is beyond our knowledge. The world might even end before we see the beginning of another year. There is so much that is uncertain about the future.

In the midst of all of this uncertainty, these words from Romans 8 come to us this morning. These verses, verses 31 through 39, have something to say about our uncertainty. The apostle Paul, who wrote the book of Romans, tells us that there is something that is certain. The only thing that we can be certain about is that the love of God will always be with us. Nothing, Paul writes (and if you have your Bibles open you can turn to verse 39), nothing at all, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He asks a whole series of rhetorical questions, ruling out everything that could possibly separate us from God’s love. Trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, death, life, angels, demons, the present, the future, powers, height, depth, anything else in all creation: everything falls away in the light of this truth that is both amazingly simple and too great to understand: God is for us. You can never be separated from the fact that God is for you.

Now, you may say, there is something that can separate us from God’s love: sin! We’ve seen pictures that illustrate this separation in the tracts that Christians hand out. There’s a picture of us and God, standing on opposite sides of a canyon, a canyon that is formed by our sinfulness. We have been separated from God, and we’ve done it ourselves.

This is true, and we recognize this as Reformed Christians. Sin does separate us from God. But Paul, who wrote the book of Romans, tells us the end of the story here in Romans 8. That gap between us and God has been bridged, and there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love! In fact, the gap has been bridged by God’s love, showing itself in Jesus Christ.

Let’s look more closely at how Paul describes this bridging of the gap. The imagery and the language here are from a courtroom. Verse 33 says, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” To get a better handle on this, imagine something with me. Picture humanity, better yet, picture yourself as part of humanity, guilty of a crime and sitting at the defense table in a courtroom. You are nervous. You’re about to find out what your punishment will be for the crimes you have committed. However, you will not be accused and no sentence will be rendered, because this is not an ordinary courtroom. Three of the positions in an ordinary courtroom are filled by the same person. There’s no one at the prosecutor’s bench, because the prosecutor is the judge! No one is going to bring a charge against you. This is really not an ordinary courtroom, because the judge is actually your defense lawyer. You need not fear the prosecutor or the judge, because God is the only one who is able to fill both of those roles, and God is your defense lawyer. The judge wants you to win the case.

As with all analogies, there are limits to this analogy. Mostly, it’s just hard for us to picture a courtroom like this. But the point is that there is only one who is innocent and powerful enough to condemn us, and that one has chosen to justify us instead. Our sin cannot separate us from God’s love. No matter how bad we are, we are forgiven. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

How does God do this? He did not spare his own son. Check out verse 32. When we think of God not sparing his own son at this time of year, we might think of the manger once again. Right now, we look to the Christmas story when we think of the coming of Christ, and appropriately so. But Paul’s readers would have thought of another Bible story – the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham was so obedient that he did what was unthinkable – when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac, he actually almost did it. Abraham did not spare even his own son. Now, in Romans 8, we find out that God has done the same kind of thing. God did not even spare his own son for us. If he did that for us, we can tell that this is the kind of God who will not let anything separate us from his love. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This inseparable love through Christ Jesus has been a hidden theme of the book of Romans all along. Let’s zoom out a bit here. We could divide Romans into three large sections. The first section is chapters 1 through 8, where Paul describes the most important parts of the Christian faith and the most unique parts of the Christian faith. It’s a sort of theological summary of everything that Paul believes, like a long version of the Apostle’s Creed. The second section is chapters 9 through 11, where Paul deals with one specific issue: the relationship of God’s promise to Israel to the new promise in Jesus. The third section is chapters 12 through 16, where Paul tells his readers how to act as Christians. This is where he gets specific and practical. Today we’re at the end of the first section. Paul has been talking about God’s love in Christ for eight chapters. The verses that we heard today are the grand finale of all of this talk about God’s love in Christ. I picture verses 31 through 39 as the end of an African American sermon. In this style of preaching, the sermon builds and builds in intensity until the very end. The preacher is speaking loudly and quickly by now, with great passion. The entire congregation is on their feet, waving their arms and shouting Amen! Paul seems to say, “Do you hear me? I’ve been telling you this whole time. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Each idea piles up on top of the last one, until we are overwhelmed by the greatness of this love.

The point of this passage is to comfort us. This comfort does not come from a generic spiritual force. We certainly can feel God’s presence all around us and within us, but this is a comfort that goes even deeper than that. This is a comfort that comes from a very specific God – the God who was the God of Abraham and the God who did not spare his own Son. This God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and this God and none other is the one whose love will never leave us. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love – and not just the love that’s out there, but the love of God – and not just the love of any god, but the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The love of this God will always be with us.

Sometimes, this unending love is hard for us to believe. We hear it, and it makes sense, but for some reason we keep thinking that something has to depend on us. Maybe you’ve recently made some New Year’s resolutions: you want to read the Bible more frequently, think more holy thoughts, be a better Christian. If New Year’s resolutions are helpful to you, I certainly do not want to discourage you from making them. But whether you make them or not, you need to know that keeping your resolutions is not of eternal importance. If you don’t keep them, you might disappoint yourself, but you will not be separated from God’s love. If you do keep them, God won’t leave you alone, no matter how strong you may be. God has resolved to love us, and no matter what we resolve or what we do, that love is unchanging.

We’ve talked about the unknown future, and about the certainty of God’s love. We’ve talked about our own sin, and about the fact that God’s love doesn’t depend on us – even when we falter, it never stops. But we haven’t talked about the thing in our lives that seems to be the most threatening when it comes to separating us from God’s love. That thing is suffering. When things go wrong in our lives, it can seem like God has abandoned us. It can seem like God doesn’t love us anymore. When an unborn baby is miscarried, where is God’s love? When we are lonely and depressed, where is God’s love? When our business fails and we can’t support our family, where is God’s love? When our bodies don’t work the way they used to, where is God’s love? In times like these, it seems like something has separated us from God’s love – otherwise God would be taking better care of us!

Many of the Psalms in the Bible are called lament Psalms because they are written in times of suffering. The writer cries out to God in pain, feeling like God is far away. Paul knew this, because he quotes from Psalm 44, which is one of these Psalms of lament. “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” There’s not much comfort there.

Not only does Paul know how to quote the Old Testament on suffering, he also knew suffering itself in his own life! He was thrown into prison for preaching the gospel. The book of Romans is a letter, and the people who read this letter also knew suffering. These original readers of the book of Romans were probably living under the reign of Emperor Nero, who was infamous for persecuting and killing Christians. These people knew suffering. When they heard, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God” they might have scoffed at first. They could understand Psalm 44, but they couldn’t understand empty optimism.

Empty optimism is not what they got in Romans 8. When he wrote to these Christians, Paul didn’t ignore their suffering. When we read the book of Romans today, we don’t have to ignore the suffering in our world either. Pain is real, and we can’t just brush it away because we’re Christians. Listen to these questions in verse 35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” It is not that this list of difficulties might happen to us, it is that they will happen to us. Paul is not trying to tell us that we can avoid suffering. He is trying to tell us that even when we do face suffering, even in the very midst of it, God still loves us. We may feel that God is far away, but God’s love is still present. It’s not always obvious, but it’s the truth of the gospel: nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We look with hope towards a future in which there will be no suffering, but until then, we cling to this comfort. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It’s only one comfort, but it’s the greatest comfort that we could ever know. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We’ve heard it before in the Heidelberg Catechism, but it’s worth hearing again: “What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong – body and soul, in life and in death – to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” Because we belong to him, we can know that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I don’t know very much about what you will face in the year 2007. But I know a few things. I know that you will face things that you never could have predicted. I know that you will face sin – your own sin and the sin of this world and those around you. I know that you will face suffering, as much as we all pray that you will not. And in the midst of all of this, I know that you will face the inseparable love of God. Nothing, brothers and sisters, nothing will be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 6:52 - 59

PR202, Princeton Theological Seminary February 23, 2007

Imagined context: First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

When I was in college, the entire student body received an e-mail each morning with announcements about what was going on around campus. “Get your tickets for the Friday night men’s basketball game.” “The Environmental Club meets on Wednesday – all are welcome.” “Join the Dance Team.”

Many of the club meetings involved refreshments, and so these announcements usually included a little blurb about the free snacks. Sometimes I got a little annoyed when the free snacks seemed to be the main point of the announcement. The actual meeting would be announced in lower case letters, and then at the end of the announcement, FREE PIZZA!!!!! would be proclaimed in all caps, with five or six exclamation points afterwards. You know, “Please join the social justice club to discuss possible responses to the war in Iraq. FREE PIZZA!!!!!” I was insulted. Did the people who wrote these announcements really think that students didn’t care about anything unless free food were involved? “Oh, Iraq, yeah, I guess that’s important. Did you say free pizza? I’ll be there.”

Now, as much as I was annoyed by these announcements, I must admit that I was also sometimes enticed to attend a meeting by the offer of free pizza. So, I can understand the people who were listening to Jesus in this passage from the Gospel of John. At the beginning of chapter 6, they witnessed Jesus feed 5000 people with only five loaves and two fish. They followed Jesus after that happened, but he knew what was really going on. “Very truly, I tell you,” he said to them, “you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”

The people don’t give up, though. “Okay, so Jesus doesn’t want to give us loaves and fish. Well, how about some of that manna that God gave our ancestors? That sounds good.” “No,” Jesus replies, “that’s not what I have in mind.” “Well, what is it?” they want to know. This is when Jesus starts to sound a little crazy. “I want you to eat me.”

No wonder the first thing they say in our text today is, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” That’s not what they wanted. They wanted real food. They wanted him to work wonders, to automatically provide enough food for everyone every day, and to overthrow the Roman occupation of their land in one fell swoop. And now he was telling them to eat him? “Whoever eats me will live because of me.” He keeps pushing this crazy idea, so much so that when he’s done, his own disciples simply say, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” In verse 66, we hear, “Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.”

Bread from heaven sounded good. Eternal bread of life sounded okay too. Free food for 5000 people sounded great. But Jesus was not offering any of this. What was he offering?

Sometime I long for a little abracadabra magic in our world as well. At the most recent deacon’s meeting, I learned that several of our area food pantries, including some in our very own West Windsor Township, have been running very low on supplies during the months of January and February. The winter is the time of greatest need for food pantries, because this is when everyone has the highest energy bills to pay. For single, low-income, working parents with kids to feed, there is simply not enough income to last from one paycheck to the next. Food pantries play an essential part in the financial and physical health of these families and individuals.

At Thanksgiving and at Christmas, our church gave generously to the food closet at the West Windsor Senior Center and to the Crisis Ministry in Trenton. This was a beautiful outpouring of love to our neighbors, and I know that it was needed and appreciated. Many other churches did the same thing. However, without the holidays to bring us together in these efforts, it is easy to forget that the winter needs of many people are still high.

My prayers to God have sometimes sounded like this: “God, we already did our part. Aren’t you going to step it up a little bit now? This feeding the hungry thing gets exhausting. We know there’s a need, but bringing canned soup to church month after month does not seem to reflect the amazing glory of your salvation. Didn’t you promise to make all things new? Well, these food pantries would be a good place to start. Feed the hungry, God!”

Jesus said, “The one who eats this bread will live forever.” What was he offering? It wasn’t free pizza. It wasn’t even the physical bread and wine that sit on the table in front of us today, the elements of the Lord’s Supper. What was it? “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” This is something closer than a snack together. This is something closer that, “I like you, can I take you out for dinner sometime?” This is the kind of eating and drinking that allows Jesus’ listeners to actually abide in Jesus and Jesus to abide in them. When we encounter this Jesus, it’s not just bread and wine that we’re swallowing. It’s not just food that will fill us up. We call this Sunday “Communion Sunday” because we’re not just talking about literal eating and drinking; we’re talking about communion with Christ. We have a relationship with Jesus that, just like a balanced diet, gives us life, only the life that Jesus offers is life to an infinite degree.

Jesus calls it true food and true drink, because he has the ability to truly transform us. This transformation happens in your entire life, and we enact it here today at the table as a way of remembering what Jesus has done for us.

I can pray until I lose my voice that God will miraculously fill all the food pantries in Mercer County without any effort on my part. But that’s not what Jesus is offering. This is not a free pizza gospel. This is a gospel that takes hold of you and transforms you from the inside out. When you have eaten the bread of heaven, you can never go spiritually hungry again. Our stomachs are full of the love of Christ, so full that we never run out of our reason to feed the physically hungry. Because Jesus loves us and gave himself for us, we are constantly being transformed and are constantly growing deeper in love with our God and with our neighbors. It’s not just on Communion Sunday. It’s not just at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s everything we do. It’s every extra can of soup we buy at the grocery store. It’s every box of cereal we carry with us to church. It’s every tube of toothpaste the deacons collect. It’s every box of macaroni and cheese they deliver. And it’s every child’s stomach that is filled because Jesus fed you with life, and God is working miracles through you.

Luke 6:17 - 26

February 11, 2007 First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck

He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

This passage from Luke sounds familiar. “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” It sounds like a line from the musical Godspell, or more accurately, it sounds like the Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the gospel of Matthew. But as familiar as this passage is to us, it introduces us to an upside-down version of the world that is completely unfamiliar.

Our text for today is Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. This passage is not quite as familiar as Matthew’s version, which happens at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. For Luke, the Beatitudes are at the beginning of what is called the Sermon on the Plain, because in verse 17 we hear that Jesus “…came down with them and stood on a level place…” It could be that these were two separate sermons, one on a mount and one on a plain. It could also be that it was just one event, that we don’t know where it happened, and that Matthew and Luke simply had different memories of the event.

For Matthew, the Beatitudes only include words of blessing. Also, Matthew leaves us with ethical instructions – be poor in spirit, be meek, be peacemakers. For Luke, it’s a different story. Luke doesn’t tell us what to do – Luke tells us what Jesus has done. Jesus has healed all of us, and has turned the world upside down.

If we read the five chapters of Luke that came before the Sermon on the Plain, we might have been able to predict this of Luke. This is the same Luke who recorded the song of Mary back in chapter 1. Mary sang about God, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” This song sang of a God who turned the usual order of things upside down.

This is the same Luke who in chapter 4 recorded the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Jesus went to the synagogue and read from the prophecy of Isaiah. It’s no coincidence that he read this passage: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” This prophecy tells of a messiah who turns the usual order of things upside down.

True to form, in the Sermon on the Plain Luke writes about a God who turns the usual order of things upside down. The poor, the hungry, those who weep, and those who are hated – in the culture of Jesus’ day and in our culture today, these are not the kind of people we want to be. These are people who are anything but “blessed.” The rich, the full, those who laugh, and those with a good reputation – in the culture of Jesus’ day and in our culture today, these are the kind of people we want to be. Why would we say “woe” or “alas” to these kinds of people? According to our culture, they’re the ones who have it all together!

The gospel that Luke proclaims sounds upside down to our ears. But here’s the thing: Jesus tips the world over in order to heal us. Because of the way Luke tells this story, we can tell that the Jesus who turns the world upside-down is the same Jesus who brings us healing. Right before he starts speaking, Jesus is busy healing people. He heals everyone who touches him, in fact. In the same way, Jesus heals all who are touched by him today. Our world is being turned upside down, but it’s being turned upside down by a God who loves us and is doing this turning for our own healing. By turning the world upside down, Jesus is actually turning it around to the way it was meant to be in the first place.

“Blessed are you who are poor, you who are hungry, you who weep now.” Over Christmas, I saw the film “The Pursuit of Happyness” starring Will Smith. In this movie, Smith plays Chris, a single father tries to get back on his feet financially after a failed business venture. He takes an unpaid internship in hopes of getting a highly competitive job. The story is sometimes comical as Chris runs all over San Francisco trying to make ends meet, and sometimes tragic as he and his son sleep in a subway restroom because they have nowhere else to go. This man is one of the poor, hungry, and weeping.

At the end of the film, Chris’ boss calls him into his office to offer him the job that he needs so badly. This moment in the film is poignant because it is so understated. Chris does not leap up for joy or scream out the feelings of relief that he must feel. No, a tear simply rolls down his cheek as he realizes the incredible feeling of finally being able to pay rent so that his son has a place to sleep at night. That final scene gives us a glimpse of the reversal that God proclaims. “Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, or weeping, for you will laugh and be filled.” Because we have a God who loves us, some of this dream is fulfilled today. But it is not completely fulfilled – not everyone’s story ends like Chris’ in “The Pursuit of Happyness.” We wait, hope, and pray for the day when all of the hungry will be full and all those who weep will laugh.

“Woe to you who are rich, woe to you who are full now, woe to you who are laughing now.” We who are rich, full, and laughing may find these words frightening, but they are actually words of healing for us! Jesus has turned our world upside down. Where does this leave us? We are left with his healing power. This power gives us our meaning and our salvation. This power gives us our very life. We are not valuable because we are rich. We are not valuable because we are well-fed. We are not valuable because we are happy or because people speak well of us. We are valuable because we are children of God who have been healed by the power of Jesus Christ. You don’t have to say, “I’m okay because I have the biggest house in my subdivision.” You don’t have to say, “I’m okay because I attend the wealthiest seminary in North America.” You don’t have to say, “I’m okay because I was the first one in my class to get the new Nintendo Wii.” The only thing you are left to say, since Jesus has turned the world upside down, is “I’m okay, I’m a person with value and worth, because of the gift God has given me in Jesus.” Let us thank God for the blessings we have, but recognize that our true value as women and men, boys and girls, is not found in what we have but in whose we are.

One approach to Christian theology is called “liberation theology.” This kind of theology was started in Latin America, and it draws on texts like this one in Luke. One of the key phrases in liberation theology is “God’s preferential option for the poor.” It’s kind of like another way of saying “Blessed are the poor.”

Now, some people misunderstand this to mean that God loves poor people but does not love rich people. This is not what liberation theology is saying, and it is also not what our text today is saying. Remember the healing that Jesus did before he began the Sermon on the Plain? Luke tells us, “And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.” Jesus healed all of them. Not just the poor. Not just the rich. All of them. God loves everyone, and the gospel message is for everyone. The Roman Catholic Church came up with a new phrase to describe liberation theology that gets more at the heart of what it’s about. The phrase was “God’s non-exclusive preferential option for the poor.” God hates inequality, but God love all people. Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor,” but only after he has offered his healing touch to everyone.

Jesus doesn’t heal us in the way that we expect. Jesus doesn’t heal us in the way that we want. But Jesus heals us in a way that is powerful enough to turn the world upside down and bring healing to everyone.

So where does this leave us today? If we’re poor, do we sit around waiting for our time of healing? If we’re rich, do we quit our jobs or feel paralyzed by some kind of guilt? Or, do we participate in the upside down redemption that God is working in the world? Some members of Dutch Neck went to a seminar on immigration a few weeks ago and learned about a segment of our population who is often poor and hungry. An insert in the bulletin this week tells us about the work that Church World Service is doing to provide tools and blankets for those in need. Another group of Dutch Neck members delivers food to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen on the fourth Wednesday of the month. These are just a few examples. These people felt the blood rush to their heads and saw the floor where the ceiling was supposed to be, but they didn’t run away in fear. They recognized what was happening. God was turning the world upside down. To these participants in God’s redemption, upside down is starting to feel like the way it was all meant to be in the first place.

2 Samuel 6:1 - 15

December 22, 2006 PR201, Princeton Theological Seminary

David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. ² David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. ³ They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart ⁴ with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. ⁵ David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the LORD with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. ⁶ When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. ⁷ The anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there because he reached out his hand to the ark; and he died there beside the ark of God. ⁸ David was angry because the LORD had burst forth with an outburst upon Uzzah; so that place is called Perez-uzzah, to this day. ⁹ David was afraid of the LORD that day; he said, "How can the ark of the LORD come into my care?" ¹⁰ So David was unwilling to take the ark of the LORD into his care in the city of David; instead David took it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. ¹¹ The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months; and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household. ¹² It was told King David, "The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God." So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing; ¹³ and when those who bore the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. ¹⁴ David danced before the LORD with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. ¹⁵ So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.

I sat in front of the computer screen in Luce Library, my eyes beginning to glaze over. I had finished the exegesis paper for this sermon, and was now struggling with a way to approach the sermon itself. As I often do when I am supposed to be writing, I decided to surf the internet instead. Now, my fellow preachers, I don’t ever recommend this as a method of sermon-writing, but I still had the characters of my text in mind, and so I curiously and absent-mindedly typed in www.uzzah.com.

As ridiculous and embarrassing as this was, I was actually fascinated by what I found. www.uzzah.com is the domain of a blog dedicated to educating people about atheism. The author of the blog explains, “The biblical story of Uzzah is just one of the many reasons why I threw out the god of Christianity (and Judaism too) on my long journey towards atheism.” He then goes on to retell the story from 2 Samuel 6. David, a large army, Uzzah, and his brother are transporting the ark to Jerusalem on a cart. Uzzah holds out his hand to innocently steady the ark and is immediately struck down by the Lord and dies.

This is a disturbing story, and an even more disturbing picture of God. As our blogger friend writes, “And this is a god I want to spend eternity with? No thanks.”

I don’t blame him for feeling this way. The God of our text today seems judgmental, striking down someone for the smallest infringement against an obscure law. Even worse, the God of our text today seems capricious. Why would he strike down Uzzah? Wasn’t Uzzah just trying to help? Why not strike down David, or the ox, or anyone but the innocent man who didn’t want the ark to fall?

The main thing that we know about God from 2 Samuel 6 is that we know almost nothing about God. Why would the God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, strike a man down with a proverbial lightning bolt? This is not the God that we expected. But then, when have we ever seen the God that we expected? Friends, how often do you see the God that you expect?

Our story shows us that king David was a shrewd politician. Shortly after he was anointed king, we find him here carrying the ark to Jerusalem himself, showing all his subjects that he was God’s designated king. In this way, the ark was a very useful tool for David in establishing his authority. A useful tool, anyway, until he saw a man struck dead just by touching the thing. Verse nine: “David was afraid of the Lord that day; he said, ‘How can the ark of the Lord come into my care?’” Good question, David. I doubt that David’s political motives changed much before the second leg of his journey with the ark, but I do think that the death of Uzzah serves as a startling wake-up call for us readers. We do not own God. We cannot put God in a box and understand all of God’s actions. We can’t use God for our own political ends and think that that is the end of the story. God is bigger than any human mind or any human piety can contain.

We get frustrated sometimes when we can’t decide things for God. We all would like to be little gods ourselves, calling the shots. Or, maybe we like God how God is, as long as we can use God for whatever our purpose might be. “God is on our side.” “God will bless our enterprise.” Or even, “I know that God is calling me to do this.” The God that we expect is useful. The God that we expect will answer our prayers promptly and specifically. The God that we expect will reward us when we do good and punish us when we do evil. But the God that we expect is not the God that we get.

That is not to say that we know nothing at all about God. God has been revealed to us as a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. In fact, God often surprises us with this mercy and grace. After David abandoned the ark in fear, he left it at the house of Obed-edom. Verse 11: “The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months; and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.” This was the last thing that David had expected. But once again, God defies expectation.

The fact that God defies our expectations is good news, because usually our expectations are dismally low. The mercy of God outlasts our imaginations, and the love of God is more amazing than we could ever know. Our text today calls us to trust. This is not an easy call, by any means, because we don’t fully know what we’re getting ourselves into! We don’t want to trust the God of Uzzah. But if we think of God as only the God of Uzzah, we are once again putting God into a box.

Hear the promise that God makes to David in 2 Samuel 7, now that the ark is in Jerusalem. “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”

As we celebrate Christmas in a few days, we may think that we know what to expect. We’ve seen it before. The baby in the manger, “no crying he makes.” The carols and presents and sentimentality. This may even be what we get. But we worship a God who will not be put in a box. God defied the expectations of king David. God defied the expectations of Israel by sending a humble baby from Nazareth instead of a triumphant king. And, however grand our expectations may be, God will defy them too. As we settle down for a quiet holiday, we may actually encounter the living God.

Luke 1:26 - 38

December 5, 2006 SC390 "Word and Act in Christian Worship" Princeton Theological Seminary

Luke 1:26-38 ²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." ²⁹ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³ He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." ³⁴ Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" ³⁵ The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. ³⁶ And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God." ³⁸ Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

Before Gabriel appears to Mary, Zechariah and Elizabeth find out that they are expecting a son who will grow up to be John the Baptist. Elizabeth is old – barren – and it seems impossible that she would conceive. But, as Gabriel explains it to Mary, “nothing will be impossible with God.”

That’s just the beginning. Not only will a barren woman conceive, but a virgin will conceive. This sounds impossible. Sure, it’s a nice story to tell to kids before you tell them about the manger scene, but when it comes right down to the truth, the historicity, the down-and-dirty reality, many of us don’t quite buy it. It seems impossible. The angel’s words are shocking in the face of this impossibility. “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

As we know, this impossible virgin conception is just the start of an impossible life. Jesus healed the sick, fed the multitudes, cast out demons, and promised to turn the world upside down. What he did sounds impossible. But once again the angel’s words ring in our ears. “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

Finally, his impossible actions catch up with him. Jesus is crucified. And then, impossibility of impossibilities, he is raised from the dead. This man with the impossible beginning conquers death itself. It sounds too good to be true, but “nothing will be impossible with God.”

As we prepare for the coming of Jesus this Advent season, there are impossible things that loom up ahead of us as well. We want to cleanse our hearts and make room for our Lord, but all we can think about is that we only have three weeks to get all those papers and sermons done before Christmas vacation. We want to look with hope towards Christ’s birth, but all we can think about is how empty Christmas with the family is going to seem since a loved one died this past year. We want to guide our field ed congregations, families, or students towards a more meaningful Advent celebration, but when we read in the newspaper about an unarmed man being shot 50 times or more than 400 people dying in a typhoon in the Philippines, it is hard for us to find meaning in much of anything. It all seems impossible.

But if we think it seems impossible, we need the word that Luke offers us today. “Nothing will be impossible with God.” The same Jesus whose impossible conception is announced to Mary is the Jesus who is able to take us in our impossible cynicism and give us true hope that the world will be turned around. The despair that threatens to overtake us will never get the last word, because “nothing will be impossible with God.” This promise is given in the future tense, because as God worked a miracle in the past, so God will continue to work miracles in your life, in my life, and in all of creation until everything is transformed. This is a promise so wild that it seems impossible. But “nothing will be impossible with God.”

Isaiah tells us that “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” The light of Christ may seem so bright that it could blind you with its impossibility, but open your eyes! “Nothing will be impossible with God.” To paraphrase Mary, “Here we are, the servants of the Lord; let it be with us according to God’s word.”

2 Corinthians 5:11 - 6:10

Second Christian Reformed Church, Fremont, Michigan; June 18, 2006

This passage from 2 Corinthians does not have only one simple point for us to take away. It is chock full of rich meaning and value. The entire book of 2 Corinthians is a letter that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. When he wrote 1 Corinthians, an earlier letter, Paul had a pretty good relationship with that church, but by the time of 2 Corinthians, we can tell that there have been some disputes. Paul is trying to commend himself to the Corinthian church so that they can accept his gospel message once again. I will read 2 Corinthians 5:11 – 6:10, but pay special attention to verses 14 – 21.

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

The passage that we just read includes three major sections. In the first and third sections, Paul is talking about himself and his ministry, and what it has involved. If I wanted to preach a sermon on Christ-like ministry and what self-giving mission looks like, I would focus on these two sections. They are also good sections for setting up the tone of Paul’s letter, which is why I read them tonight. In the middle section, which includes chapter 5:14 – 21, Paul gives us the theological reasons for his ministry. This is something that applies to Christians in all times and places, and it is this middle section that we will be focusing on this evening.

What would you say if I gave you one sentence to try to describe the essence of Christianity? We Christians talk about what Christ has done for us in a lot of different ways. The central message of Christianity is so simple and yet so profound that we use a lot of language to try to describe it. Our part in our own salvation is simple: we don’t do anything! God’s part in salvation is a little bit more complicated to describe. It’s still a simple act of love, but because God is a mystery to us, we have to try a lot of different ways of describing it.

Let me give you some examples. Sometimes we talk about Christ’s salvation in financial terms: Christ has paid the price of our sins and has bought us eternal life with God. Sometimes we talk about Christ’s salvation in covenantal terms: God made a covenant with us that can never be broken, and in order to keep that covenant, Christ suffered on the cross out of love for us. Even our names for God indicate different ways of thinking of what Christianity is all about. We describe God as a shepherd, a rock, a lion, a lamb, a lover, a king, a high priest. God is a shepherd, gathering us, the lost sheep, to himself. God is our rock, who shelters us from the storm and is a strong foundation on which to stand.

Why does this have to be so complicated? In some ways, Christianity is so simple – God loves us, and we should love each other. But when we talk about exactly what happens when God loves us, it gets a little bit more complicated. We can be grateful that we have a multitude of ways of describing salvation. God can indeed be a shepherd and a rock at the same time. This gives us a richer picture of who God is and what God does for us. It also gives us a number of ways to describe our faith to those around us, and to figure out how to live that faith in our everyday lives.

In 2 Corinthians 5:14 – 21, Paul gives us one of the richest ways of describing the central message of Christianity. What is it that we believe? What is it that we’re all about? Paul says this: we are reconciled to God.

If I had only one paragraph to describe the gospel to someone, I would give him or her verses 18 and 19, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” What was God doing in Christ? What is the central message of Christianity? Here’s another way to look at it: God was reconciling the world to himself.

The dictionary says that “reconciliation” is “the reestablishing of cordial relations.” Our healthy, vibrant relationship with God has been broken by sin, and now, in Christ, God has restored us to a good relationship with him.

When I first thought of the word “reconciliation,” I remembered something that happened in the country of South Africa after the end of apartheid. The black and white races in South Africa were separated for years, and whites abused and mistreated blacks for decades. After a new government was installed in 1994, apartheid, or separation, came to an end, and South Africa began a process of healing. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was instrumental in forming what he called the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” The goal of this commission was healing and restoring the broken relationship between the races in South Africa. The amnesty branch of this commission would hear the confessions of many people who had committed human rights violations. People who had committed atrocious sins, even murder, could be forgiven by this commission. If the commission chose to accept their apology, these criminals could be granted amnesty and protection from ever being prosecuted for their crime. All they needed to do was tell the truth, which is why it was called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

As a human political move, this commission was radical. How could they let criminals go without any punishment? Why did they even want to restore a healthy relationship with people who had been so cruel? As a reflection of God’s reconciliation, however, this commission makes perfect sense. In fact, the reason I mention this commission is because it reminds me of God’s way of reconciling us to himself. God forgets all of our sins and grants us amnesty from punishment. God’s primary goal is not to punish us, but to restore health to our relationship with him. Brothers and sisters, that is the reason for Jesus Christ. Reconciliation – a restored relationship.

What exactly does God’s reconciliation involve? How does it work? 2 Corinthians tells us about this as well. The first step, believe it or not, is death. This death is a death to self and a death to sin. “One died for all, and therefore all died,” says Paul. In South Africa, this death could be compared to the pain and shame of coming before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and admitting to your crimes. People were required to relive their crimes in front of an entire nation. The criminals who were forgiven had indeed died to their sins in this process.

After death comes new life – the second step in God’s process of reconciling us to himself. When we are born anew, our new self can participate in a restored and reconciled relationship with God. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” In South Africa, new life would be found in the improved relationships between blacks and whites that are gradually coming as a result of the confessions and forgiveness of many people in that nation. For anyone, to be declared a “new creation” is a great word of hope. We were created in order to love God. We did not live up to our potential for love, but because of God’s reconciliation, we are a new creation! We can love God once again.

This death and this new life show up all over the place in our lives as Christians. The first place that we find death and rebirth is in baptism. Saying this sounds strange at first. Baptism is about cute babies and white dresses, not death. Baptism and funerals are at opposite ends of life, so how is baptism about death? Romans 6:4 says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Baptism is about death for the sake of rebirth. The water of baptism symbolizes death as in the waters of a flood or of drowning, but the water also symbolizes life as in the waters of cleansing or the water that we drink.

I had a professor in college who described how baptism by immersion could take place in order to reflect this rich symbolism. “I would push them under the water and hold them there,” he said, “until they felt like they were going to die. Then I would bring them up out of the water and they would feel like their first breath was a breath of new life.” This is exaggerated, of course, but it is true that we as baptized Christians die to sin so that we might live to Christ. The death of Christian reconciliation is not a death of sadness, but a death that can allow for new life. The sacrament of baptism, with its death and new life, simply reflects the fact that our whole life is a process of dying to ourselves and our sinful nature and being brought to new life by Christ and in Christ.

Here’s another way to think about death and rebirth. C. S. Lewis concludes his book, Mere Christianity, with some thoughts on this pattern in our everyday lives. “The principle runs through all life from top to bottom,” he writes. “Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life, and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” This description of Lewis’ is none other than reconciliation with God.

Here’s something to consider as we think about new life and rebirth in Christ. I know faithful Christians who call themselves “born again Christians.” This is a fine way to refer to yourself, but it hasn’t always resonated with me. My conversion to Christianity was more of a gradual process of coming to know Christ than an instant change. I think that many people think being “born again” has to mean having a drastic change in your life. I also know faithful Christians who have a bumper sticker that says, “Born okay the first time.” However, we cannot deny that the biblical description of what Christ does for us has something to do with new life, especially in a passage like 2 Corinthians 5.

Here’s another way to think of being “born again.” For many of us, including myself, this new birth is not a sudden, instantaneous event. Rather, it is like the rebirth that happens with the coming of each spring. The winter is a time of cold and death, but in the spring, nature is born again. The ground gradually thaws, plants slowly peek their heads through the soil, and leaves begin to bud again. It is a slow process, but it is still “born again.” Many of us are “born again” in this sense. This is the work of Christ in our lives, reconciling us to God. We were in the winter of isolation from God, but because of the spring and our rebirth, we can be reconciled to a warm summer of restored and reconciled relationship with God.

For a final way of looking at death and rebirth as God’s reconciling us to himself, I would like to take a look at the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day number 33. Here are the questions and the answers that are part of this section. “What is involved in genuine repentance or conversion? Two things: the dying-away of the old self, and the coming-to-life of the new. What is the dying-away of the old self? It is to be genuinely sorry for sin, to hate it more and more, and to run away from it. What is the coming-to-life of the new self? It is wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to.” I would like to read the last of those questions again. “What is the coming-to-life of the new self? It is wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to.”

“A wholehearted joy in God through Christ.” That, friends, is a sign of a healthy, restored relationship. A relationship that has been reconciled. And that is our salvation. When God reconciles us to himself, we die to ourselves and are raised to new life in Christ.

So far, all of Paul’s talk about reconciliation has involved God’s work of reconciliation for us. The final part, however, has to do with our ministry of reconciliation. Listen to verses 20 and 21: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Reconciliation comes from God, and we are the messengers of God who can tell the world of the reconciliation that God offers.

I had a conversation with my friend Lisa the other day. Lisa lived mostly in Christian communities until she attended Central Michigan University. Her first couple of years there were very challenging ones for her as a Christian. When I told her that I was preparing a sermon about 2 Corinthians 5, her eyes lit up. “That chapter was such an encouragement to me during my first year of college,” she said. She had been very nervous at first about sharing her faith with her non-Christian classmates. She worried that she wouldn’t be appealing enough for them to convert, or that she might say something wrong. The reason that this passage was encouraging to her was that it let her know that witnessing was about restoring people to a God who already loved them. She had a message of reconciliation from God – it was not about her and her ability to witness, it was about God’s love! God has already accomplished the act of reconciliation in Jesus Christ. All you have to tell your neighbor is this: God wants a reconciled relationship with you.

I’m glad that we don’t ever have to summarize our faith in just one sentence. It would be impossible to tell of the mysteries of God in only a few words. And in fact, we learn from Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 that reconciliation is about a lifelong process of death and rebirth. It’s never about just one sentence of perfect words. But, if I were forced to pick just one sentence, I might talk about God reconciling us to himself in Christ. I might talk about our death and our new life. Or, I might read 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Psalm 138

June 11, 2006 Second Christian Reformed Church, Fremont, Michigan

I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; before the "gods" I will sing your praise. I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted.

May all the kings of the earth praise you, O LORD, when they hear the words of your mouth. May they sing of the ways of the LORD, for the glory of the LORD is great.

Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me. The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever-- do not abandon the works of your hands.

One of my favorite songs as a child was “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” I probably learned the song in this very congregation. I must be honest, though, the reason I loved it as a child was probably the cool hand motions. You know them… “He’s got the whole world in his hands…he’s got the little tiny baby…he’s got you and me sister…he’s got the wind and the rain…he’s got the whole world in his hands.” This was, and still is, a fun song to sing. When I sang it as a child, I had no idea what I was actually singing about. That didn’t diminish the fact that I was praising God – I think God is very pleased by the sound of children singing to him, even if they don’t know what they’re doing.

However, Psalm 138, even with its child-like exuberance, shows us an entirely different kind of praise. The Psalmist’s exuberance doesn’t come from his own energy or his own self-confidence, nor even from his love of hand motions. He praises God because he is profoundly grateful for God’s transformative work in his life. He praises God because God has turned the world upside down, and God has given the lowly psalmist the ability to praise in the first place.

Let’s talk about what we notice the first time that we read this Psalm. The speaker seems very confident in the God that he is praising. The first time I read Psalm 138, the tone reminded me of a cocky, self-sure sports fan. Picture the kind of loyalty and pride that a Boston Red Sox fan had in 2004 when the Sox came from behind to beat the New York Yankees and win the American League Championship, later going on to win the World Series of baseball. My brother David lives in Boston, and my husband Kyle and I went to visit him in the spring of 2005. We took a tour of Fenway Park, where the Red Sox play. The employees who gave us the tour told us about the history of the field and the history of the Red Sox, but mostly, they wanted to insult the Yankees. They were positively gloating. They kept asking if there were any Yankees fans on the tour (which there weren’t), and insulted the absent Yankees fans by reminiscing over each detail of the American League Championship games. They were proud of their team, and they wanted their opponents – and the whole world – to know it.

Irreverent as it may seem, this is the kind of tone that the Psalmist uses in Psalm 138. Verse one says, “Before the “gods” I will sing your praise.” In other words, the psalmist is boldly praising God right in front of God’s false competitors. One commentator suggests that a good contemporary rendering of this verse would be for the psalmist to look at the true God and say, “I praise you, O Lord,” and then to turn to the false gods and add contemptuously, “In your face!” The psalmist seems so assured of the worth of the true God that he wants to flaunt it, just like a Red Sox fan in 2004.

This pride continues later in the Psalm. In verses four and five, the psalmist invites all the kings of the earth to praise God with him. These kings are very powerful and great, but the psalmist is so proud of the greatness of his God that he wants the great kings to join him in praise. “May all the kings of the earth praise you, O LORD, when they hear the words of your mouth. May they sing of the ways of the LORD, for the glory of the LORD is great.”

Indeed, in this Psalm, as in many of the Psalms, praise seems to pour out of the psalmist’s lips. Think of Psalm 150, which can’t stop praising God: “Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness…” and so on. My question for these Psalms, and for Psalm 138 in particular is this: why is the psalmist so confident in his praise of God? Why does he want the whole world to know it? What makes him so sure?

In the NIV translation of the Bible, which we read from this morning, the Psalm starts by saying, “I will praise you, O Lord.” Other translations of the Psalm, such as the NRSV translation, start by saying, “I give you thanks.” Two different words – praise and thank – are used to translate the same Hebrew word. Now, we could have a debate about which word is better and which translation is closer to accurate. But, I actually like the fact that the two translations chose two different words. The thing is, there would be no way of resolving the debate, because, to the Hebrew people, praise and thanks were so close to the same thing. That’s exactly why they had only one word for it.

Sometimes, when we say “praise,” we think of saying to God, “You are very great, very powerful, and very high above me.” But, we don’t think of how God relates to us. Sometimes, when we say “thank,” we think of saying to God, “You are very kind and generous. You have done a lot of great things for me.” But, we don’t think of who God is by himself. Psalm 138 forces us to think about both at the same time. Not only is God really great and powerful, but God also stoops down to our level and loves us. Not only does God do a lot of great things in our lives, but God is also the creator of the universe and the Lord of all peoples and nations. When the psalmist says “I praise you,” he is only able to praise because of how thankful he is for what God has done for him. When the psalmist says, “I give you thanks,” he is recognizing that the God to whom he is thankful is also a God who is worthy of all his praise.

We can get at this same idea by looking at verse two. This verse says to God, “I will praise your name.” God’s name, in one sense, could be “Yahweh” – I am who I am. This is the name that God revealed to Moses, and the Israelites often called God “Yahweh.” On the other hand, name probably also refers to God’s reputation. This is what we mean when we say that someone has “made a name for herself” – it means that she has earned a good reputation. In this Psalm, God has a reputation, and it is for this reputation that the Psalmist praises God. This is no empty reputation, either. Once the psalmist has said that God has a good reputation, he goes on to say how God got this reputation.

Verse three says, “When I called, you answered me, you made me bold and stouthearted.” Verses six through eight describe God’s work of salvation. God’s reputation is having a love that endures forever. This love saves the psalmist, even though he is lowly and the Lord is on high. The fact that God lives up to this great reputation is what makes the psalmist bold and stouthearted in his praise, and it is what give him the ability to praise in the first place.

Psalm 138 also tells us about what God’s salvation looks like. God is a God who saves, and God is also a God whose salvation turns the world around. The world favors the strong, but God favors the weak. We can see this in verse six, “Though the Lord is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.” Years after this Psalm was written, another lowly person echoed these words. Luke 2:52 – 53 say, “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” These are the words of Mary, and in the gospel of Luke, they are the first words spoken by a human being in response to Jesus. When Jesus was in her womb, Mary reacted by praising God for God’s salvation reversal.

Jesus was literally, physically inside of Mary when she spoke these words. Jesus is, of course, not physically inside of us, but he is inside of the hearts of each of us today. Jesus life, death, and resurrection accomplished the work of God’s salvation reversal in our lives and in the whole world. You who are weak are strong because of Christ. You who are poor are rich because of Christ. You who are sinners are guiltless because of Christ. This is an amazing reversal. This is the kind of reputation that God has, and God lives up to that reputation in no way more strongly than by sending Jesus Christ into the world and into our hearts.

It is this reputation, it is this Jesus, that enables us to praise God. Like the psalmist, we have been given strength by God to praise God. Without God’s salvation, we would have nothing to offer to God. With God’s salvation, we, like the psalmist, can be bold in our praise. We can praise God because of what God has done in Jesus Christ. “I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name,” says the psalmist, but why? “…for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted.” It is because of God’s salvation that the psalmist praises.

The hymn, “How Great Thou Art” expresses this well. Verse three proclaims, “But when I think that God, his Son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in, that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin; Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee: how great thou art, how great thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee: how great thou art, how great thou art!” It is because Jesus bled and died to take away our sins that we can sing: how great thou art!

After all of this exuberant confidence, we may find the ending of Psalm 138 a little strange. Here’s the last verse, verse 8: “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever – do not abandon the works of your hands.” This verse starts with the same kind of confidence that we found earlier in the Psalm. “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever.” But after this, the Psalmist ends with a plea directed to God. “Do not abandon the works of your hands.” It seems as though the Psalmist actually fears that God might abandon the works of God’s hands. How is this possible, when he has just said that God’s love endures forever? These two ideas seem to contradict each other. How can we question God’s love if we know that it endures forever? Is the writer of this Psalm suddenly faltering in his faith?

I believe that what we see here is the fact that the writer of Psalm 138 has exactly the same kind of faith as any one of us here today. We know that God loves us, and that God’s love is the kind of love that will never end. We come to church and hear it proclaimed to us in word and in song. We read our Bibles at home and find the same thing. We read a Psalm like Psalm 138 and we find this truth of our faith again: “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me.” We know this is true.

And yet, in the midst of the hard reality of our lives, this is so easy to doubt. We may be the works of God’s hands, created and loved tenderly by God, but we still sometimes feel abandoned by God. We struggle with sickness, loneliness, broken relationships, and poverty. No wonder we say, with the Psalmist, “Do not abandon the works of your hands!”

Many Christians think that if they feel abandoned by God or if they are not able to praise with the same confidence as this psalmist, they are not loving God as they ought to. We sometimes fear that we can’t live up to the confidence of Psalm 138 when we are in the doubtful times of our lives. The end of this Psalm, however, assures us that to cry out to God for help in a time of doubt is not a sign of not loving God, it is simply a sign of honesty! We are lying to ourselves if we say that being a Christian automatically makes life easier. We are deceiving ourselves and God if we are always confident and never doubtful. Here, right in the middle of the most confident assertion of praise that he can muster, the psalmist admits that he sometimes is afraid that God will abandon him. This Psalm shows us that, more than empty praise, God values an honest response that is rooted in the reality of our lives of faith.

The story does not end, however, with the Psalmist feeling as though God might abandon him. Rather, the final verse of Psalm 138, which says, “do not abandon the works of your hands,” still reminds us that we are the works of God’s hands. In other words, because of who God is, because of that reputation that we talked about earlier, we know that God is the kind of God who lovingly cares for all of God’s creation. We may fear that God will abandon us, but when it comes to the reality of who God is, God will never abandon us! We are the works of God’s hands! Even in our fear and our doubt, God never lets us go.

It is no coincidence that God’s hands are referred to three times at the end of Psalm 138. The same hands that lovingly created us are the hands that hold us and care for us today. The same hands that saved the Psalmist in strength are the infant fingers that grab onto to the hair of his mother Mary. The same hands that molded Adam from the dust are the hands that were nailed to the cross, and because of that, for that very reason, we can praise. “Do not abandon the works of your hands” is like saying, “Don’t drop us, God! We know what your hands have done already, and that leads us to believe that you will always hold us firmly in your grasp.”

He’s got the whole world in his hands. We sing it because it’s fun. We sing it because we like the hand motions. And if we sing with Psalm 138, we sing it mostly because we are grateful for what our God has done. We are so grateful that we want to brag about our God to the whole world. We are grateful for the salvation reversal that Jesus brings. We are grateful even in the midst of our doubt and our fear of being abandoned. We are grateful and we praise because we know that he’s got the whole world – you and me, sister – you and me, brother – in his hands. Praise the Lord!