129 Your laws are wonderful!
That’s why I guard them.
130 Access to your words gives light,
giving simple folk understanding.
131 I open my mouth up wide, panting,
because I long for your commandments.
132 Come back to me and have mercy on me;
that’s only right for those who love your name.
133 Keep my steps steady by your word;
don’t let any sin rule me.
134 Redeem me from the people who oppress me
so I can keep your precepts.
135 Shine your face on your servant,
and teach me your statutes.
136 Rivers of tears stream from my eyes
because your Instruction isn’t being kept.
*************************************************
Message He changed what?!?
Good morning on this 8th Sunday after Pentecost.
I am so grateful that the Quarantine Qrew are all well and able to record their portions of the service in the sanctuary. Even though we aren’t able to worship there in person yet, to me it just feels so much better to be able to see that sacred space, to watch the candles being lit as we prepare our hearts and minds for worship. It soothes my soul. And their music - Jordan selects hymns and other sacred music that fit the focus of the message; Kenneshae, Jessica, Jorge and Joe lift their voices like a choir of angels, each part weaving around and through the others to create such beauty. Qrew - I thank you for being a blessing to us all.
Today they sang a portion of Psalm 119, which is where today’s reading comes from. Psalm 119 has 176 verses - it is the longest of all the Psalms. Which is why we only preach on a few verses at a time. I suspect, if I began with verse 1, I could devote a fairly lengthy sermon series to just this Psalm. Today we are focused on verses 129-136. And I was struck by the first verse in this passage.
“Your laws are wonderful! That’s why I obey them.” Imagine obeying the law of the land for no other reason than because we love the law! Not because we fear punishment, or because it protects others, or for any other reason - but because we just simply love the Law! I mean, I know lawyers who love the law, but it seems like that’s more about the study and application of the law than love for the laws in and of themselves. A lawyer friend’s job is researching laws and precedents for a judge. She loves her job! It’s like a treasure hunt. But the Psalmist says, “Your laws are wonderful! That’s why I obey them.” I love your Law, your Word, and so I obey it.
And verse 130. “Access to your Word gives light, giving simple people understanding.” Or, as the Message version says “Break your word open, let the light shine out, let ordinary people understand their meaning.” We are certainly very good at complicating stuff and making it more difficult to understand. Theologians and religious scholars, like politicians, have apparently never considered the concept of keeping it simple. Some of my seminary classmates took the opportunity of their very first sermon as ordained persons to list all of the long and complicated words we learn to explain theological concepts and then said, “I will never use those words in a sermon again.” Which usually got a chuckle, because who hasn’t sat through a sermon in which the preacher’s words were pretty much Greek to them (or Hebrew or German). But not in any way “giving simple people understanding.” God’s Law is at its core pretty simple. Do not murder. Do not steal. Take care of the poor. Feed the hungry. Care for the sick. Honor your elders. Honor the Sabbath. Love one another. We can and do complicate it, but as it stands it is elegant and beautiful. And simple - which is not the same as simplistic or easy. “Access to your Word”, the psalmist said, “gives light.”
“Redeem me from the people who oppress me, so I can keep your precepts.” It is thought that this Psalm was written after the exiles returned from Babylon, where the rules of their captors made obedience to the Law difficult at best, where access to God’s word was limited. It is not surprising then, that the psalmist longed for it, mouth opened wide and panting, as the deer pants for the water. Nor that he wept to see that God’s instructions are not being kept.
A friend was showing me a picture of the Lord’s prayer made into a cross. He said he wanted to make something like it, but he had to find a different one to use as a pattern because this one had the wrong words. I thought he was referring to the debts/trespasses/sins part, but he was looking at something else entirely. Instead of “lead us not into temptation” this cross said, “Do not let us fall into temptation.” I told him these words actually are not wrong.
You see, on May 22, 2019 Pope Francis approved this wording. He believed the traditional English translation of the prayer was not only a bad translation but bad theology “because”, he said, “it speaks of a God who induces temptation. I am the one who falls. It’s not him pushing me into temptation to then see how I have fallen. God does not lead us into temptation. Ever. We might fall into temptation, or be led there by the Evil One, but God does not lead us into temptation.”
He is so very right. It was not God, after all, who tempted Jesus in that desert place. He didn’t say, “Get thee behind me, God” when Peter tried to talk him out of going into danger. Even in Eden, Eve didn’t take the fruit from God. Theologically, Pope Francis is exactly right. God does not lead us into temptation.
But seriously, Your Holiness. Changing the Lord’s Prayer? I mean, I have to pay very close attention every Sunday to make sure I say “debts” instead of “trespasses,” which is my default. It’s how I learned the Lord’s Prayer growing up. Most of us pray it without having to look at the words on the screen, because we have been saying the same words - perhaps unthinkingly- for our whole lives. Plus, I know how difficult change can be in a congregation of 100 or less. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to make that change in all of the Roman Catholic congregations in the English speaking world. I so do not envy those parish priests. I mean, there are still churches in the US where the Latin Mass is being said - and that was changed in 1962!
The psalmist said it this way, “Keep my steps steady by your word; don’t let any sin rule me.” Keep my steps steady . . . do not let me fall . . . Do not let sin rule me.
Sometimes it almost feels like walking a balance beam or one of those rope bridges in Indiana Jones movies. Especially right now, when it would be so easy some days to just give in to the temptation to give up. Stop taking showers. Stay in our pajamas 24/7. Stop reaching out. Stop answering the phone. Stop caring about others. Stop caring about ourselves. Obsess over our Twitter feed, or Facebook. Give in to our frustration and lash out in anger, yelling at people we disagree with, or calling them names. It would be so easy because frankly, no one is watching. I mean, I live alone and the cats don’t hold me to any particular standard, as long as they get fed. There’s no one here to call me on any misbehavior. There is nothing to keep me from falling into temptation.
Except God. And God’s word.
God is here with me, to keep my steps steady
God’s Word, the Law, is here to remind me to love myself, so that I might love others. To care for myself, so that I might care for others.
God is here.
And so we pray . . .
Lord, keep us from falling into temptation,
And deliver us from evil. Amen.
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