Sermon for Lenten Midweek 4: "Psalm 102: Cry and Compassion"

 + Lenten Midweek 4 – March 22^nd, 2023 +

Psalm 102

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Some psalms give us context about their origin and author. Psalm 51 last week, is a good example of that. Other psalms give us a reason for the psalm, a purpose, but no author to pinpoint when. Psalm 102 (today’s penitential psalm) is one such psalm.

 

We don’t know the who, when, or whys of its writing. Some think it was written by Hezekiah in the face of Babylonian onslaught. But whoever the Lord inspired to write it did so with the whole range and realm of human experience in mind. We are meant to see and hear ourselves in this psalm.  

 

There’s a little heading before the psalm begins. Quite descriptive actually. A prayer of one who is afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before YHWH. That’s the psalmist. But that’s also you and me. Afflicted. And so the psalmist invites us to join our lament with his:

 

Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you!

When we see something ugly, something disgusting, or when we’re so angry with someone – we often say, “I don’t want to see that. I can’t stomach that. I can’t even look at you right now.” 

 

The Psalmist knows that YHWH is nothing like that, nothing like us. He knows that YHWH does not hide his face from our distress and afflictions. Rather, YHWH turns his face toward us. He knows that YHWH is slow to anger and abounds in steadfast love. And so he prays, and invites us to pray with all boldness and confidence. 

 

Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress!

This psalm opens with a holy demand based not on the holiness of the one praying it, but on the steadfast love of the holy God who has commanded us to pray and promised to hear us and deliver us in the day of trouble. And to do so in his Son Jesus. 

 

Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!

 

Here in Psalm 102, our Lord invites us to join the psalmist in pouring out our complaints towards him. To voice our cries for mercy. to confess our sin. To address our afflictions. To cast all our burdens on him, for he cares for you. 

 

Luther calls says this is what God has invited us to do, to take his promises to hear and answer and rescue and throw them back in God’s ears with our prayers.

 

And so we join the psalmist in doing just that. We bring our afflictions before our Lord.

 

Afflictions of our sin and suffering…when our bones burn like a furnace. When we are struck down by our own guilt and shame. Restlessness. Sleepless nights. Tossing and turning because of what we’ve done and left undone. When we remember that we are like the grass that withers and decays and dies. When we are left alone and lonely and weary because of our own sin. 

 

I am like a desert owl of the wilderness,  like an owl of the waste places;

I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.

Afflictions come from outside of us as well. All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse.

 

Family. Friends. Loved ones. People we thought we knew well betray us. Break trust. Fail us. Hurt us as we have no doubt done to others, in thought, word, and deed.

 

At times, affliction comes to us from God himself. because of your indignation and anger; for you have taken me up and thrown me down.

 

Where do we go with our affliction? We follow the first words of Psalm 102. When we are faint, afflicted, burdened…we pour out our complaints to YHWH. To the one who gave us these words. To the one who gave us His own Son.

 

Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
    so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord:
¹⁹ that he looked down from his holy height;
    from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
²⁰ to hear the groans of the prisoners,
    to set free those who were doomed to die,

If we are meant to see ourselves in Psalm 102, we are also meant to see Christ. For he is the one who commands us to pray, promises to hear, and has already delivered us. 

 

In Hebrews 1, Psalm 102 is quoted in pointing us to Christ. “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”

 

Psalm 102 and Hebrews and the rest of the Scripture remind us that not only will our Lord’s years have no end, so too will his mercy and grace have no end. Your afflictions, whatever they may be, they will come to an end. They will perish. But not our Lord’s mercy for you. 

 

Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.

 

Every single one of our afflictions. All our distresses, sin, and death. Jesus took all of those upon himself on the cross for you. Jesus was afflicted for you. He cried out to the Father for you. The Father’s face was turned away from His Son for you. Our Lord heard you and still hears you and answers all your prayers and cries of distress with a word: it is finished.

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Sermon for Lent 4: "A (Formerly) Blind Beggar"

 + Lent 4 – March 19^th, 2023 +

Series A: Isaiah 42:14-21; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

At the famous battle of Thermopylae (480 B.C.) the Persian thousands outnumbered the 300 Spartans. “Our arrows will blot out the sun,” the Persians yelled. Dienekes famously replied…”Then we will fight in the shade.” 

 

Great quote. But what does that have to do with John 9. A blind beggar. And our Lord Jesus? 

 

When you think about John 9, John’s Gospel, and the rest of Scripture, there’s a similar pattern. Our Lord does some of his best work in the darkness. Out of the darkness of creation, “Let there be light!” Out of the darkness of Egypt, “Let my people go!” Out of the darkness of Good Friday, “It is finished!” Out of the darkness of Easter Sunday, “He is not here, he is risen, just as he said!”

 

The darkness is no match for Jesus. Here in John 9, Christ our Lord reveals himself and fights for us in the darkness. It’s cosmic. Jesus enters the darkness of this fallen world. He appears to be surrounded. Outmanned. Outgunned. Satan’s arrows seem to blot out the sun. And yet, Jesus Christ is the Light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome.

 

It’s true on a personal level as well. Jesus fixes his eyes on this man. As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. Imagine being blind from birth Not the foggy, crusty eyes we all get in the morning. Not blurriness without our glasses. Maybe something more like being in the ape caves when the lights go out. This man’s entire life was lived in the darkness, until he met Jesus.

 

The man who couldn’t see was seen by Jesus. Overlooked. Looked past. Not by Jesus. Just another beggar. Not to Jesus. Jesus saw him. 

 

The disciples saw him too. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

 

We’ve all asked this question in one form or another. What did I do? What did he do? Did I do something to deserve this? What we’re really asking in those moments is, “who’s fault is it? Who’s to blame?” Was it the blind man’s fault? His parents? 

 

There has to be someone to blame. And, sometimes there is. The Ten Commandments reveal all kinds of ways we fall short. Sin breaks stuff. Sometimes that’s my fault. Sometimes it’s yours. Sometimes the sin that breaks stuff is so ground into the dust that there’s no way to figure out who to blame, short of Adam. He brought sin into the world. He passed it through DNA to the blind man and his parents, to you and me. There’s plenty of blame to go around.

 

But Jesus doesn’t play that game. As understandable as it is to ask it, don’t get hung up on the disciples’ question for too long. That’s a long, dark rabbit hole without Christ. 

 

Jesus wants more for us than wandering around in the darkness finding blame to sling on each other like monkeys at the zoo. There’s no comfort there. There’s nothing but darkness, dust, and death. Instead, Jesus points to himself. You want answers? You want a way out of blindness? You want a way out the darkness of the grave?

 

It’s all there in Jesus. Jesus doesn’t assign blame. He speaks. He heals. He shows mercy. 

 

Jesus directs his disciples, the blind beggar, and us, back to Himself. It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 

This is something that only Jesus can reveal. That this man’s was a canvas to display Jesus’ glory as the light of the world.

 

Remember, our Lord does some of his best work in the darkness. So, Jesus spits on the ground, makes some mud, forms some clay together. Works it in his hands just as he did when he formed Adam from the dust and clay of the earth. He rubs it all over the man’s face and eyes like a day-spa. And then tells him to go for a dip in the pool of Siloam. 

 

How about that for the mighty works of God. Seems odd, but it is. Ordinary and mighty all at once. Spit. Clay. Jesus’ healing hands.

 

It’s a small town. Everyone talks. The neighbors don’t believe him. The pharisees disbelieve as well. They also call him a sinner from birth, as if they weren’t sinners from birth too. The Jewish crowds even try and involve the man’s parents. Eventually the formerly blind beggar is kicked out of the synagogue. 

 

Jesus hears about it. Finds the beggar and says, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”^[c] He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”  Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”  He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 

 

A beautiful confession isn’t it. Ironic too. The blind beggar saw and believed in Jesus before he ever saw him with his eyes. While the pharisees and crowds who have seen Jesus’s signs and heard Jesus preaching. They don’t believe. But the formerly blind beggar believes. Jesus has been leading him back to Himself all along.

 

The same is true for us. That man born blind is all of us. You and me. Everyone. We’re born blind, steeped in sin, beggars. Just as a blind man cannot will his eyes to work, so we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ as Lord or come to Him. He comes to us in our sin, our blindness, our darkness. He “Christs” us in Baptism. Anoints. Christens with water, Word, and Spirit. Baptism is our Siloam, our sent water, where He sends us to wash and see.

 

for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Therefore, walk as children of light

 

Our Lord does his best work in the darkness. For the blind beggar. And for you. Christ our Lord reveals his light and life in the darkness to save you.

 

Jesus heals the man and shows where God really makes Himself known. In the darkness, working mercy. Jesus in the darkness of our lives with his light and life. Jesus in the darkness of our doubt, despair, guilt, and shame, shining his righteousness, grace, and mercy. Jesus in the darkness of illness, anxiety, fear, and death, casting out the shadows with his word and promise.

 

Jesus in the darkness bearing our sin and blindness. 

Jesus in the darkness of Good Friday, clinging to the cross, dying your place.

Jesus in the darkness of his tomb.

 

And then, Jesus out of the darkness of his tomb and ours on Easter Sunday.

 

In Jesus crucified and risen, we are all formerly blind beggars. Our Lord Jesus has done and will continue to do his greatest work in the darkness for you. 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for 3rd Lenten Midweek Service: "Fall and Redemption"

 + Lenten Midweek 3 – March 15^th, 2023 +

Psalm 51

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

There you are one day cleaning out your garage or a closet or some shelves in your basement and before you see it, you smell it. That musty. Dirty. Earthy smell. Then you see it. Black and green residue covering one box, then two, then three. Ugh. It’s everywhere. What happened? Where did this come from? How did things get so bad?

 

Find the source and you’ll find the answer. There’s a cracked pipe, a clogged drain, and moisture has been seeping in. 

 

Quite often, our lives feel like those boxes covered in mold, or those window sills that start to dry rot. Where did I go so wrong? Where did that thought, that word, that sin come from? How did I end up here?

 

In Psalm 51, our Lord gives us the answer. 

 

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me.

That’s not something you write on your mother’s day card, but it’s true of all of us. It’s what we call original sin. Or the chief sin. David’s words in Psalm 51 diagnose our underlying spiritual condition. Psalm 51 plumbs the depths of our fallen sinful hearts to reveal the source of the problem: a corruption so deep in our fallen human nature that there is nothing healthy, nothing uncorrupted remains within or without. We are born this way. We sin because we are sinners. Not the other way around. As we confess on Sunday mornings, we are by nature sinful and unclean…and as a result…we have sinned in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and what we have left undone. We have not loved God with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

 

For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,

 

Psalm 51 is David’s confession. Not only his lust of Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. Not only his adultery with Bathsheba. Not only his murder of Uriah. He confesses those sins, but he also confesses the deeper condition. Sin itself. The source. The sin that he conceived in his life was born of the sin that he was conceived in even before he was born. Like a good plumber or doctor, David goes to the source of our problem. We too are heirs of corruption. Sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. Conceived and born in sin. And that sin in which we are conceived, conceives yet more evil. Like David we see the symptoms: our lust, greed, and selfishness. The deeper we go, the darker it gets. 

 

If, in this psalm, is hidden the depth of our Sin, so too, in this psalm, our Lord has hidden the greater depth of his rescue from our sin.

 

For hidden in this psalm is the story of another David. The conception and birth of one who changes everything.

 

Think back to Christmas for a moment. To Luke 1 and Gabriel’s announcement to the Virgin Mary. Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

 

Conceived in Mary’s womb, is the answer to David’s sin and our sin. Conceived in Mary’s womb is a greater David who is like us in every way, except without sin. Jesus’ conception and birth changes everything. 

 

If there’s not a single cell of sanctity within us, not a drop of original purity in us, then our only rescue and our only hope is found outside ourselves and in someone else. In the Son of Adam, the Son of David, the Son of Mary the Son of God. For you, Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

 

If our conception is sinful, we need one whose conception is pure for us. If our birth is in sin, we need someone whose birth is holy for us. If our lives are a constant display of selfishness, greed, lust, we need one whose life is full of righteousness, who resisted every temptation, who kept every divine Law for us.

 

That’s why Jesus, the Son of God came to us through the womb…passing through every stage of life for us, and he did so perfectly. Through Jesus’ perfect life and death we receive perfection in Him.

 

Christ was not conceived for himself but for you. He was not born for himself, but for you. He did not live and keep the Father’s commandments for himself, but for you. Our Lord Jesus did not die and suffer and rise again for himself, but for you.

 

Psalm 51 is David’s prayer of repentance but it’s so much more. It’s also our prayer of repentance. And even more than that, it’s a promise and proclamation of a new and better David who has come, whose conception conceives in us hope, redemption, and forgiveness of sin and all our sins. 

 

When we confess, Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! That’s exactly what Jesus does. He washes. Renews. Restores. Redeems. Rescues. Reconciles you.

 

Jesus, the new David, blots out our transgressions. He washes you in holy water. He hides his face from our sin and creates in you a clean heart; his Spirit dwells with you by his word and water and promise. 

 

In Jesus, the new David, you are cleansed. Washed. Whiter than snow. From his conception to his cross, from the full womb to his empty tomb, Jesus is your Savior. 

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Sermon for Lenten Midweek 2: "Between a Rock and a Hard Place"

 + Lenten Midweek 2 – March 8^th, 2023 +

Psalm 38

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

In Greek and Roman mythology, the heroes Aeneas, Jason, and Odysseus sailed through the straits of Messina, better known as the rock of Scylla (the six headed monster) and Charybdis, the whirlpool.  

 

We have a similar phrase: when you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. To use an Old Testament example, think of Israel camped around Mt. Sinai; they’re caught between the scorching heat and unholiness of their sin in the wilderness, and the flames, earthquakes, and holiness of God’s presence on Mt. Sinai. 

 

As we read Psalm 38, it would seem that’s where we find David. David is caught between God the rock…

 

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
    nor discipline me in your wrath!
² For your arrows have sunk into me,
    and your hand has come down on me.

³ There is no soundness in my flesh
    because of your indignation;

 

Between God the rock, and the hard place of his sin, crushed, swamped, deluged beneath the burden of his own iniquity.

 

there is no health in my bones
    because of my sin.
⁴ For my iniquities have gone over my head;
    like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

 

Psalm 38 is one of the many reasons the Psalms are good for us to hear, pray, and reflect upon. So often in these psalms – the penitential psalms in particular – God gives us his own word to give voice to our own wrestling and struggles. And not just our daily bouts with sin, though that is part of it. But Psalm 38 begins not with our own sin, but our own wrestling with God himself. 

 

Reading Psalm 38 puts us in the ring in the role of Jacob wrestling with God in the wee hours of the morning. Psalm 38 casts us as David, wrestling with God and his wrath against our sin, on the one hand, and wrestling with our own sin on the other. 

 

Psalm 38 says what we so often think and feel, but perhaps are too unsure, or afraid, or ashamed to say out loud. That we feel as though we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! 

My wounds stink and fester
    because of my foolishness,
⁶ I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;
    all the day I go about mourning.
⁷ For my sides are filled with burning,
    and there is no soundness in my flesh.
⁸ I am feeble and crushed;
    I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

⁹ O Lord, all my longing is before you;
    my sighing is not hidden from you.
¹⁰ My heart throbs; my strength fails me,
    and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.

 

I’m sure there are plenty of times where we have felt and thought the things David says here. This is what repentance looks like. Admitting that there is no way through the Psalm unscathed. Death is on every side. Crushing, groaning, throbbing, stinking sin and death on one hand. And God’s burning, holy wrath on the other.

 

What are we to do? We do what David does in Psalm 38. We pray. We confess. We repent. We burden God with our sin knowing who he is and what he’s done about it. We receive forgiveness. And then we keep doing that over and over again, every day until our Lord Jesus returns.

 

But for you, O Lord, do I wait;
    it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
¹⁶ For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me,
    who boast against me when my foot slips!”

¹⁷ For I am ready to fall,
    and my pain is ever before me.
¹⁸ I confess my iniquity;
    I am sorry for my sin.

David’s prayer in Psalm 38 is our prayer too. Do not forsake me, O Lord! O my God, be not far from me!
We pray this knowing there’s only one way through. And it’s not the hero sailing through the monsters. It’s death. Either we die in sin, alone, or we die to sin and are raised by Christ and are with him. This is the way through the rock and the hard place. 

 

So we confess, pray, sing, and rejoice with David, that the God who is the rock…is also our redeemer. The God who is holy became defiled on the cross to give us his holiness. The God who brings wrath for our sin, poured it out on his own Son Jesus who stood in the breach for you. The God who should have crushed us is instead the God who is stricken, smitten, and afflicted for you. The God who has drawn and bent his bow released all his arrows of indignation at the bullseye of Christ on the cross for you. Arrows that sunk into his hands, his feet, his head, and his side for you. 

 

And now…there is no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus. Now we join David in confident, sure, and certain confession knowing that Christ hears, answers, and delivers us. 

 

Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

 

 

 

Sermon for Lent 2: A Smart Man"

 + Lent 2 – March 5^th, 2023 +

Series A: Genesis 12:1-9; Romans 4:1-17; John 3:1-17

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Nicodemus was a smart man. Educated. Top marks in Hebrew grammar school. Most 1^st century rabbis, like Nicodemus, would’ve learned the Hebrew alphabet by 3 years old. Learned to read from the scroll of Leviticus. Memorized the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) by age 12. Memorized the entire Old Testament in order to become a rabbi. Nicodemus was a smart man. A pharisee. A religious, legal expert in the Torah, the books of Moses. Responsible for teaching the Scriptures to the people.

 

The kind of man David’s son, Solomon writes in Proverbs 18:15, An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. 

 

Here in John 3, today’s Gospel reading, Jesus, the Son of David and Son of God, fulfills Solomon’s words in his conversation with Nicodemus. The Scriptures come to life here in John 3 as Jesus’ own words are enacted before us. Behold, someone greater than Solomon is here. There he is! Standing right in front of Nicodemus, the very wisdom, knowledge, and word of God in the flesh. All that Nicodemus seeks is found in Jesus. The true wisdom and life that we seek and need is found in Jesus crucified and risen for you.

 

Nicodemus was a smart man. He paid close attention to Jesus. Saw Jesus performs miraculous signs – the water into wine, the lame walking, demons cast out, lepers cleansed. Impressive resume. “No one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

 

Nicodemus listened as Jesus taught the people with authority. He recognized Jesus was no ordinary man from Nazareth. So, he did what smart men do. He sought out more information. Trust, but verify. 

 

John invites us to see ourselves in Nicodemus. To see ourselves standing in the sandals of this smart man. This shouldn’t be too hard for us to do. God has given each and every one you his gift of intelligence, smarts. Whether you think so or not, we are all very smart people. Put all of us together and there are a lot of things we know collectively as well. John wants us to see ourselves in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus.

 

It begins with a small, but important detail. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. Was he afraid of being seen by other Pharisees? Perhaps. Was he following the rabbinic tradition of seeking out a new rabbi at the new moon? Perhaps. Those are all true, but even more, it’s a picture of the darkness of our sinful hearts…that apart from Christ revealing himself to us we are blind and dead in sin. As this night-time conversation unfolds, Jesus enlightens Nicodemus, and us, by His holy word. The rabbi Nicodemus becomes the student, and we along with him. 

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

 

Remember, Nicodemus is no dummy. He’s a smart man. Born again? How? Huh? What does that mean? Even more confusing, the word “again” can also be translated “from above,” which makes more sense. Unless one is born “from above” he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus’ words sound strange. “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” 

Jesus doubles down, “Truly, truly (Amen, amen) I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh; that which is born of Spirit is spirit.” Ah, now that makes more sense. Sort of. To be born of flesh is to be born “from below,” as we all are born “from below” as children of Adam. If you are “flesh” then you are born from below, of the flesh. To be born of the Spirit is to be born spiritually, “from above.” And not just Spirit but water and Spirit, for the Spirit is never alone. Even in Genesis, in the creation week, before God spoke, the Spirit, wind, breath of God hovered over the face of the watery Deep. Water and Spirit. It’s right there in Genesis 1:2. Any Torah teacher, including Nicodemus, would have known that. Should have known that.

 

Still, Nicodemus doesn’t quite get it. “How can these things be?” 

 

 “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” In other words, “I thought you were smart.” At this point, Nicodemus became silent. He stopped asking questions. And he listened. He listened to Jesus. It was his smartest he’d done yet.

 

Knowledge is one thing. A good thing even. There are many things we have accomplished and can do with our knowledge. Sadly, there are many ways our knowledge and smarts are twisted by our sinful, selfish use of the intelligence God gave us. How quickly we turn God’s gift of smarts into arrogance, pride, and self-centered sinfulness. Look at the tower of babel. Look at the internet or social media. Look at all the ways our own minds are just as blind and in the dark in sin as Nicodemus was.

 

Knowledge and faith, while related – and both gifts of God; they are different. Nicodemus knew many things. The question that isn’t answered in John 3 is this, Nicodemus knows a lot; he’s a smart man; he knows his Scriptures. But does he have faith in the one in whom the Scriptures he knows so well are fulfilled? Does he trust and believe in Jesus the very one who has come in the flesh to give life to Nicodemus, and to you?

 

What about us? When it comes to matters of God’s Word, God’s gift of faith, God’s promises to you in Jesus, your new birth from above by water and the Spirit in holy Baptism – and all of God’s works and words for you – do you find rest and solace and peace in your own mind? Do you lean on your own understanding? Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and, mind? The answer, of course, is the same for us as it was for Nicodemus. Our hope and comfort and life and salvation rests not on our wisdom and smarts, but in the Wisdom of God made flesh. In Jesus. In his word that declares.

as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.^[h]

 “For God so loved the world,^[i] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

What Nicodemus hoped to find in the Torah is found in Jesus, the Torah in the flesh standing before Him, talking with Him. What Nicodemus wanted more than anything else, to see the kingdom of God and to enter that kingdom to life eternal, is found only in Jesus, the incarnation of God’s love for the world. And it’s not a matter of choice, or decisions, or good behavior, or anything else you or I might do. It’s a matter of birth, of being and identity. You must be born from above, a second time, not of flesh but of water and Spirit. You must become something altogether different, a new creation. Simply renovating the old Adamic flesh won’t work. Topical treatments won’t deal with the deep disease of Sin. You must die and rise in Jesus, be born in Him, and that is the work of the Spirit through water and Word.

John 3 isn’t the last time we hear about Nicodemus. He shows up two more times in John’s Gospel. As a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council, he spoke up in Jesus’ defense, a risky move on his part. And even riskier, Nicodemus went with Joseph of Aramathea bringing burial spices to help with giving Jesus a proper burial. By all appearances, the Spirit had done His work on Nicodemus the rabbi, now a disciple. 

 

Our Lord Jesus does the same for you. He speaks His word to you. He sends you His Holy Spirit. He gives you new birth from above by water and the Spirit. And he gives you his promise that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. Believing. Teaching. Confessing Jesus’ words. To know and trust and believe in Jesus and his promises. This is what makes you truly smart. Wise unto salvation in Christ Jesus.

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Sermon for Lenten Midweek 1: Psalm 32

 + 1^st Lenten Midweek Service – March 1^st, 2023 +

Psalm 32

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

When someone says there’s a a righteous man, or there’s a godly woman. What goes through our minds? Probably something like this. We think of someone who has it all together; someone better than myself, a cut above the rest perhaps. 

 

But that’s not what the picture of a righteous person that we hear about in Psalm 32. To be sure, Psalm 32 does talk about a person who is upright in heart, godly, righteous, one in whom there is no deceit…a saint, we might say. 

 

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
    and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

 

But Psalm 32 also talks about this person as one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, who confesses their iniquity…a sinner.

 

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
    whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
    and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

 

Psalm 32 gives us a very different picture of a righteous person than we usually conjure up in our minds. The righteous person of Psalm 32 is both saint and a sinner. 

 

In the Lutheran Reformation, there was a Latin phrase that conveyed this reality of Christians in this life. That while we live in this world and in our sinful flesh, we are Simul Justus Et Peccator…at the same time saints and sinners.

 

That is the picture of the righteous person in Psalm 32. And the righteous person of psalm 32 is you, and me, and all believers.

 

This completely changes and upends all our assumptions about what it means to be righteous. We tend to think righteousness is somehow, someway based on something within us: our thoughts, words, deeds; our feelings, intellect, or morality. 

 

In Psalm 32, God says, “No, you have it all backwards. The one in whom there is no deceit isn’t the sinless one, but one who confesses their sin. The righteous person is not one who rests in their own righteousness, but in the righteousness that God declares to you in Jesus. The godly one is the one who admits that they are in fact ungodly.”

Remember the words of John’s epistle…If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. You see, the one in whom there is no deceit is the one who admits that they are in fact deceitful. According to Psalm 32, a saint, a godly, and righteous one is one who says to the Lord, “Yes, Lord, I am a sinner.” 

 

Psalm 32, like the other penitential psalms, brings us to confess our sins. To pray the Lenten prayer, the daily prayer, “forgive us our trespasses…”

 

To pray, “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.”

 

To pray with the Psalmist: I acknowledged my sin to you,
    and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”

and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. 

 

To be righteous and godly, according to psalm 32, is to be the one God in Christ forgives. And that is you. 

 

When we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is what he has done for you in Jesus. On the cross, Jesus took all our unrighteousness and made it his own, so that all of his righteousness is made your own. On the cross Jesus became sin so that in him we would become the righteousness of God. On the cross, Jesus the innocent one is declared guilty so that we who are guilty in sin, are declared innocent, godly, and saints in him.

 

Psalm 32, then, is more than a penitential psalm. It is a psalm of promise. It is the psalm that depicts our daily life in Christ, that we are sinners and saints. That to be godly is to confess that we are ungodly in and of ourselves, and that we are only godly and upright and righteous in Jesus who is our righteousness. That you are declared righteous and forgiven in Jesus

 

Therefore…Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
    and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!