Pentecost +5
Rev. Doug Floyd
Psalm 89

King David wants to build a house for the Lord. The Lord says, “No but I will build you a house; the house of David is established by God forever. This means the kingship will never pass from David’s family through all time and time again.

Now we come to our Psalm for today. Psalm 89 is a celebration of God’s faithfulness to the house of David and therefore faithfulness to Israel. In verses 3 and 4, we read, “You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: ‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.’ ” (Psalm 89:3–4, ESV)

The Psalm is celebrating and emphasizing God’s pledge to Israel. The Psalm moves back and forth between the faithfulness of God and the faithfulness of David’s house. At times it might seem unclear who is being referenced. For instance, “For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted. For our shield belongs to the Lord, our king to the Holy One of Israel.” (Psalm 89:17–18, ESV)

The Lord is a shield of protection to Israel. The house of David is a shield of protection to Israel. The name David is associated with all future kings in the line of David. The horn of Israel is the king.

In a beautiful and poetic picture, the Psalm connects God’s faithfulness to His creation with His faithfulness to David. It speaks of the three-fold creation we see in Genesis: the heavens above, the earth below, and the waters under the earth. The Psalmist sings, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”” (Psalm 89:2, ESV)

We look up to the heavens, the sky, the clouds, the sun, moon, and stars, and we see the absolute surety of God’s promise. The unseen spiritual powers in the heavens have joined in the chorus: “Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him?” (Psalm 89:5–7, ESV)

Now the Psalm moves down the waters below the earth: “O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you? You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them. You crushed Rahab like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.” (Psalm 89:8–10, ESV)

Finally, the earth, “The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them. The north and the south, you have created them; Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name. You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face, who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted.” (Psalm 89:11–16, ESV)

All creation moves in a festal shout and a dance of joy before the Creator. At the center of His creation, the Lord has raised up David and he will be like a god among the nations. “I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’ And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens.” (Psalm 89:25–29, ESV)

As the Psalm continues, the Lord promises that the house of David will stand even if the people are unfaithful.

“If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” (Psalm 89:30–37, ESV)

After David dies, Solomon his son and many other kings of Judah introduce idolatry in the land. The idolatry leads to a series of sinful behaviors such as false worship, sexual slavery, oppression, the rich taking advantage of the poor. God shows mercy to the kingdom year after year after year. Eventually, the prophets declare enough: the Day of the Lord is at hand. Babylon invades the land, takes the people captive, kills the king’s sons, blinds the king, and drags him to Babylon.

Then they destroy the Temple and salt the land. The once thriving city of Jerusalem lays in ruins. The house of David has fallen. And there will never be another king on the throne…until Messiah comes.

In verse 38, today’s Psalm takes a sharp turn.

“But now you have cast off and rejected; you are full of wrath against your anointed. You have renounced the covenant with your servant; you have defiled his crown in the dust. You have breached all his walls; you have laid his strongholds in ruins. All who pass by plunder him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made all his enemies rejoice. You have also turned back the edge of his sword, and you have not made him stand in battle. You have made his splendor to cease and cast his throne to the ground. You have cut short the days of his youth; you have covered him with shame.” (Psalm 89:38–45, ESV)

The kingdom has fallen like a tree chopped down. The house of David is no more. The people are cast off and cast out. Abandoned, Captured.

“By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.” (Psalm 137:1, ESV)

After spending most of the Psalm extolling God’s faithfulness, the psalmist now offers a sort but earnest plea to God:

“Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David? Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked, and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations, with which your enemies mock, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.” (Psalm 89:49–51, ESV)

Where are you Lord?!? The kingdom is shattered. The world has come to an end. A pagan country that follows pagan gods now rules God’s chosen people. Where is our king? We know you are faithful, why have you forsaken us?

A small percentage of Jews will eventually return home and even rebuild the Temple. But life will be difficult. There is still no king on the throne. The glory seems to have faded in spite of the prophets assuring the people that the latter glory is greater than the former glory. Hundreds of years will pass as the people continue to cry out for the king. Different empires will rule over Israel and eventually Rome will take charge, and the false king Herod will rule Jerusalem.

Jesus comes as the true king. He will restore the House of David. And he will rule forevermore. He does not look like the king they’ve been expecting. He has no army. He is gentle. And like a lamb led to the slaughter, he is handed over to be killed. When Jesus is lifted up on the cross, He is lifted up as the true and final King of the Jews. Pilate puts an inscription on the cross reading, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” It is written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. This is the King.

Many Jews and Gentiles still cannot see Jesus as the true King, the Messiah. Yet Scripture promises that all humans will kneel and acknowledge Jesus Christ as the last King of the Jews (Philippians 2:9-11).

We don’t know exactly when Psalm 89 was written, but it is at least 2,400 years old and possibly longer. We are not Jews. We do not have an earthly king. How do read this Psalm about God’s faithfulness to the House of David?

1. The psalm praises God for His faithfulness to His people and looks to God’s faithfulness in all creation. Just the regularity of sun and moon speaks to us of God’s sustaining care of His creation. While we see repetition in nature and call these laws like the laws of motion, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism. G.K. Chesterton reminds us that behind the law is a will. God wills His creation, and He is never absent from His creation. So might we take more time to meditate upon the heavens above, the sea below, and the earth abroad. We might take time to praise God’s faithfulness to is creation.
2. The psalm celebrates the House of David. We acknowledge Jesus Christ as our Sovereign Ruler, but we do not live under human kings like ancient Israel. We do have leaders who make decisions that impact our lives: leaders in government, in business, in healthcare, and all across our society. We should pray for all our leaders and for wisdom as they serve.
3. Finally, this Psalm explores the great disappointment when it seems God has abandoned David, sent Jerusalem into exile, and allowed foreign nations to rule over Israel. If we look at history, we realize Israel is not the only nation to fall. Every great and glorious work falls and fades. It doesn’t mean the end of the world is at hand. But it can mean that the world as we know may dramatically change. This may happen in government, business, healthcare, and other places. And this can be difficult and even painful. This may really hit home in business when a new leader comes and reorients the whole workplace. I’ve experienced this many times and I know many of you have. During times of great change, we may not like what is happening all around us, so we pray. We look to our Lord, King Jesus, knowing that He rules and sustains all things. We may never go back to where we were, but we can learn a new path forward. He can lead us and teach us how to live in this new era. Disappointment can lead to bitterness, but I would hope it might lead us to trust, to pray, and ultimately to thanksgiving to our faithful God. So that even after we have cried out for God to remember us and even if our situation does not change, we might join with today’s final verse in Psalm 89,

“Blessed be the Lord forever! Amen and Amen.” (Psalm 89:52, ESV)

Pentecost +4 – Lament
Dr. Christopher Graham
Psalm 69

Offer unto God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows unto the Most High // And call upon me in the time of trouble; so will I hear you, and you shall praise me.” Yes, these are the words that I opened our homily with two weeks ago. And no I did not grab the wrong notes. You may remember that in Psalm the antidote to a wrong perspective and lack of integrity when it comes to our actions before God is praise and thanksgiving. Last week Fr. Doug led us through Psalm 100, an example of pure praise and thanksgiving. And if you were here last week, get ready for a little whiplash. After Fr. Doug’s homily last week, I couldn’t get Kool and the Gang out of my head

“There’s a party goin’ on right here. A celebration to last throughout the years. So bring your good times and your laughter too. We gonna celebrate your party with you. Come on now. Let’s all celebrate and have a good time”

And now we are in the key of “I am a man of constant Sorrow, I’ve seen trouble all my day” or Ralph Stanely “O Death. Whoa, Death. Won’t you spare me over ’til another year?”

The order of our homilies aligns with what we read two weeks ago. Offer unto God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows unto the Most High; And call upon me in the time of trouble; so will I hear you, and you shall praise me.”

Last week’s Psalm 100 is sung from the proper perspective—”He’s the Great Shepherd, the Rock of All Ages, Almighty God is He.” From that perspective, according to Psalm 50, we now “Call upon me in the time of trouble.” And so that is where we are this morning in Psalm 69. A time of trouble. But not like I couldn’t find my car keys and was running late this morning. But in a tight spot, so tight, in fact that we are at the end of our rope. We can’t get oriented. We feel like everything is spinning. “Hello, hello. In a place called vertigo.” How does the psalmist describe it here?

v. 1 For the waters have come up to my neck
I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

Not only is it a tight spot, but apparently God is not answering! What are we supposed to do in this situation? You may not like the answer this morning, but if done rightly, it may be the only proper response . . . lament. Lament is both hard for us and therefore underused, and yet it is essential for us in these tight spots.

Lament makes us uncomfortable because it refuses to speak in euphemism. And because of this, challenges our tendency to candy-coat the situation. “This too shall pass,” “No pain, No gain.” “Embrace the Suck.” Sometimes we even retreat to the prose of Scripture as a way to mentally avoid the fact that life right now sucks in a way that threatens to undo us! “All things work together for good. . .” We do this even with the lament psalms themselves.

I grew up singing a song with lyrics drawn from a lament: “I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore. Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more. . .” Singing about sin in a major chord. Hear the psalmist: “I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched.” Verse

3. Lament happens when we realize “Life sucks!” and, in fact, is sucking the life out of me—my breath, my bones, my very being. Lament happens when we come face-to-face with and find ourselves under the burden of the brokenness of the world. In some psalms, it is our own brokenness. In other songs of lament, it is nature itself. This is the lament of the people in Joel, for example. In this psalm and in the lament of Jeremiah, the brokenness is unjust treatment by others.

v. 4: More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause;
mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies.
v. 12 I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.
v. 21They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink

Again, this challenges our tendency to euphemize. “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.” Or “I’m not called to please men.” Or when we use retreat to other verses in the Bible to avoid the reality of the tight spot that we are in because of the real injustice being carried out against us.

Matt 10:28-31: And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not 2 sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

And this a second reason why lament is so hard. Not only does it refuse to euphemize our situation, it refuses to compromise our proper perspective on God. Lament happens when we refuse to accept the fact that the God we confess in prose— the God who values us more than the sparrows, the God who works all things together for good—that this God is, in fact, not acting on our behalf. Notice again that the plea for God is based on what the psalmist knows is true, which makes it so much harder to accept what is happening.

13 “Answer me answer me in your saving faithfulness.
14 Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters.
16 Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.

One of the psalms that we tend to euphemize is Psalm 42. I can’t tell you how many times I sang the chorus drawin from the first verse: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” Listen, I am no hunter, biologist, zoologist, or master naturalist. But if I saw a deer panting, I would know “something isn’t right here!” And the psalm itself doesn’t allow us to romanticize the situation or the fact that God is not acting: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

Lament is hard because it feels like a lack of faith. We sound like the scoffers in this psalm, we may sound like Job’s friends. But there is a key difference—lament is God-directed. Lament happens when we to God in the middle of this life-sucking situation. Calling things for what they are is an essential element of lament, but to stay there is merely whining. Maybe singing the blues. Crying in our beer. We whine about God, or maybe we theorize to defend God. “Well, it only appears he is not working to save us.” What makes it lament is that in this state, we turn to God. Lament is Godward because of its purpose. BTW, that purpose is not to make you feel better. Not to be cathartic. The purpose of lament? Again, the psalm from two weeks ago: “And call upon me in the time of trouble; so will I hear you, and you shall praise me.”

And indeed today, the Psalmist starts:

“Save me, O God!” (v.1)
V. 13 “Answer me answer me in your saving faithfulness.
14 Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies
and from the deep waters.
16 Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
17 Hide not your face from your servant,
for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.
18 Draw near to my soul, redeem me;
ransom me because of my enemies!

And this leads to the last element of lament that makes it so hard. Lament remains unresolved until God acts. It puts the ball in God’s court. In doing so, lament resists our desire for closure. There is no harmonic “Amen.” We lament in order to hear from God and to see how God is answering us. It is not uncommon for OT prophets to use lament to stir God to the injustice that his people are bearing. We heard it in Jeremiah this morning:

O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you have I committed my cause. Jeremiah 20

At times, God responds and saves. This is why many lament psalms actually end with a thanksgiving psalm. At times, God pulls back the veil to reveal his purposes and the response is not what they want to hear.

Habakkuk cries out O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,// and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!”// and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity,// and why do you idly look at wrong? 1:1-3.

and God responds:

Look among the nations, and see; //wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days //that you would not believe if told. // For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth,//to seize dwellings not their own. 1:5-6

And sometimes, friends, God does not respond. In his final moments on the cross, Jesus cites the opening of Psalm 22: “My God, My God Why have you forsaken me?” In response a soldier gives him the drink of our lament this morning:

“I looked for pity, but there was none, //and for comforters, but I found none.
They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.”

And then Jesus died. He lamented and he died. So where is the good news this morning? Not found in this psalm. Laments are unresolved.

Some good news is that you find yourself this morning in a community where people care for you when you find yourself in tight spots. You are among people who have been in spots tighter than you yourself have imagined. I can testify to this myself. Probably in the first 2 weeks of being here, having just been let go from my position and still without a job, Derrick and Alan were voices who said, “Been there, brother.” And I could tell by the way they approached me each week that they were very concerned for me even when I wasn’t concerned about myself. And after Ishared my experiences two weeks ago, Marc came up to me and said in a way that was so caring “Has God ever shown you why that happened.” So it is good news that you are in a caring community this morning. But that, friends, is not THE good news. Because I can take you to innumerable caring communities in our area. Places where people will truly commiserate with you, empathize with you, sympathize with you, listen to your story, share wisdom. Group counseling groups, recovery groups, bars, coffee shops, lodges. These are all caring communities, and I am not disparaging their value.

But what sets this congregation apart, what makes us the Church, is that we are who we are because of the presence of the God who inclines his ear to us, the Spirit of Life, and the one who Himself can sympathize with us in our weakness. The Good News is that this God has ordained a people who can be with you in these tight spots. Who, on a Sunday morning when you cannot bring yourself to sing the words “How Great Thou Art,” will sing them for you, and with you, and around you. You are in a place that, even if we are all going through a tight spot, we have committed ourselves to l hear the Word of God spoken. That when you find yourself in a state of paralysis by analysis, these people will find a way to open the roof and lower you into the presence of Jesus.

The Jesus who cried out to his Father that the cup should pass from him. The Jesus who lamented: My God, My God why have you forsaken me?
And in those same hours prayed “Forgive them.”

Hear me, though. We do not merely have Christ’s example. We have the Jesus who is today seated at the right hand of God. And that He responds at all is a testimony to the fact that God does work on behalf of his people.

The Jesus who is the Son of God who is able to empathize with our weaknesses, having been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Who offers receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14–16)

And call upon me in the time of trouble; so will I hear you, and you shall praise me.”

Pentecost +3 2026
Rev. Doug Floyd
Psalm 100

As the Israelites walk up the steps toward the Temple, they sing out:

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” (Psalm 100:1–5, ESV)

Psalm 100 is the culmination of Psalms 96, 97, 98, and 99. These are sometimes called enthronement psalms, because they are praising the Lord who is Creator of the Universe. Just listen to the opening lines:

“Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.” (Psalm 96:1–2, ESV)

“The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!” (Psalm 97:1, ESV)

“Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.” (Psalm 98:1, ESV)

“The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!” (Psalm 99:1, ESV)

And finally Psalm100,

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!” (Psalm 100:1, ESV)

This line explodes with joy! Listen to some of the various translations:

Shout happily to the Lord, all the earth. (God’s Word Translation)

Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord! (Christian Standard Bible)

Or what about the Message:

On your feet now—applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourselves into his presence.

This is a celebration. A party. Everyone is invited. The whole world. Lots of joyful noises. Laughter, shouting, clapping, dancing, tambourines and much more. What a delight!

I once heard an English comedian say that you could step into a poor African church in London and people will be shouting and dancing and filling the room with joy. But then if you walk down the street to an Anglican church, you would see some of the wealthiest people in society singing so somberly that you would think they were in dire straits.

Psalm 100 challenges us to be a people of joy. In the first part of the psalm the people are celebrating the Lord as Creator. The references to Lord in this Psalm are from the Hebrew word, YHWH, which is the Covenant name for God. The Lord has bound Himself to Israel, and this same Lord is Creator of all things. There is no other god. All powers must ultimately submit to Him.

As a side note, let’s look at Exodus 19. In verses 4-6 we read,

“‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”” (Exodus 19:4–6, ESV)

 The Creator has chosen Israel as His treasured possession and made them to be a kingdom of priests. They are called to reveal God to the nations. We see a similar idea in Romans 5 today. In verse two we read,

“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:2, ESV)

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. The glory of God has drawn near to us in Christ. And in Christ, we bear that glory. God’s people reveal the glory of God to the nations. Our joy and laughter and delight in the goodness of God, overflows through us to the world around us. Thus, Psalm 100 opens by proclaiming,

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!” (Psalm 100:1, ESV)

The covenant people of God are called to make a joyful noise. But the. We read “all the earth.” Our song echoes into all creation: sun, moon, seas, plants, trees, birds of the air, fish of the sea and all living creatures on the earth. Including all humanity. As a royal priesthood, we are called to lead the nations in praise to our God. The glory of God covers the earth. We “serve the Lord with gladness.” Following Christ is not a dour, joyless life. Just the opposite. As Demos Shakarian used to say, We are “the happiest people on the earth.” May we truly this into this God-given hilarity.

The Psalm reminds us that we are part of creation.

“Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” (Psalm 100:3, ESV)

YHWH created us even as He created the whole universe. He made us, we are His. The psalmist adds, “we are the sheep of His pasture.” Here we see the parental image of a shepherd caring for the sheep. We are created. We are loved.

In one sense, our whole life is a response to that unfathomable love. Everywhere we turn, we behold the love of God. As Amy Grant sings,

Everywhere I go
I see your face through the crowd
(Everywhere I go)
I hear your voice clear and loud
(Everywhere I go)
You are the light that I see
(Everywhere I go)
You have found me[1]

This is one of the things I love about the Ancient Christian Celts, they are praising God in all creation. In the Prefatory Reading this morning, we read,

The world cannot comprehend in song bright and melodious,
Even though the grass and trees should sing,
All your wonders, O true Lord![2]

The following is from a 9^th century praise song from the Culdee movement, a reform movement among Irish and Welsh monasteries.

Let the birds and the honeybees praise you,
Let the shorn stems and the shoots praise you.
Both Aaron and Moses praised you:
Let the male and the female praise you,
Let the seven days and the stars praise you,
Let the air and the ether praise you,
Let the books and the letters praise you,
Let the fish in the swift streams praise you,
Let the thoughts and the action praise you,
Let the sand-grains and the earth-clods praise you,
Let all the good that’s performed praise you.
And I shall praise you, Lord of glory:
Glorious Lord, I give you greeting!

When you step outside this week, pause and look. Behold the glory all around you. Breathe it in. Rejoice. Give our good Creator praise. A 20^th century Welsh poet Bobi Jones joins his voice to the praise of Celts across the ages. He praises people and places and even a truck. He offers a poem of praise from a trucker driving home for Christmas. Jones writes,

The machine has become a beautiful hill-breast home,

A sanctuary, since here he thought of God best,

God on the axle, and God in the crunching,

And gloried in them as his forebears did in a horse

Till he felt the newly-washed coal a petal in his nostrils,

And the iron cogs played at fondling his hard hands,

His happiness under his armpits.

(Yesterday my love came to buy a machine-made frock

And wore it and made it part of her own enchantment.)

Christmas today, the warmth of home on his cheek,

His children’s sweat in place of the piston’s laughter,

But at the same God’s strong feet he’ll cradle himself

Like a comely village in a mountain niche.

Everything, everywhere, Praise the Lord!

The second half of the Psalm exhorts us to praise and thanksgiving again, but this time it shifts from Creator to Redeemer. Sometimes in the Evangelical world we grow up focusing so deeply on the work of the cross that we love sight of the glory of creation. We serve the King of the universe who has declared all of His creation as good and very good.

As we praise the Lord for His creation, we might learn to become better stewards of creation, including humans.

In the first part of the Psalm, we are exhorted to make a joyful noise and then we are given a reason,

“Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” (Psalm 100:3, ESV)

Now in the second part of the Psalm, we are given a reason for entering the Temple courts with praise,

“For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” (Psalm 100:5, ESV)

Now pause over this phrase a moment. “The Lord is good.” Our covenant God is good. This makes me think of Philippians 2:10,

“at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10–11, ESV)

All creation bows before the Lord Jesus, confessing Him as Lord. In Jesus, we come to see the Creator God is good, just, loving, and trustworthy. We can rest in His absolute goodness.

We can trust in Him. He is a good God, a good judge. This next phrase, “his steadfast love endures forever” speaks of Hesed. Many of you may already be familiar with Hesed. It can speak of a kindness that happens in loving relations. It is one of the most often used words to describe God in the Old Testament. When used of the Lord, hesed indicates a kindness, a love, a mercy, a grace that flows from God to us. In other words, it is not the same idea of exchange in a loving human relation. Rather, God pours out His lovingkindness on people who are undeserving. His hesed is leading us to Him. As Paul writes in Romans 2,

God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

Now get this. The Psalm declares that “his steadfast love endures forever.” Endures forever. There is a sense of horizon in this world, forever. It conveys the sense of a temporal and spatial horizon. God’s hesed is on the other side of every boundary. We cannot outrun the love of God.

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39, ESV)

Our Redeemer is faithful to all generations. His lovingkindness leads us to repentance. And we are becoming the very praise of God. We are becoming prayer and praise to our God. Let me end by revisiting Psalm 100 through the words of The Message”

On your feet now—applaud God!
Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.
3  Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn’t make him.
We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.
4  Enter with the password: “Thank you!”
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.
5  For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever. (Psalm 100:1–5, MSG)

[1] Amy Grant, “Everywhere I Go,” on Unguarded (1985)

[2] From notes on Juvenecus. Written in Welsh, Irish, and Latin from the 10th century. Found in the margins of an illuminated manuscript of a 4th 
metrical Gospel by Juvencus.

Pentecost +3 2026
Dr. Christopher Graham
Psalm 50

Offer unto God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and pay your vows unto the Most High;
Whoever offers me a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me,

Over the summer, our preaching will draw attention to our readings from the Psalms. From a historical perspective, this needs little defense. The inclusion of the psalms in Christian worship has transcended the differences throughout the ages. Even in the Reformation, all sides kept the Psalms as an integral part of their worship. So that we keep the Psalms as a central part of our worship has a deep history.

And even the use of Psalms in preaching has been central to the life of the Church from its very earliest days. Having celebrated Ascension and Pentecost just two weeks ago, you may remember that OT poetry is central to Peter’s Pentecost sermon. But since most of our preaching does not focus on the psalms, it may be helpful to offer some comments as we move through our time this summer. Before we dive into Psalm 50 this morning, let me make just two observations.

First, there is a danger in preaching or teaching on the psalms. Because we are more comfortable with prose than poetry, I can preach, and you can expect that I preach, in a way that achieves the clarity and precision of prose. To approach the psalms as prose, though, robs the psalms of their inherent power as song. It’s like explaining a joke. It’s like condensing a beautifully complex novel into an outline. It’s taking Louis Armstrong’s:

Gimme a kiss to build a dream on
And my imagination
Will thrive upon that kiss
Sweetheart, I ask no more than this
A Kiss to build a dream on

It’s taking the power of that and putting it in the service of this dictionary entry for “kiss.” “Two people pressing their moist, creased facial orifices together, cinch tight the sphincter muscles to draw the flesh around the orifice into a bulbous mound, and exchange saliva and breathe.” Precise? Yes. Technically, that is, anatomically, correct? Yes. And yet. . . And yet we know that Louis Armstrong comes far nearer to capturing the essence of a

kiss than a Webster’s editor. And so, over the course of our sermons this summer, we need to be aware that our homilies should be in service to the psalms.

The second comment is to recognize our tendency to accept and acknowledge the power of song in our worship and in our daily lives, and yet dismiss the Psalms as an essential source for our knowledge of and life in God. It is a uniquely modern problem, in that we have placed our sources of knowledge in mutually exclusive categories and then exalted those that lead to rationalistic certainty. We prefer, then, the prose of the NT letters and the teaching of Jesus because they appear as straightforward conduits of knowledge. And yet, only 24% of the Bible is prose discourse, in the form of laws, sermons, letters. Roughly 33% of the Bible is poetry, including songs, reflective poetry, prophetic poetry, and proverbial poetry. If we confess that this is God’s own revelation of himself to us, it is a powerful thought that he chose to use the form of poetry to reveal himself through this medium as often as he does. And this should compel us to pay attention to it. (BTW: ~43% of the Bible is made up of narrative, from historical narrative to parables.)

Over the course of our series, I imagine that we will explore the power of poetry, of song, but it is enough for us to say today that as people committed to the Bible as God’s revelation of himself, we should be (or become) comfortable with approaching God through the Psalms, even with the imprecision, because God has ordained it as a primary means of moving our interaction with him. And this is a great transition to our psalm this morning because, it seems to me, this is precisely the point of that psalm. In fact, in our psalm today, praise is not merely primary it is central. The psalm crescendos not once but twice to the point of praise:

vv. 14-15 Offer unto God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and pay your vows unto the Most High;

V. 23 Whoever offers me a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me

But remember, these are not merely didactic teachings, exhortations, commissions to praise. These are refrains set in a three-part, or three stanza, song.

Part 1, vv. 1-7, and sets the stage, like songs sometimes do.

• It’s nine o’clock on a Saturday, the regular crowd stumbles in
• This is the day, This is the day that the Lord has made
• The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas

But what is the context of Psalm 50? A context oriented dominated by the awesome reality of the God. The Lord, even the most mighty God:

• Whose word has cosmic scope: called the world, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, He shall call to the heavens above, and to the earth beneath merism
• Whose is brilliantly splendid, dazzling. “Great Father of glory, pure Father of light, thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight; all praise we would render, O help us to see ’tis only the splendor of light hideth thee.”
• Whose word has local consequence: there shall go before him a consuming fire, and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him.

And this God does what? He summons his people to his courtroom:

v. 5-6: “Gather my faithful together unto me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” “And the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is Judge.

Nothing like being in the gallery. Watching the judge rule with wisdom and power! Alright, bring in the guilty, let’s get this party started

v. 7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak; I myself will testify against you, O Israel, for I am God, even your God.”

Uh-oh. As my kids would say “This got dark fast.” What did we do? Us? Why are we here in this place? Good songs like Psalm 50 evoke memories, and I can feel the pit in my own stomach. Reading verses 1-7 reminded me of the day just a few years ago when I was invited first thing in the morning to meet with the Chairman of the Board and with another Executive at the University I was at. I was less than a month into a deeply rewarding position and was rocking it! Oooh, I thought, what do they have for me next? A promotion would be odd, a raise even odder. And so when I sat down and they slid across a termination letter that told me to be out of my office by the end of the day, I was. . . wait, what? What did I do? What are you talking about?

Me? I had no idea? And so it is as we read Psalm 50 as God’s people. Why are we here? I’m glad you asked, because God answers:

He starts with what it is not: v. 8 I will not rebuke you because of your sacrifices, or for your burnt offerings, because they are always before me.

And yet, he called them to offer a sacrifice in v14. So what is the issue? Their perspective on God and their actions before God have gotten out of whack. In what sense? Well, this is the beautiful power of songs: I’m not sure it’s spelled out here. It is popular to read Psalm 50 in line with other passages in which they have fallen into a perfunctory action, so that their heart is not in it. But, I’m not sure that this is the issue given how the Psalm advances in vv.9-13. In these verses, God does not hold up a mirror to their lack of connection between action and heart. He reminds them of who He is in relation to their actions. There is no reason to believe that they were not sincerely and devoutly obeying God’s law in presenting the major offerings that He has called for. IT seems that they have lost perspective on the fact their service, their sacrifice are not done to prop up and sustain God. And, in turn, they have forgotten that everything they have—even the gifts they offer are from him—are his. Perhaps this is why he reminds them of his character and his ownership and then calls for them to offer that most unique of sacrifices. The sacrifice of thanksgiving. “Offer unto God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, // and pay your vows unto the Most High.” It is, then, with this perspective that when they run into trouble, they seek relief in other means other than.

Praise reorients perspective. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. . . give us this day our daily bread.”

When we acknowledge the God of verses 1-6—the God who owns everything—then we offer praise and we will call out for his provision.

 It is what U2 sings at the end of the prefatory reading this morning:

Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city
If it be your will.
What no man can own, no man can take.”

But these are not the only ones that God addresses. So also are those whom he calls, “ungodly.” Whew! Someone else is getting called on! Except, remember that everyone who has been summoned are the covenant people of God. So who are they? If the first group is very aware of God and are even suppliants to him in their sacrificial offering, those now addressed have forgotten God (v. 32). Those who hate to be disciplined, and have cast my words behind you? (v. 17-18) This, clearly, leads to a lack of integrity:

• They “recite God’s laws, and take his covenant in their mouths yet speak wickedness, and with your tongue you have set forth deceit (v. 16/19)
• They speak of covenants, but have taken part with adulterers (v.16/19).
• They have even used God’s laws to defend their wickedness (v. 20/21)

This lack of integrity is addressed throughout Scripture. It is this issue, the lack of integrity, that Jesus addressed frequently with his opponents. Their lack of perspective was tied to their lack of integrity.

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’;and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” Mark 7

 So what is the antidote: Whoever offers me a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me, and to him who orders his way aright will I show the salvation of God.”

The author of Hebrew also sees the connection between praise and doing good: “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Hebrews 13.

This reorienting and repairing happens several times through our liturgy. For example, we respond to

Alleluia Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed, once for all upon the Cross
Therefore let us keep the feast. Alleluia.

And then immediately we offer a prayer of humble access: We do not presume to come to this your table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your abundant and great mercies.” And our hymn “Jesus, Lamb of God: have mercy on us. Jesus, Bearer of our sins: have mercy on us Jesus, Redeemer, Redeemer of the world: grant us your peace, grant us your peace.” To which Fr. Doug will say: The Gifts of God for the People of God. Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your hearts by faith, with thanksgiving.”

Praise/thanksgiving – – recognition of who we are in proper perspective and with integrity – praise and thankgiving. Reorienting and repairing.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

Trinity Sunday 2026
Rev. Doug Floyd
Genesis 1:1-2:3, Psalm 150, 2 Corinthians 13:5-14, Matthew 28:16-20

In 431, St. Patrick went to Ireland as a missionary bishop. Years after being enslaved by an Irish noble, he returns with the Good News of Jesus Christ. St. Patrick and other servants of the Lord brought a message of the Triune God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Ireland appears to be one of the few cultures that readily embraced the Gospel message. There is no record of any martyrs in the conversion of the people. Why the Celts converted to readily deserves more discussion for another time. The teaching of the Triune God resonated with the Celts because they already had a fondness for the number 3 and even viewed one of their gods as three.

Today, I want to pause for a few moments over Patrick’s Breastplate. While we call it Patrick’s Breastplate, it is not likely that he wrote it. The first known appearance is not until the 11^th century and the text appears to date from the 8^th century or at least 300 years after Patrick. By naming it after Patrick, it may be a way of honoring his teaching or increasing the value of this prayer in the Celtic memory.

The prayer can help us think through how the Irish began to think about and apply the church’s teaching on the Trinity. This prayer is in the form of a Caim, an ancient Celtic ritual of protection. The Celts and many other ancient tribal cultures felt the world around them was inhabited by active spiritual powers. We even see this way of thinking in early American stories such as Young Goodman Brown.

People would learn rituals to protect themselves from the power at hand be it a spirit of the water, a god of the forest, or even a power of the heavens. Consider Grimm’s Fairy Tales or The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. In these stories, the forest can be a refuge, but it can also be a dangerous place with forces that might bring destruction.

The teaching that One God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit was the Creator and supreme power over creation gave the people hope. In Christ, they realized that all powers and principalities must submit to the Lord. Even though our late modern world mostly rejects the ideas of spiritual powers all around us, people still fear powers. The power of the economy, of certain leaders, of an ecological crisis and more.

This prayer or breastplate is a prayer of protection. The Celtic monk setting out on a journey, might take a stick and draw a circle around him in the dirt. He might also trace a circle above him and recite these words:

Today I gird myself with a mighty power,
Invocation of the Trinity.
Belief in the threeness, affirmation of the oneness.
In the Creator’s presence.

He is invoking God. Encircle me. And yet, He is recognizing that the Lord of creation is Three persons, One God. Jesus reveals the Father, and in so doing, reveals there is not another angry God behind him. The King of the Universe loves His creation and has acted for our redemption.

The next part of the prayer focuses upon the story of Jesus Christ:

Today I gird myself
With the power of Christ’s birth together with his baptism,
With the power of his crucifixion together with his burial,
With the power of his resurrection together with his ascension,
With the power of his descent to pronounce judgment of Doomsday.

The monk is covering himself in a garment of protection. Look at the pairings in each verse. He has traveled through the entire liturgical year in one prayer.

With the power of Christ’s birth together with his baptism,

He begins with Christmas Day, Christ’s birth. Christ’s baptism is Epiphany, the revealing of Jesus as God’s Son by witness of the Father and the Spirit.

Next he moves to Holy Week. Christ’s death and burial:

With the power of his crucifixion together with his burial,

The prayer moves through Easter to Ascension:

With the power of his resurrection together with his ascension,

And finally, he comes to Advent. The watch for the second coming of the Lord.

With the power of his resurrection together with his ascension,

This stanza leads us through the entire year of adoration of Christ.

Time and space are enveloped by the story of Jesus Christ. He is present. Do not fear. The powers may appear great and mighty but they cannot stop the love of Christ.

Now he turns to the great communion saints and angels that encircle him and all creation:

Today I gird myself
With the power of the order of the Cherubim,
With the Obedience of angels,
With the ministry of archangels.
With the hope of resurrection,
For the sake of reward,
With the prayers of the patriarchs.
With the predictions of the prophets,
With the precepts of the apostles,
With the faith of confessors,
With the innocence of holy virgins,
With the deeds of righteous people.

He moves through the orders of angels, which would have been of great interest to many generations before us. Consider our own Eucharistic prayer leading to the Sanctus:

Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven, who forever sing this hymn to 
proclaim the glory of your Name

Just as he names saints across the ages, we name saints in our prayers of the people and in our prayer of sanctification:

Sanctify us also, that we may worthily receive this holy sacrament, and be made one body with him, so that he may dwell in us and we in him. And bring us with the Virgin Mary, St Brendan, Joan of Arc, Justin Martyr, Blandina and Her Companions, and all your saints into the fullness of your heavenly kingdom, where we shall see our Lord face to face.

Now the Celtic Monk does something unusual, he includes the forces of nature in his prayer:

Today I gird myself
With the strength of heaven,
Light of the sun.
Brightness of the moon,
Brilliance of fire.
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind.
Depth of sea,
Firmness of earth,
Stability of rock.

He appears to call upon the properties within creation for protection. At first, this might seem like a bit of left-over paganism, and that may be possible. But I just finished reading through Job again. What stood out to me in this reading, were the references to the created order and how it reveals God. The Psalmist and the Prophets also incorporate the created order to discuss God’s sovereign rule. Even today, we opened with an extended reading from Genesis on the creation story. By introducing this reading today, we are being invited to consider how the Triune God creates the world and sustains it by His presence.

In a language that supersedes human words, all creation is engaged a chorus of worship. The Psalmist writes, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1)

Now back to the monk. He lives in a pre-industrialized world. No great building or factories. He and his people are directly subject to the forces of nature: good and bad. If he lives on the coast, he beholds the roaring ocean. In fact, some monks chose to live in caves above the waves. While we live separated from creation in our air conditioned homes and grocery stores, the monk is a part of the creation and all the glories and terrors of the world.

The stories of Scripture help him to focus on God’s continuing role in sustaining His creation. Even in the world that surrounds him, he can see God’s hand of protection. We live in world more separated from creation, and yet, we enjoy the glory of trees, grass, flowers, and more. But we also live in houses that humans have built. We drive cars, ride on roads, fly in planes and use all sorts of objects that humans have made. Could we not see all these human-made creations as part of God’s vast creation? He creates and sustains us. Like their Creator, humans make things. It is wrong to worship the natural world, and it is also wrong to worship the work of human hands. But we might give God praise for these gifts and seek to use them for His glory.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17, ESV)

Today I gird myself
With the strength of God to direct me,
The might of God to exalt me,
The mind of God to lead me,
The eye of God to watch over me,
The ear of God to hear me,
The word of God to speak to me,
The hand of God to defend me,
The path of God to go before me,
The shield of God to guard me,
The help of God to protect me
Against the snares of demons,
Against the temptation of vices,
Against the tendencies of nature,
Against everyone who will wish me ill,
Far and near, Among few and among many.

In this stanza and the next, the monk mentions a series of threat to his spiritual life, his health, and every person or power that might seek him harm. In beautiful recitation of God loving kindness toward us, he names and reflects on all these images associated with God’s protection: strength, might, mind, eye, ear, word, hand, path, shield, and help. The Psalmist will use similar images to reflect on God’s protection. Lists like this and those found in the Psalms, give us opportunity to pause and meditate upon God and all His attributes.

For the sake of time, I am going to jump over the next stanza which continues to name threats and consider one of the most beloved aspects of this prayer.

May Christ be with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ to my right, Christ to my left, Christ where I lie down, Christ where I sit, Christ where I stand, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me, Christ in every eye which looks on me, Christ in every ear which hears me.

Wow. This is so beautiful. I’ve typed this on a card before and recited it wherever I went. Kelly and I often pray this over one another as we step out into the new day. This stanza drives home the truth that our confession of the Triune God is not simply abstraction doctrine. It reminds us the we are not alone. Christ is present by His Holy Spirt. He is present in every aspect of our lives. As we begin to get a sense of the magnitude of this prayer, we may come to see that our doctrine of the Trinity is a gift of assurance. We are not and never will be alone. God is present. Even if we face danger or sickness or pain or even death, Christ is present by the Spirit.

Our breastplate ends with a reaffirmation of God’s presence and our hope:

Today I gird myself
With a mighty power, Invocation of the Trinity,
Belief in the Threeness,
Proclamation of the Oneness,
In the Creator’s presence.
Salvation is of the Lord,
Salvation is of the Lord,
Salvation is of Christ,
May your salvation Lord, be always with us.

We rejoice in the faithfulness of our God. “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD; O praise the LORD.”

Pentecost 2026 – Witnesses
Rev. Doug Floyd
Genesis 11:1-9, Psalm 104:24–35, Acts 2:1-11, John 14:8-17

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, ESV)

The disciples are waiting and praying and seeking the Lord. They gather with the women, with Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. As Christopher pointed out last week, the miracle is that they have not scattered. At His crucifixion and death, the disciples scattered, but now they wait. Christ called them to wait, and they obey.

Jesus told them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”” (Luke 24:46–49, ESV)

They are staying, waiting, watching, praying. The day of Pentecost arrives and suddenly a mighty rushing wind fills the house. Tongues of fire come down upon them. They are all filled with the Holy Spirit.

This morning, let’s briefly pause over this verse from last week: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, ESV)

The Spirit will make them (and us) witnesses, and they (and we) will eventually bear witness to the ends of the earth.

In Acts 1, we hear Jesus say, “You will be my witnesses.” You will bear witness what you have seen and heard of Jesus Christ. You have seen and heard and even touched. Now you must speak. Thus, the Spirit comes upon them in tongues of fire. Tongues set on fire by the Spirit of the Living God.

The disciples and the people of God often struggle to bear witness. Think about life in general. Humans love to speak what they barely know. I have often been guilty of saying more than I know and even being ready to argue about it. Usually days later, I tell Kelly well it looks like you were right after all.

Whether online or in person, we can communicate with such confidence though in reality we speak in fragments. It is difficult to admit we are always learning up until the day we die.

In 1970, Bob Dylan sang “My Back Pages.” He sings,

Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
“Rip down all hate,” I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now[1]

The prophet must face his limitations. In this song, Dylan confesses that he realizes life is more complex than he understood. I love this last line,

Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

My own life has often been the journey of humility. Of recognizing, I know less than I once thought I knew. If we follow the lives of these Apostles, we come to see that even as they are empowered to be witness, the Spirit is making the true witnesses over time.

Zeal for the Lord consumed Paul even as he sought to consume the early church in a fire of judgment. Then the Lord confronts him. He is broken. That same driven Pharisee comes face to face with his own lack. In Philippians 3, Paul confesses his ongoing pursuit to know the truth, that is to know Christ.

“though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:4–11, ESV)

Even as Paul writes, he is still in pursuit of Christ. He has not mastered a set of ideas, a series of doctrinal formulations, a confession of faith. He is pursuing the person of Jesus Christ. In this pursuit, he recognizes his own weakness. This fiery preacher of the Gospel who has set the empire ablaze with the truth of Jesus Christ, confesses, “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” (1 Corinthians 15:9, ESV)

He has grown weaker over time. It’s not that he doubts the message and person of Jesus Christ, it that he acknowledges he is a weak vessel. He needs God’s Spirit to keep leading him to Jesus, to keep speaking through him to reveal Jesus. He needs the grace of God to bear witness to the risen Lord.

While we seek to learn of Jesus and study our faith and even the history of our church, we also recognize our absolute dependence on the Spirit of God to make us true witnesses of Jesus Christ. In that sense, life is a continual turning to Christ, a continual cry for mercy, a continual pattern of humbling myself under the mighty hand of God and before the people of God.

We learn from each other. My heart must always be open to criticism or correction or wisdom for I used to be so much older then but I’m younger than that now. I realize I need you. We all need each other as we all pursue Christ together.

It might help to consider a single human life to understand how we are becoming true witnesses. A baby is born. It cannot speak. The babe can breathe, cry. The Greek word for breath or wind is Pnuema, spirit. The Spirit of God is likened to wind or breath. A babe cannot articulate words, but it can breathe. In that simple state she is still bearing witness to the miracle of life, the gift of God. As the child grows, she learns to repeat words and even speak sentences. She is gradually become an articulation of God’s grace in word and deed.

As she grows up in a faith community, she sings song of faith, to physically acts out faith in bowing, in communion, in embracing, in praying, in blessing others. The witness of God is taking shape in and through her over time. By the Spirit of God, she is becoming a witness of Jesus Christ.

By God’s grace her words and deeds are uniting in the love of Christ. Eventually, she will grow old and frail. I sat with a dear friend this week who ended up dying yesterday. He spent his life speaking about Christ to people all over the world. On Thursday, he could barely speak. He had quit eating. Like a babe, he would wake, breathe, sleep.

In these last moments of life, he was bearing witness to Christ. The Spirit of God is work in and through Him to reveal God’s grace and truth. On Saturday he fell asleep one last time and his breath left, expired. He followed the Spirit of God into the bosom of Christ and rests in God’s love where one day, he will rise in Christ as a true and perfect witness.

We are all following in His steps. The Spirit is bearing witness in and through us now and will one day take us into the fullness of love.

Back to the disciples. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, ESV)

Listen to the second half of the verse: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The disciples will bear witness to Jesus in Jerusalem, but it doesn’t stop there. They continue to all Judea and then Samaria and finally to the ends of the earth. Philip is on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza when he meets an Ethiopian eunuch. He answers the eunuch’s questions and baptizes him. Then suddenly he is passing through Azotus on the way to Caesarea. These are Hellenist cities that contain Jews and other populations. Paul and Barnabas eventually travel throughout the empire preaching to Jews and Gentiles. We see the Spirit calling His saints beyond Jerusalem toward the ends of the earth.

As we think about this witness of Christ going to the ends of the earth, let’s return to the day of Pentecost. Peter is preaching the Gospel. We read in Acts 2:6, “And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.” (Acts 2:6, ESV) Then we read a list of the various people visiting from different regions. They are not hearing the word in Hebrew but in their own language: “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—..hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”” (Acts 2:9–11, ESV)

The Spirit is working through Peter to address people in their own languages. This fits with our first reading where we encounter the story of the tower of Babel. People are speaking one language. They’re building a tower. But the Lord frustrates their plans by separating their languages, then they disperse all over the face of the earth. This week I read a reflection on Pentecost by Christine Sine.[2] She references Welsh theologian Dewi Hughes. He suggests that the confusing of languages in the Babel story reinforces God’s intent to spread people across the ends of the earth, speaking different languages.

The Pentecost story reinforces this idea of keeping distinct cultures and languages. There is a beauty in the particularity of different cultures and people groups. At the same time, there is a beauty in the particularity of each person. We are united in Christ not in external factors of language and dress.

As we worship together and share life while remaining particular people with unique perspectives on the world. We learn from one another. Over the years, I’ve had a series of experiences that reflected my own misunderstanding of how the Spirit moves. When I was young, I dreamed of people falling and crying out to God when I preached like the Great Awakening. That never happened.

One night I dreamed I was trying to share with a guy, but he kept arguing with me. In the dream, I shrunk down small enough to enter his brain and change his thoughts so he would agree with me. Instantly, I woke up realizing I wanted power to control him, and that’s not the way of the Spirit. His lovingkindness leads us to repentance not power, not control.

The difficulty is that people will not always agree with us. The goal is not to associate only with people who agree with us. Nor is it to find a rock-solid argument that no one can deny. We humbly speak and humbly listen.

We simply live out our witness in word and deed, recognizing that we are frail and sometimes mistaken. We trust that the Spirit will translate our fumbling attempts to share Christ into a true word that another person can hear. Then we entrust them to God. Sometimes the most angry people are at the very edge of faith. We simply don’t know. We love. We bear witness, and we trust God’s goodness.

On this glorious day of Pentecost, I am thankful that the Spirit of God has been poured out upon each of us. He is opening our eyes and ears to Christ. He is strengthening us to worship. And he is raising us up as witness to our risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

[1] “My Back Pages” on < https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/my-back-pages/>

[2] Christine Sine, “Meditation Monday – Pentecost Has Come.” < https://godspacelight.com/meditation-monday-pentecost-has-come/>

Ascension Sunday 2026
Dr. Christopher Graham
Acts 1:1-14, Psalm 47, 1 Peter 5, John 17:1-11

“At Easter, beloved brethren, it was the Lord’s resurrection which was the cause of our joy; our present rejoicing is on account of his ascension into heaven. With all due solemnity, we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up, in Christ, above all the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond the highest heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvellous when, in spite of the withdrawal from men’s sight of everything that is rightly felt to command their reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold.
Even the blessed apostles, though they had been strengthened by so many miracles and instructed by so much teaching, took fright at the cruel suffering of the Lord’s passion and could not accept his resurrection without hesitation. Yet they made such progress through his ascension that they now found joy in what had terrified them before. They were able to fix their minds on Christ’s divinity as he sat at the right hand of his Father, since what was presented to their bodily eyes no longer hindered them from turning all their attention to the realisation that he had not left his Father when he came down to earth, nor had he abandoned his disciples when he ascended into heaven.

St. Leo the Great, Sermon 74, “On the Ascension II.” 

——–

Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.”

A few weeks ago, we considered the fact that by God’s electing and calling Word, we are composed and re-composed in spite of the voices that seek to distort us and de-compose us. Even some of our own voices. And you may remember that Peter himself heard and struggled with that when he heard Jesus say, “Follow Me,” but Peter’s own voices caused him to doubt as he looked over and saw the beloved disciple.

Of course, that interaction follows the interaction in which three times, Jesus asks “Simon, of John, do you love Me?” with Peter saying “Yes,” to which Jesus commands: Feed my Sheep. It is, of course, a rhetorically poignant interaction because it is juxtaposed to Peter’s three denials and ultimate abandonment of Jesus. We would assume that Peter had this in mind at some point in the interaction or perhaps in reflection. I have also assumed that Peter has another episode in his time with Jesus in mind during or reflecting on this thrice-repeated command “Feed my Sheep.”

Those words are found earlier in John when Jesus says: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters the flock. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me (John 10:11–14)

Do you feel the gravity of Jesus’s call on Peter? Jesus, the one who said “I AM the Good Shepherd,” then calls Peter, the one who said three times when asked if he was associated with Jesus “I am NOT.” Jesus asked that Peter to be the Shepherd of his sheep! 

But something clicks with Peter. He and the other disciples must get it.  How do we know? Because as we read in Acts, he does something he didn’t do in the face of Jesus first departure. He and the other disciples don’t scatter like sheep when the shepherd is struck. For as spectacular as the actual ascension is in our reading from Acts, it is also remarkable that after that event, “they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer.”

And these disciples, Peter among them, who were scattered and distraught over three days, now wait for ten days. And so, the sheep become a Shepherd. What a remarkable turn!

As we read in our preparatory reading from Leo the Great: “Even the blessed apostles, though they had been strengthened by so many miracles and instructed by so much teaching, took fright at the cruel suffering of the Lord’s passion and could not accept his resurrection without hesitation. Yet they made such progress through his ascension that they now found joy in what had terrified them before.”

And as if that is not enough, Peter then reminds us throughout his letter that the ones called by God and set apart by God then do the work of the Shepherd themselves. Though they are scattered, as he describes the recipients in the opening of the letter, they are called and set apart as the singular people of God. In the next chapter he says it more directly:

For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.  (2:25)

 And the readers—the original ones and those ever since—haven’t even seen Jesus. Of course, this shouldn’t surprise us, Jesus in his prayer recorded in John, of which we heard some this morning, prays:

Just as You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. ²⁰ “I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² The glory which You have given Me I also have given to them, so that they may be one, just as We are one.  (John 17:18–22)

We heard many of these points echoed in our reading from 1 Peter 5 this morning:

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: ² Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them . . . ³ not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. ⁴ And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

And so, we are reminded again that we have been called into communion with God in the protection of the Chief Shepherd.  This Chief Shepherd, who is, today, exalted at the right hand of the Father. The earliest and most common images in Christianity are of the shepherd carrying a sheep. The good news is not only that Christ, the Shepherd was slain as a lamb for us as his sheep. That Christ is once again alive and serves as our shepherd even now. The one who Peter says in our passage we can cast our cares upon. So we can pray as we did this morning:

“send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.”

And because this Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father and poured out his Spirit, as we will celebrate next week, we  can now serve as his  under-shepherd. As those who are , as Peter calls is, a royal priesthood who represents him to the world.

Easter 6 – Suffering
Dr. Christopher Graham
1 Peter 4

Therefore, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

As we have read Peter’s letter, we have focused on the household of God as one of Wisdom, a household in which we are composed and tuned by the Word. A household which, because of this Wisdom and Word, is set in contrast to the culture that seeks to distort that Word. In all of this, we have managed to skirt the issue that stands clearly in Peter’s mind in writing the letter: suffering. In his opening salutation, he says: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.” And he speaks of suffering throughout the letter before turning fully to it in chapter 4, which he ends with the words I read for us just a moment ago: “Therefore, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”

Because of its ubiquity in our world, there are many, many treatments of suffering that offer insight. There are, of course, many Scriptural passages that we could draw from this morning to consider suffering. This morning, though, we are not concerned with giving a comprehensive or definitive statement on suffering. This morning, we want to hear what Peter has to say about how the Gospel intersects with suffering. To do this, I am going to offer three paths that are tempting to take on this issue and then consider how Peter’s teaching provides insight into the truth about it.

So, first, there is a temptation to believe that those who are in the house of Wisdom and the Word are immune from suffering. There have been large swaths of those throughout the history of the Church who have made the claim that the Christian life is incompatible with suffering. In the earliest days, there was the pernicious belief that feeling of any sort, but especially suffering, was antithetical to the nature of the divine. Therefore, not only was suffering impossible for those who followed Christ, but Christ himself couldn’t have suffered as the divine Son of God. In our day, there are, of course, those who claim that suffering is somehow antithetical to the new life that Christ and the Spirit have ushered in and that health, wealth, and prosperity are the signs of the Christian life. For as easy as it is to target these groups, it is equally easy to forget that there are some close to us, even perhaps some of us in this room, who put a chasm between the Christian life and suffering.

I was reminded of this just a few weeks ago as a debate played out on the news. It began when one Church leader in a denomination very similar to ours sounded a warning that we may be facing days in the United States when Christians will face persecution and even martyrdom. While his statement is sobering and worth critiquing, it was not what caught my attention. What caught my attention was the reaction of another Church leader, a pastor, in that same denomination who said “I didn’t sign up to be a martyr. . . .”I have a family a congregation who rely on me. If I was gone tomorrow what would happen to them?”

As Peter makes clear, however, suffering remains a reality even for those who have been called by God as his people. In fact,  he says in our passage today, “do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you; ¹³ but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that at the revelation of His glory you may also rejoice and be overjoyed. ¹⁴ If you are insulted ^[k]for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, and of God, rests upon you.” (4:12-14).

And in the previous chapter:

For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God. . . (3:17-18)

And this is where the Gospel meets suffering. That the Jesus we meet each week has suffered such that He has brought us to God. That the words of institution we hear each week remind us that we are invited each week to commune with the one who has suffered and that in doing so we meet one who, in the words of Hebrews can “sympathize with our weaknesses . . . One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin. And Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.” (Hebrews 4)

This fact leads to a second potential misstep, and that is to try to identify, categorize, and define the root of the suffering, thinking that knowing the “why” will bring relief. This is the error of Job’s friends. It is one thing to acknowledge that even Peter speaks to the multiple sources of suffering.

• The clash of the way of life of those who are called by the Word and set apart by the Spirit with those who are not.
• Brokenness of the world
• Brokenness of ourselves
• Supernatural forces, as Peter points out in the next chapter “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 5:8

I have yet to find the proof text that shows that God promises to reveal the root cause of any case of suffering. Either now or in the future, even in the new heavens and new earth.

But the good news is this, that God calls us into a House of the Word and Wisdom. Where our goal is not to seek knowledge of the root cause of suffering but to place ourselves in the protection of the Word, the Good Shepherd. The Lord spoken of in our Old Testament reading this morning:

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. (Isaiah 41:17)

To seek the wisdom given by the Spirit about God’s will. As Paul prays for the Colossians that they may know God’s will by the wisdom given by the Spirit. It is a wisdom gained by God’s people. The people at St. Brendan’s know a thing or two about suffering.

The final temptation is to relent and to believe that suffering has the final word. But the words that I read at the beginning disabuse us of that.  Therefore, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

The way God will work in the future is tied to what God has done in the past through His Word and by His Spirit. In this verse, he encouraged those who suffer to entrust their souls to God as the “Creator.”  This is the God we will confess in just a few moments, who is the creator of all things, visible and invisible. The God who created all things through his Word and by his Spirit, the giver of life.

Because as Peter will say in the next chapter, “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” 5:10

As our Psalm reminded us this morning, God will vindicate. And in the words of our hymn, one little word shall fell him.  And as we confess, “He will come to judge the living and the dead. . .” we are reminded of his word of promise and we are moved to right living. Paul says to the Thessalonians “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

Easter 5 2026
Rev. Doug Floyd
1 Peter 3

Our reading in 1 Peter 3 opens with an exhortation about the false beauty of braiding your hair or wearing gold jewelry. In light of this reading, we might be preaching to primary school or middle school girls. “Don’t braid your hair!”

The Bible is filled with exhortations that may leave us scratching our heads. Don’t wear mixed fabrics! Don’t round the corners of your hair or marr the corners of your beard! I must confess that I’ve been guilty of that. While I’m at it, I must confess that I did braid my mullet back in the 1980s.

I’ve been teaching my critical thinking class about ethics, and this week we watched a video about moral behavior in Scripture. The speaker called the Bible a divine rulebook and puzzled over these strange commands. His first mistake was reading the Bible as a divine rulebook. On the other hand, he has a point about the strangeness of some commands.

How are we to read Peter’s exhortation today? First, we might back up and think about the commands in the Old Testament. If you read the narrative and commands as a whole, you begin to encounter a book of revelation, a book of wisdom, a book of worship all rooted in the fear of the Lord. While we may not always understand the context for every passage, we can trust that the texts are ultimately training a people to trust in the Lord, become a holy people, treat one another rightly, and make wise decisions.

But here’s the catch: not all decisions are between a good and a bad option. In some dilemmas, all options look bad. We opened the letter of 1 Peter by talking about the church as a house of wisdom. As we read Peter, we see that the church is the Temple made of living stones. I would suggest this living Temple is a house of wisdom. It is the gathered community of faith worshipping the Lord.

Once Christ comes, He is the Temple, and we are baptized into Him. Thus, the people in the community of faith, which we call the church, have become the body of Christ. That is the Temple of the Lord: the house of Wisdom. The people of God gather in worship, humbling ourselves before God and one another. As we face difficult circumstances and make hard decisions. We cry out to God and we consult one another for wisdom.

The people that Peter addresses are facing varying challenges, but we know that they do not feel at home anymore in their given cultures. The culture is pagan and follows practices that are forbidden to disciples of Christ. How were they supposed to live? Some people today feel like our country has become an alien culture and they pine for yesteryear. How do you live in the place where you stand?

In 1 Peter 2, slaves were encouraged to respect their masters. In fact, all the people were exhorted to be subject to the rulers and even honor the emperors. Just as a reminder, many of these emperors were perverse men guilty of all sorts of crimes. They would make our political landscape look like child’s play. How could the people be subject to these men and even honor them?

Before I answer these questions, let me jump down to the end of chapter 3 when Peter mentions that Jesus went down to the spirits in prison and preached to them and then went up to the right hand of the Father. How are we to make sense of this strange passage? Some have suggested this points to the harrowing of hell when Jesus rescues people trapped in the dragon’s lair: that is Sheol or Hades, the place of the dead. Peter is drawing from all sorts of imagery, and it may be difficult to parse all this out.

He is talking about Jesus’ death. Though His body was dead, His Spirit was alive. Many in the church have often suggested that this and other passages refers to Jesus bringing the saints of the past up from Sheol and with him up into heaven. It has also been pictured as a time when Jesus tells the dark powers and principalities that their rule of evil is over. There are more difficulties in the passage, but we will pause there for now.

Peter mentions the ark of Noah and baptism. These images carry nuances of death and resurrection. When the world was destroyed by flood, Noah and his family descended into the dead of the flood but then are raised to new life and new creation. We follow Christ in the way of the cross. Jesus suffered and was rejected by men and died on a cross. In his death, He defeats the power of death and prepares the way for us and those faithful saints in the Old Testament to follow into heaven at the right seat of the Father, far above all powers and principalities. This is not simply a future event, this is the reality of our baptism.  We rehearse our suffering, death and burial in the watery grace even as we rehearse our resurrection in Christ and our entrance into new life and new creation. We may not normally grasp the reality of our glorious estate, but New Testament writers reiterate this truth again and again.

With this in mind, the communities Peter addresses and even our community learn that we are safe in the love of God no matter what our culture looks like. He is working through us to bring His redeeming grace to this world. We are not subject to the rule of evil in this world. While we honor rulers and we obey the laws, we are citizens of heaven dwelling on earth. As sojourners, we live quiet and honorable lives with those around us and the authorities over us. Our new estate changes our behavior.

1 Peter 3 begins, “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,” (1 Peter 3:1, ESV).

Peter is continuing an argument from 1 Peter 2, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:18–21, ESV)

Servants submit to Masters following the model of Christ. Even as Christ suffered and died, he made a way to restore us and all humanity to God. As respectful and obedient servants, the people of God bear witness to Christ. If they suffer for doing right, they are following Christ and bearing witness to His saving grace. Their life and action may prepare the way for their Master and others to come to faith.

Peter says, “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,” (1 Peter 3:1, ESV). Paul makes a similar argument in 1 Corinthians 7. “To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.” (1 Corinthians 7:12–15, ESV).

1 Peter 3:1 is exhorting wives of unbelievers that they may win their husbands to faith through their conduct. This is not an invitation to be abused but simply to live with the unbeliever in hopes that the believer might be an instrument of salvation. This applies beyond the home. We live in the world this way. We may have unbelieving supervisors or unbelieving leaders in government, but we honor them and try to live good and quiet lives that we might somehow be an instrument of their salvation.

Now let’s go back to the braided hair and gold jewelry. It appears that braided hair and gold jewelry are images of beauty in that culture. The culture has defined female beauty in a certain way. It also defines male success and power in a certain way. But we do not submit to those cultural powers. How many girls and women have felt ugly because they did not look like what the culture tells them is beautiful?

Dove used to have a commercial where artists interview women about their looks and draw their picture. Many of the women broke down in tears when they saw their pictures because they could not see their own beauty. They failed to meet cultural standards. Culture as a whole shames women who don’t fit into a standard that fits a very small percentage of women. In Scripture, the standard of beauty is Jesus Christ, his life poured out in love. Men and women are both called to this inner beauty of the heart. If one woman braids her hair and another woman does not, it is not a big deal. But all of them seek “our adorning to be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” (1 Peter 3:4, ESV)

Therefore, the wisdom of Christ is to make women dress in this way or that, and it’s not to tell men to cut their hair above their ears, but rather it is to “have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:8–9, ESV). Or as Peter says in chapter 2, “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (1 Peter 2:16–17, ESV).

Men and women should not seek their self-value in the size of their paycheck but in the goodness of God in Christ. Some people will make more money, and some will make less. True value comes in living as an image of God’s love in our community and our world.

Paul makes a similar appeal in Romans 12, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1–2, ESV).

This is not a command to avoid movies, music, gambling, and alcohol. Once again, it is an encouragement not to let cultural values constrain you. Paul continues his thought in Romans 12 by saying,  “by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Romans 12:2–5, ESV)

Your life and your gifts are given by God to serve one another. The rest of Romans 12 details the way we serve one another.

This spirit of humbling ourselves and pouring out our lives begins in the family and the church, but it spreads outward into our jobs, our networks, our community, and even our world. I believe this is the argument Peter is making. We are redeemed in Christ. We are loved by God. As His beloved children, we serve one another and the world as a holy priesthood in humility of spirit and tenderness of heart. Our lives became a witness to the principalities and powers that Christ is victorious and His love will ultimately conquer sin and death.

Amen.

Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday
Rev. Doug Floyd
1 Peter 2

Peter writes a letter of encouragement to the communities of faith dispersed across the empire. The surrounding culture does not understand these communities gathered in and the name of Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. The world around them simply cannot understand their devotion to Christ. Some believers will be mocked, some will lose social status, some may lose jobs, and eventually, some will suffer and even die at the hands of unbelievers.

We don’t live in the same era as these early Christians. And yet, our culture often misunderstands the call of Christ and even a belief in God. When Peter encourages these early communities, he encourages us.

We’ve talked about how the gathered believers are like a house of wisdom where we learn to live our faith in worship and through one another. We gather around Christ, and He speaks, “Peace!” This is a real and tangible gift of peace from the throne of God. As Christopher reminded us last week, we rehearse this word of Christ with one another as we declare, “Peace to You.”

In chapter 2, Peter reminds us of Christ’s presence and our participation in that very presence. We see an image of Christ feeding us with His very life, with Christ as a living stone, and of Christ as the Good Shepherd. Each of these images offers implications for our response to the presence of the living Christ among us.

In 1 Peter 2:1, we read, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—” (1 Peter 2:2, ESV). This passage connects with the final words of chapter one, “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:24–25, ESV)

Christ is the Living Word, the enlivening Spirit who teaches us, cares for us, nourishes us, and provides for all our needs. Peter explicitly says that we are like newborn infants. Here is a metaphor we may not usually think of: we may not think of ourselves as newborn infants. An infant cannot do much. It can drink whatever the parent provides. It can cry out in hunger. It reveals total rest or trust in the parent’s provision.

An infant cannot look around at other infants and wonder if they are receiving more or better attention. Peter says, “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter 2:1–3, ESV)

In these little communities of faith, the people are not in competition for the blessing of the Lord. Instead, they all come hungry, weak, and dependent on God’s provision. He meets them and us in our weakness, our fears, our struggles. We sing His praise, we hear His Word, we call upon Him to meet our needs, we gather around His table and feed upon His life poured out for us. When we are away from the communities of faith in our lives, we rehearse His faithful in Scripture, prayer, confession, and worship. He alone can feed us with the everlasting life that will strengthen us and help us to grow up into Him.

Next, Peter calls Jesus the Living Stone, and us living stones. He says, “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4–5, ESV)

We’ve talked about how the gathered community is a house of wisdom. This house that is made up of living stones is the dwelling place of God, the Temple. No longer built in physical stone, the Temple is a living Temple of Jesus Christ and His people. Ephesians emphasizes this same image. In chapter two Paul writes,

“And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:17–22, ESV)

The Jews and Gentiles are built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, with Christ being the chief cornerstone. Instead of thinking of a cornerstone at the base of a structure, think of the chief as the stone at the top of the arch that holds both sides together. He is holding together Jews and Gentiles as one people, as living stones, as a Temple that is growing up into the Lord.

Peter uses a similar image in chapter 2. Christ is the Living Stone and we are living stones. We are all growing up into Christ. Thus, we might say that the true house of wisdom is a Living Temple where God dwells with His people. Together, we serve Him as priests of the Lord. We are a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices before God. Together we stand before God and lift one voice in worship and in prayer for our families, our community, our world. Then together we are fed by our Lord. He gives us Himself, His life, His Spirit, and He sends us out as priests to a world in need. To love and care for people, to pray for those in need, to bless people, and to bear witness to His goodness and grace.

In the final words of this chapter, Peter speaks of Jesus as the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. Before we consider this, listen to what Peter says first.

“Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:13–24, ESV)

We live in a world of just and unjust rulers: from dictators to presidents to governors to local leaders to managers and supervisors to law enforcement. At many levels of our lives, someone may exert authority. Some rulers will serve the Lord to punish evildoers and praise the righteous. At other times, rulers may exhibit ungodly behaviors and even cruel and unjust actions. Peter exhorts the people follow the pattern of Christ who defeated the ultimate power of evil. Jesus demonstrated a resistance to rulers by obeying His Father in heaven. He humbled himself even unto death.

We follow the Lord. He is our true sovereign. We seek to honor earthly rulers while obeying the Lord. We honor other people, our fellow believers, our supervisors, our leaders. We don’t want to suffer for doing evil, but if we suffer for righteous behavior, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. We must not assume that our ideas about how to govern are better than what we currently experience.

Douglas Harinck writes, “All existing social orders, even those regimes established on the constructs of emancipation and human rights, are always only systems of relative justice and injustice.”[1] We may seek for justice in this world, but we acknowledge that only the Lord can ultimately bring true justice, true shalom.

As priests in the world, we model the life of the kingdom of God. We seek to speak and act in ways that honor the Lord and others. All the while, we realize that Jesus, our Good Shepherd, promises to lead us, guide us, and protect us. Jesus is leading us forward. Think of our Psalm today.

1 The Lord is my shepherd; *
therefore I can lack nothing.

I can rest completely in His provision. He alone is faithful and trustworthy.

2 He shall feed me in green pastures *
and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort.
3 He shall refresh my soul *
and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness for his Name’s sake.

He will meet my needs. I entrust every need to him. Needs for physical strength, food, health. As well as needs for peace and joy and even pleasure. But times will come when I face dark clouds and the future may be unclear.  

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; *
for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me.

The saints of God have found comfort in this promise across the ages. Many people face actual death with the trust of God’s provision in their hearts. Whether we live or die, He is present. He will not forget us. He will not forsake us.

5 You shall prepare a table before me, in the presence of those who trouble me; *
you have anointed my head with oil, and my cup shall be full.

The Lord can and will comfort us even during great trials. And strangely, we can know deep joy and great sorrow at the same time. They are often intertwined in life’s journey. So we trust our good and gracious Lord.

6 Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, *
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

God’s presence and promises go before us and behind us, above us and below us. All around us. We rest in Him now and in the age to come.

With this in mind, let us hunger and thirst for God’s Living Word like newborn infants. Let us live in this world as priests of God, worshipping Him, interceding before Him, feeding on Him, bringing His redeeming grace to our world. Finally, let us go forth as sheep following the Good Shepherd who is faithful to the end and beyond.

I thought of the U2 song, Grace, while writing these words. Here are a few lines,

Grace
She takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name

……

She carries a pearl
In perfect condition
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings

Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

The Lord is good and worthy of all praise. Amen.

[1] Douglas Harink, 1 & 2 Peter, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2009), 81.