Proper 28 / Ordinary Time 33 / Pentecost 23
Preaching
Hear My Voice
Preaching The Lectionary Psalms for Cycles A, B, C
(For an alternative approach to vv. 2-6, see Advent 3, Cycle C.)
This psalm embedded in the writing of Isaiah is a beautiful meditation on the journey we take as human beings: beginning from failure and moving on to forgiveness, to gratitude, to praise.
In our failure we encounter the anger and disappointment of God. We have expectations for ourselves, expectations that are rooted in what we believe God expects of us. When we fail to live up to those expectations -- either by omission or commission -- guilt is the result. If our actions or inactions have consequences, those consequences become for us the very embodiment of the wrath of God.
Then forgiveness comes. We find that God's anger "has turned away." In the act of contrition and whatever accompanying penance we may impose on ourselves, we encounter a gracious God whose interests are not in our destruction but in our salvation. As we encounter this forgiveness, we discover that guilt gives way to confidence. We feel our relationship with God mending. The anxiety that had once gripped us in our failure now gives way to hope, with the acceptance God bestows on us. We are free, and are released from our sin.
To this there is but one response -- gratitude. We know that God was under no compulsion to forgive us. Forgiveness comes as a free and undeserved gift. There is no way to pay for it or pay it back. We can only be grateful. Out of that gratitude we experience a sense of joy. Isaiah writes that it is with this joy that we draw from the well of salvation. In other words, there is a reservoir of grace that will flow over us and refresh us for as long as we drink from its depths.
That's when the praise begins. "Sing praises to the Lord," Isaiah declares, "because he has done gloriously." That glory reaches as far as the skies and as deep as the depths of the earth. The glory of God reflects God's great creative power, the power to shape the heavens, but it also celebrates God's power to forgive lowly sinners. Because of God's grace, and because we are set free from our failure by that grace, we are able to lift our voices with the voices of the universe in singing praise to God.
Of course we know that the whole cycle is likely to begin again. As hard as it is to imagine, it is nonetheless true. We often move from failure to forgiveness to gratitude to praise, and then back to failure. Thankfully, God is long-suffering and kind. God will keep the way open for us to find our way back, again and again, to the well of salvation.
-- J. E.
This psalm embedded in the writing of Isaiah is a beautiful meditation on the journey we take as human beings: beginning from failure and moving on to forgiveness, to gratitude, to praise.
In our failure we encounter the anger and disappointment of God. We have expectations for ourselves, expectations that are rooted in what we believe God expects of us. When we fail to live up to those expectations -- either by omission or commission -- guilt is the result. If our actions or inactions have consequences, those consequences become for us the very embodiment of the wrath of God.
Then forgiveness comes. We find that God's anger "has turned away." In the act of contrition and whatever accompanying penance we may impose on ourselves, we encounter a gracious God whose interests are not in our destruction but in our salvation. As we encounter this forgiveness, we discover that guilt gives way to confidence. We feel our relationship with God mending. The anxiety that had once gripped us in our failure now gives way to hope, with the acceptance God bestows on us. We are free, and are released from our sin.
To this there is but one response -- gratitude. We know that God was under no compulsion to forgive us. Forgiveness comes as a free and undeserved gift. There is no way to pay for it or pay it back. We can only be grateful. Out of that gratitude we experience a sense of joy. Isaiah writes that it is with this joy that we draw from the well of salvation. In other words, there is a reservoir of grace that will flow over us and refresh us for as long as we drink from its depths.
That's when the praise begins. "Sing praises to the Lord," Isaiah declares, "because he has done gloriously." That glory reaches as far as the skies and as deep as the depths of the earth. The glory of God reflects God's great creative power, the power to shape the heavens, but it also celebrates God's power to forgive lowly sinners. Because of God's grace, and because we are set free from our failure by that grace, we are able to lift our voices with the voices of the universe in singing praise to God.
Of course we know that the whole cycle is likely to begin again. As hard as it is to imagine, it is nonetheless true. We often move from failure to forgiveness to gratitude to praise, and then back to failure. Thankfully, God is long-suffering and kind. God will keep the way open for us to find our way back, again and again, to the well of salvation.
-- J. E.
