Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
Preaching
A Journey Through the Psalms: Reflections for Worried Hearts and Troubled Times
Preaching the Psalms Cycles A, B, C
Object:
In the United States of America today, the average household carries a credit card debt load of several thousand dollars. If you include auto loans and mortgage into the mix, the total shoots much higher than that. If you multiply this amount by the millions of households the amount of indebtedness is staggering. Then, of course, we look to the government. Here, the debt is beyond one's ability to imagine. Paying for war is not only expensive, it has plunged this nation into billions of dollars of debt -- most of which is owed to other nations.
As a people floundering in debt, this psalm offers an interesting note to reflect upon. It casts the relationship we have with the holy as one where the writer is in a position of "paying back the Lord for all (his) bounty." As far as credit cards and auto loans go, we know how to pay those back -- though perhaps we procrastinate and go deeper still into debt as we make minimum payments and negative amortization mortgages.
But how is it that we repay God?
The quick thinking pastor, of course, will pull out a pledge card and ask the feckless parishioner to give a tithe. Ten percent up front, and there is, of course, biblical precedent for this (see Deuteronomy 26:12). And yes, everyone should tithe to their church!
However, this psalm, and this writer suspects that it doesn't end with the monthly tithe check. As one church treasurer wryly asserted, "If you think you're in debt to the credit card company, think about the debt you owe God." Indeed, everything belongs to God. This is why Jesus could so winningly acquiesce to his questioners on the issue of taxes (Matthew 22:15-22). He, like any good Jew of his day, was quite aware that everything belongs to God. So when he said to give Caesar what belonged to him, it was with no small amount of irony. Nothing belongs to Caesar. Everything belongs to God! The psalmist understands this at the deepest level and pledges fidelity and full payment. Still, the question of means of payment remains unanswered.
Perhaps the answer for Christians today is best found in Romans 12:1. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." In other words, the gift of sacrifice that God wants is our lives lived faithfully according to God's word. As we sit and remember the sacrifice made for us in the Holy Week, is anything less than this acceptable?
As a people floundering in debt, this psalm offers an interesting note to reflect upon. It casts the relationship we have with the holy as one where the writer is in a position of "paying back the Lord for all (his) bounty." As far as credit cards and auto loans go, we know how to pay those back -- though perhaps we procrastinate and go deeper still into debt as we make minimum payments and negative amortization mortgages.
But how is it that we repay God?
The quick thinking pastor, of course, will pull out a pledge card and ask the feckless parishioner to give a tithe. Ten percent up front, and there is, of course, biblical precedent for this (see Deuteronomy 26:12). And yes, everyone should tithe to their church!
However, this psalm, and this writer suspects that it doesn't end with the monthly tithe check. As one church treasurer wryly asserted, "If you think you're in debt to the credit card company, think about the debt you owe God." Indeed, everything belongs to God. This is why Jesus could so winningly acquiesce to his questioners on the issue of taxes (Matthew 22:15-22). He, like any good Jew of his day, was quite aware that everything belongs to God. So when he said to give Caesar what belonged to him, it was with no small amount of irony. Nothing belongs to Caesar. Everything belongs to God! The psalmist understands this at the deepest level and pledges fidelity and full payment. Still, the question of means of payment remains unanswered.
Perhaps the answer for Christians today is best found in Romans 12:1. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." In other words, the gift of sacrifice that God wants is our lives lived faithfully according to God's word. As we sit and remember the sacrifice made for us in the Holy Week, is anything less than this acceptable?
