Please open your Prayerbooks to page 657. For some reason, this Sunday our lectionary only takes us through verse 13 of this psalm. That’s too bad. There are three additionally important verses that need to be read! May we read verses 11 through 16 of Psalm 51 again?
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence
and take not your holy Spirit from me.
Give me the joy of your saving help again
And sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.
I shall teach your ways to the wicked, and sinners shall return to you.
Deliver me from death, O God,
And my tongue shall sing of your righteousness,
O God of my salvation.
Open my lips, O Lord,
And my mouth shall proclaim your praise. [Psalm 51:11-16]
Just as the Lord’s Prayer and the Nicene Creed are summaries of what we believe, these six verses found in Psalm 51, are, to my thinking, a summary of what the season of Lent has been all about.
This psalm may sound familiar to you as we have already read it earlier in this season. Good words bear repeating!
These are words that will give us a glimpse of the joy that will carry us from April 8 [Easter] and beyond.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Being Christians, we are full of hope in the resurrection. We are blessed to have that second chance, that opportunity to start again, and again, and again.
Spring is now officially here and there is abundant evidence that things are growing like crazy. Spring. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
Let me take you forward into that mystical season
and paint a picture with which you may be familiar.
It is a deliciously quiet Saturday during which you’ve had the luxury of working in your yard or garden for hours.
You have planted some new perennials, some annuals, and you’ve rearranged the rocks into a new rock garden in the corner of the yard.
You’ve even edged the lawn and you’ve pruned some bushes.
In between all these tasks, you’ve languished in another luxury--that of visioning what your garden will look like when everything grows in, just as you plan.
And now, it’s getting dark and, reluctantly, you endorse the idea that all good things must come to an end.
You straighten up and your back and (if you are over the age of 50) your muscles tell you that you have indeed been hard at work.
You take off your gloves only to realize that they didn’t really keep your hands that clean.
There is dirt beneath your fingernails and you are proud of it!
As you enter your house and doff your work clothes, you have a profound feeling of accomplishment.
But…as good as that feeling is, it doesn’t compare to the soothing and spiritually lifting feeling of that warm shower you are about to take.
As grateful for what the dirt represents,
you are even more grateful for the freshness of that shower.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Nothing feels quite as good as when you leave that bathroom feeling and smelling fresh and clean.
You feel as though you have been given a new lease on life. This reminds you that your relationship with the world is wrapped up in the soft tissue of human potential.
Cast me not away from your presence
and take not your holy Spirit from me.
Give me the joy of your saving help again
And sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.
Once you were dirty, covered in sin.
Our confession is followed by pleading, the cry goes up.
Now you are washed in the Spirit.
I was a member once upon a time at a parish in Syracuse which was hald African American. Several of the old African American hymns that we sang were fond of saying,
“we are washed in the blood of the lamb.”
Ugh. Of course that is meant symbolically.
The sacrifice of Jesus gives us a whole new appreciation
of being created new with a clean heart.
For those who have sinned the greatest,
the greatest laundrying is available.
Look at verses 14-16:
I shall teach your ways to the wicked, and sinners shall return to you.
Deliver me from death, O God,
And my tongue shall sing of your righteousness,
O God of my salvation.
Open my lips, O Lord,
And my mouth shall proclaim your praise. [Psalm 51:14-16]
Eugene Petersen is a theologian who has translated the Bible into modern language. His book called The Message translates this portion of the psalm this way:
God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails!
Is it God’s intent to soak us in his laundry until we come out clean? Yes!!
Are we then able to keep this spotlessness forever? No.
Can we keep it jealously for ourselves? No.
Our role model is always Jesus.
We are called to live our lives not for ourselves and our fresh clean bodies, but to seek out careers in teaching(!)--teaching others what it is like to be children of God.
We are called to seek out situations where we can teach others about the ways of Christ, so that they, too, can find the joy of being washed and clean again; so that the lost can find their way, their salvation.
Petersen translates “Open” in verse 16 of the psalm as “unbutton.” (isn’t that a great word!?)
“Unbutton my lips, dear God; I’ll let loose with your praise!!”
He’s saying, “Release me into the world, freed from the bonds of death itself, and I’ll brag about your life-cleansing powers to everyone who will listen.”
We're now on the cusp of Holy Week. Things are about to become very graphic, very human-scaled.
Our Hebrews passage this morning reminds us that Jesus was very human, so human that he "offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears...[and who] learned obedience through what he suffered."
What does this mean? It tells us that Jesus is learning the role that he will have on our behalf--that of...never getting tired.
God never gets tired --never tires of the heartbroken nor of those who are exasperatingly adrift. That's probably all of us, at some point in time.
Jesus never tires of being our advocate.
His patience and understanding is endless.
There's so much that could be preached about in our scripture readings; I could go on for hours, but I just need your attention for one more phrase.
At the tail end of his speech to the disciples about his last days, Jesus says that he will "draw all people to myself."
Perhaps it's important to notice that he does this as our Lord of contradictions.
The disciples expected him to work more magic and right the world. He just raised Lazarus, it can only be a short time now (any minute now, any minute now) when he will dazzle the world by forcing the Romans out of the holy region and establishing a new kingdom based on brute power (any minute now, any minute now). They expected one thing, but what does our God of contradictions do?
Instead, Jesus does not force, or bribe, or dazzle; he draws people to know and love him.
From his uplifted cross, the place where suffering love put him, he will draw to himself all who will come.
He brings us to God. He brings God to us!
We're then drawn into this healing community of the forgiven--not yanked or cajoled, tricked or sweet-talked!!
We're drawn into this community
where...
we make our business to ask the question:
"What is God up to?"
I will leave it there. The story continues next Sunday--the Sunday of the Passion. See you then.
Amen.
Scriptural Texts: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51; Hebrews 5:1-10; John 12:20-33
