Messages, Meditations, and Musings on the Life of Faith by Rev. Dr. Scott E. Olson, Interim Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Preston, MN

Sunday, August 2, 2015

"Singing Our Faith: Psalm 119" - Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Singing Our Faith: Psalm 119
Pentecost 10
August 2, 2015
Grace, Mankato, MN
Psalm 119.1-16

Each synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has a candidacy committee, a team responsible for the approval of ministry candidates, lay or ordained. Candidates meet with the committee regularly and go through several approval levels. Many candidates call this process “jumping through hoops.” So, it’s no surprise that ministry candidates often see candidacy committees as gate keepers whose job is keep them out. Unfortunately, that’s the way many committees operate; you have to prove you are worthy. Fortunately for me, my committee over 20 years ago provided more shepherding than gate-keeping. Although I still had to meet the requirements for ordination, I felt they wanted to do whatever it took to help me.

The distinction between shepherding and gate-keeping is important as we think about Psalm 119. Psalm 119 extols the virtues of the Torah—or law—in the life of Israel in almost ecstatic terms. So much so, that it makes we who are 20th century Lutheran Christians almost break out in hives. We have had “we are saved by grace and not by works of the law” so pounded into us we that we squirm at this kind of rhetoric. And then there is the almost over-the-top gushiness of the language that makes us blush. Appreciating the place of the law in our lives is one thing, but getting mushy about it is quite another.

We need to step back a bit and see what is going on otherwise we are in danger of dismissing the psalmist’s message altogether. John’s scripture introduction is a good place to start. As we have done with other songs in this summer’s sermon series, “Singing Our Faith,” we look at who wrote it and why. Although a lot of the Psalms are credited to King David, we really don’t know who wrote it. We also don’t know when it was written, but the psalms are at least 3,000 years old. We also want to remember that the psalms were not only the songs of the Jewish people, they were also the songs of the early church. Neither the psalms nor the rest of the Old Testament is to be dismissed out of hand.

What we do know about Psalm 119 gives us a hint about how it functioned in the life of the Jewish people. The psalm consists of 22 groups of 8 stanzas each, each group beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order, forming an acrostic. For example, verses 1-8 each begin with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, aleph. Each line of verses 9-16 begin with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, bet, and so on. It seems as if the structure is teaching device that helps the people learn something about God’s law.

Furthermore, each set of eight stanzas contain different phrases for Torah: ordinances, statutes, law, commandments, decrees, precepts, word, and promises, with some variations. For example, the words ways and paths are used frequently as well. Yet, even though the NRSV translates Torah as law, it should really be “instruction.” And that gives even more insight into the place of Torah in Israel: learning as a way of life. Psalm 119 reminds us that Torah, or God’s instruction, was never meant to be an arbitrary set of rules set by an arbitrary God who tells us to “shut up and do it.” Rather, Torah teaches us to how to live.

In other words, Torah was and is God’s gift to humanity. It was not meant as a burden to bear but a help to us live our lives. Unfortunately, we are the ones who turn it into a burden (and the Bible as a whole, for that matter) by making it our Lord and Master in a way it wasn’t intended. Torah points us to God. Here’s where we remember that God’s initiative, grace and mercy always come first. Just as God chose the Jewish people first and then gave them the Torah to help them live into that identity as his people, we who are saved by grace are given an outline of kingdom living.

One of my first confirmation students was Raymond, who almost weekly would ask me, “Why do I have to do this?” and “What happens if I flunk Confirmation.” Each week I would respond the same way, “You don’t have to, you get to” and “You don’t pass or fail Confirmation, you either do it or you don’t. After nearly two years of this, just as was being tempted to say, “Because I said so!” Raymond approached me one day and said, “I get it now.” Somehow, Raymond no longer saw me as a gate-keeper to being confirmed but a shepherd who truly wanted to help him grow in faith as a child of God.

This is one reason why Jesus made a big deal of saying he came to fulfill the law, not abolish the law. It’s why he said the greatest commandment was to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. And it’s why he says loving neighbor is pretty much the same thing. Just as the cross points to God’s love for us, draws us closer to him and outside ourselves, Torah points us to the one who gives us life and invites us to live that life he set aside for us more fully. We haven’t chanted the psalms much lately, but as we do so today I hope you’ll be reminded these are the songs of the early church and that even Lutheran Christians can sing them passionately. Amen.

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