Your Jesus Story: Psalm 40 - Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Last week, when I was preparing to write my sermon, I decided to use my dad’s Lutheran Study Bible. During my recent vacation, my mom had given me several cartons of his vast collection of bibles and hymnals. I felt an immediate closeness to him as I read from its pages.

To look at this bible, you’d think it had never been used, except for the dust jacket, which was slightly tattered and faded in a manner you’d expect from a 40-year-old book. My dad was not the kind of person to be hard on things, including his books. Instead of underlining or highlighting his favorite passages, he wrote them down on index cards and affixed them to his desk or his dresser mirror. And he did this a lot.

He was a passionate bible-reader, and he enjoyed reading the bible in every translation he could find. His discipline for bible-reading was matched by his discipline in bringing us to church every Sunday. And I mean, every Sunday. It didn’t matter if there was two feet of snow on the ground; if the car could go, we would go.

And don’t take that to mean that my dad was a harsh man. Far from it. He was a gentle person with the kind of patience that would make even Mister Rodgers jealous. I can honestly say that I would not know Jesus Christ as I know him today had he not lived so faithfully.

He is just one of many people in my life who minister Jesus to me, and I feel close to Jesus whenever I’m with those persons or I remember them. And I’ve also felt close to Jesus through all the prayers offered on my behalf.

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That’s important, because Jesus is far greater than someone who lived two thousand years ago. Jesus is an active presence in your life, and his presence makes a difference. Your faith makes his presence real and meaningful.

Psalm 40 is a song of deliverance, sung by someone who “waited patiently for the Lord; and the Lord inclined to them and heard their cry, drawing them up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and setting their feet upon a rock, making their steps secure” (Psalm 40:1-2 NRSVue). The mood is one of joy and thanksgiving, accompanied by an eagerness to tell the great congregation (basically everyone) what the Lord had done for them.

That faith, that hope, that joy is contagious in the people of God. This practice of thanking and telling is what makes belonging to the people of God so special and so beautiful. And this is something we need to be doing more and more in our church.

Our worship service is more than ritual and tradition. It’s about more than just hitting pause amid a busy life. Keeping the Sabbath Day holy and coming to church is commanded of you, but it’s more a privilege than a duty. By coming to worship, you open yourself up for God to minister to your sorrows, your regrets, your shame, your worries, your fears, your greatest needs, and your highest hopes. Every song, every prayer, every action within the liturgy serves to focus your heart and mind on what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do in your life. God’s activity is what inspires worship and praise. This worship and praise then sets the stage for God to act once again.

The church is not functioning as it should unless it increases your awareness of God’s activity in daily life. Listening to the Scriptures is where we always start, but God speaks just as much through your stories and your testimony.

People will not come to faith in Christ because you tell them the Bible is true. They will come to faith when you tell them what Jesus means to you. When you talk about what Jesus has done. Bearing witness is about carrying one another’s burdens, as Jesus teaches us to do. Walking together in love, we are uplifted by the strength of those relationships. After all, our stories of Jesus are intertwined. We live out our Jesus stories together. You are meant to play a role in the Jesus stories of many.

This is why I challenge you to think about your own Jesus story. Have you ever thought about how different your life would be without him? I have, and the thought of life without him is unimaginable. Why? Because I know I’d be a prisoner of worry and self-doubt; I would be lost, immature, bitter, and hopeless.

Thankfully, God put people in my life, like my father and mother, my grandparents, my Sunday school teachers who love me the way Jesus loves me. I’m thankful for friends and fellow Christians who make Jesus real to me. The best part of being a pastor is that I get to see the power of Christ in your lives.

I’m thankful for the times that Jesus has challenged me and pulled me out of my comfort zone, so that I can look back and realize what amazing grace really is. I’m thankful for my trials, if only for the fact that Jesus walked with me through them. And I know Jesus isn’t finished with me, and more grace awaits me, if only I will let go and let him be the Lord of my life.

If you are here, you have a Jesus story to tell. And yet, so much of your Jesus story is unwritten, which is why Jesus is calling you by name today: to lay down your burdens, to give him control, to stop seeking life where you know it can’t be found. The sweetest words in Jesus’s ears are for you to say, “here I am, Lord. I am ready to do your will.”

Psalm 40:1-10 (NRSVue)

¹ I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he inclined to me and heard my cry.
² He drew me up from the desolate pit,
    out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
    making my steps secure.
³ He put a new song in my mouth,
    a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
    and put their trust in the Lord.

⁴ Happy are those who make
    the Lord their trust,
who do not turn to the proud,
    to those who go astray after false gods.
⁵ You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
    your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
    none can compare with you.
Were I to proclaim and tell of them,
    they would be more than can be counted.

⁶ Sacrifice and offering you do not desire,
    but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
    you have not required.
⁷ Then I said, “Here I am;
    in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
⁸ I delight to do your will, O my God;
    your law is within my heart.”

⁹ I have told the glad news of deliverance
    in the great congregation;
see, I have not restrained my lips,
    as you know, O Lord.
¹⁰ I have not hidden your saving help within my heart;
    I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
    from the great congregation.