{"id":384,"date":"2020-08-16T18:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T01:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/?p=384"},"modified":"2020-10-12T18:17:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T01:17:15","slug":"sermon-august-16-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/weekly-sermon\/sermon-august-16-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon August 16, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Everything Give Thanks  
August 16, 2020
Psalm 107; I Thessalonians 5: 12-24; I Corinthians 11:23-26<\/strong>     

    For the past several weeks we\u2019ve been looking at the Psalms.  We have seen how the Psalms mirror what we are experiencing in particular chapters of our lives.  The OT scholar Walter Brueggeman has pointed out that we can divide the Psalms into three categories\u2013Psalms of orientation, Psalms of dis-orientation, and Psalms of re-orientation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Psalms of orientation reflect the times when life is so good, when life makes sense, when everything is sunshine and roses. \u00a0
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Psalms of dis-orientation reflect the times when life just plain out stinks, like now, in the time of pandemic. \u00a0Dot Bell said the other night that she wants to stay up on New Year\u2019s Eve this year, not so much to ring the new year in, but ring the old year out. \u00a0Psalms of dis-orientation reflect the times when God seems far off, when we think that God doesn\u2019t hear our prayers or care about what happens to us.

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0And then there are Psalms of re-orientation when we wake up some morning after a sojourn of dark nights and suddenly realize \u00a0that God has been with us all along, that when we were knocked down and knocked out by the blows of life, God gently lifted us up and placed us on our feet again. \u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Barbara read Psalm 107 a few moments ago. \u00a0This is one of those Psalms of re-orientation. \u00a0Notice how the Psalmist repeats this particular\u00a0phrase like the tolling of the bell. \u00a0They cried to the lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0When they rebelled against the words of God and despised\u00a0the counsel of the most high. \u00a0They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0He brought them out of darkness and deepest gloom.\u00a0
They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0For they had rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Just put your bookmark at Psalm 107 because we will come back to it in a moment and turn in your Bible to I Thessalonians chapter 5,\u00a0our second reading for today. \u00a0The verse I want to lift up in I Thessalonians 5 is this: \u201cIn everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.\u201d \u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0In everything give thanks. \u00a0The Apostle Paul has the credentials to\u00a0advise us here. \u00a0For he had a\u00a0brutally hard life. \u00a0 \u00a0Go read about it in II Corinthians 11 where he says us that he had been shipwrecked, stoned, beaten, scoffed at, discredited,\u00a0thrown into prison, and that\u2019s just for openers.\u00a0 In all these straits of his life, he never abandoned his attitude of gratitude. \u00a0As a righteous Jew, one acquainted with every verse of scripture, he must have known\u00a0Psalm 107 by heart:\u00a0\u201cThen they cried to the Lord in their troubles, and he saved them from their distress.\u201d\u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0So here we are 5 months\u00a0into our battle with C-19. \u00a0It\u2019s been five months almost to the day since we last worshiped at our sweet little church. \u00a0We\u2019ve been house-bound; we\u2019ve worried about ourselves and the people we love. \u00a0We\u2019ve seen people we know inflicted with this dread virus. \u00a0 How long, O Lord, how long?\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I am sure that you have seen that little piece of prose called \u201cFootprints.\u201d \u00a0I\u2019ve seen it on plaques, greeting cards, and refrigerator magnets. \u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The message is simple. \u00a0 Someone has died and from the vantage point of heaven looks down upon the journey of his or her lifetime. \u00a0The journey is depicted as a trail of footprints on a sandy beach. When times were good, there were two pair of footprints. \u00a0When times were bad, there was one set of footprints.\u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The person who has just arrived in heaven turns to the Lord and says, \u201cWould you explain what this means?\u201d

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The Lord replies, \u201cOne pair of footprints is yours. \u00a0One pair is mine.\u201d

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cOK, I get it. \u00a0But why is there only one pair in the tough times? \u00a0 When I needed you most you abandoned me.\u201d

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The Lord, gazing at the pair of footprints answers, \u201cI didn\u2019t abandon you. \u00a0That one pair of footprints is when I carried you.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s a very nice thought, but a little syrupy and simplistic. \u00a0I\u2019ve had\u00a0to ask myself, \u201cWhy do so many people like this story?\u201d\u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0And then it\u00a0occurred to me that people like \u201cFootprints\u201d\u00a0not as a promise of what the Lord might do, but what the Lord has already done. \u00a0For a lot of people can name a day when they could do more, when they could climb no higher, when they could walk no further. \u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0How did they get through? \u00a0 They don\u2019t know. \u00a0They can\u2019t tell you. \u00a0But they did get through and to this very day they can\u2019t explain why. \u00a0So, in an attempt to make sense of it they buy this little $4.99 litho, put it in a $25 dollar frame and hang it on a $100,000 wall.\u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0It’s about some footprints in the sand and a conversation in the precincts of heaven. \u00a0 Which is probably as good a way as any to say. \u00a0\u201cLook I don\u2019t know how it happened. \u00a0But I once was there, and now I\u2019m here, and it occurs to me that I couldn\u2019t have gotten from there to here all by myself.\u201d \u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Then I cried to the Lord in my trouble, and he saved me in my distress. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Everything Give Thanks  August 16, 2020Psalm 107; I Thessalonians 5: 12-24; I Corinthians 11:23-26          For the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-sermon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions\/385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}