Epiphany 4, 2012 Immanuel Chapel, Psalm 111
On the outer wall at the entrance to the library at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota are the words, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” These words from Proverbs and our Psalm today suggest that before a person sets out to study the ABC’s of human events, it is wise to begin with the ABC’s of the works and words of God. The Psalm is set in the congregation of believers, giving whole hearted thanks for the great works of the Lord.
This morning, gathered as the congregation of the faithful, we peer into the glory and grandeur of God’s favor toward us as He forgoes punishing us for our sins. First, God acted in grace and mercy in the past through his saving actions in bringing Israel of out slavery in Egypt. Today we receive God’s grace and mercy through Jesus in the sacrament of Holy Communion. The Passover was instituted by God for Israel to eat and drink in remembrance of and participation in the Exodus to freedom from slavery and death. The sacrament of the Altar was instituted by Jesus Christ for us Christians to eat and drink remembering and participating in the Lord’s death until he comes.
Israel suffered at length under the enslaving thumb of the Egyptian authorities. When their numbers increased, it became national policy that all newborn boys be killed. A woman’s pregnancy was not a cause for joy but was filled with apprehension and fear. It was a shortsighted policy. The Egyptians had set in place the destruction of their own workforce. At the same time they forced their labor force to scavenge for their own building materials, but did not reduce the quota of bricks to be produced. These were horrific policies designed to grind down God’s people.
The great works of the Lord started quietly with the midwives outsmarting the Egyptian authorities and the number of Israelites continued to grow. They became more noticeable when one of those infant boys saved from death was called out of exile as an 80 year old senior citizen to lead the people out of slavery. The Lord’s great and wondrous deeds burst in to the open through the plagues. The Nile River, the only source of water in Egypt, turned to blood. Frogs inundated the land. Flies infested everything. Hail flattened crops. Locusts stripped the fields bare. The magicians of Egypt acknowledged, “This was the finger of God at work.” Finally, in an ironic parallel to their national policy God sent an angel of death who in one night took the life of every firstborn male in the realm, from the lowest family to Pharaoh from the newborn to the older adult, from the bulls of the herds, the bucks of the sheep flock and the stallions of the stable.
Protected by a lamb’s blood painted on the doorways of each Hebrew hovel, God’s people ate the first Passover meal anticipating the great and wondrous works of the Lord which were yet to come.
At the Red Sea Israel passed under Moses’ outstretched arms plunging into the depths of the sea, now made a dry highway by God’s breath. Emerging on the other side they joined Moses in singing, “Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.” As the bodies of Egypt’s soldiers and charioteers washed up against the shore, the congregation of Israel acclaimed the Lord, “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”
Having passed through their baptismal waters, Israel journeyed into the wilderness. God’s great deeds continued. He provided food, raining manna and quail upon the encampment. At Sinai, God provided his sure and eternal precepts on tablets of stone to be performed faithfully and with uprightness. He commanded a forever covenant with them in which he would be their God and they would be his people. Finally, he gave them the land, the land promised long ago to Abraham. God’s great works were remembered every year in the Passover meal.
Jesus celebrated those great deeds of the Lord in the Passover festival, first with his family and then with his disciples. The promise in the Old Testament lesson was fulfilled in Christ. Jesus was the promised new prophet like Moses whom God raised up from the womb of Mary, an awesome and wondrous deed in its own right. God put His words in Jesus’ mouth.
We heard God’s words in the gospel lesson. Jesus silenced the powers of evil. His words entered into the ears and hearts of his listening with astonishing authority. His deeds were viewed in amazement. The people had never seen anything like this. “What is this?” they asked. This was the good news of God’s kingdom breaking into a world of enslavements of every kind, the worst of which was being held captive by sin. He came to destroy all the powers that would undermine, oppose and stand in the way His rule of grace and mercy. Because of these deeds his fame spread. But those were not the Deed and the Work he came to complete.
His greatest and most majestic work was done on the cross and in his resurrection. During the Passover meal, he took the unleavened bread, eaten for more than a thousand years to remember the Exodus and giving thanks to God broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, “This is my body.” Wondrous deed. He took the cup of wine used in the Passover and said, “This cup is the new testament in My blood…shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Awesome words. The next day Jesus, the firstborn of God, was crucified and died. as evening descended on Calvary his cross stood vacant. As morning dawned on the next Sunday his tomb stood empty.
Today in the Lord’s Supper Jesus provides food to sustain our journey of faith. He remembers his new covenant ensured forever through his blood shed on the cross, his body given into death for our life and salvation. He remembers, as we remember, that he gave himself into death for our life.
I remember Mrs. Keys who was a shut in when I first met her. She had been raised in a church which didn’t regard Holy Communion as a sacred action bringing, forgiveness, life and salvation. More than once she told how thankful she was to have discovered the power of God’s work in the bread and wine of the sacrament investing it with Jesus’ own body and blood.
For her, the works of God in Jesus death and resurrection came alive as she received Communion. Today in the company of our congregation we have reason to give thanks to the Lord with our whole heart as we receive the power of Christ for our life and for our salvation, God’s food for the journey.
Each of us can exclaim, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.” This is the beginning of wisdom.
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