“Mosaic: Regret” Psalm 51: 1-15 Luke 19: 1-8

When I was in my first year of college I was blessed to have several church families. I had my home church family in Clearfield. I had a student ministry family, that I was mentored in. And on Sundays I attended two different churches that met in the same building. The first was a traditional service held in a beautiful church right across from my dorm. But in the evening, a church plant met in their basement. My year at that church plant fundamentally changed me.

The church plant was called The Open Door and it combined deep scriptural truths with experiencing God in community. So, for example, instead of sitting in pews, we would sit around tables and would have intentional time during worship to discuss what was being taught. We often also left Sunday worship with items for us to carry throughout our weeks in order to remember the sermon message. Some of those items I still have in my office to this day, because some of those messages so deeply touched me, including this piece of glass.

This glass was part of a sermon series on brokenness. Often when we talk about brokenness as a church we only equate it to our own sin - which isn’t always representative of how other people’s sin and selfishness sometimes causes the brokenness in our lives. And as a result, we can try to hide our brokenness, thinking that God does not want to see our cracks and bruises and scars, which can lead to a deep sense of shame.

But the truth is, God can take the jagged edges of our lives - those places where we have experienced broken hearts, broken trust, and broken circumstances, and truly bring healing. The type of healing that God can bring us, true and complete healing, can also redeem those places of brokenness for Kingdom purposes. To be clear, God does not cause our brokenness, but God can create beauty out of the ashes. 

Which is what our Lenten sermon series in about this year. How God can take that which we wish would could hide, that which has brought us hurt and shame, and make something beautiful out of it - a mosaic that can only exist because God has reclaimed our brokenness.

I was listening to a pod cast recently, similar to a radio show, where the guest talked about how she made money for her family. She went around to antique shops and auctions and reclaimed the dishes that no one else wanted - those with chips and cracks in them, and came home and smashed them up, and created new mosaics out of them. The host was truly shocked that she didn’t try to fix them, but instead she insisted that something new could come out of something old.

Friends, where are the areas in our lives where we are in need of such newness? In need of having our broken pieces used for God’s purposes? Pastor Shane Standford, said one of the pieces of brokenness that can hinder us and hold us back from fully living from God is regret. Regret is when we feel sorrow or remorse for something - which can lead us to dissatisfaction.

Throughout scripture we find folks with regrets. The Psalm today, Psalm 51, has an important piece to it that comes even before the first word of the first verse. Above the first verse we find the words: “To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”

David was known as a man after God’s own heart, but he was still human. He still sinned. He still had regrets. One of those regrets came when he failed to be where he was supposed to be one year, as a King leading his people into battle. Instead, he found himself on the roof of the palace, looking at a woman who was not his wife, bathing next door. He summoned for the woman, slept with her, and she became pregnant. 

Next thing you know, David is trying to cover up his mistakes by making more mistakes. How many of us have been there before and done something like that, though probably not as extreme as David. For David summoned for Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, who was where he was supposed to be, in battle, and tried to trick him into sleeping with his wife, so that it could be claimed that the child was his. Only he didn’t fall for the bait. So David sent him back into battle to be killed.

Time passed and David was called out by the priest Nathan for his sinful behavior. This Psalm is David’s response for what Nathan told him. It is a psalm where he is on his knees, asking God for forgiveness. He wants to be forgiven. 

I would say that David probably regretted his behavior before Nathan spoke to him, but Nathan made it accessible to him - made it clear and understandable that David was in the wrong. 

Sometimes the things that we regret happen really fast - a decision made in the flash of a moment. But other times, like David, it is a series of poor decisions that lead to much larger issues as they build upon one another. And often the things we regret happen because we ignore the signs that we should have known. 

It can be hard to shake our regret. But as Christians, we are offered in Christ, the ability to set aside our regrets, turn away from sin, and start anew. Think of Zacheasus’s story in the Gospel of Luke. He was not making good decisions. He was deeply hurting the people in his community, who quite frankly saw him as a traitor. But Jesus stopped and told him that he was coming to his house that day. Friends, there is a different between Zacheasus hoping to catch a glimpse of Jesus passing by and being invited to be in relationship with him around the table. Jesus’s words so changed him, that he renounced his old behavior and sought to start a new. 

The real question about regret is are we going to dwell on it, or are we going to hand it over to God and be asked to be made a new - in the words of the Psalmist to be washed clean. Because if we dwell on regret often several things take place - regret comes in and tells us that what we have done is absolutely unforgivable, but brothers and sisters that is a lie. There is no sin so large that it cannot be covered by the grace and blood of Jesus on the cross. If we believe the lie that we are unforgivable, our joy starts to get stolen from us. We live into the “what if’s” that quite frankly don’t help for they cannot change the past. When we become people who cannot see past our mistakes, we become stuck.

When we become stuck, we also find that regret steals our potential and purpose. We think that God could never use someone like us, with all of our brokenness for the sake of the Kingdom. We think that our sin is bigger than God’s love and redemption. And that brothers and sisters leads to the lie that we can never share our faith with others because we are not worthy, when it could be exactly your story of how Jesus changed you that could draw someone into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. 

The truth is brothers and sisters that Zacheasus and David remind us that past regret do not have to have the last word in our lives. There is hope in the cross of Jesus Christ. For in the words of the song bearing the same title, our God alone can “give beauty for ashes.” Amen. 

Responding in Prayer

I was recently listening to a sermon where the preacher, Scott Chrostek of Res Downtown, asked an important question - where you experience God in your daily, ordinary life?    For some of us, it is a question that we made need to put some thought into before we can answer it. For others, we may have a response in mind right away. How do you experience God in your daily life?

I think a lot of us can start to name the ways that we have seen God on the mountain tops - those places where we have deeply connected with our Savior. I’ve shared before that most of my mountain tops have taken place in nature, in the midst of God’s creation. For others they may be able to speak about how they have experienced God in the valley, when they were going through the lowest lows. How God was right there with them through the hardest things that they have ever faced in life. 

But the problem with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, is sometimes we forget. We forget how God has been faithful to us in the past so it makes it hard for us to proclaim how God is with us in the present. We forget the story.

The prophet Habakkuk knows the story of his people, he trusts that God is with them in their present state of oppression and captivity, and because he knows that story and has that trust, we found him praying a bold prayer of lament in chapter 1 of this book. He cried out to God essentially asking, “how long”? How long O Lord, are things going to continue like this? How long, O Lord, until you redeem your people? 

And God responded to this prayer of lament in chapter 2, essentially saying that God would take care of what the people are going through in God’s timing. Proclaiming that they have not been forgotten. 

We pick up in today’s scripture, Habakkuk 3, which takes place after God has spoken, and Habakkuk is moved to present a prayer of praise. In fact, while we might call it a prayer, it can also be in the category of a Psalm or a hymn. He has had a mountain top experience where he received a word from God for his people and he could not help but address God in a prayer of praise, a combination of the thanks and wow prayer that we talked about just a few weeks ago. 

It is almost as if yes, Habakkuk knew his people’s story about how God has saved them in the past, but in the midst of their very present trouble he had forgotten. So the words that God spoke about the salvation that was coming for them, deeply touched his heart. He knew, but he needed to be re-reminded. 

But once he was re-reminded, it was if everything he knew in his head and his heart, his holy scriptures and his experience, came flooding back to him. Essentially saying, yes Lord, in your time reveal yourself to us again. Reveal yourself like you did before, like you did the Exodus story with pestilence and plagues, the precursors to the Exodus from Egypt, leaving behind the oppression of the Pharaoh.  Show yourself, not just in grand ways like this, but in the graduor of nature as well. In the brightness of the sun. The shaking of the earth. No matter what, Lord, help me look for your coming and remember your story of salvation.

In fact, he goes on to say, that even if the trees don’t bloom, and the olive fails, he will still trust in God, even in times of trial. In other words, even if the land that bears God’s promises may fail, the word of God will not. God will save God’s people in God’s timing, but God’s intention is to bring salvation. 

Sometimes we need big moments in our lives to help us re-remember our story as well. How God has brought us here. To help re-orient us towards what we, too, already know in our head, heart, experience, and Scriptures. 

But what if it isn’t just the big moments that can bring us to songs of praise, but the every day moments as well. Which brings us back to that question posed by Rev. Scott Chrostek, where you experience God in your daily, ordinary life?  Because if we can’t see God in the every day, then we are more prone to miss God on the mountain top and in the valley as well. If we don’t believe that God is with us every day, then we’ve missed the point of a Savior. 

For so long the church has preached that Salvation is about getting into heaven, and don’t get me wrong, I’m just as excited as the next person to get there. But Salvation isn’t something that happens to us now, so that someday we can be in heaven with God. Salvation also changes us now. It changes the ways we live. The ways we think about things and respond. It changes the way we notice things around us in the world and helps us to testify to God’s faithfulness in the past and the present, so we can walk with God in the future. God’s intent isn’t to change our hearts someday. To save us someday. We worship the God who is with us right here and now. Working towards our best interest right here and now. If only we open up our eyes and hearts to see and respond. 

While we have broken up the book of Habakkuk into three separate weeks, it is all part of one story. A story that begins and ends with the people’s relationship to God. Not just a right relationship when things are going really, really well or are really, really troubling, but a sustained relationship with God in the muck and Meir and manontney of the every day. Which once agains echoes that deeply important question - where do you experience God in your daily life? How do you experience God in your daily life? And what do you do with that?

Because our past experiences with God can inform our present relationship with God. How many folks do you know who became disappointed when God did not respond to a prayer or a need in their life in a particular way so they decided that God is no longer trustworthy - walking away from the faith? And how many people do you know who went through the worst thing imaginable but still proclaim “I made it through because my God is able.” What we have grounded our relationship with God on in the past informs the present. If we have trusted God in the past, we are more apt to have confidence in God in the present. And if we haven’t trusted God before, then it may be harder for us to trust God now.

When God speaks to Habakkuk he reminds the proper the God is able. That God is about the work of Salvation in the lives of the chosen people. The prophet is told that God is able to be trusted even in the midst of conflict, because that story of who God has been in the past for the people, that Exodus story that brought them to the Promise Land, is not just a story of the past - it speaks to what is coming in the present and the future. 

Friends, how about us? Do we trust God in the every day-ness? Do we proclaim that our God is able, not just in the big things, but in the ordinary things of life? Do we have enough confidence in the salvation that God brings us to say that Salvation changes hearts and lives right here today? Can we proclaim with confidence that our God is the God of Salvation? Amen. 

Watching Over One Another

I spend quite a bit of time on the road, traveling to meetings and visiting people in their homes and other pastoral duties throughout the week. In all of that commuting time I often listen to Podcasts, which are like radio programs that you download to your phone and listen to at your connivence. I was struck by a question Christian author Emily P. Freeman, asked in her Podcast, “The Next Right Thing” in the Episode “Offer You Work with Hope” - “When we are confronted with overwhelming need, how do we decide what our role is in the midst of it?”

That question certainly rang true for Habakkuk, who was surrounded by overwhelming need. The deep need of his people, the Israelites, that wasn’t going away. When faced with the question of what to do in the face of such deep need was to stand watch for the hearts of his people. 

Sometimes it seems like we live in dark times. In times were wickedness is prevailing and like those who are praying for justice are getting beat down at every turn. However, even in the darkest of times, sadly this is nothing new. The prophet Habakkuk looked at the world he lived in - where his people were oppressed, there were invading armies, people were forgetting who they were - and he too proclaimed that the times were dark - only he didn’t stop there.

Last week, we began our sermon series by talking about the prophet’s lament - how he turned and cried out to God, asking how long until God’s justice would come. Habakkuk knew that God was able - that was part of his history, proclaiming the history of Israel - that it was God, the great I am, who rescued them out of the oppressive hand of enslavement to the Egyptians. It was God, Jehovah Jirah, the Provider, who lead them to the Promised Land. It was God, King of Kings, who kept proclaiming the law and calling the people of Israel back through the words of the Prophets when they went astray.

So the Prophet firmly believes that God has a word for him to take back to the people of Israel. A word to encourage them when it appears that the world around them is crumbling. In fact, Habakkuk we are told, is so eager for a Word from God that he stood at his watch post. 

In ancient societies the role of the watchman was of upmost importance. They were often positioned around the city wall and watched for impending invaders. They were the heightened since of awareness for the entire city. The eyes of the people who were resting. The ears of the people who were sleeping. They were vigilant so that others could be at ease. The watchman is the first line of protection and defense of behalf of an entire community. 

The prophet is just as vigilant in representing his community before God and waiting for, believing that, God will respond. He trusted that a revelation would come from God and he patiently watched, day and night, for it to come. 

And the Lord did answer, not just with a message for Habakkuk, but with one for the entire community that the prophet was standing in the gap for. When Habakkuk took the message back to the Israelites he was to make it plain to them, in words that they understood and in a way that would sink into their hearts. And the message was essentially this: Wait for God. God isn’t moving slow or tarrying. God’s word comes to pass in God’s perfect timing, but while you wait it doesn’t make it any less true. So wait on God. 

As you wait, know that the proud who don’t seek after the heart of God are not as people are to live. The proud could also be called those who are not upright. Those who lean on their own ways and own understanding. Those who are arrogant, greedy, and violent. While it looks like they may be prospering in the moment, that is not the way to live for a lifetime. Instead, live like the righteous. Those who trust God and are rooted in their faith. Those who are in right relationship with God. 

God goes on to give a word of warning to those who are not living in righteousness. Those who had been characterized as proud. This was for anyone who was oppressing the Israelites. At the moment it was more than like the Assyrians, but it was also for other nations that practiced greed and oppressed others. And that warning was actually an exclamation of doom - that once again it may look like they are winning in the moment, but it will not last as other rise up against them. The survivors of those who were oppressed will rise up against them one day. Everything they once held dear is actually just an idol, so it is time to repent and turn their hearts to God. 

These are the type of stories we like to hear. Yes, the good guys may be down at the moment, but they will come from behind and will succeed. I think its one of the reasons we like to talk about the end times so much when brokenness seems to abound in the world - we like the idea of God straightening everything out in the end and the oppressors get what is coming to them. 

But we talk little about what it means to watch over one another. To be persistent in praying for one another. To wait for the Lord’s answer on the behalf of our communities. Jesus tells a few different parables about this type of persistence in the Gospel of Luke as well. The first comes from Luke 11 and tells of a person who came to the home of a friend at midnight to get bread. The friend tells him to go away because the family was already settled into bed, but eventually gets up and gives the bread to the friend because he just kept knocking at the door. 

Another such parable can be found in Luke 18 and tells of a widow who finds herself before a judge who is known for not respecting people. She cried to have justice granted to her, but the judge refused. But that widow would not take that answer, and kept showing up, demanding justice, and eventually the judge gave in. 

Such parables can make us a bit uncomfortable, because we would quite frankly rather be given something the first time we ask and pray about it. We don’t like the idea of bothering God. But by being the watchman over his people, Habakkuk didn’t see his consistent praying as bothering God, instead he say it as an act of faith, believing that God was going to answer his prayer and intervene on behalf of the people of Israel. 

Brothers and sisters, when we proclaim that we know God as Christians we aren’t saying that we know things about God - facts that we can hold in our heads. Instead, we are saying that we know God in our hearts, and that boils down to trust and belief. That is the type of knowing Habakkuk has for God - trusting and believing in his heart that God cares and God’s going to respond. So Habakkuk situation himself at the watch post in prayer.

Are we that persistent in our prayer lives? Do we situate ourselves as folks who watch out for this community and pray for folks? When we are confronted with the overwhelming need of the world, do we believe in God enough to be a people of prayer? Let us, as the Church, be those who watch out for the hearts and souls of our communities. Amen.