Psalm 100 is a dancing, singing, shouting, praising, happy day kind of scripture. On our best days we can easily relate to such joy in the Lord. To hear God’s love endures forever (v.5) and God’s faithfulness is for ALL generations, we feel secure for ourselves and for our future loved ones.
Romans 5:1-8 is dense. Thick with meaning in every verse. I usually need to read s-l-o-w-l-y and then go back and reread. And the images are painful: dying, suffering, being ungodly, powerless, sinners. It’s a good thing (also joyful and worthy of dancing and shouting) that Jesus died for us to overcome those painful realities within us and around us in others.
It’s like mixing oil and water, day and night, pepper and salt, and somehow all come together in Jesus’ life, death, and Resurrection for OUR benefit….altho there is nothing in us that would ordinarily be worthy of someone dying for us. You have to use the word “extraordinary.”
Our preacher this Sunday is Connor Williams of Brentwood UMC, seminarian at Wesley Seminary in Washington, DC. He is a summer Intern at MTSU Wesley Foundation and over at Fellowship UMC. This local young man is on that remarkable journey where he walks between happy Psalm 100 and dense, thick, deep scripture like the book of Romans! As a ministerial student dedicated to a life time of bible study and ministry, of moving in and through our faith as well as earthly moments that try our faith, he comes to be with us.
Pray for him these next few days and be sure to read these passages in preparation for his sermon before you worship on Sunday. He will put in his preparation time and will appreciate and benefit from your worshipful participation and even your constructive “feedback.” In due time, and in our connectional church life he might well be your pastor someday! You are helping prepare the way for him to be among us into another generation. God doesn’t call the qualified, God qualifies the called! (By the way…that includes laity as much as clergy!). So, we are all students of God’s word hoping to find our way together for shouting and singing, and for being free from sin’s hold on us and death’s power over us!
God bless us all, in all generations!
Pastor Barry