The First Sunday in Lent – March 5, 2006
Psalm 123
 
            Lent being a time of prayer, you might discover on your own lips the prayer of a follower of Christ who said, “Lord, give me patience…and give it to me quickly!”
 
            While it is a prayer we may not have said, it may be in the back of our mind when we are contending with the challenges of being on time while stuck in traffic on interstate 81, or as the very tired and hungry child asks us once more, “When are we going to eat?”
 
            Today’s Psalm, 123, suggests that we might want to pray, “Lord, patience isn’t needed, help me get on with things immediately!”
 
            It is best, though, to begin at the beginning. This Lent we are focusing on the Psalms of Ascents, numbers 120 to 134. These fifteen Psalms are the Psalms pilgrims sang as they went up to Jerusalem to worship and pray. These Psalms are fitting and helpful as we journey through Lent to the cross and resurrection of Jesus, our Lord.
 
123, the Psalm of this morning is about being a servant.
 
The Psalm writer opens appealing to God from an inferior position: “To you I lift up my eyes…” Make note that a pilgrim, one on the journey, knows that God is greater and we are lesser. The Psalm goes on in verse two using the metaphor of servant and master or a maid and her mistress. God is seen as master or mistress, and most important, the pilgrim is seen as one who serves the master/mistress. Here is the relationship for us: God and pilgrim; master and slave.
 
            That may sound a bit harsh. It isn’t. The Psalmist continues that we, who are the servant or maid, look to God for what is promised: mercy. Mercy, the unconditional love of God, is not a result of the pilgrim’s serving. It is simply the way God is.
 
            And you know clearly the unconditional love of God. God has first served you. God came to earth in Jesus and lived as we live. Jesus journeyed faithfully through his life to his death and resurrection, the event of the cross. The God the Psalmist calls upon for mercy has been most merciful in the cross, first serving you, first giving his life that you might live forgiven and redeemed from your sin.
 
            Three times the Psalmist asks for God’s mercy. The writer recognizes that we do not control God. God comes to us first, with love and mercy and forgiveness in the cross. To pray for the mercy of God is not to manipulate God by pleading “give us what we want…” or “don’t punish us as we deserve…” Rather, praying for mercy knows that God loves and we can count on God to love us. You can plead with God for mercy and know that it is an expectation God will fulfill. And God shows great mercy, coming down to be lifted up on the cross for us.
 
            This blessed mercy makes you different people. The Psalmist pleads in the final two verses of Psalm 123 for release from oppression. First, it is release from those who look down upon you with contempt. Then it is release from the scorn of the rich and the proud. In the cross you are released from the actions of those who would mock you and oppress you. In the cross you are free to be pilgrims.
 
            As Christian pilgrims we are set free to learn the skill of serving. To be a servant of Jesus Christ means we trust God is the master and we are the servant. The perspective of the cross is that God rules, guides, calls and loves us such that we freely serve.
 
            This is a different perspective than the world holds. In our culture you are the master of your own destiny, free to do what you want, when you want, to whomever you want. And at the end, they who die with the most toys win. This is not the servant role God calls you to you. It is an abuse of the freedom God provides and often results in those who are so self-indulgent becoming the oppressors of others.
 
            Christian pilgrims know the path to take is to serve others. Jesus himself said that as we serve the least, we serve him. Jesus himself said that we are to love God and to love the neighbor as ourselves. This is your call: to serve in the name of Christ those who are placed before you.
 
            It can be as simple as remembering the needs of others as you grocery shop. Do you think only of your needs while grocery shopping? Could you pick up not one package of toilet paper but two and give the second to the Verona Food Pantry? It may sound silly, but it is so obvious. Do we serve; do we show mercy in the day-to-day lives we live? If the master calls us to love others, can we do it in the simplest ways?
 
            Thus the prayer, “Lord, patience isn’t needed. Help me get on with things immediately!” is appropriate. It is the prayer of a servant who knows what the master has first done for them and now in love desires to serve the master by serving others. Patience is not needed, urgent and immediate serving is.
 
            Psalm 123 calls us to service by the mercy of God. The Psalm tells you that in the cross you have moved from being oppressed to being free. In your freedom you know Jesus, our Lord and Master, calls you to serve. Amen.