Thoughts which draw me closer to Jesus… and to His cross.dd

75 We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks to you!  We proclaim how great you are and tell of the wonderful things you have done!  Psalm 75:1 GNT

They who do not feel their sin, and are not dismayed, nor see their infirmities, profit not a whit by it, nor do they delight in it. Though they hear the gospel, it has no effect upon them, except that they learn the words, and speak of what they have heard. They do not treasure them in their hearts, and receive neither comfort nor joy from them.
It were well, if the gospel could be preached only where faint-hearted and conscience-stricken ones are found. But this cannot be, and for this reason it bears so little fruit. The fault is not in the gospel, but in the hearers. They hear it, but they do not feel their own affliction and misery, nor have they ever tried to feel it.

The Last Supper must be understood and proclaimed also as such. Just as in baptism we meet our death and the promise of new life, so also here we encounter the death of the old and the hope of the new. “When you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). It is death-dealing to pretentious god-seekers to be reduced to eating a bit of bread and drinking a sip of wine for salvation. But just so it is also life-giving in the promise. It is the breakthrough of the new in the midst of our time.

THE sincerity of all prayer, whether liturgical or private, depends on the fundamental acknowledgment of our actual spiritual state. We have to have some realization of what we are supposed to be, of what we are not, and of what we are. The first step towards a liberty that is a free gift of God’s grace is the free acknowledgment of our own need for His grace.

As I was reading Psalm 75 this morning, I thought about why we praise God.

It is not because He is all powerful, or all knowledge. It cannot be based in fear anymore than it can be through some idea of manipulating God into saving us.

So where does worship come from? From realizing that God is at work in our lives.

And that is where the horrible, ugly, truth comes into play.

We need Him to work in our lives.

We need Him to do so because we are broken and crushed by the world and by our own sin.

Luther’s words drive this point home- noting how we have to feel our sin, we have to recognize our brokenness. Not so we can be belittled or terrorized by it – the sin does that on its own. But we need to face it, so we can say that we are forgiven it. This hurts most of the time – for the same reason pulling stitches and dressings off of wounds hurts. Merton agrees with this – explaining that we have to understand where we are, in order to understand grace. Forde nails the point home, when talking about the mystery of the Eucharist, and how such a simple piece of bread and sip of win is so transforming–because it is the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.  The promises in it are amazing, if we only take the time to think through it.

It is there, at the altar, and at the baptismal font, that the great miracles in our lives happen. THey may also be the most overlooked,  for they are sublime. As we come to understand them, the true glory of God, His love, is made known to us. ANd worship should well up inside of us,

Letting God deal with our darkness is needed for worship to really soar. So let Him in… and know the Lord is with you!

Martin Luther and John Sander, Devotional Readings from Luther’s Works for Every Day of the Year (Rock Island, IL: Augustana Book Concern, 1915), 142.

Gerhard O. Forde, “Proclaiming,” in Theology Is for Proclamation (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1990), 178.

Thomas Merton, The New Man (London; New York: Burns & Oates, 1976), 162.