Life in Christ Lutheran
Church, Grand Marais, MN.
That is the opening
paragraph from what many consider to be a great classic work of literature. The book is called “A Tale of Two Cities,” by
Charles Dickens. I don’t know if you’ve
read the story or not, but it’s a book about contrasts. The whole story takes place during the
upheaval of the French Revolution and is centered on two characters that look
alike but are actually quite different. One
exhibits the best qualities of the time, the other the worst; one is wise, the
other foolish, etc. Dickens uses the
contrast between these two men to build a story life and death, darkness and
light, and good and evil.
The psalm for today also
talks about the same kind of contrasts. It
paints for us a very vivid picture of two ways of life; two ways that humans
can live. The way of wisdom, the way of
the person who is blessed by God, and the way of wickedness, the way that perishes.
Blessed
is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of
sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the
Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by
streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not
wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like
chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the
judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows
the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:1-6, ESV)
The author of the Psalm
paints these pictures with two strong images.
The first is the image of a strong tree flourishing by a stream. This tree has great leafy green branches that
spread into the sky. Each leaf receives
the moisture it needs from the stream, they “never wither” the poet says. The tree is a fruit-bearing tree. In season the fruit is heavy on the branches,
a good crop at the proper time. “And all
that he does prospers,” the Psalm says, in conclusion, that is it grows and
bears fruit just as a tree should do. Oh
how blessed is the tree that has been so planted that it can grow and prosper
in the way that tress should grow and prosper.
Oh, how blessed is the
man… The picture of the tree is a picture of a righteous person. You can see the contrast set up again by the
psalm. A person grows and prospers by
the instruction of God, not by the counsel or wisdom of the wicked. A righteous person meditates “day and night”
on the things of God not living the way that wicked people live, not by sitting
with them to learn from their foolishness.
Instead the blessed person goes to God with the questions of life. He listens to the wisdom of God and considers
what it means for the way he lives.
That isn’t the way with
the wicked people described by the psalm.
They are like the chaff the wind blows away. In contrast to the planted tree, the
chaff is the throw away part of the harvest.
The newly harvested stalks of grain are stacked on the threshing floor. Oxen trample them to release the grain. When evening comes and the gentle breeze
begins to blow, the farmer tosses the mixture in the air. The wind picks up the chaff and carries it
away, but the heavy grain falls back to the ground. The grain is collected and moved to storage. The chaff isn’t given any further thought,
the wind has disposed of it, and it has no value anymore. The way of the wicked person is just as the chaff. It ends in nothing, accomplishes nothing and
easily disappears in the breeze.
The best of times, the
worst of times, foolishness and wisdom, light and darkness, these are two ways
of life.
It’s easy for us to think
that we are the ones who are blessed ones.
Look around you at all that is here around us: A wonderful property, a
wonderful congregation that God has been preserving. For years his congregation has gathered
together every Sunday to sing beautiful music, and hear God’s Word proclaimed. Children are born and baptized and bring life
and hope. We have watched as they
confessed their faith and become responsible adults. We have wonderful places to live and food
enough. And our community that often
helps and nurtures those who are hurting.
We are truly very blessed people.
But are our leaves always
green? Do we bear fruit when we should? I must admit for myself, when trouble comes
into my family, when I face the prospect of death and pain, I don’t feel very
green. I’m sure it’s the same for you. There are struggles we all face every single
day; insecurity at work, struggles with people you don’t like, questions about
the future of the church and community; the future of the economy; the future
of our country. Often what we see in the
future more feels like what’s blowing away in the wind than anything else. And our fruit always seem to be tainted. Oh, we want to do the right thing, but issues
always seem to come down to money and time.
We don’t want to be selfish, but we’ve got to take care of ourselves
first. At least that’s the advice you get
from television, and movies. At least
that’s the word we get from self help books and our friends and family and our
own sinful hearts. We do have fruit, but
lots of time it seems kind of wormy and quite a bit rotten. And that’s the problem with rotten
fruit. You can’t eat it. It’s just no good.
It seems that Psalm 1
describes our lives very well. We are
blessed and yet we do things that wicked people do. So where does that leave our future? Is God going to watch over us or shall we
blow away like so much straw?
The truth is that the Psalm isn’t just talking about us. We really fit in the wicked category better
than with the one who meditates on God’s Word day and night. An hour a week seems to be our limit. A little to long on Pastor’s sermon and we’ll
threaten to drop off to sleep. No, the
good part of the Psalm really describes Someone else a
lot better than it describes us. It
describes Someone who’s fruit is never tainted. It describes Someone who
always got that green leaf thing going on.
It describes Someone who has
God’s Word as the very nature and center of His life. He walks in God’s ways not ours. He does whatever He sets out to do. There’s that contrast again, it’s very strong
in this Psalm. There’s us and there’s
Him… and the Him is Jesus.
Everything Jesus did was
blessed. God watched over Him and
protected Him. When King Herod wanted to
kill Him, God sent Jesus family to Egypt
And yet, there’s another
part of that Psalm that describes Jesus, too.
He wasn’t a wicked person. He
lived His life perfectly in the will of God, He never sinned, but still He
suffered the death of a wicked person. Everything
He did was right and yet He suffered and died, as a wicked person deserves. What happened to God watching over Him then? God was watching, in fact, Jesus whole life
lived for that very moment. Someone had
to be punished for the wickedness of people, someone had to be punished for the
evil things that you and I do. Someone
had to die for our rotten fruit. And that’s just what Jesus did. He bled and died for the wickedness of the
whole world. He willingly gave His
perfect life to satisfy the need for punishment… to perish for wicked people. And God was watching and approved of it and
accepted the sacrifice of Jesus for you and me and all the wicked people of the
whole world. And all that He did
prospered. When the payment was paid in
full, Jesus Christ rose from the dead again, in victory over all evil.
“Pastor,” you say, “I know
what Jesus did, but my life still seems a lot more like the chaff in the wind. I don’t feel like the tree by the water.”
Look right here at this
font. That’s your stream of water. That’s the one you’ve been planted by. It was at your baptism that God made promises
to you to watch over you, and to make you a blessed person. It was there that you were “clothed with
Christ.” You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all
of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3:26-27) That
means that everything Jesus Christ did He did for you. Everything from the punishment He paid, to
the good things that He did. The green
leaves and the abundant fruit that He grew are yours. That’s what the passage means when it says, For by grace you have been saved through
faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (Ephesians 2:8, ESV) That gift of God is faith in the good works
of Christ. Not trusting the “good
things” you’ve done to impress God, because we know that no matter how good
they are they just don’t measure up.
Listen again to the familiar words of Isaiah: We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. (we could replace
those words with “rotten fruit”!) We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities,
like the wind, take us away. (Isaiah
64:6, ESV) Sound familiar? Sure,
that’s just like the Psalm. Well then if
all our “righteous deeds” are “rotten fruit” what are we to do? That’s what our faith is all about we trust
in the good fruit of Someone
else. The good works of Jesus are
yours. That’s as true for you as the
fact that right here at the “stream of living water” your head got wet. You have been transplanted
by (by means of) streams of water, from the way of wicked people to the way of
the blessed. You don’t need any good
works, to make yourself right with God.
But do you know who needs those good things you do? Your neighbors! Your family!
You co-workers! Your community! Your school!
That’s what changes everything. Instead
of trying to impress God with our good works (they don’t anyway… remember) we
can do them to serve others. We don’t
need them, but they do! And that too is
what the Psalm is talking about.
We
are blessed people, planted by streams of living water, to bear good and
abundant fruit, in season. Serving the
people God has placed right before us to serve.
The future for us isn’t like chaff in the wind. Our future is a blessed future just as God
has promised through Jesus Christ. For
us it is the best of times. Time to grow
and flourish where God has planted us. Time
to bear fruit right here in the ways God has given us to bear it. And just as he promises, in Jesus Christ all
that we do will prosper. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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