Morning Prayer – 11 August 2023
Psalm 51; Jeremiah 39; Mark 2:1-12
Our Psalm today is said to be the continuation of David’s confession of sin and plea for forgiveness having taken Uriah’s wife, Bethsheba – we can read that story in 2 Samuel chapters 11-12.
David is seeking deep cleansing here. He’s asking God, who he understands to be merciful, to have compassion and to love him. He recognises that God is the only one who can truly wash away his transgressions, cleanse him from all sin.
When we sit and reflect, when we consider all that we have done that is against God’s will – the big things and the small things – we recognise that we cannot ignore it, it is always there – just like David had found. As Christian’s the Holy Spirit will convict us of sin – there is no escape. The only way to be free from the sin that entangles us is to confess. We need to recognise that our sin is our sin – just as David did here – “my sin is ever before me”. There is nowhere to put the blame other than with ourselves. David could not say, because Bethsheba was beautiful I found myself sinning; he simply says “my sin is ever before me”. How often do we try to blame our sin, our failure to obey God, on circumstances or people around us.
Here David owns the sin as his own; and he cries out to the merciful, compassionate God, for forgiveness.
“Yet you desired faithfulness, even in the womb” – before we were born God has wanted us to be faithful, to obey Him. Yet we are human and we all fall short, using the free will that He has given us to make our own wrong choices. In the same way that Eve was persuaded by the serpent to eat fruit from the tree that God had told them not to eat from, so do we – each day – make choices that go against God’s plan for our lives.
Being a Christian is all about love and forgiveness; it’s all about owning up to our own sin; taking responsibility for the mistakes we have made; confessing and repenting to God – not simply saying “sorry” but heartfelt repentance. And, when that is done, receiving the compassion, the mercy, the forgiveness of God.
When we do confess, when we are forgiven, the devil will often try to “remind” us of our previous sin, he will try to convince us that we are not forgiven. We need to be people secure in our faith. People that know that when God say’s “you are forgiven” then nothing can change that.
David understood that sin puts distance between us and God. God does not move when we sin, we do. God’s forgiveness makes all things new.
As forgiven people we are able to share the good news of Jesus with others. Verse 13 of the Psalm 51 “Then I will teach transgessors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.” This comes after David is asking God not to cast him from His presence, asking to be restored to “the joy of your salvation” and to be granted a willing spirit to sustain him.
King Zedekiah did not listen to God. Jeremiah had been faithful, he delivered the prophecies that the Lord gave him to say; yet the King, using the free will that God had given him, chose to ignore them. Is it any surprise that they came to pass.
Jeremiah – who had been faithfully sharing the words God had given him to share – was spared.
In the same way, we have the Word of God, the Bible. It is our handbook for living the way God wants us to live. We have access to a wealth of teaching and commentaries – both in person amd written. There are many people, in our churches, in our communities, in our families that we can turn to to discuss when we do not understand; we have access to the internet with a wide variety of views and interpretations – not all of them right, so we need God’s wisdom and understanding too. ALL that God wants from us, is faithfulness; He’s given His son, Jesus, to die on a cross so that we can be forgiven from all of our sins – those in the past, those of today and those of the future. We just have to listen, repent and obey.
In Mark we are still at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry – yet his fame is spreading – people are wanting to come near to hear from him. People would find a way to get near to Jesus – in this story by climbing on the roof and lowering the man into the room where Jesus was. Have you tried carrying a man? He would not have been light! The steps to the roof might have been windy, or maybe steep, we do not know, but 4 men trying to carry the weight of a man, and then lowering him through the roof, would have taken strength. They must have believed Jesus would heal him as they had no plan to raise him back through the roof!
Even though the friends had brought the man to be healed Jesus first says your sins are forgiven. Jesus, with the knowledge and insight of God, can see that the man needs forgiveness more than anything else. Just like we do now. Being the healthiest or wealthiest person will not get us into the Kingdom of God – God’s forgiveness will.
A few days ago there was a visitor here at morning prayer. She had been in Juba prison but is out now. She came, she says, looking for money to be able to sit her S4 exams. When she first sat next to me in the church I didn’t notice anything. Knowing that she wanted to talk to me after the service I was praying that God would show me what to say to her – I had no idea what she would be asking for.
As we sat outside she told me about the school, the amount of money she needed to bring them by “tomorrow”; she told me how hard it was at home, how difficult it had been for her to come to church that morning but that she had run out of the house because she felt God was leading her. Our morning prayer service isn’t publicised as far as I know; I’m not always in Juba, so there was no reason for her to know there was a service or to expect to find me here. Yet she came. So we thank God for that. As she talked, I continued to pray for the right words, I asked her if she was eating well, she told me she wasn’t – because she was worrying about where to find the money for school fees. I asked if she’d been drinking, she told me she hadn’t, I said nothing and her eyes filled with tears that she tried to hold back, as she told me that she’d stop if she could just get the money for her school fees. I prayed with her and I asked her to come to prayer meeting on Wednesday evening. She told me transport was a problem, I looked and found I had no money at all with me – that is unusual, I normally have 500 or 1000 SSP in my notebook. She didn’t come to prayer meeting, but I’m told she had been back in the church grounds around 11am. I tell this story because it’s fresh, many of us saw we on Wednesday, and because it shows that God is watching us too. I did not know what to say to her, but I asked God for words and he gave me some; he enabled me to pull out the thing that is getting between her and a good relationship with him. And he protected her by me not having any cash at all that I could have offered towards her transport – which she most likely wouldn’t have used on transport.
God sees everything; He sees when we do the right thing; He sees when we do the wrong thing; He sees when we obey His word and He sees when we choose our own way.
May we be people who come to God and confess of our sin, who repent, who sacrifice to Him broken and contrite hearts. People who God will come alongside and, in his mercy and compassion, will forgive and heal; people who God will fill with His Holy Spirit to enable us to go out and share the good news with those around us that they too might come into right relationship with Him.