Psalm 40: 1-17 (links validated 3/24/25a)

Years ago in a sermon preached at the Festival of Homiletics, the renowned preacher Fred Craddock preached on John 20 and in particular the verse in that chapter that claims that if everything Jesus had ever said and done were actually written down, “the world could not contain the books that would be written.” “That’s ridiculous” was the opening line of the sermon. Craddock then engaged the hyperbole of that verse with some hyperbole of his own. “Can you imagine,” he said, “going to Colorado to ski except you could not get down the mountain because of all the books that would be in the way.” The Library of Congress, Craddock noted, has 5,000 miles of running shelf space. “I bet we could cram the books about Jesus in there” he said with a twinkle in his eye. But through many clever twists and turns as the sermon unfolded, Craddock made clear in the end that there is a spiritual truth behind John 20’s hyperbole. The Gospel and the Christ Jesus at the center of it really are bigger than the whole wide world, than the whole wide cosmos. There really is no bottom to the telling of the old, old story of Jesus and his love. Psalm 40:5 reminded me of this with its declaration that if the psalmist even tried to recount the goodness and the works of God, he could not even make a small dent in the actual amount of things that could be shared. God really is that big. Or as the old spiritual would have it, God is so high you can’t get over him; so wide you can’t get around him; so deep you can’t get under him.

C.S. Lewis once gave one of his many memorable images for dealing with some questions about prayer. We know of Jesus’s invitation to knock so that the door may be opened to us. But, Lewis wondered, what might happen when the door opens? Well, in regard to any given prayer and request, God may open the door to say “Sure, yes, I can do that.” Or he could open the door to give us the disappointing reply “No, I’m afraid not—not this time.” But it’s also possible the door will be opened to us only to have God invite us to come inside, take a seat, and then we will have a chat about all of this. There may not always be a straightforward yes or no answer. It might be more complicated than we know and that might require some patient learning over time on our part. But, Lewis said, the good news is that God welcomes also this conversation. And he is always there to be part of it.

C.S. Lewis once gave one of his many memorable images for dealing with some questions about prayer. We know of Jesus’s invitation to knock so that the door may be opened to us. But, Lewis wondered, what might happen when the door opens? Well, in regard to any given prayer and request, God may open the door to say “Sure, yes, I can do that.” Or he could open the door to give us the disappointing reply “No, I’m afraid not—not this time.” But it’s also possible the door will be opened to us only to have God invite us to come inside, take a seat, and then we will have a chat about all of this. There may not always be a straightforward yes or no answer. It might be more complicated than we know and that might require some patient learning over time on our part. But, Lewis said, the good news is that God welcomes also this conversation. And he is always there to be part of it.

includes discussion of the song “Oh, He’s Taken My Feet” | Early American folk hymn, performed by Lucy Simpson, with Rock Creek (Bill Destler, Wally Macnow, Tom McHenry), Mary Alice Amidon, Peter Amidon, and Caroline Paton, on Sharon Mountain Harmony: A Golden Ring of Gospel

The promise of God is not that we will not suffer for him, but that God will not forget us in the muck and the mud of everyday life and will reach down to us and be with us in our need. It is a psalm that inspired Bono and the other members of U2 to write the song “40,” a meditation on Psalm 40, for their 1983 album, “War.” In U2’s version, Bono sings: I waited patiently for the Lord He inclined and heard my cry He brought me up out of the pit Out of the mire and clay...

("This week we will let Paul David Hewson (aka Bono) be our exegete. Bono, the frontman for the Dublin-based band U2, wrote two songs that intersect with today's lectionary passages. Our texts for this reflection will be Psalm 40 and John 1:29-42, and alongside the Biblical text will be 40 (How Long) and 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'...")

I’ll never forget a man who told me about his experience of God’s grace. He was an intensely private man, a man who never expressed his emotions– not his faith in Christ, not even love for his family. Indeed, they were estranged by his cold and distant demeanor. But when his wife fell terribly ill and was hospitalized for a length of time, he was deeply worried about her. He prayed fervently that she would be healed. As he prayed, he heard God say, “She will be just fine.” He was startled. He had never had a direct experience of grace like that, even though he was a lifelong believer. He told me about it with tears in his eyes, repeating over and over, “I’ve never had an experience like that.”...

("I recently heard a presentation by one of the local leaders in the telecommunications field. She was speaking of the rapid changes and developments in her field. She said soon a person will be able to punch into their wireless device the address of a bar they are going to and it will tell which, if any, of the patrons currently in the bar want to hear fishing stories...")

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I fly a lot, but I never fly first class. One day last summer, however, I ended up in first class for a long-haul, transatlantic flight. There were certain amenities that were obvious from the beginning – more leg room, a nicer meal, more attention. However, it wasn’t till I was stretching my legs in the forward service area that I witnessed something amazing. A young businessman came forward and asked the attendant for a Kit Kat – a Kit Kat! The chocaholic in me paid attention. Without batting an eye, the attendant opened a cabinet where every kind of candy and snack known to man was lined up in a bountiful display and handed the man his Kit Kat. It was free for the asking. I remember thinking, who knew? I returned to my seat and told my seatmate, and very soon after that, we each requested our favorite candy bars. They were ours for the asking all along, but we hadn’t known exactly what we could hope for. As the psalmist shifts back from thanksgiving to lament in Psalm 40, I get this same impression. Yes, life brings us back to a season of desperate need for rescue. Yes, we can’t live in the shininess of Christmas all year long, and we have to step back to some days where the cold takes our breath away...