Psalm 32: 1-11 (links validated 3/3/25a)
Quick Locator
| Readings | Related Pages | Resources | Information |
|
|
New Resources
Sermon Starters (Lent 4C)(2025)
In past sermon commentaries on Psalm 32 I have referred to the Woody Allen film Crimes and Misdemeanors. The closing scene can (and should) be viewed on YouTube here. But if you have not seen the film, let me set this up briefly. In the film Martin Landau plays a highly successful and wealthy ophthalmologist named Judah Rosenthal. But he has been carrying on an extramarital affair for some while and then life gets dicey when his lover begins to threaten to reveal the whole thing to Judah’s wife in the hopes of getting Judah all to herself. Judah consults with his mob-connected shady brother and, long story short, Judah arranges to have his lover murdered. But he is tortured and wracked by guilt and at one point late in the film, it appears he is going to go insane over it all. But then suddenly we flash forward in time to a wedding reception for a family friend of the Rosenthals. And that is when we witness this closing scene as Judah essentially shares his true story with the hapless filmmaker Cliff Rhodes, played by Woody Allen. Cliff had not done anything seriously wrong in the film—just a few little moral misdemeanors at best. Yet his life unravels in sad ways while Judah’s life . . . well, watch the scene. It is in some ways a scary inversion of Psalm 32.
Resources from 2022 to 2024
Sermon Starters (Lent 1A)(2023)
Most of his friends had been hanged. But despite his central role in helping to construct Adolf Hitler’s Nazi nightmare, Albert Speer somehow managed to receive from the Nuremberg trials only a 20-year sentence at the Spandau Prison in Berlin. Not long after arriving in Spandau, Speer met with the prison chaplain. To the chaplain’s shock, Speer said, “I want to use my time in prison well. So what I want to ask you is: Would you help me become a different man?” The chaplain was savvy enough to know that for Speer to have even a chance of becoming different, he would have to provide full disclosure of his past evils. Whether or not Speer succeeded in doing that is a matter of considerable debate among those who have studied Speer’s writings. Speer’s memoir Inside the Third Reich was praised for its candor when it was first published. But over time people began to see that in actuality Speer may have held back, failing to confess the full scope of his Nazi activities. In fact, Speer probably made use of that age-old trick whereby you acknowledge some truths as a way to distract people from noticing other things you’d rather not talk about...Sermon Starters (Proper 26C)(2022)
Most of his friends had been hanged. But despite his central role in helping to construct Adolf Hitler’s Nazi nightmare, Albert Speer somehow managed to receive from the Nuremberg trials only a 20-year sentence at the Spandau Prison in Berlin. Not long after arriving in Spandau, Speer met with the prison chaplain. To the chaplain’s shock, Speer said, “I want to use my time in prison well. So what I want to ask you is: Would you help me become a different man?” The chaplain was savvy enough to know that for Speer to have even a chance of becoming different, he would have to provide full disclosure of his past evils. Whether or not Speer succeeded in doing that is a matter of considerable debate among those who have studied Speer’s writings. Speer’s memoir Inside the Third Reich was praised for its candor when it was first published. But over time people began to see that in actuality Speer may have held back, failing to confess the full scope of his Nazi activities. In fact, Speer probably made use of that age-old trick whereby you acknowledge some truths as a way to distract people from noticing other things you’d rather not talk about. He talked to avoid speaking. He laid just enough on the table to keep people from noticing what he was hiding under the table. Alas, it is possible Speer himself was not aware he was doing this. At very least, however, Speer and his spiritual counselors knew that the key ingredient in becoming a different person is forthright confession...Sermon Starters (Lent 4C)(2022)
Most of his friends had been hanged. But despite his central role in helping to construct Adolf Hitler’s Nazi nightmare, Albert Speer somehow managed to receive from the Nuremberg trials only a twenty-year sentence at the Spandau Prison in Berlin. Not long after arriving in Spandau, Speer met with the prison chaplain. To the chaplain’s shock, Speer said, “I want to use my time in prison well. So what I want to ask you is: Would you help me become a different man?” The chaplain was savvy enough to know that for Speer to have even a chance of becoming different, he would have to provide full disclosure of his past evils. Whether or not Speer succeeded in doing that is a matter of considerable debate among those who have studied Speer’s writings. Speer’s memoir Inside the Third Reich was praised for its candor when it was first published. But over time people began to see that in actuality Speer may have held back, failing to confess the full scope of his Nazi activities. In fact, Speer probably made use of that age-old trick whereby you acknowledge some truths as a way to distract people from noticing other things you’d rather not talk about. He talked to avoid speaking. He laid just enough on the table to keep people from noticing what he was hiding under the table. Alas, it is possible Speer himself was not aware he was doing this. At very least, however, Speer and his spiritual counselors knew that the key ingredient in becoming a different person is forthright confession. Psalm 32 agrees...Confession, Repentance and Forgiveness
I remember the first time I went to a minister to talk about something personal; it was tough as toenails. It was hard to go and talk to a minister. I had been baptized about two years. Some fellows that I worked with in a box factory went uptown to get a hot dog or a hamburger for lunch. We had an hour for lunch. I still had on my nail apron, and they had on their nail aprons; we drove nails to make these boxes. We passed a blind man on the sidewalk with his guitar, a sign that said “I’m blind. Please help me,” and a tin cup taped to the neck of his guitar. It suddenly occurred to the three of us to play a trick. Each of us took some nails from our nail aprons and dropped them in his tin cup, noisily, and he said, “Thank you, thank you very much. May God bless you. Thank you very much.” That began to eat at me; of all the ugly, terrible things to do. Well, I couldn’t get rid of it, so finally I did what some people do only in desperation; I talked to the minister. I went to the minister and told him what I had done, and he sat up at his desk and said, “Are you aware that this country is in the biggest war of our history?” It was World War II, the last year of it. “People are dying by the hundreds every day; soldiers have been away from their families for years. We don’t know how this whole thing is going, people dying, starving. And you are worried about nails in a blind man’s cup?” He let me go. My little problem was swallowed up in the problems of the world, but it wouldn’t go. Finally, I went to the youth minister, Mignonne. We didn’t pay her, but she was a minister. I told her what I had done, and she told me that was a terrible, terrible thing to do. She felt bad, like I felt bad, and she said, “God forgives you for that, but why don’t you next week when you have your lunch hour, why don’t you go to that same blind man and tell him what you did and ask him to forgive you, and then if you have a nickel or a dime or a quarter, give it to him.” I did, and that poor man forgave me, and he smiled and said, “I know how it is. Lot of boys are full of mischief, aren’t they?” He forgave me. I had been baptized already, and I was carrying that around...
Resources from 2019 to 2021
Sermon Starters (Lent 4C)(2019)
Most of his friends had been hanged. But despite his central role in helping to construct Adolf Hitler’s Nazi nightmare, Albert Speer somehow managed to receive from the Nuremberg trials only a twenty-year sentence at the Spandau Prison in Berlin. Not long after arriving in Spandau, Speer met with the prison chaplain. To the chaplain’s shock, Speer said, “I want to use my time in prison well. So what I want to ask you is: Would you help me become a different man?” The chaplain was savvy enough to know that for Speer to have even a chance of becoming different, he would have to provide full disclosure of his past evils. Whether or not Speer succeeded in doing that is a matter of considerable debate among those who have studied Speer’s writings. Speer’s memoir Inside the Third Reich was praised for its candor when it was first published. But over time people began to see that in actuality Speer may have held back, failing to confess the full scope of his Nazi activities...Sermon Starters (Proper 26C)(2019)
Most of his friends had been hanged. But despite his central role in helping to construct Adolf Hitler’s Nazi nightmare, Albert Speer somehow managed to receive from the Nuremberg trials only a 20-year sentence at the Spandau Prison in Berlin. Not long after arriving in Spandau, Speer met with the prison chaplain. To the chaplain’s shock, Speer said, “I want to use my time in prison well. So what I want to ask you is: Would you help me become a different man?” The chaplain was savvy enough to know that for Speer to have even a chance of becoming different, he would have to provide full disclosure of his past evils. Whether or not Speer succeeded in doing that is a matter of considerable debate among those who have studied Speer’s writings. Speer’s memoir Inside the Third Reich was praised for its candor when it was first published. But over time people began to see that in actuality Speer may have held back, failing to confess the full scope of his Nazi activities. In fact, Speer probably made use of that age-old trick whereby you acknowledge some truths as a way to distract people from noticing other things you’d rather not talk about. He laid just enough on the table to keep people from noticing what he was hiding under the table. Alas, it is possible Speer himself was not aware he was doing this. At very least, however, Speer and his spiritual counselors knew that the key ingredient in becoming a different person is forthright confession. Psalm 32 agrees...
Resources from 2016 to 2018
Lent 1A (2017)
When my brother and I were fishing in Colorado, we wanted to visit a famous lake, but we didn’t know how to find it. Providentially, a forest ranger stopped to chat with us. So we asked him how to get that lake. “Well,” he said, “you can’t get there from here. Oh, wait, there is a way, but it is very difficult. It’s narrow and steep and rocky. It’s the only way to get there from here. I don’t advise it. But that lake is a fisherman’s paradise.” What do you think we did? We didn’t take that way. We didn’t believe the ranger enough to take that road less travelled, even with the promise of paradise. As a counter example of the difficult but glorious way outlined in Psalm 32, I offer you Cormac McCarthy’s grim novel, The Road. It’s a post apocalyptic tale of a man and his son following an ash covered road through an unbearably bleak and blasted world filled with horrors beyond description. They follow the road in the hopes of reaching the West Coast of what was once the United States. They hope against hope that there might be normal people and a peaceful life far down that road. But that road leads to suffering and disappointment with only a tiny glimmer of hope for the boy, not the kind of unfailing love that makes people sing and dance in the story of the Prodigal Son.God's Bridled Love
During a summer in college, I worked on my friend Josh’s family ranch. The property was located where California’s flat, fertile Central Valley met the foothills rising to Kings Canyon National Park. Awake before dawn, we were often still doing chores when the light of a long, hot day was fading. We didn’t have much down time, but I recall bugging Josh about riding one of the ranch’s horses. Old Susie was the safest. Josh gave me quick instructions—which included controlling the mare with the bridle he’d easily looped over her head—and then he stepped back. I swung my legs up and onto the saddle. I was astride Susie a few seconds. Then she bucked and threw me off. I may have had more time in the air than on the saddle. Though a memory from over forty years ago can be faulty, I believe Josh announced, standing over me while I sprawled on my back in the dirt and muck of the corral . . . I don’t think she’s ever thrown anyone before. There’s always a first time. For Susie. For me....Quotations on Forgiveness
("The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget. Forgetting is something that time takes care of, but forgiveness is an act of volition, and only the sufferer is qualified to make the decision...")