* Open
- Pray for the families of Sarah Coffman and Cyndi Booth.
- Last year's story: "I was hungry to see the sunset again."
- This year's school theme: Inspired to Know God
- Consider Reno, Faulk, Chiaramonte, Moore, Talley.
- My Perle: "And she picked up the saga and sang it as no one else could."
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| The Berlin Cathedral Graced by the Festival of Lights |
This morning's texts:
1. Psalm 34
A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed.
1I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
3Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
4I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
5Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
6This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
7The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
8Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
9Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
10The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
11Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
15The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
16The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
19Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
21Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
2. I Peter 3
8Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
9Do not repay
evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for
to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
10For “Whoever desires to love life
and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
11let him turn away from evil and do good;10For “Whoever desires to love life
and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
let him seek peace and pursue it.
12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
3. I Samuel 21
11
Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to
meet David trembling and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one
with you?”
2And
David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a
matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about
which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an
appointment with the young men for such and such a place.
3Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.”
4And the priest
answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy
bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.”
5And David
answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I
go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it
is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be
holy?”
6So the priest
gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of
the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.
7Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen.
8Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.” 9And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”
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Tanzio da Varallo, Davide e Golia, ca. 1625 |
10And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,
‘Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?”
12And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
13So he
changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their
hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run
down his beard.
14Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me?
15Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”
* Application: Imagine David
- Disdained
- Dishonored
- Fleeing
- Spitting on himself
- Joined by the disgruntled, debtors, etc.
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| The Berlin Wall, now a concrete canvas for artistic expression. |
* Conclusion:
- Take heart
- Student Example
- "Just dropping a note to let you know how much your
classes impacted me. Six years later, I still reference your class and
teachings in my conversations with friends. I recently found a lot of
our textbooks and have been starting to re-read many of them.
Thank you so much for teaching us how to think critically about both literature and God but also life at large. I firmly believe your class functioned as a logic and ethics class for me and for that I become more and more grateful as time goes on."
- Parent--teacher conference story
- God worked then, and, by His Spirit, works no less powerfully today
- You have a song to sing. A song of praise. Will you pick up the saga and sing it as no one else could? Taste and see that the Lord is good.
- God, grant us deep faith.
- Pray the Psalm.
Statue of King David by Nicolas Cordier in the Borghese Chapel of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
