If you follow the Revised Common Lectionary, the gospel reading for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost that accompanies Psalm 119:97–104 ends with this question, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8, NRSVUE). When Christ returns will he find any faithful followers? Thanks be to God that the church is growing in many places around the globe because when I look at my context, the United States of America, I feel the sting of that question. 2 Timothy 4:3-5 warns us, “For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound teaching, but, having their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, be sober in everything, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully” (NRSVUE).
What is it that will keep us from falling prey to false teachers, from losing our way? Scripture tells us repeatedly that it is the law. The New Testament expands our understanding of the law to move beyond the Ten Commandments and teaches us that Christ fulfilled the law such that the ceremonial law is no longer needed for our worship, and the civil law no longer applies. Nor is our salvation dependent on our ability to follow the moral law, yet the moral law is not abolished (Matthew 5:19). The moral law, represented by the Ten Commandments, reminds us of our sin, it should keep us from sinning, and it should provide for us a goal to attain as we desire to become more and more like Christ. The moral law is still of central importance to the Christian faith, yet few of our worship services include even a reference to it.
I’m ashamed to admit that when I saw that this week’s Psalm was Psalm 119 and read the portion assigned I was annoyed. Who goes around saying, “Oh, how I love your law…how sweet are your words to my taste” (Psalm 119:97, 103, NRSVUE)? I didn’t feel like I or anyone else would relate. I also have some unease around how the law has been used in certain contexts. However, when I read the Luke passage, I was convicted that my response was exactly the reason why we need to include the Ten Commandments and other passages on God’s law regularly in our worship. One way to do that is to include it as part of the assurance of pardon, as part of our rededication to becoming more like Christ as we respond with gratitude for the gift of forgiveness.
Will God find faith on earth? Only if we grow a true love for God’s law.
Psalm 119:97–104, Confession and Assurance of Pardon
Call to Confession
Psalm 119:97 says, “Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long.” How many of us can say that that statement is true for us? Is the psalmist some sort of religious fanatic or could it be that we don’t love Christ enough? For if we truly loved Christ, we would want to become more like Christ, to emulate Christ’s ways. In order to do that we must come to love the law. Admitting that we have failed to fully love and follow the law, let us confess our sin before God.
Prayer of Confession
Holy and righteous God,
you have called us to follow Christ
and be obedient to your law,
not for our salvation,
but so that others may see you in us.
Forgive us for not attending to your law,
for thinking little of it,
for neglecting to study it, to learn it,
to hold it deep in our heart.
Forgive us for not loving your law,
for not loving you.
And now out of our chosen ignorance
has arisen an inability to follow you fully.
We have failed to live righteous lives.
We have failed to live justly and fight injustice.
We have failed to show love to neighbor, creature, and all creation.
Forgive us.
Send your Spirit to fill our hearts with a passion for you
and your law.
Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.
—Jeremiah 31:31, 33–34, NRSVUE
Response of Gratitude
Oh, how I love your law!
It is my meditation all day long.
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is always with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your decrees are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged,
for I keep your precepts.
I hold back my feet from every evil way,
in order to keep your word.
I do not turn away from your ordinances,
for you have taught me.
How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.
—Psalm 119:97-104, NRSVUE
