August 6, 2023 

Prelude
Lighting the Christ Candle

 

Welcome and Announcements 

Called to Worship: 

Praise the Lord, who has shown us the wonders of his unfailing love; and who, for the sake of his name, leads us and guides us. 

In you, O Lord, we put our trust. You are our God, and our lives are in your hands. 

Lord, let the light of your face shine on us as we celebrate together in your presence. 

And we will rejoice in the wonder of your love. 

Hymn:  319  Wherever I may wander

Prayer of Adoration 

God of justice and righteousness, to you we look for the truth.  You are the ultimate judge.  Your judgement draws us closer into your love.   

God of grace and mercy, the love you have shown us in Jesus is more than we deserve.  Your arms are open wide, like a waiting father for his prodigal children, ready to welcome and restore.
We come to you eager to be in your presence, returning to you love and adoration for the grace and mercy given to us.   

Trusting in that mercy, we come before you with our prayers of confession, saying: 
 

Prayer of Confession: 

We cannot grasp your love for us, O God, for it is unlike us to be that loving and forgiving. 

We become enmeshed by our own needs and wants and desires and we fail to see beyond anything but our own little circles. 

Turn us around, O God. Help us to see as you see, and to reach out as you reach out.  Remind us once again of that we are the apple of your eye. By your Spirit, teach us to live truly as your beloved people.. 

In your mercy, O God, forgive who we are and bless who we will be. Amen.  

Assurance of Pardon 

Listen! For this is Good News! 

God's Grace is greater than our wildest imaginings. 

God's Grace embraces us as we are and where we are 

and draws us out to be the people we were created to be, God’s beloved child and the apple of his eye.
Thanks be to God! Amen. 

 

The Peace
Passing the Peace 

Hymn:  476  Amigos de Cristo

 

Scripture:

Psalm 17: 1-15
 

Sermon:  The apple of God’s eye 

 Today we are looking at another Psalm of Lament.  That will be a theme we will return to a few times through the Autumn.  These Psalms are important because they teach us that our relationship with God is a two-way relationship and that we are always the blessed people of God.   

More importantly, the Psalms remind us that this relationship begins and ends with God.  No matter how far we stray, God is with us.   No matter how frustrated we are with our life situation, God hears our complaints and our accusations and is still with us. 

But most importantly of all, these Psalms remind us that our righteousness is based in God’s love for us; and most definitely NOT in anything we do to try to earn God’s favour. 

The Psalmist, believed to be David, is in turmoil because of the upsetting factors in his life arising from Saul’s anger, mistrust and aggression.  When he goes to God to complain and demand that God act on his behalf, his defense, his only defense, is that he is righteous before God.   

Innocent before God.   

Deserving of God’s intervention. 

It is possible to read these bold statements and demands that David makes, as arrogance, or a sense of entitlement.  Yet, when we look at this communication through the lens of faith, we see that it comes from the confidence of knowing that he belongs to God.  David is loved by God.  David is chosen by God.  David is guided by God.  David is the apple of God’s eye.   

This is not a passive relationship; it is rather, a mutual relationship that is healthy and rooted in vulnerability and honest communication. 

There is love and trust.  There is also hope and confidence.  All of this based on the knowledge of who David is in relationship with God. 

From the Psalm we can learn that we too are immersed in that same relationship, the relationship that begins and ends in God’s grace. 

When I was a student, I was invited to join a Session retreat in the congregation where I was worshipping.  What I remember vividly was the exercise that came at the end of the day. 

Each of us was passed a piece of paper, and instructed to write our defense for the day when we waited at the gate of heaven.  We were to answer the question, why should we be invited into heaven? 

So that is what we did.  The results were amazingly detailed.  Lengthy indeed.  Son of a preacher.  Student for ministry.  Sunday School teacher.  A person who worked for the homeless.  One after another, we spoke of our accomplishments in the church and our work in the community as proof that we should be allowed into heaven. 

Then the last person was invited to share her defense.  She laid down a blank paper and simply said, “Grace”.   

She knew that her righteousness was rooted in God.   That righteousness contained everything she needed to know.   

She belonged to God.  Was loved by God.  Was chosen by God.  She was the apple of God’s eye. 

What does it mean to be the apple of God’s eye? 

What does that include for us…. 

We see that we are the joy of God’s heart. 

We see that we are beloved child 

We see that we are the favorite child 

We see that we have the confidence of God 

We see that God knows he can rely on us 

We see that we are called by God and trusted with the keys to the Kingdom. 

And the list goes on and on.  This is no small thing.   

 

It is important to note that every time God reveals that a person is the apple of his eye, it is not the person we expect.  When we wrestle with what Scripture is really saying, it can turn upside down all that we think about God, and certainly all of society’s expectations about those whom God choses. 

In Deuteronomy 32, we read about the journey that Jacob took back to the land of his birth.  There in the journey, Jacob wrestles with God and Scripture reminds us that it was God who sustained Jacob in the wilderness, and “guarded him as the apple of his eye”. 

In the rules that governed Hebrew family structure, this is incredibly implausible.  

First Esau was the first born of that family, the inheritance rightly belonged to him. 

Secondly Jacob tricked his brother into giving him that inheritance and tricked his father into the blessing.  Basically, he stole what belonged to his brother. 

Then in exile in his uncle’s household he made an agreement about what sheep and goats would belong to him.  Having agreed the ones with black in their fur would be his, he defrauded his uncle and by now father-in-law, by breeding only the black sheep and goats.  It was quite an elaborate embezzlement scheme. 

The second born, trickster, fraudster, embezzler was known as the apple of God’s eye.  If anyone didn’t deserve it, surely that would be Jacob. 

Or you. 

Or me. 

Each one of us can write a list of how we have failed as children, siblings, partners in marriage and parents.   Each one of us can make a list of the ways we have failed as servants in God’s kingdom.   

And yet, we are the apple of God’s eye. 

We can go boldly before the throne of God and declare our innocence and demand from God what we desire.  Just like a 3 year old demanding his own way.  Or a teenager manipulating her parents to stay out later.   

They are so bold with their parents because they are secure in the love they have in the family….they don’t always get what they want, but they always get what they need and they always know they are loved. 

Paul reminds us of that when he says that he repeatedly went back to God to ask for the thorn in his side to be removed.  The answer, ultimately, was very simple.  “my grace is sufficient.” 

All those who are the apple of God’s eye live in the mercy of God’s grace.   

In God’s grace, we are considered to be righteous, or more accurately, “the righteousness of God”.   

That inheritance belongs to us, simply because God loves us.  No other reason.  We can’t earn it and more importantly we can’t lose it.  No matter what, God loves us and always gives us the grace, love and mercy that is more than what we need.   

Although in this Psalm David laments, complains, and makes demands; God’s mercy prevails.  In that grace, David remembers that God is with him and has always been with him.  He has always known God’s protection, even though he was being persecuted by Saul.  So, in that honest and open conversation, David eventually expresses what has always been hidden in the depths of his heart…that he loves and trusts God.  So, the lament becomes a praise.   

In that grace we too can come, with our complaints, our demands, our anger and our sorrow.  As we pour out our hearts before God and unburden them, we too will discover that we love God above all else.   

There is a new translation of this Psalm, written by Robert Alter, the language of which points out not only the confidence of the Psalmist, but also the intimacy of the love for God and the praise which flows from that love. 

Filled with intimacy, confidence, boldness, purpose and urgency:  Robert Alter’s new translation brings out these qualities in a fresh way, 

1 Hear, O Lord, a just thing.
            Listen well to my song.
                        Hearken to my guileless prayer.
2 From before You my judgment will come.
            Your eyes behold rightness.
3 You have probed my heart, come upon me by night,
            You have tried me, and found no wrong in me.
                        I have barred my mouth to let nothing pass.
4 As for human acts — by the word of Your lips!
            I have kept from the tracks of the brute.
5 Set firm my steps on Your pathways,
            so my feet will not stumble.
6 I called You, for You will answer me, God.
            Incline Your ear, O hear my utterance.
7 Make Your mercies abound, O rescuer of those who shelter
            from foes at Your right hand.
8 Guard me like apple of the eye,
            in the shadow of Your wings conceal me
9 from the wicked who have despoiled me,
            my deadly enemies drawn round me.   

Alter, Robert. The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.  

This Psalm provides us with the understanding of God’s capacity to provide shelter to his people in all circumstances.  It also provides the framework for the boldness with which we can approach the throne as we request deliverance and a place of refuge.  

In that boldness we will find that God is our refuge and our complaining will become our praising.   

That is an important lesson for all of us, because we can assume a false humility coming before God, hat in hand and asking him to please listen.  We say things like, “I know you are busy”, “I know that you have your hands full with fires and floods and wars, but” 

But when we approach God with true humility, we come with the confidence of a most beloved child who recognizes that our parent loves us and cares about what we have to say.  We approach God knowing that we are the apple of his eye, confident that whether the answer is yes or no, God’s grace will always be sufficient for us.   

We are the apple of God’s eye, of course his grace is always sufficient.  Amen 

Hymn:  472  We are God’s people

 

Offering and Offertory
Doxology 830

Offertory Prayer 

God of creation, we give these offerings in gratitude,
rejoicing in the abundance of your gifts to us.  We give these gifts and tithes in faith, trusting that you will provide for our needs.
We give these offerings in hope, knowing you can use them to spread your love in this world. And with these offerings, we give ourselves; May we live with generous hearts, with open hearts and willing hands, as we labour at your side. Amen 

 

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer 

God of majesty, Your glory fills the earth and the heavens.   You are the maker of all that is, of all that is good,  of all that seeks good, of all beauty and truth and nobility.  

You surpass all that we think of you. You are greater than we can know.  You are found in places that we do expect to find you.  You speak to us in ways that are so ordinary that we are surprised that  you choose to reveal yourself in things that are so wonderful that the we are humbled to know the depth of your love.    

Lord, we pray that you may help us to see you and hear you this day, and that we can in our prayers communicate your love to a world and people in distress.   

GRATITUDE AND JOY 

 

 

 

 

Lord, hear our prayer, and in your love, answer. 

We pray for those who hunger and thirst for the bread and water you give in abundance,  for the justice and the mercy that you want all to experience, for the peace and the wholeness that you want all to know. 

ALL THOSE IN NEED 

 

 

 

 

 

Lord, hear our prayer, and in your love, answer. 

A HURTING WORLD 

 

 

 

Lord, hear our prayer, and in your love, answer. 

God of the first and the last, Your grace reaches out to all of us—life-long believers or newcomers alike.   You call us to live as citizens of heaven, to work together with one mind and one purpose, to reach out in love to those in need. 

We come trusting in your love and grace, and offer our lives 

for the building up of Your upside-down kingdom, so that in our lives and in our prayers and there is grace enough for all. 

In the name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying,  

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.  Amen 

 

Hymn:  457  Now thank we all our God

Charge and Benediction 

As we go from here, let us carry the grace of God with us.  Let it inspire our work and our witness, our worship and prayer, so that, through us, God’s will may be done, and God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. 

 

And may the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be among us and within us in all the days ahead. 

 

Sung Blessing  

575 Lead me Lord

Lead me Lord, lead me in your righteousness
Make your way plain before my face
for it is you, and you, God only
who makes me to dwell in safety
Public Domain
Three Fold Amen