"Responding to God's Mercy" - Psalm 51:1-17 - February 6, 2008 - Ash Wednesday

Lent is the season of the Church when we acknowledge our dependency on God and practice self-denial. It also presents us with the opportunity to recondition our hearts. It means living with humility yet staying in the race. It also means opening our selves to the forgiveness of God who is just waiting to lead our lives in a new direction.

When we say, “have mercy on me” we are asking God to forgive us. I believe that most folks know God is a forgiving God, but few actually ask God to forgive them. It is confession that leads to forgiveness and forgiveness that leads to both fulfillment, but more importantly, responsibility. The psalm reminds us also that we must be contrite and be willing to say to God that we have failed. That is not always an easy task. We tend to rationalize our behavior or just admit we are only partly at fault. Until we can sincerely take ownership of our mistakes we cannot expect God to forgive us. In other words, to ask forgiveness is just the first step. The next step is asking God to “create in us a new heart.” That means we are asking God to prepare us so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes.

David Waltrip is a professional stock-car racer. He had a reputation of being “the guy folks loved to hate.” When crowds booed, he’d kick the dirt and smile. But then things changed. He miraculously survived a Daytona 500 crash. He began going to church with his wife, Stevie. He and his wife began to try and have a family, but they were unsuccessful. On day their pastor came to visit. He said, “Your car is sponsored by a beer company. Is that the image you want?” Darrell had never given that a thought. The more he thought about it he discovered he did care about his image. He remembered his pastor’s words but he didn’t know if his car owner would change sponsors. Amazingly, (or perhaps not), an opportunity opened for him and he signed with a new racing team that was sponsored by a laundry detergent company. In the next few years the Darrell’s wife gave birth to two daughters and in 1989 in won at Daytona.

Waltrip prepared himself by changing to a sponsor that genuinely reflected his beliefs. No longer did he have to be concerned as to what his fans might say about him. To ask God to create in us a clean heart means, like it did for Waltrip, that our lives result in new behavior. This was also true for David. David resolved to be fully dependent on God in the future. He said, "Restore to me the joy of they salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit."

David, who wrote many of the psalms, also needed to change the condition of his heart. David’s heart had become filled with selfishness and cruelty. First, he took advantage of Bethsheba. Then he had her husband, a soldier, sent to the front of battle where he was ultimately killed. David was confronted with his sins by Nathan and deep in his heart, he realized his heart had become very hard.

In this Psalm David has taken ownership of his wrongful behavior and consequently he has experienced the forgiveness of God. As a response to his new found freedom and clean heart he made some changes. Just as Darrell Waltrip prepared his heart by contracting with a sponsor that would enhance the image of racing, David wrote many of the Psalms which in turn would influence future generations.

David also promised to teach and encourage others to confess their sins as well. It’s not enough just to be forgiven. We respond to God’s forgiveness by teaching others about God’s grace. God’s love doesn’t stop with us. God expects us to pass it on to others. David promised to be a messenger, to tell his story and to tell of the mercy of God.

How we live out our lives is crucial, especially for young minds and young hearts. The best way to teach is by example. One time there was a woman who was driving a very expensive luxury car. She was waiting patiently in a crowded parking lot at a shopping mall. She finally saw a man carrying packages heading toward his parked car. She followed him and waited as he loaded the packages into his trunk. Finally he got into his car and backed out. Just as the woman was preparing to pull into the open space, a young man in a little sports car, coming from the opposite direction, pulled into the space ahead of her. He got out of his car and began walking away. The woman was livid. She shouted to the young man out the window of her luxury car, “Hey, young man! I was waiting for that parking place!” The teenager responded by saying, “Sorry lady, but that’s how it is when you’re young and quick.” At that moment the woman put her car in gear, floor-boarded it and crashed her car into the sports car, crushing its right rear fender. “What the heck are you dong?” the young man shouted. The woman responded by saying, “Well son, that’s how it is when you are old and rich.”

How different our world would be if we all treated each other with love and mercy, rather than revenge and retaliation. We don’t teach God’s forgiveness by modeling revenge. We teach others by teaching through example.

The psalmist is talking not about words but about the language of the heart. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.”

In his book, “When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough,” Rabbi Harold Kushner told about an incident that happened at a funeral home. A business associate of his father had died under tragic circumstances. He accompanied his father to the funeral. The man’s widow and children were surrounded by clergy and psychiatrists, all trying to ease their grief and make them feel better. They knew all the right words, but nothing helped. They were beyond being comforted. The widow kept saying, “You’re right, I know you’re right, but it doesn’t make a difference.”

During the viewing a man walked in, a big burly man in his eighties who was a legend in the toy and game industry. He had come to the country illiterate and penniless but had built up an immensely successful company. He was known as a hard bargainer and ruthless competitor. Despite his success he had never learned to read or write. He had been ill lately and his face and his body posture showed it. He walked over to the widow and started to cry and she cried with him. The atmosphere in the funeral home completely changed. The man was speaking the language of the heat. He opened up the gates of mercy where clergy and professionals could not.

Like the psalmist proclaimed this man had a truly contrite heart. He was sorry for the woman’s loss and expressed it with a genuine response. “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Sin is a powerful and persistent reality in our world, but God’s grace is more powerful. It is by God’s grace that we are forgiven. It is in response to that grace that the lives of others can be changed. Have mercy on us O God and help us to be your agents of mercy toward others.

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio