Purify Me, O God

Palm Sunday.  Scripture lesson Mark 11:1-11 in which Jesus is lauded by the people as he rides into Jerusalem on a colt.

The Jewish people anticipated that Jesus would save them from the Roman oppressor and reestablish David's kingdom.

Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: . . . 

 Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?. . .
I count them mine enemies. --Psalm 139:19-22

But He did not come to punish Rome, he came to purify the people.

Recall the account of Jesus cursing the fig tree.  Why?  He cursed the tree because it was not producing fruit.  Jesus cursed the Temple for the same reason.  The religious leaders were taking their cues from Roman culture rather than from Scripture.

Christ came not to save the people from something, but to do something to them.

Just so, God is more concerned with purging the sins of the Church than He is with punishing the sins of the world.

We are to take our cues from Jesus, not from the culture.

 Too often we go to our cultural war chest-- fighting Rome with Roman ways.  We are to follow Christ (see the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7) not the culture.

  

Then David concluded his prayer:

Search me, O God, and know my heart:
try me, and know my thoughts:

and see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. --Psalm 139:23-24

Pray not that God will destroy others but that he will do something to us:  Sanctify us, O God.

Lent is God's time for deep Spring cleaning of the Church.

Do something to us, Lord, so You can do something great through us!

 Lenny Luchetti, guest speaker

Sunday morning