Let the Nations Be Glad -- A Message for August 23, 2026

  Friends, this morning we have the pleasure of hearing 4 Psalms. These are the “favorite” scriptures of our own June Waters. 

These Psalms are all different from each other but contain similar themes. One of the themes common in all of the Psalms we will read is the  universality of our faith – it is for all people.  We are called to share our faith with all the people of the world.  Our faith is not something we keep to ourselves, as individuals, but is for all of the people of the earth – the Jewish people and the non-Jewish people…the Christians and everyone else. All people are welcome and encouraged to worship our God and understand that our God is the true God.

I will first read two psalms that are missional – they remind us that God’s grace isn’t just for us but is for all people. And, God loves all people…equally…. the good people and the bad people…the faithful people and the people who are working to be faithful. 

Listen to our first Psalm, Psalm 67: 

Psalm 67: For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song.

1  May God be gracious to us and bless us
    and make his face shine on us—

2 so that your ways may be known on earth,
    your salvation among all nations.

3 May the peoples praise you, God;
    may all the peoples praise you.

4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
    for you rule the peoples with equity
    and guide the nations of the earth.

5 May the peoples praise you, God;
    may all the peoples praise you.

6 The land yields its harvest;
    God, our God, blesses us.

7 May God bless us still,
    so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.

Amen

Our second Psalm is the shortest of all the Psalms, Psalm 117. It is also missional in its focus…God extends God’s love to us, and therefore we must encourage others to know God and experience God’s love. Listen now to our next Psalm, Psalm 117:

1 Praise the Lord, all you nations;
    extol him, all you peoples.

2 For great is his love toward us,
    and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord.

Amen.

Psalms were written to be sung – not read. They are the poetry we find in hymns, not at Poetry Slams. The next Psalm we read is a soundtrack to go with our invitation to the nations – a song to celebrate that God isn’t just for believers now, but believers to-be. This psalm inspired Isaac Watts to write the words to “Joy to the World.” Verse 4 of this Psalm:  “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,burst into jubilant song with music” inspired Watts to write: “Joy to the world! the Lord is come; Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare him room, And heaven and nature sing, ” ….Listen now to our next Psalm, a singing Psalm, Psalm 98:

Psalm 98 A psalm.

1 Sing to the Lord a new song,
    for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
    have worked salvation for him.

2  The Lord has made his salvation known
    and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

3 He has remembered his love
    and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
    the salvation of our God.

4 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
    burst into jubilant song with music;

5 make music to the Lord with the harp,
    with the harp and the sound of singing,

6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
    shout for joy before the Lord, the King.

7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it.

8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
    let the mountains sing together for joy;

9 let them sing before the Lord,
    for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
    and the peoples with equity.

Amen. 

In the ancient world, a judge wasn’t someone who punished – a judge was someone who set things right. In Psalm 98, God’s coming judgment is a cause for joy because it means the end to brokenness and injustice – God was coming to the earth to extend righteousness and bring about equity for all people. In Jesus, God fulfilled this promise! 

For our final Psalm of the day, we are turning to Psalm 118. This Psalm will sound familiar to us; we hear parts of it quoted a lot in the New Testament Gospels and Letters. Psalm 118  is a triumphant song of thanksgiving – we hear it echoed in the New Testament in the words people proclaimed on the original Psalm Sunday – and in the words the disciples and Jesus said on the night of Jesus’ last supper.

This Psalm was read at the Last Supper because it is a Passover song – it recalls the flight from Egypt, when the Jewish people were besieged by enemies, but ultimately triumphed. 

Psalm 118 was written as a call and response – a song leader would have read one line and the gathered worshippers the next.  They were probably not actually reading it; in the ancient world, the Jewish people would have memorized the words of the Psalms just as we now memorize the words to our favorite hymns and the songs we listen to on the radio. 

We don’t have these Psalms memorized. And, we can only guess the melody they were written to be sung with…. But, please indulge me and pull out your pew Bibles. Let us all turn to Psalm 118 and read it out-loud together. We will alternate – I will read the odd numbered lines and you will read the even numbered lines.  We will praise God together as we proclaim the words of Psalm 118.

Psalm 118

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his love endures forever.

2 Let Israel say:
    “His love endures forever.”

3 Let the house of Aaron say:
    “His love endures forever.”

4 Let those who fear the Lord say:
    “His love endures forever.”

5 When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord;
    he brought me into a spacious place.

6 The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.
    What can mere mortals do to me?

7 The Lord is with me; he is my helper.
    I look in triumph on my enemies.

8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
    than to trust in humans.

9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
    than to trust in princes.

10 All the nations surrounded me,
    but in the name of the Lord I cut them down.

11 They surrounded me on every side,
    but in the name of the Lord I cut them down.

12 They swarmed around me like bees,
    but they were consumed as quickly as burning thorns;
    in the name of the Lord I cut them down.

13 I was pushed back and about to fall,
    but the Lord helped me.

14 The Lord is my strength and my defense[a];
    he has become my salvation.

15 Shouts of joy and victory
    resound in the tents of the righteous:
“The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!

16  The Lord’s right hand is lifted high;
    the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!”

17 I will not die but live,
    and will proclaim what the Lord has done.

18 The Lord has chastened me severely,
    but he has not given me over to death.

19 Open for me the gates of the righteous;
    I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.

20 This is the gate of the Lord
    through which the righteous may enter.

21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
    you have become my salvation.

22 The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;

23 the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes.

24 The Lord has done it this very day;
    let us rejoice today and be glad.

25 Lord, save us!
    Lord, grant us success!

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
    From the house of the Lord we bless you.[b]

27 The Lord is God,
    and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
    up[c] to the horns of the altar.

28 You are my God, and I will praise you;
    you are my God, and I will exalt you.

29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his love endures forever.

Amen.

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen

Let us pray….

The Message "Let the Nations Be Glad"

Americans are very individualistic…we are independent. We like to live on our own or with a partner who is our equal…. Many of us loved moving out of mom and dad’s house to be on our own. We like to be the drivers of our cars much more than we enjoy being passengers in other people’s cars. We like working at jobs that allow us to do our work without the hovering supervision of a manager. We aspire to be in control of our health care, what we eat, where we live, and how we spend our time.

We transfer our individualism to our faith. When it comes to God, we want to be like sponges, soaking up God’s blessings. We want God’s peace in our lives, God’s favor in our hearts, God’s Holy Spirit to fill us and surround us. We talk to others about our personal salvation – when we were saved….when we decided to be Christians for ourselves. When we turned our lives over to Jesus. We often look at our faith as something we believe to enrich our own lives.

But, the message of the Psalms we read this morning is different. Instead of keeping our faith to ourselves, and having our relationship with Jesus be a one-on-one experience, we are called to share our faith with others. It is not only about us – instead, we believe the lives of everyone in the world will improve if we all have faith in our God.

When sunlight hits a clear glass prism, it doesn’t hold the light inside of itself. It bends the light, and the light shines out across the room as a rainbow in every direction. God shines God’s face upon our lives, but not so we can absorb the light in secret, but so that we can shine it out to every one we meet. We receive blessings from God – we are called in turn to bring blessings into the lives of other people. 

God designed us to praise God….to praise God with song, to praise God with prayer, to praise God with worship. And, God means for our faith to extend beyond ourselves…..to extend beyond the walls of our church, so extend beyond the walls of our homes, to extend beyond the walls of our hearts.

In our society, it is natural for us to worry about ourselves first. We don’t have a lot of safety nets that will catch us when things fall apart. We don’t all live in government housing. We don’t have standardized medicine. We don’t have a guaranteed income that will help us eat and pay our mortgages or rent. We have to worry about providing our basic needs ourselves.

But, our faith is in a different category of our lives. It is not something we have to do for ourselves or keep for ourselves. God has infinite love to share with us. God has infinite blessings to share with the people of the earth. God has infinite patience for us to work on getting things right. And, God appreciates different types of worship and praise. We can wholeheartedly sing our traditional hymns and worship in our UCC way and God will appreciate our worship. Or we could sing contemporary praise music and beat a drum and worship in the park across the street and speak in tongues and God will appreciate our worship. We don’t have the market cornered on how to worship and how to be Christians. God wants us to share our faith with others, in a genuine and sincere way, and then God, and we, can welcome the new ways the people we evangelize to will express their love and praise for God.

God’s love is for everyone. So, we can’t hide God’s light under a bushel basket – we have to let it shine.  

Sometimes, we don’t appreciate our gifts….I am just one person, without power and influence, how can I make a difference? How can I reach others for God? 

But, our demeanor and attitude as we are out and about in the world will make a difference. If we greet other people with kind words and unjudgmental reactions, we are living out God’s love. If we are tolerant of meandering people in the aisles of the grocery store and wait patiently when we come across people who don’t know how to drive through 4-way-stops, we are living out God’s love. If we listen to a story we have heard already and make sure to call an old friend on their birthday, we are living out God’s love. And, if we tell other people that we went to church on Sunday and it felt good to be part of a group of people working together to praise God, and maybe they would like to join us next Sunday, we are living out God’s love.

God’s love extends to the ends of the earth! God’s love extends to all people. God’s praise can be said in any language. God’s songs can be sung to any melody and with any instruments. God’s love and faith in God is for everyone.

Let us praise God and remember to share the story of God’s love with everyone we meet. Amen.

The Grace of Waiting -- A Message for August 16, 2026

    

    Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending the funeral of Lew Motter, a long-time champion of Trinity Christian UCC and the beloved father and grandfather of the Vogl clan. The service was very personal, and we all learned a little more about Lew as we heard about his life. 

Lew was a very faithful man. He loved the Lord. And, he loved his family. His daughter, our own Susan Vogl, selected today’s scriptural focus: Isaiah 40:31. This is one of Susan’s favorite scriptures and must have also been one of Lew’s favorites, because it was chosen to be read at his funeral. 

The words of Isaiah 40 are a message of support and comfort – Isaiah was speaking to the exiled people of Israel as they lived in Babylon…but his words still apply to us, twenty-first century Christians. 

Listen now to the words of Isaiah as they come down to us through the centuries.  We will read chapter 40 verses 25 through 31….

The Scripture Isaiah 40: 25-31

25 “To whom will you compare me?
    Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
    and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
    not one of them is missing.

27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
    Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
    my cause is disregarded by my God”?

28 Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.

30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Amen. 

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray…..

The Message The Grace of Waiting

When I was a teenager, I was part of a youth program sponsored by my local YMCA – a Junior Leaders Club. Y’s throughout the world have the program – we were in a cluster of clubs that had summer camp and weekend retreats together. The cluster was big – it included Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota. During the school-year, we would spend three weekends at one of the YMCAs in our cluster – so, all of the kids from the St. Louis-area would miss a day of school, meet early in the morning at a YMCA, and load onto school buses to travel to a Y in Chicago or St. Paul or Milwaukee. There, hundreds of kids would spend the weekend doing service projects, listening to inspirational speakers, and playing sports. 

We loved it. Part of the fun was that we would try not to miss any minute of our time together. So, we all would try not to sleep. This was before energy drinks, but we would still drink as much caffeine as we could. We would also eat loads of sugar all weekend…..trying to work against our bodie’s need to sleep with as many artificial stimulants we could access.

Can you imagine being with 400 teenagers who were desperately doing everything they could to not fall asleep?  I pity the adults who supervised us.

We tried not to sleep for a few weekends a year – we were exhausted, but it was do-able for our young bodies. 

But, many of us older adults know what it is to be really tired – bone weary tired. Working and doing housework and watching babies and caring for older relatives and going to meetings and cooking….it never ends.  Our sleep, when we get it, is interrupted by nightmares or children getting into our beds or our aging bladders. Bone weary tired.

I feel anxious just thinking about being tired. And, many of us get anxious thinking about all of the things on our to-do lists and working out how we will fit them all in. And, we are always under pressure to add things to our schedule

The book of Isaiah is a message to people who were in exile. The people were not just physically tired, they were bone weary tired. They had seen their homeland and the city of Jerusalem invaded by foreign armies. They saw the Temple of God, the place they believed God was physically present, destroyed. They were put in chains and marched away from their homeland into captivity. They were now in a foreign, strange, disorienting land. They felt forgotten by God – they thought God wasn’t paying attention to their needs and had moved onto bigger and greater problems. They feared that God had given up on them – they had failed in their faithfulness, and now God had abandoned them. 

But, through Isaiah’s words, God doesn’t tell the people they are forgotten. God doesn’t tell them to just work harder or try harder. 

Instead, through Isaiah, God says: The Lord is the everlasting God,  the Creator of the ends of the earth. God will not grow tired or weary…” God knows the names and placement of all the stars in the skies…. God loved and valued them. As Jesus said to humanity: “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered” by our loving God. 

Today, we are looking at what happens when human strength runs completely dry, and how our Creator exchanges our zero-percent battery for God’s infinite strength.

Isaiah’s comforting words remind us: “God gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak…..but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Although our circumstances may be different than the Babylonian exiles, the message of God as preached through Isaiah is a message we still need to hear. 

We are beloved by God. God loves us and notices us and pays attention to us. We make mistakes, and God forgives us and never stops loving us. 

And, God sees how exhausted we are. God will give us strength. God will increase our power. This is especially true for us – After Jesus ascended into heaven, and the first Christian Pentecost day came, God has blessed Christians with the presence of the Holy Spirit.  God’s Spirit is dwelling within us – to guide us, to strengthen us, to reassure us. And, God is physically present not only within us but around us. God is with us. 

Susan’s favorite verse from this passage says: “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;  they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” This is a message for us who are feeling exhausted. If we rely on ourselves, we will suffer from exhaustion. We will feel burnt-out. But, if we wait on the Lord, if we “hope” in the Lord, we surrender to the Lord. God will give us strength from the infinite source of God’s Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit will give us long-term endurance

So, my friends, instead of carrying all of our burdens on our own shoulders, let us remember to pause each day, listen for God, invoke the Holy Spirit, and allow God to be in charge. We don’t have to do everything on our own – God is with us.

Thanks be to God. Amen.