Three steps to giving a sermon guaranteed to start a discussion:

1. Choose Psalm 139 as your text.

2. Add Proverbs 15:3.

3. Start the sermon by likening God to George Orwell’s ‘Big Brother’ who is always watching for mistakes.

This pretty much describes the sermon we had Sunday morning from a guest pastor. The title of the sermon was “WATCH OUT!! SOMBODYS WATCHING YOU!” Yes, that was actually the title, and yes, it was all in caps lock.

I don’t know about you, but that’s not exactly the image of God I get from reading Psalm 139. I’d recommend reading this Psalm, as it’s a song of great comfort that speaks to God’s steadfastness and constant presence to comfort us. I would say that it is certainly is not a warning that God is constantly watching us waiting for us to make a mistake.

It’s discouraging that a Pastor would take such words of comfort and turn them into a threat to obey the rules because God’s watching. The sermon did not touch on the comforting qualities of this passage, or on God’s grace in any way. There was no call to action, or words of encouragement on how to appropriately apply the words to our lives. It was simply a warning that when we sin, God sees it.

Now, if I understand the bible correctly, Jesus’ message was in complete contrast to the rules and laws of the Pharisees. Jesus did not speak of a God constantly watching us, marking every sin we commit. Jesus taught that God’s grace is sufficient. Jesus taught that our sins are as far from God as far as the east is from the west. Jesus showed us, through his own death, that he has taken the entire burden of our sins and cast them into the sea. If this is truly the heart of what we believe, how can a sermon preach something so entirely opposite without giving a single ray of hope?

_______ of the day: Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be.

The thankful Ogukuo