"...yet will I rejoice in the Lord. I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength." (Hab 3:xviii)
In my tradition preachers in their sermons usually start by commenting on the lessons in the order they appear in the service: Old Testament, Psalms, New Testament, Gospel. The Gospel's end today offends our sensibilities in today's world a little:
"So you also, when you have done all the you were ordered to do, say, "We are worthless slaves; we have only done what we ought to have done." (Luke 17:x)
If that's as far as we go, ignoring the rest of the Gospel message, then we've missed the point. I go back to the verse above from Habbakuk. "And yet" is a great way to start a prayer, for it says to me that despite all my failings and even despite all I have done right, I'm not putting the good and the bad on some grand scale trying to balance things out...or tip the scale in my favor. What I am ordered to do is give honor to the only one who deserves that honor: the God of my salvation and the source of my strength. AMEN.
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