Pentecost 13 Sermon: Righteous Planting

Preached on Psalm 1:1–6
13th Sunday After Pentecost — Proper 18C
8 September AD 2019

Summary: Believers flourish when rooted in Christ. As trees in a dry climate only grow strong when they can draw from a source of pure water, so our strength comes when we draw upon Jesus, our Living Water. We find ourselves here not because of our own actions but because the Holy Spirit takes us to the waters and plants us through Baptism and the Word.

Preached at Big Bend Retreat, a care center in Slater, Missouri.

Text: Blessed is the man
   who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
   nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
   and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
   planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
   and its leaf does not wither.
   In all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,
   but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
   nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
   but the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 1:1-6

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Righteous Planting.

NB: A few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio with Windows Media Player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:15-25