Dunbar United Church of Chist - July 26, 2009

I. This morning we read Psalm 14 -- which isn’t one of the psalms people generally use in their devotions. But its insight could save us. It’s like a patient complaining of “not feeling good.” The doctor discovers the patient has cancer and needs treatment immediately. The sooner we find the cancer, the better our chances of surviving. Well, spiritually, Psalm 14 is telling us -- every one of us -- we have cancer and need to treat it right now.

II. According to the Bible, our disease is ignorance. We don’t know God, and we don’t know ourselves. The symptom of our ignorance is this: “the evildoers eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the Lord.” That is, we don’t care for those who can’t care for themselves, and we won’t listen to God.

III. Is this psalm talking about us? Are we the “evildoers” -- the “perverts” who “eat the people?” According to Peter King, the congressman from New York, only people like Michael Jackson are perverts. But Psalm 14 says that that Peter King -- and the rest of us -- are perverted too. Why? I looked the word up. The dictionary says a pervert is one who “turns away from what is right, proper or good.” Well -- which one of us isn’t guilty of occasionally doing that. When we aren’t kind -- when we can’t forgive, we’re perverting God’s will.

IV. If you want to see perversion on a big scale, look at the debate in our country on health care. God wants all people to be cared for. But in the United States we can’t do this because people who have money and health care don’t want to pay for people who don’t have it.

Psalm 14 is right, “we eat people like bread.” The biggest perversity is watching our wealthy, comfortable lawmakers saying, “We can’t care for all these people. It’s the budget, don’t you see? It’s the budget!”

V. When someone is sick, when someone needs medical attention right now -- do you think God cares about our budgets?

The saddest thing I saw was in an interview between Katie Couric and Barak Obama, two of my favorite people, and Katie asked the president: “What if an undocumented immigrant -- an illegal alien -- should need health care? Under your plan, would they be covered.” Obama said: “No.” I thought, “Wow -- we ARE lost!”

VI. Is there any hope for us? Our dying souls are carried on the rough seas of a godless world. Who will save us? Who will breathe life into us, and awaken our hearts to care for the hardships of other people? Jesus is walking on the water. We could ask him into our boat. We could beg him to help us.