For Pastor Herm -- ii

(continued from yesterday)

It's not particularly easy for us to talk about the "office" of king because something in our histories can't help but paint "kingship" as something somehow evil. The last king to hold any sway over most of us was King George, against whom we fought a war, the War of Independence. I'm sure some bright theologian somewhere has mapped out an understanding of how a pastor fulfils the obligations of kingship, but in the life and ministry of Pastor Herm, I looked to his own words because I knew that Pastor Herm was more capable of drawing us into awe than most preachers, and awe is a prerequisite for beginning to talk about kingship. Awe is where faith begins.

This passage is from a sermon in a series of sermons with the title "Someone's Crying, Lord." This is Pastor Herm.

 I want to finish this morning with a picture from Psalm 56:5: "Oh, God, you keep count of my tossing [and turning], my anguish. You collect all my tears in your bottle--are they not your record?"

That's a picture for taking along this Lent. It's a picture that assumes that there will be tears until kingdom come, but God doesn't just let them evaporate, doesn't just brush them off.

He also doesn't avoid them. He doesn't say, "Don't cry!" as if crying were a sign of weakness. No! God collects tears, and not just to have a collection, but he wants us to know that he remembers every single one!

And do you know what? A good number of the tears in the bottle are his very own! Imagine the size of God's bottle!

  "O Lord God, dry my tears," we say, and He will, but not because it's time--which is to say, His time. Until then, there will be pain and tears, but the Lord will wipe away every tear from their eyes, will pour away His whole bottle and will lead all of his children to springs of living water!

In that short cutting abide lines that are suitably--perfectly--Herm's, and you know it when you feel his absolute thrill at uncovering some aspect of his God's rule in our lives--"imagine the size of God's bottle." 

And a number are his.

That's kingship. 

We will all miss him greatly.