Karl lay dying of head wounds in an Austrian hospital.  Simon Wiesenthal was a Jewish concentration camp prisoner at the time, cleaning garbage.  Towards evening a nurse took him by the arm and brought him to the bed of this young storm trooper who had only hours to live.
 Karl grabbed Wiesenthal’s wrist, and urgently whispered how he needed to confess some terrible things he had done – things that haunted him, which he needed to clear up before he died.
 It seems his army unity had been stationed in a Russian village and order to take reprisals for a local uprising.  They packed a frame house with Jews, including many children, poured gasoline on the floors, locked the doors and set the house on fire.  People near the windows jumped.  The soldiers machine gunned them before they landed.  Children, too.
 Karl, weak though he was, appeared to be weeping as he told the tale, and begged for forgiveness.  He could have no peace until he was forgiven.
 Horror struck, Simon Wiesenthal listened, numb.
 Finally, he yanked his hand free, turned and walked away.
 The young soldier died soon after, the wound and horror in his heart great than the pus-soaked, bloody one on his head.
    [L. Smedes  The Art Of Forgiving  p.50]

To some degree I think most of us could identify with what Simon Wiesenthal did that day.  He could not bring himself to extend forgiveness.  Retribution was needed.  Justice demanded suffering on the part of this perpetrator.
 The families of murder victims could easily identify with him, as they call for the death penalty......  that the perpetrator be forced to pay.
 The survivor of a violent rape wants her assailant to be put away for a good long time, and not just for safety of the community.
 If we’ve been swindled in business by a partner, we quietly hope that the one who did us wrong and waltzed away apparently so freely – that she will flounder on the financial rocks.
 That unfaithful runaway spouse - hope he ends up with a disease.
 The one who elbowed her way into line ahead of you – hope someone dings her car out in parking lot.
  Let them feel the pain.
   Let them suffer.
    Let them feel the weight of what they did.

Which they sometimes do.
There are people like young Karl who know keenly the depth of what they have done.  They know they have committed wrong.  They have violated trust.  They have crossed boundaries.  They have hurt innocent ones.
 They are wrong.
 They carry a crushing burden.
 And a great wall goes up between them and the one they violated.

Some 500 years before Karl, another young German, Martin by name, experienced a similar soul-crisis; a crushing burden that threatened to destroy him.  He was haunted by what he had done.  Sleep eluded him.  No matter what he did to try and elude the ghosts of his violations the guilt remained, the sense of distance from the One he had wronged remained -- the walls strong and imposing.

Martin Luther was deeply aware that the One with whom he had violated trust.......
 .....was God.
  No one else to blame - he, Martin had ruined the relationship with his heavenly Father, was separated from heaven by a huge dark wall – the wall erected by his sin.

 Luther was terrified of death; that he would, like Karl, end his life without having been able to rid himself of this horrible burden that he had brought on himself.
 To put it in terms of this morning – would God be like Simon Wiesenthal and pull back His hand;  or like many of us who call for an exaction of justice, full payment of the penalty?

 To find peace, Luther turned to the Bible and eventually found there the key that unlocked the prison in which his soul was bound.  He shared his discovery, a renewed understanding of the bible’s teaching, with the Church and the world.
 The result of that was a radical reforming of the Church in all sectors – something we recognize today as the event called “The Reformation.”  This weekend we are involved in co-hosting a Reformation Rally that allows us to re-examine some of the key discoveries which have been handed down through the generations to us today.
 Discoveries that can help us to find peace – deep inner peace.
  A peace that Luther found.
  The sort of peace of mind and heart that eluded Karl.

Finding peace -
 That’s the very basic and central theme of Psalm 51.  The one who wrote it would have totally identified with the young soldier.  He, too, had committed cold-blooded murder.   He, as king of ancient Israel, had murdered the loving, loyal husband of a beautiful woman he had lusted, ravished and impregnated.
 For months after David tried to rationalize things away.  But it wouldn’t go away.  Eventually God called his bluff by sending a prophet who pointed a long, bony finer at him and declared - “You’re the man. You did it.  You are guilty.”
 At which point everything caved in; pretence crumpled.
  The game was up; the charade over.
   The truth fully in the open.

And David, brought fully to his knees, finally open and honest - pens the gut-wrenching prayer of his heart which we have today as Psalm 51.

I’m going to ask Wilma to come up and read Psalm 51 for us again, this time in a contemporary paraphrased way as prepared by Eugene Peterson.

PSALM 51  [The Message]

Generous in love - God, give grace!  Huge in mercy - wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I’ve been; my sins are staring me down.

You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair.
I’ve been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born..
what you’re after is truth from the inside out.
 Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
 scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don’t look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from grey exile, put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home.

Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
 and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God; I’ll let loose with your praise.
Going through the motions doesn’t please you,
 a flawless performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.
Make Zion the place you delight in, repair Jerusalem’s broken walls.
Then you’ll get real worship from us, acts of worship small and large,
Including all the bulls they can heave onto your altar!

********************************

Finding the key to relief from inner turmoil; the key to deep and lasting inner peace –
 Peace from a Holy God who does NOT withdraw His hand, but in mercy and loving faithfulness that is far greater than our sin-stained failures offers new hope and eternal peace to us.

The key to peace - that’s the theme of Psalm 51;
 A key that every single one of us needs.
 Perhaps we don’t always think about it.  Perhaps the depth of our violation of the relationship between God and ourselves doesn’t keep us awake at night or stare us in the face while we’re at our work station during the week.  Perhaps we’re so busy with making car payments and getting the kids through school that we don’t stop to think about it – maybe not much; maybe not at all.

But trust me when I say that eventually it works its way to the surface.  I’ve been in too many hospital rooms, funeral parlours;  had lunch with too many people behind the closed doors of their offices to say otherwise.
 Somewhere along the way we are all confronted with Almighty, Holy, Pure and Perfect Creator God and how we stand before Him.
  Are we in.... or out?
  Part of His family.... or castoffs?
  Is He with us, for us...... or against us?
  Put it real bluntly – If I were to die tonight, do I know if I would go to heaven?
   Beyond a hope so, think so, guess so – do I KNOW????

Do you know, my friend?
You can!
I hope that each one of you leaves here saying, “Yes, I know.”
Because secure, lasting, eternal peace with God – where there need be no haunting guilt, no sense of huge walls between us and Him, no worry that He’ll yank back His hand –
 -- such peace can be found.
Check your bibles again.  Psalm 51, the very beginning:
 Have mercy on me, O God.
 My transgression - Blot it out.
 Wash it away.
 Cleanse me.

Have mercy.....
 ....For.....  says v.3......
  And here comes the way in!! ----
  I KNOW my transgressions.

Understand sin – a deep stain on our soul, a dark blotch that smears, clouds, and impedes our relationship with the Lord.
 How deeply can it get in the way?
 Listen to Psalm 66:  If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.  (v.18)
 Or Micah 3.4:  then they will cry out to the Lord, but He will not answer them.  At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.
  Sin throws up huge walls between a person and God.

Face it, up front.
 Finding peace with God will not come through any religious ritual you can perform or through any good work you can do.  It comes when you drop the pretence, quit the game playing and coverups, no more excuses or halfway steps.....
 Like the guy who wrote a letter to Revenue Canada saying, “Lately I haven’t been able to sleep.  I cheated on last year’s tax form.  Enclosed find a cheque for $2000.  If I still can’t sleep I’ll send you the rest.”

 That’s as good as when someone comes to us saying “Sorry... but” and out come the excuses.  “Sorry, my eye” we think.  Grrrr.
 You know how it goes:  Others have prejudices, we have convictions. Others have a foul temper; we are seized with righteous indignation.
 It doesn’t work when we do it to each other.  Why do we think that it makes the grade with God?

Check v.3  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me....
 David knew full well what he had done.  And as long as he hung on to it, as long as he refused to acknowledge the wrong and dispose of it in full repentance before the Lord it kept hounding him.
 Perhaps you’ve experienced that – you try to pray, but this thing gets in the way.  Images and memories continue to dance around in your mind.
 Perhaps it’s not one particular wrong, but this nagging sense of “Am I now, could I ever be..... good enough for God to fully accept?”

Verse 5 & 6 remind us of something that Martin Luther understood more keenly, perhaps, than most of us – that there is no such thing as a pure human being, that we are infected to the very core of our being, sin seems to haunt us from the word “Go” – almost like some twisted genetic defect that doesn’t let us go.
 Every one of us.
 The New Testament puts it this way:
 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves....” (1 Jn 1.8)

Take it one step further – actually  have to back up for that: v.4
 “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”

Think of the one who wrote this psalm - David.  He had abused a woman, ruined her reputation, broke her marriage, murdered her husband.
 Horrible wrong!
 But ultimately his sin was against God – against his Creator comes the greatest insult and injury.  The God of grace and faithful, unfailing love who made him, gave him his place in life and desired truth and purity for him.
 God  had been violated!

Can you see that in your own life??
 That your conduct:  your words towards others, the way you handle your money, your faithfulness in marriage, your honesty at school
  how you handle these all serve as a reflection of your relationship with the Lord.....
   ----- Can you see that?
 
 

And so David prays –
 Cleanse me..... get rid of this rotten stain.
 Create in me a pure heart.... Lord, sort out those mixed up motives.
 Do not cast me from your presence.... If you aren’t with me.......

Notice v.7:  Cleanse me with hyssop.
 Hysop was a small bush that grew in Israel.  Its leaves were gathered in bunches and used as a sort of paint brush.  It was particularly used in religious ceremonies – dipped in the blood of sacrificed animals, smearing it on the altar, sprinkling it on the worshippers or whatever was called for.
 Blood – the symbol of life, poured out and sacrificed in payment for the sin.  Pointing ahead to the great sacrifice – when the Son of God would himself descend to earth and take his place behind that great barricade of sin, on the other side of the chasm, separated from God, loaded down with the punishment for the sin of all humanity.

God would yank His holy hand free from the grip of His one and only son and leave him at the mercy of evil and death.
 Jesus, to take the place of you and me and David and Karl.
  All who will take the posture of David,
   humble, open, no alibis or excuses
   just honest repentance
   are forgiven.

How fully?
"As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12).  How far is that? Well, how far do you have to go east before you start going west? You never come to "west."
 Or this - God says he will "cast all our sins into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19).  Corrie Ten Boom pictures the Heavenly Father posting a sign that reads, “No fishing allowed.”
  Dealt with.
  Forgiven forever!
And more than forgiveness – they are cleansed.  God looks at those covered by the great sacrifice of Jesus and sees a pure person.  No more walls.  No more distance.  No accusations.  No remembering the wrongs.
 There is full, unhindered right to enter the presence of God at any time.  There is the guarantee of the presence of God’s Spirit....always.

And with that  comes peace!

For Martin Luther it was this way:  a man who used to be haunted by nightmares began to sleep soundly;  a man to whom others would often call, “Lighten up” began to laugh.  He became the picture of v.8 -
 “Let the bones you have crushed rejoice.”
 Rejoice there literally invokes pictures of dancing a mighty jig of joy.
  Boogie with delight!
 And Luther did.  Some actually started to consider him a bit of a party animal.  Filled with relief!

One who, like v.13,  turned to tell others of the way back, the way to peace –
The way by grace alone; merciful grace found in the God of unfailing love,
 the love so great that He sent His one and only son that whoever
  – you, me, Karl –
 believes in Him will NOT perish, but have everlasting life.

Or v.14:  “My tongue will sing of your righteousness....”
 We’ll sing one of Luther’s hymns in just a moment.
 But let me quickly say before we do that, my friends, if there is one thing on my heart, one desire in my soul – it is that this singing a song of relief, this sense of freedom that makes you almost want to dance, this peace that comes through Jesus
  - a peace that David poetically spoke of
   may be your peace.

It is yours through Jesus.
And when He gives it, no one has the right to take it away.
Satan will try.  With false guilt and cheap accusations.  With trip ups that he’ll try to convince you are unforgivable.  With spiritual pressure.
 But then go back to this psalm.
 Especially the line about the hyssop.  And look from there to the cross.
  Where we come with empty hands and open, honest heart.
  Where we find –
   – the only place we find --
    Peace.