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Grace mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and

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Savior Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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Our text is

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from the reading. Seek the Lord while he may be found call on him while

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he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their

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thoughts.

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First of all, I think the finding of God or not finding of him is not

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because he is not around or available.

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But rather because we are not ready to find him.

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In the way that he would have us do.

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When can we go and meet with God the psalmist asked or more completely as

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the deer pants for flowing streams

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so my soul pants for you.

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Oh God, my soul thirst for God.

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For the Living God When shall I come and appear before God my tears

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have been my food day and night while they say to me all day long.

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Where is you're God?

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It is seldom God who hides.

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But rather we who do not seek.

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We're obsessed with the wrong things our sin our unrighteous standards

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and thoughts.

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And now we come to Hamlet.

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Out of context this sounds like a sandwich on the Steak and Shake menu.

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I like a hamlet, please.

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Or perhaps Shakespeare is making a play on words with Danish ham

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right, famous and delicious throughout the world.

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There are just two of us

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so I think I'll have a hamlet for Easter and not a full size ham.

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But William Shakespeare has a different dish for us best served cold.

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Hamlet is a tale of obsession over revenge.

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The revenge of a son for his murdered father. The ghost of the king

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Hamlet's father appears to Hamlet at the beginning of the play and

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declares his own foul murder that must be avenged. But Hamlet dithers

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around with doubts and proofs and science and myths and legends about

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ghosts. And finally having set the stage for both confession by his

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uncle of the murder of his father and himself having heard that

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confession of his uncle the current King and also his newly-minted

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stepfather.

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Never the less he further hesitation ordered that the vengeance would

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not send the now freshly confessed King to heaven but rather to

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hell.

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Hamlet speaks.

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Now might I do it pat now he is praying.

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And now I'll do it and so he goes to heaven and so I am revenged.

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That would be scanned.

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A villain kills my father and for that I his soul son do the same bill

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and send to heaven.

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Oh, this is hire and salary not revenge.

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He took my father grossly full of bread with all his crimes broad

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blown as flush as May.

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And how his audit stands who knows save heaven but in our circumstance

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and course of thought is heavy with him.

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And am I then revenged to take him in the purging of his soul when he

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is fit and seasoned for the passage?

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No.

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Up sword and know that I love more horrid hent when he is drunk

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asleep or in his rage or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed at

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gaming swearing

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or about some act that has no relish of salvation in it.

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Then trip him that his heels may kick at heaven and that soul may be

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as damned and black as hell where to it goes. My mother stays.

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This physic but prolong was nice sickly days and Hamlet exits and King

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Claudius the uncle responds.

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My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; words without thoughts

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never to heaven go.

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As a result of this hesitation

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and the perfectionistic desire for double revenge Hamlet dooms nearly

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the entire Danish court to murder by poison by violence by suicide

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until only his friend Horatio and the decisive yet mysterious Fort 

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Brass remain to clean up the murderous mess.

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That is the court of Denmark.

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No, I'm not saying the Seminary is Denmark.

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And this would seem to be an echo of our scripture text that we should

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seek the Lord's Mercy when it should be found.

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And not worry about the rest.

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How often does politics or the way we handle pandemic matters or our

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individual opinions on worship liturgy music or entertainment or on a

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host of other things get in the way of our fellowship and even our

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sound doctrine and Christian life?

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We are often so petty in our judgments.

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Yet we expect Mercy at every turn.

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But aren't we often like Hamlet required to do a simple thing as an

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agent of God and provide an 

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ample opportunity to do so? And yet in our zeal committed to

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improving on what God would do we delay, we dither, we procrastinate.

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The Pharisees and Sadducees were in this boat with their rules upon

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rules, so they felt they could even judge Jesus.

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Jesus does acts of mercy and they criticized him for doing them on the

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Sabbath.

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And how would we judge Jesus if he entered here now without

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certification to preach and lead us in communion or to pray?

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What happened

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if Jesus came in a sandals?

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The zealots of Jesus day also went too far and their murderous

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activity and look where it eventually got them dying in droves at the

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hands of the Romans.

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And I'm certain that there are practices and interpretations of what

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is God-pleasing around here that are solely the thoughts of men. And in

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no meaningful way linked to the purview of scripture or Christ his word

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or Kerygma, creed, confession or anything else central to the faith.

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We too like Hamlet can't be satisfied with what has been ordained with

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doing the deed set before him but must improve upon them as though we

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can do better. Judge

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better, show mercy better.

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Gain, more fair to us outcomes.

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Yet what God expects here is fairly straightforward God in Hebrews 4

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elaborates on and shows us the urgency of the text before us. When God

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sets aside another day calling it today.

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This he did a long time ago when he spoke thru David as in the passage

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already quoted. Today if you hear his voice do not Harden your hearts.

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For if Joshua had given them rest God would not have spoken later

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about another day. There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of

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God for anyone who enters God's rest also rest from their works.

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Just as God did from his.

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Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest so that no one

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will perish by following their example of disobedience.

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For the word of God is active and alive sharper than any double-edged

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sword.

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It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow, it

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judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

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Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.

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Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom

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we must give account.

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So there remains for us an urgent Commission.

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Today

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is today.

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Now is the appointed time.

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And for what?

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The sharp two-edged sword of the scriptures that bring us to

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repentance, forgiveness and New Life In Christ.

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And every day is today.

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So in every day there is forgiveness and love of Christ in a new

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Sabbath day. A day of liberation from death and distress in our lives

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and a day of rising and hope with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A

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day of forgiveness and not despair.

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For it is just as serious and bad to in our obsession add to God's

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righteous gospel in his holy law

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the rules of men in the name of the Lord as a violation of the third

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commandment taking the name of the Lord in vain for our own purposes.

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As it is to leave parts off of the message

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for our convenience.

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And because of our opinions and our desire to agree with others to

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control others and through our machinations to aggrandize and seek

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power inappropriate to the role of a servant.

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Christ Jesus has come to forgive and abundantly pardon.

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He stoops to serve and to save but we often are not content with a

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pure milk and solid food of the gospel and the maturity that comes by

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faith. Rather

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we so often seek the junk foods of the spiritual life when God would

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have us live simply, quietly in the green pastures of his word and

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protection.

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We complicate matters.

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We like Hamlet don't immediately take advantage of the voice of God

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with his message of mercy and forgiveness, but we add uncertainty

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dithering conditions to that message preservatives if you will to keep

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it fresh.

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While we are often adulterating it.

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So let's not be Hamlet.

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To zealous to settle for the limits of in his case righteous

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revenge.

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Rather as the Lord calls us to his word.

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We are encouraged to hear read mark and inwardly digest the great love

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Christ has for us.

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To live in this obsession with a Lord and Savior for us.

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We get to revel in his caring and the Ministries he has set before us.

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Neither adding to his word nor taking from it.

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Amen.

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And now may the grace of God and the love of Christ be with you.

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Amen.