A couple of weeks ago I was horrified when I heard that the small submarine that was trying to visit the wreckage of the Titanic imploded in the depths of the North Atlantic, immediately killing the five people on board.

The fear of drowning, not being able to breathe, and claustrophobia are pretty high up there on things that make my flesh crawl.

The weekend following that tragic accident, I was preaching on Chapter 6 of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans and his baptismal images of death and dying and drowning. I was so concentrated on his verses that I didn’t pay any attention to the Psalm until I was sitting in church.

Did any of you notice this?

Save me from the mire; do not let me sink;
let me be rescued from those who hate me
out of the deep waters.

Let not the torrent of waters wash over me,
neither let the deep swallow me up.
Psalm 69:14-15

Some people think that our scriptures are no longer relevant, that they have nothing to say to our time. They are outdated, written a long time ago, and don’t really have anything useful for us today.

And yet every time I turn a page of Holy Scripture, I find that they are speaking to me again today. But that’s just me.

In the name of the one whose love is always new and never gets old, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Pastor John D. Morris