Psalm 2, The One True King

August 21, 2011                                 The One True King

Jeremiah 31:7-9,18-20 Psalm 2                        Matthew  16::13-20

Growing up with two older brothers and one tv, didn’t have much say in what I watched – watched war movies, action/adventure movies, Hercules one such – gods would be sitting in heaven looking down on earth and watching exploits of their favored son, Hercules

Psalm today reminiscent of this scene, play in three acts –prologue, vs. 1, poet asks a question then have act 1, the goings on at the earthly court, vs. 2-3, lively scene, talk of revolt, rebellion, whispering conspiracy, it’s a raucous gathering, sounds of hissing as they plan their revolt.  It was common at that time that when a strong king died, for subject states to attempt to free themselves from reign of the king.  New king needed to establish himself as ruler. 

Scene change in Act 2, to heavenly courts, vs. 4-6, God looks on the goings on and laughs at the antics.  But not a friendly, amused, laugh, but one of derision, God is angry – I have set my king in Zion, yet the people have no regard for God or his anointed one.

Act 3 shifts back to earthly court, king repeating God’s oracle, perhaps adding some words of his own – don’t know but does happen.  God says, “You are my son, today I have begotten you.”  Words of adoption, words for a coronation expressing special relationship between king and his god – Egypt and Babylonia, king considered adopted son of a god.  As adopted son and king he is going to use his power, “You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

Epilogue poet speaks again, warning people to be wise and serve the Lord by allegiance to true king, words not just to the people, but kings as well were to serve the lord.  So we have it, a play in three parts with prologue and epilogue - conflict and resolution as God watches from heaven

What does this say to us today in our world without a king?  Did it admonish the people to blind obedience to the king, or in our case, the rightful authority, whoever that may be?  Psalm speaks of protection of God’s anointed, God’s son.  As mentioned, common in those days to look upon the king as a son of a god, much as Hercules was the son of a god.  So why not see the Israelite king in same manner?  Certainly can see danger in doing so, making a king to be more than he really is, a son of a god.  Pharoahs were looked upon as gods, power corrupts and ultimate power corrupts absolutely.  It would seem that to declare a king God’s son is to set him up for corruption.  Who is to guarantee that he will use his power for righteousness or destruction – breaking people with a rod of iron?

Two strains of thought in Old Testament in regards to the king. Some see the king as God’s anointed, appointed by God to lead God’s people and thus to be followed as one would follow God.  See this in this psalm and other royal psalms as well as the books of Kings.  There is another voice in Scripture that see the desire to have a king as the folly of the people, see this in Samuel and later in the prophets.  The Israelite people looked around and saw that other people had kings to rule over them and wanted one so that they could be like other nations.  They wanted a king so God gave them what they asked for even though king was not always the best leader, even though kings sometimes abuse their power.  Before this they had been led by judges, some of them proved to be less than worthy, corrupt, just as the kings proved to be less than ideal.  They thought it would be better with a king, especially if king were chosen by God.

Thus started a long line of kings, even from the beginning there were problems.  Saul proved to not be up to the challenge of leadership so replaced by David, God’s chosen.  David was a mighty warrior king, devoted to his God, yet very human in his failings, abused his power in taking Bathsheba and arranging for the death of her husband.  David was followed by Solomon, a worldly wise king who consolidated power under him, making many alliances through marriage with other kingdoms, but not necessarily a Godly man.  Solomon had 300 concubines as part of his search for power.  These women brought with them their own gods, politically smart but not in keeping with God’s will.   He was very interested in worldly power and gained that power, built the temple, established Jerusalem as a world power, so in that sense of great king.  But that was it, followed by many lesser kings who did not heed God’s word, as well as some king reformers. 

Still, the people wanted a king, saw the king as God’s chosen, that in following the king they were following God, this psalm is a testimony to that tradition.  Kingship in this tradition was connected to following God’s ways, God’s laws, the good king kept God’s commands – yet there is more to this psalm

God declares in this psalm, you are my son, this day I have begotten you.  What does it mean to be God’s son?  In our reading from Jeremiah, see how God’s people, Ephraim, were considered God’s children, they were loved by God, and disciplined as well when they went astray, but even then, God could never forget his people.  Tender passage from Jeremiah speaks of God’s great love for his people, the love of a father for a son, elsewhere speaks of how God carried Ephraim before he could walk, how God guided Israel in the desert, yet Ephraim sought after false gods, straying from the one true God, thus betraying their father – but even now, despite all of this, the Father’s love and mercy will prevail, God will forgive, bring back his people from exile.

But who is the ultimate king and son but Jesus.  Christians can see many aspects of Jesus in the psalm. At his baptism God proclaims him his son and again when transfigured on the mountain.  He was God’s own son, the anointed one, messiah and king, about whom they were spreading rumors, plotting against him, whispering amongst themselves as the religious leaders plotted his destruction.  Jesus didn’t let any of this sway him, stood his ground, continued to do the Father’s work even as forces gathered against him.  Jesus died because his was a kingship that the powers that be could not understand or accept.  A kingship where the last were first, where those who were in power, those who would lead, had to serve the least among them – a kingship not of this world or focused on worldly power.  Jesus laughed in the face of their contrivances, confident of his sonship, his identity.  Jesus was the ultimate king, the Lord’s anointed, yet the world rejected him.

Peter in today’s gospel, recognized Jesus for who he was, Peter, the bumbling fisherman, was wiser than all of the greatest of the religious leaders of his day, for he saw Jesus as he was.

What does it mean for us to be God’s son, God’s adopted children?  Does it mean all will bow down before us?  That life will be easy?  Of course not.  It didn’t happen for Jesus, nor will it happen for us.  Rather, people may plot against us, spread rumors or slander as the powers of this world work to bring us down.  However in the end they will not prevail.  God laughs at the foolishness of some of the things we worry about.  God is angered by abuse of power, especially by those who reject his son, thereby rejecting him, by those who mistreat the poor among us, the vulnerable, those who make themselves king but do not follow his commandments to love.  God laughs at our attempts to think we are in control, when we are not – but it’s okay because no matter how much we falter, our God will pick us up again and carry us on his shoulders.

Paul tells us in Romans not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed so that we may know God’s will, to live in humility as God’s children, none greater than the other.

God gave us the ultimate king in Jesus but the world did not accept him.  First psalm spoke of importance of studying Scripture, God’s word/law.  This psalm calls us to recognize our place as God’s beloved children and to accept Jesus as the Lord’s anointed one.  And so we study scripture and come to know Jesus better through this study, accepting him as the one true king.  In this we find our salvation.

Robertson, Copyright, November 2011 

Psalm One, Like a Tree by Flowing Water

August 14, 2011         Tree by Flowing Water

Genesis 40:4-20                      Psalm 1                        Romans 11:1-2a, 29-36

Repeat Psalm – Trees are beautiful sights to see, so many varieties, shapes, branches that go in varying directions, leaves, fruit, a strong foundation from which to hang swings, bird feeders, build tree houses, hang ornaments for Christmas, wonderful piece of God’s creation, each tree unique, none other like it

Those who meditate on the Lord’s law are like trees by a spring of water.  What does it mean to be a tree by a spring of water?  To have deep roots, easy access to life sustaining water, able to drink deep, not easily uprooted, able to stand firm, yet bend in the wind, able to produce fruit in season yet withhold fruit/hunker down through winter and through droughts – wisdom in this, trees are wise, JR Tolkien recognized this in his Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ents, wonderful characters, trees who spoke and walked, but slowly, did not move to action quickly, yet once mobilized, what a sight.  In C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series, the trees whispered to each other.  They were among the wisest of God’s creation.  Image that comes to mind is of Thoreau, sitting beside Waldon Pond, perhaps under a tree, reflecting on the beauty of nature around him, reflecting deeply on life, being transformed.

Unlike chaff – chaff has no roots, blowing about by the wind, the latest fad, certainly see a lot of this in our society, people who are not just blown about by latest fad, but latest emotion as well, don’t stop to really think about life, just reacting to life, easily disturbed, dismayed, no sense of abiding peace, might experience momentary happiness, but that too is gone in an instant, shallow, unhappy, give up easily for they have no substance to hold on to, example, those who follow the stock market have had a rocky road these past few weeks as stocks have gone up and down in a crazy roller coaster ride.  If your hope is in stocks then have reason to feel despair, there are people who are up or down with the stock market, feel richer when stocks go up, poor when they go down.  Craziness.

How do we become like these trees?  Psalm tells us through meditating on Torah, God’s law, Sacred Scripture – puts it all in perspective, reminds us of sins of our ancestors, yet they were loved and forgiven, reminds us of God’s love for the Hebrew people, all people, reminds us of God’s justice and our need to be just as well, to care for the widows and orphans, the poor among us.  Reminds us of our faith history, the great people of our faith.  Genesis reading today we have the reuniting of brothers, Joseph story, wonderful story of forgiveness and how God works in strange ways, ways we don’t understand.  Joseph was sold into slavery for this moment, in order to save his people, and yet for those of us who know the story, we know it doesn’t stop here.  Joseph brings his people to Egypt where they prosper and multiply, only to be turned into slaves and need rescuing later – but that’s for another story. 

What is this law that we are called to meditate on?  Is it just a listing of rules, eg. Leviticus 11, laws on food, laws on leprosy, laws about the land and inheritance, long legal list goes on and on chapter after chapter.  Is that what we are called to meditate on?  Yes and no, all of Scripture is good to study, including these laws but Torah/Law is greater than that, more than just an enumeration of do’s and don’ts.  To meditate on Torah is to know the story and apply it to life today.

 Law/Torah, God’s word, living, eternal, true, happy are those who spend their time reflecting on God’s word, rabbis spent whole live reflecting on Torah, studying, midrash, debated the fine points of the law.  Those who study the Lord’s law have inner resources that others don’t have, they will not be easily dismayed or destroyed, they are strong, like a tree, can bend when necessary but only so far, remains steadfast.

To be by a stream of water means we have what we need to sustain us, it’s there, deep within us, we don’t have to go to a well and carry it back to our homes, we just need to go deeper, dig deeper, not remain on the surface, not live life on the surface.  Teresa of Avila, when speaking of the prayer life said at first it can seem like going to a well, raising the bucket, hard work in order to get some refreshment, but as one grows in their prayer life, they learn how to dig irrigation ditches whereby the water can flow more freely to the person, one who is learned in prayer though discovers a stream within, living waters that flow freely so you no longer have to work so hard at it.  This is to be a tree by a stream, tapping into those living waters within us, waters of prayer where we meet our Lord and Savior. 

Prayer needs to be daily, reflecting on God, reflecting on Scripture, not looking for “great revelations” quick fixes or transformation, that’s the way of chaff, way of our society, but not the way of trees.  Scripture needs to be read over and over, memorized so that it becomes part of our living and breather, part of our very nature, so that it is easy to recall the passages, easy to pray to God, as easy as breathing, as easy as it is for the tree by a stream to receive the water it needs.

This week we begin our study of the Psalms, we begin it with this beautiful Psalm about meditating on God’s law - very appropriate beginning.  It is good to meditate on God’s word, good to reflect on the psalms, the early prayers of God’s people.  They are worthy of a lifetime.  In them you will find all of the wide range of human emotions expressed in poetry.  You will find the heart of Christian Scripture, leading us always to our God and to Jesus.  It was a tree that held Jesus on his last day.

Monks that pray the hours of the day pray all 150 psalms over the course of each week.  They become intimately aware of each psalm through praying them over and over.  Through doing this they are immersed in them and in their spirituality, it forms them and transforms them.  They don’t show up each day expecting to get something, expecting to be entertained or see miracles, they show up because it is who they are, part of them, and so their whole life becomes a prayer, wrapped in God’s love as they memorize the psalms from their daily repetition of them.  They are so rooted in them that they are like the air they breathe, the water that sustains them, their daily bread.  They are not easily swayed by outside forces, yet are aware about what is going on in the world outside of them to pray for it.  They truly are like trees planted by flowing streams, streams of prayer.

While we will not be praying each of these psalms during the course of one week, we will be reflecting on them individually and hopefully making them a part of our daily prayer life where they can’t help but transform us.

Romans, Paul speaks of the depths of God’s wisdom and knowledge.  We are just barely touching the surfaces of that wisdom.  It can take a lifetime to plumb the depths of these riches; it is a venture worthy of a lifetime, meditating on the richness of God’s word.  We need to dig deep into this fertile soil, put down strong roots where we are able to drink deep from living waters, God’s word.  And so, as we begin this journey into the prayers of God’s people, the psalms, may we, too, become like trees by flowing streams, ever attentive to God’s word in our life and our world.  May God’s words sustain us, encourage us, strengthen us, enliven us, wherever we may go, wherever they may lead us.

Robertson, Copyright November 2011

Psalm 65 - All Good Gifts

Nov. 20, 2011             All Good Gifts

Dt. 8:7-18                    Psalm 65                      2 Cor. 9:6-15               Luke 17:11-19

We plow the fields and scatter, the good seed o’re the land,

But it is fed and watered, by God’s almighty hand.

You send the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain,

The seed time and the harvest, and soft refreshing rain.

All good gifts around us, are sent from heaven above,

So thank the Lord, oh, thank the Lord, for all his love.     Godspell

In the beginning, God created the earth and it was good, very good.  Even more than that God delighted in God’s creation.  God created humans in God’s image and likeness.  In giving us this world to inhabit, God was inviting us into this delight. Yet somewhere along the line we have lost that delight.  Blame it on the fall, on Adam or Eve if you must.  I recently spent an afternoon with a 5 year old, 3 year old, 2 year old and a nine month old baby.  I was struck by the happiness, even delight, they showed at some of the simplest things, kicking a ball, playing in leaves, or just responding back to a smile.  It won’t be long before the 5 year old loses this innocence, already on the way.  Sometime around the “age of reason” some say seven, children lose this natural ability.  All part of growing up, and so we all grow up and that is good too.  Still we long for that innocence, the delight that was ours in the garden.  But why do we lose this sense of delight and are there ways to get it back?

Psalm 65, beautiful psalm of praise and thanksgiving traditionally used for reading at Thanksgiving.  Appears to be two separate units brought together, vs. 1-8 follow the same poetic pattern with a regular meter whereas vs. 9-13 follow an irregular pattern.  Leads one to believe these verses were added later for liturgical reasons, perhaps in celebration of the harvest.  Also the content is different, vs. 1-8 penitential in nature, 9-13, verses of thanksgiving.

Psalm starts with praise for God who hears our prayers and forgives our sins – it is awareness of sinfulness that brings people to God.  Context is a situation of sinfulness and chastisement for sin through a time of drought.  God’s displeasure attributed to failure of nature to bless the land – God’s displeasure and pleasure in Old Testament times often shown through nature.  In response to the prayers of the people, God blessed them with rain.  The bounteous yield is a sign of God restored favor and forgiveness.

The psalm goes on in verses 5-8 to talk about God’s great deeds, might and power, who by strength created the mountains, stills the roaring seas, leading all people to awe before God as creator and shouts of joy.

Then psalm shifts from praise of God’s cosmic power to God’s involvement in the harvest, blessing the fields and flocks with abundance in a beautiful poetic vision.  Spring and spring rains, vs. 9-10 followed by a rich harvest, vs. 11-12, the pastures are covered with flocks of sheep like clothing, the valleys are clothed in rich greens and golds as the harvest grows and matures and all nature sings for joy.  3 parts – praise of God in Zion who forgives sin, power of universal God/creator, praise of God who delivers bounty.  We, as God’s people, are invited to join in delight at the wonder of God in nature.

Deuteronomy passage – people are being warned, when they arrive in the promised land and are finally able to stop their wandering, when they have plants in abundance from the labor of their hands rather than depending on manna for food, do not forget God.  The concern is that during prosperous times, temptation is to forget God, think that all we have is based on our own work and merit, rather than gifts from God.  In times of trouble, we remember God, ask God for help, easy to forget during good times.

Luke – story of healing of ten lepers.  All ten cured, yet only one returns to thank Jesus.  In their suffering, normal social and religious boundaries are ignored as Jews and the Samaritan are united in their misery, as lepers.  All ten were ostracized, feared and despised.  Situation of lepers, not just sick, but social outcasts, unclean, even sinners for sickness and misfortune at that time often equated with sinfulness.  In order to be welcomed back into community, needed to be pronounced healed by the priest - health is in membership, not isolation.  As Norman Wirzba states in his book Living the Sabbath, “The ministry of Christ, however, shows us that our memberships go far and wide to include those who are not like us—people of other cultures and races (the leper who thanked Jesus was a Samaritan), the unclean, the poor, the sick, the disenfranchised—those who do not count according to our scales of importance.  It even extends to nonhuman life, for we are embodied and cannot possibly live well if the nutrients that feed us—animals, plants, water, soil, and air—are sickly or in decline.  We need to remember the principle that was well-known in ancient or traditional cultures:  bodily health includes the health of the many bodies, human and nonhuman, we necessarily live with.  We are members of creation, and our well-being depends on the health of the whole creation.  We are foolish if we think that we can be whole at the expense or in violation of the broader creation.  Wholeness is a precondition for health, which is a precondition for delight and celebration.” (p. 47)

Only one leper returns to give thanks to Jesus.  Jesus wonders where the others are.  “Jesus is clearly dismayed by their blindness and their unwillingness to acknowledge and act upon the fact that our health, indeed the means of all our living, is finally a gift . . .every time we eat, drink, and breathe, we experience and participate in the grace of health. . . All wholeness, in the end, is a reflection of a gracious God who cares for us all by showering us with the gifts of bodies, food, and community.  To be healthy in any way whatsoever is, whether we appreciate it or not, to bear witness to God’s continuing involvement in the maintenance and wholeness of creation.  If we are attentive, our whole lives should be one long act of thanksgiving and praise.” (Wirzba, p. 47)

In 2 Corinthians, Paul encourages the people of Corinth to share their goods with others for in doing so we participate in the generosity of God.  As we sow, so shall we reap.  We give to others, not in anticipation of getting more, but because it is the right thing to do.  In giving, we receive grace, we are blessed.

To go back to our question about delight - why do we lose this and can we get it back – see a number of answers in our readings.  When things go well, during prosperous times, we can forget about God as we are warned in Deuteronomy.  When we forget God, we no longer participate in God’s delight.  In our psalm we see the need to seek forgiveness.  Out of the experience of being forgiven, one naturally turns to praise and thanksgiving.  It can be hard to experience God’s delight if you are sick or isolated from community, as we see in the case of the lepers in Luke.  Jesus restores the lepers to health and to community so that they can participate in this delight.  And Paul lets us know that there is a joy that can be found in giving, recognizing that all we have is gift, and giving back freely to others we participate in God’s generosity and God’s delight. 

To this list, I would like to add that our society doesn’t promote delight.  We have many artificial means of entertainment that leave one feeling empty rather than uplifted.  We work far too many hours, despite our many labor-saving devices, and our work often leaves us feeling used like a commodity rather than appreciated as a person.

In establishing the Sabbath as a day of rest and giving this law to a people newly released from slavery, God was acknowledging that we need to be rested and have time in order to experience delight.  Slaves who work non-stop, seven days a week, who are overly tired, have no time to stand in awe before God in creation, no energy for play or delight.  There is a rabbinic tradition that says that if we learn to celebrate Sabbath fully even once, the Messiah would come.  To celebrate Sabbath isn’t just a matter of taking one day of a week to rest – it is a whole way of life that allows us to participate in God’s delight.   

God’s delight is grounded in the love of God.  In that we turn our whole lives over to God, seeking forgiveness where needed, giving forgiveness, living lives of generosity, we will experience this delight which automatically leads to praise and thanksgiving.  All good gifts truly do come from God.  So, this Thanksgiving, I pray for our world and for all people, that all may be more open to the delight that comes from knowing and loving God.

Robertson, copyright November 2011

Psalm 11, I'll Fly Away

November 13, 2011                            I’ll Fly Away

Judges 4:1-9                Psalm 11          1 Thes. 5:1-11             Matthew 25:14-30

Have you ever wanted to fly away, get away from all of your problems or hide where no-one can find you?  I know I have.   As a single mother of three small children I would dream of running away to some place where I could sleep non-stop.  Hiding can seem like an attractive way to escape the problems of the world, or the problems of daily life; however I realized that while running away would provide temporary relief, it could create more or greater problems than it was worth, so I held fast. 

Still the appeal of running away remains, if not physically then mentally.  There are ways a person can hide without leaving a room, ways to mentally detach and run away.  It can be a useful defense mechanism to help someone survive terrible turmoil or an unbearable circumstance, but also can be a trap.  As an introvert on Meyers Briggs, when overwhelmed by too many people, too much conversation and experiencing emotional, people overload, I need to retreat, withdraw.  If I can’t physically withdraw, I withdraw through closing up, shutting down, making myself unavailable through silence.

Recently I learned about the Enneagram.  The Enneagram goes back thousands of years with roots in numerology, study of numbers, sacred numbers.  The nine points of the enneagram, point to nine ways in which we tend to sin, based on the seven deadly sins: sloth, greed, pride, anger, envy, lust, gluttony and the addition of deceit and compulsive fear. The desert fathers and mothers used this to help individuals grow spiritually.  Each of us has our own weakness, tendency to sin.  As a five on the Enneagram, I can be prone to sin through withdrawal, withholding myself rather than engaging others – so can be especially prone to temptation to run away.  You might say for us, when the going gets tough, the tough run.

In our Psalm today, the writer is under attack.  We don’t know the historical situation, whether the conflict is a personal, social, religious or national one.  We just know the writer is in imminent peril.  In the face of this peril, his supporters are encouraging him to flee, fly away like a bird to the mountains, a common place to hide during this time.  Continuing the metaphor of a bird, they say the enemy has the arrow in the bow, ready to shoot, then they shift to image of robbers coming in the night in order to impress upon him the danger of the situation and the need for immediate action.  The very foundation upon which he put his trust is being destroyed, they insist in verse 3.  His cause is tumbling down in pieces and he will be destroyed along with it if he doesn’t act quickly.

If written by David, as many of the psalms are commonly attributed to him, then David certainly knows about being on the run as he spent many years fleeing Saul who was determined to kill David as a rival to his throne.  David hid in the mountains seeking them out as a place of refuge, so suggestion to flee to the mountains is nothing new.  What is new is the writer’s response.  A closer translation of verse 1 is to flee “as a little bird.”  Writer states, how can you ask me to run away like a little bird?  He insists on staying, putting his trust in the Lord.  He states:  The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven, the Lord sees, he is not asleep or indifferent.  The Lord tests both the righteous and the wicked.  The Lord is righteous and will uphold the righteous; the righteous will see his face.  So even though he is being tested now, the writer is putting his trust in the Lord.

There are times to run away, when the wiser course is to flee in order to fight again another day.  There are other times when we are to stand firm – this is one of those times.

Judges – book of Judges is a series of short stories following a similar pattern:  Israel sins; God judges by having neighboring nations threaten them; Israel cried to God for help; God saves them through a judge.  The sin of the Israelites is that they did not defeat all of the nations of Canaan as commanded by God (Judges 1:22-2:5), rather they sought alliances with the nations, thinking this will give them security.  God’s response is to say in Judges 2:3 “So now I say, I will not drive them (the Canaanite nations) out before you; but they shall become adversaries to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”  What Israel did to secure their safety was their ultimate downfall – “paradoxical twist in that what Israel thought it was doing for security, in fact, became a source of continuing insecurity.”  (Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, After Pentecost, p. 143-144)

Deborah is the judge and heroine of reading today.  She puts her trust in God, in contrast to Barak, the commander of the army, who was only willing to go into battle if Deborah came with him.  Barak is average in his faith, Deborah outstanding, not counting the cost or worrying about her personal safety, she acted based on confident trust in God, as the psalmist did.  For Deborah, this was not the time to run away but the time to act.

Gospel – familiar parable of the talents, a man goes away giving each of his servants a share of his possessions, each according to their ability.  Master was extremely generous, one talent equal to 12,000 days wages or over 38 years of labor.  Out of fear one servant buries his talent.  I’ve often wondered – what if servant had tried investing money to make more money and lost it all, what would have happened then?  Would master have said better to have tried and failed then to not try at all? 

Basic message is that fear is no excuse for failure.  We see that that which servant did to preserve what he had, resulted in his losing all he had, much as what Israelites did to preserve security resulted in insecurity.  God gives us abundantly and we are to use that grace, grace buried produces nothing; grace buried is grace lost.  Grace is meant to be shared, grace builds upon grace.  Or, as Jesus tells us elsewhere in the gospels, don’t light a candle and hide it under a bushel basket. 

Paul, in Thessalonians, reminds us of the importance of being aware.  We do not know when the “day of the Lord” will come, we just know it will come and so we want to be ready.  But we don’t have to live in fear of that day for our God is a God of grace.  We are to act assuredly, with confidence, encouraging each other in faith.  What’s important is that we do what our God wants us to do and do that with confidence, not fear.

What fears might be keeping you from being all God wants you to be?  What keeps you from being outstanding in your faith rather than average?  Perhaps you are fearful of rejection, that if people really knew you they wouldn’t like you.  Perhaps you fear ridicule, better to remain silent and let others think you are an idiot, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.  Maybe you don’t want others to know your failings, weaknesses, sinfulness, your shadow side, so you try to hide these.  Carl Jung, well known analyst, tells us that the shadow is pure gold; it is by embracing our own sinfulness, bringing our dark side to light, that we are redeemed.  We overcome our sinfulness by becoming aware of it, getting to know ourselves and our own particular tendencies to sin, perhaps through aids such as the Enneagram or Meyers Briggs.

Through Jesus Christ we have been redeemed.  We no longer need to hide even those parts that we are less comfortable with.  There will be a day when we will fly away, fly away to our home with our God in heaven, but until then, let us lead lives of confident trust in our God, our refuge, who is “righteous and protects those who put their trust in him.”

Copyright November 2011

Psalm 10 - Does God Care? Nov. 6, 2011

November 6, 2011                  Does God Care?

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25             Psalm 10          1 Thes. 4:13-18           Matthew 5:1-12

A bird came down the walk,

he didn’t know I saw;

he bit an angle worm in half

and ate the fellow raw.

Emily Dickinson, In the Garden.  Author dispassionately observes reality of garden life, birds eat worms, just the way it is.  Strikes me as one possible image of God, dispassionately observing reality of world, raises question of today’s psalm – Does God Care?

Psalm 10, continuation of Psalm 9, however there is a profound shift in tone – Psalm 9 ends in confidence, 10 begins with complaint, lament, speaks of seeming indifference of God in face of wrongs suffered by righteous.  Common ground for complaint, so much so that phrase “Why do you stand far off, O Lord?” formula to introduce a lament (psalm 13, 22, 31, 42, 43).  Where Psalm 9 was a psalm of orientation, God is in heaven all is right with world, Psalm 10 is psalm of disorientation – where is God?  Why is God far off?

Psalm asks God, why are you hiding?  Where are you?  Common cry in times of trouble, then lists all of the problems in society.  As one commentary states:  “poet then proceeds to inveigh for twelve verses against a society in which the ruling class is unscrupulous, cruel, God-neglectful, and apparently prosperous.  Bitterness against the rich pervades every verse, and vivid images are piled one upon the other to describe a condition of lawlessness in which the prosperous are ravenous animals and the poor are their victims.” This could easily be the lament of the occupy Wall Street movement, or occupy Jerusalem?

Vs. 2 - in arrogance wicked hotly pursued the poor – how like the wall street brokers and bankers who arrogantly pursue money with no thought to how it might affect people, or Enron executives who grew rich off the backs of the rank and file who lost their retirement, or any of those who accumulate more and more money without thought to the “99%” who go without so they can have in excess; who perceive themselves as worthier than others and so deserving of so much more; who took bailouts paid for by the government, meaning us. “Let them be caught in the schemes which they have devised” – let them be caught in their own web of deceit, be found out and receive the punishment they deserve, let the punishment fit the crime, as happened to Bernie Madoff who lost all his ill gotten gain

Vs. 3-4 – wicked go on in their pride – they boast about their possessions, as if that makes them better than others, they make themselves their own god, claiming “there is no God.”  If there is no God then they feel they are justified in taking what they can in this life.

Vs. 5 – the wicked appear to prosper, see that the rich get richer on the backs of the poor, they come out of Wall street bail-out unscathed while economy suffers

Vs. 6 – foolishly he thinks nothing can happen to him, he puffs at his foes, blows smoke at them, thinking they cannot harm him – famous last words.  “Throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity” – ask the Bernie Madoff’s of the world about this.  Ultimate foolishness that comes from pride, false pride, which goest before a fall

Vs. 7-9 – strong words/images – proud, wicked, compared to beasts of prey who see poor as their rightful prey, targets to devour

10-11 – shifts to those poor caught in the nets of the wicked – they too can feel like there is no God or that God is hiding.  Funny how pride and poverty can result in the same faulty logic – that there is no God, hear ultimate words of despair – “God will never see it.”

12-15 – Psalm shifts, hear words/thinking of the writer, previously he was reflecting words of the wicked and the wretched, now we hear where he stands in the face of so much pain and oppression.  He calls upon God, asking him to raise his hand against those who are wicked, against words of wicked who claim God will not call them to account.  He affirms that, yes, God does see what’s going on and God will respond; he calls upon God to break the arm of the wicked, destroy their wickedness.

16-18 he then ends with words of confidence – God is King, God is in charge, God hears and responds.

Moving from disorientation to a new orientation, despair to trust.

Joshua – renewal of covenant, Joshua wanted to make sure people knew what they were doing, that God doesn’t take his covenant lightly, nor should they.  This is not a contract they can easily break and get out of, it’s a life-long commitment. Joshua warns them in vs. 19-20 “You may not be able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God who will not forgive your transgressions or your sins  If, after the good he has done for you, you forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, he will do evil to you and destroy you.”  See this in psalm vs. 14 when poet affirms that God sees and will take matters into own hand – as Paul says in Hebrews 10:31 -“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  Yes, it is for those who are proud, wicked, and do not follow God’s commands, can be a fearful thing; Hebrew people would do well to take note of this and not enter covenant lightly.  However for those who are poor, dispossessed and suffering, it is good to fall into the hands of the living God.

Gospel reading, beatitudes, Jesus tells us:  blessed are the poor, those who mourn, the meek, the merciful, the pure of heart, peacemakers, those who hunger for justice, those who are persecuted for righteousness.  As always, God’s words comfort the poor and afflicted, disturb the proud and mighty.

What does this say to us today?  Chances are there have been times in your own life when you felt God did not care, when you looked at the world situation, our struggling economy, all of the evils and wrongs in this world and wondered – where is the justice?  Where is God?  God may pose the same question to us – what are we doing?  Where is justice?  Why do we allow the wicked to prosper?

Some, when confronted with evil in the world can question – is there a God and if so, why doesn’t he do anything?  May question whether God is good?  These are fundamental questions of faith, faith that each of us need to wrestle with, no easy answers.  Even the great theologian, C.S. Lewis, in the depths of pain at the death of his wife, questioned “did God care?’ or were we just some rats in the laboratory of life?

Funny how the logic of the wicked and the wretched both lead to not believing in God, the one because of pride, the other because of poverty.  I recently read an article with a study that claimed that people made up God.  The study looked at the innate need in infants for relationships to humans and to something greater than ourselves and so, they claimed, we made up God to satisfy this need.  Funny – they didn’t consider that the reverse might also be true, that we need God because God created us and put within us the desire to know Him and love Him.

No easy answers, however there is hope for those who believe.  We have hope in the resurrection as Paul tells us, that this life is not all there is, that the wicked will not always prevail, that there will be a day of reckoning, and God will hear the cries of the poor and those who are in pain.  God hears us, even now, every minute.  If our God seems far off, it is not because God has moved away from us, but our own faulty, limited abilities to see God as God is.

Writer of psalm raises the basic questions of faith and answers them:  Yes, God hears, God does care.  God cares so much that he sent his Son, Jesus, who reaffirm God’s great love for God’s people.  God hears us when we cry to him and he will turn our lamenting into joy if we put our trust in him.

copyright November 2011

Introduction

Preaching is a challenge and a gift.  It forces me to reflect on Scripture every week, to ask “what is God saying to me in this passage?”  “What is God saying to my people?”  To try to continually find new ways to tell over and over again the basic story of God’s love.  I’ve heard that each of us have but a few stories that are ours to tell.  Given this, how can any one preacher speak week after week to the same people without them being bored to tears by repetition?  And yet the stories need to be told over and over, every Sunday, in countless churches throughout the world by countless ministers.  I am but one small cog in this noble enterprise.  Preach I must with the words that are mine to give.  Still it remains a challenge to keep it fresh, keep it alive every week.

For years as a lay minister in the Roman Catholic Church, I reflected on the Catholic lectionary, preaching inconsistently whenever it was allowed. Now as a chaplain in a retirement community I have been preaching using the Revised Common Lectionary for over eleven years.  This means I have preached on the same readings over three times each to the same people.  Somehow I have always managed to come up with some words, some more inspiring than others.  I like the common lectionary, like the thought that on any given Sunday I am preaching on the same readings as hundreds of thousands of other ministers, and yet what I preach will be uniquely different as I am different and my congregation is different.  Still it is a challenge.

Over the past few years I thought about, prayed about, doing something different, maybe doing a series as other ministers I know have done.  I had yet to do any in-depths study of the psalms, so the idea of focusing on them intrigued me as a way to further my own education and hopefully give new life to my preaching.

I went into a week-long seminar on preaching last August intent on getting insights on what others had done and maybe several months of sermon material.  While this didn’t happen quite the way I had planned - I didn’t come away with outlines and sermons in place - I came away with what I needed to make a beginning and that was enough.  And so, in August I made my beginning, starting with Psalm 1 with the intent of preaching my way through all 150 psalms.  In some ways an enormous undertaking, and yet, I have to write a sermon each week regardless, with the exception of the week we have a minister come for communion, so why not.  I figure it will take me over four years, doing three psalms a month, but week by week it will be done.

I am now up to Psalm 10.  It is giving me a new structure and new life for my sermons.  I still use the readings from the common lectionary as part of my reflection, picking those that fit the most with the psalm for that week.  In this way I get the best of both worlds:  a sermon series that incorporates the lectionary readings. 

Sermons are meant to be preached, they lose so much in the written form.  I usually follow an outline that leaves me freedom to add or delete based on the reactions of the congregation and the movement of the Spirit.  Yet I share them here in hope that my reflections will provide fodder for your own reflections.  Enjoy!

copyright November 2011