 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
April 3, 2005
Confidence and Companions in Faith
Psalm 16
The Psalmist sounds rather like a person in love. "You're the only one for me." "There's no one like you." "I'll never look at another." "I know you'll never leave me." "Our love will last forever." The Psalmist is in love with the Lord God. God means everything to the Psalmist. "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you." The Psalmist cannot imagine how it could be otherwise. "Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows…."And besides loving the Lord, the Psalmist loves, admires and respects those who share the faith. "As for the holy ones in the land, they are noble, in whom is all my delight." The Psalmist loves being part of the church.
Being in love is wonderful. We can readily recognize people who love each other deeply and devotedly. It shows. Loving and being loved. The whole world is transformed. Songs and poetry tell of the power of love to raise us up to joy and see us through terrors and distress.
First loves are unforgettable. So intense. So all-consuming. Such a high. Such loves run a furious and often brief and disastrous course. Romeo and Juliet. Their love did them in. Charles and Diana. A match many thought made in heaven and produced in England. Such love has its moment, but does not endure, except perhaps as a memory of what once was and is now lost.
Love lost is not in the Psalmist's view. The love the Psalmist knows can stand up even in the face of death. "For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit. Love lost is the pits. Losing the one you love is hell. The Psalmist does not even consider that the love between the Lord and himself could ever be in jeopardy.
What's the love like between you and the Lord? Is it like that of the Psalmist? I know people whose intensity and excitement about being in Christ's service is far beyond what we know week-in and week-out. I know other people who wonder why their relationship to God isn't like that.
Eugene Peterson is well-known for his work in translating scripture in ways that are readable and understandable by people not familiar with religious language. I like the way he responds when people ask him how they can be more spiritual. Or, we might say, how they can be more like the Psalmist in their love and devotion to God. His reply is as down-to-earth as his scripture translations. How about starting out by loving your spouse or your kids? He points out that even for mystics, moments of rapture and ecstacy are rare and unexpected. He thinks many of us have the wrong idea about what it means to the "close" to God. Intimacy with God, Peterson points out, is like any other form of intimacy. Sometimes we feel really close to the person we're married to; at other times, we feel apart and may even distance ourselves from one another. "Spirituality," he says, "is no different from what we've been doing for two thousand years just by going to church and receiving the sacraments, being baptized, learning to pray, and reading scripture rightly." He caps it all off, saying: "It's just ordinary stuff." [Reported in The Christian Century, April 5, 2005, p. 6].
Now some will find that disappointing. Surely there must be something to light our love for the Lord and make it blaze with intensity and excitement. If so, could it be that the Psalmist found it? He begins with trust. Think for a moment how it is with you when you're with the person, or people, with whom you do daily entrust your life. For some of us that person is a spouse. For others, an extended family. For still others, our dear friends. These are people we trust. And when we're with them all is well. No matter what else may be going on around us, or within us, we can make it through. These are the ones who hold us up when our worst fears arrive. Trust guards us against being overcome by our fears. The people we trust are the ones to whom we want first and most of all to tell our good news; we know they'll not only rejoice with us, but add to our joy by sharing it. Joy and trust intertwine. The Psalmist trusts the Lord: "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you."
We lift up our hearts in praise of the one we trust. The Psalmist was blessed to say: "Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge." What do we say of those we trust; those who stand by us; those who stand with us? "I couldn't have made it without you guys." Blessed are those who have had occasion to say that. Blessed are they for having such friends. Blessed are they to know they have such friends. Blessed are those whose trust and praise find focus in the Lord.
They come to focus in simple, common, ordinary things. A brief moment. A little bread. A little juice. Friends gathered with us as we eat and drink. I don't know about you, but that sounds like love to me.
| Return to Sermon List |
First Presbyterian
Church of Cedar Rapids
310 Fifth Street SE Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
Phone: 319-364-6148
E-mail: church@fpccr.org
Copyright © 2003-2007 First Presbyterian Church of Cedar Rapids. All rights reserved.