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God’s Loving Paths
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1 March 2009 I asked Diane re-read the psalm because even though the translation she read and the one we used are in English, they are quite different from one another. The translation from the New Revised Standard Version–our pew Bible–is a wonderful translation. The scholarship and the deep faith commitments behind that translation are the best we can bring to the table. But the NRSV misses the earthiness of the Hebrew, and more of that comes through in The Message. It’s rough around the edges, unpolished...Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof before Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick gave him rhyme and rhythm. That doesn’t mean the psalms lack sophistication. As Diane mentioned, today’s psalm is an acrostic. So going from A-Z, or more correctly, alef to tav, the psalmist prays for guidance and deliverance. Our prayer moves from cries for help to expressions of trust that God’s love and mercy will sustain the pray-er. Likewise, the pray-er responds to that love by keeping God’s laws and following God’s paths. Many of you are familiar with one of my favorite contemporary authors and theologians–Frederick Buechner. Years ago, he penned an astute little book, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, and some fifteen years later, its sequel, Whistling in the Dark: An ABC Theologized. Both books offer his reflections on a particular word as he works his way through the alphabet. In his acknowledgments, he claims to have “pillaged shamelessly from the miscellaneous utterances [of those who wrote before him, with]... gratitude and apologies to them all.”[1,xi] In that spirit, I invite you to listen to portions of Psalm 25 yet again, but not to worry–we won’t cover every letter of the alphabet–either in English or Hebrew! And as in the Sound of Music, we begin at the very beginning with the letter A. “To you, O Lord, I lift my soul. O my God, in you I trust/My head is high, God, held high; I’m looking to you, God.” A is for “adoration.” The psalmist turns to God with the very deepest part of her being, with her soul. When we are feeling profoundly anxious, we don’t trust the very essence of who we are to just anyone. We turn to someone with whom we have a relationship, someone we respect, someone we trust enough to be concerned about our welfare, someone we adore. In his Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, C.S. Lewis writes “We – or at least I – shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest....Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are 'patches of Godlight' in the woods of experience."[3] When we learn the habit of adoration, we are able to approach God with other “A” words like anxiety and angst. “Do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me./Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; no hangdog skulking for me. I’ve thrown in my lot with you; you won’t embarrass me, will you? Or let my enemies get the best of me? Don’t embarrass any of us who went out on a limb for you.” B is for “believing.” It can also be for Buechner, who comments on prepositions. One is “in” sales, or one is “in” teaching–meaning that is what they do to earn enough to keep a roof over their heads. “But if we say they are ‘into’ these things, that is another story. ‘Into’ means something more like total immersion....They can’t get enough of it. To be ‘into’ books means that just the sight of a signed first edition of Alice in Wonderland sets your heart pounding. To be ‘in’ books means selling them at”[2,20] Barnes and Noble. “Along similar lines,...[b]elieving in God is an intellectual position”[2,21] potentially having no more effect on your life than believing in the law of gravity. “Believing God is something else again. It is less a position than a journey, less a realization than a relationship....It stirs your blood like believing the world is a miracle. It affects who you are and what you do with your life....When Jesus says that whoever believes ‘into’ him shall never die, he does not mean to be willing to sign your name to the [UCC Statement of Faith] guarantees eternal life. Eternal life is not the result of believing in. It is the experience of believing.”[2,21] “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long./Show me how you work, God; school me in your ways. Take me by the hand; lead me down the path of truth.” K is for “knowledge.” Knowledge is like the prepositions in and into. We know that 3x3 is 6. We know the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But ours has become a culture of fact-fanatics and info-junkies. The issue for people of faith is to trust God’s guidance in the face of life’s challenges, even when we don’t have all of the details, even when there are gaping holes in our information.[4] But knowing somebody enough to trust them involves more than just information. When we really know a person, that knowledge becomes part of who we are. It gets into our bloodstream.[2,71] When we know God, we follow the paths of love and mercy, the paths of justice and forgiveness. R is for “redemption.” “Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me./Forget that I sowed wild oats; mark me with the sign of your love. Plan only the best for me, God!” Whitworth University President Bill Robinson wrote the university’s February newsletter after the inauguration. Referring to the District, he writes that Washington is a place “where optimism and fear struggle for the upper hand. You don’t know whether to grieve America’s immense economic failure or celebrate its stunning moral triumph. In the ‘win’ category, two stories will stay with me long after I get home. I heard MSNBC’s Eugene Robinson tell of an election night phone call he made right before the California polls closed and NBC announced President Obama’s victory. Robinson grew up in a segregated area of South Carolina. He told of the terror he felt when his father had to protect him in how own house from the state police, who were in pursuit of a black instigator. He then told, haltingly, of making an election-night call to his dying father to say that ‘In a few minutes a black man will be announced as the president-elect of the United States.” The other story took me back to my own 7th grade memories. Bob Schieffer of CBS recalled the fear that gripped him as a young reporter covering the riots that accompanied James Meredith’s attempt, in 1962, to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Schieffer contrasted that fear with the towering joy he felt this past September, back at the University of Mississippi for one of the presidential debates, as he tried to make himself heard over the cheers of black and white students united behind a candidate whose skin was the same color as James Meredith’s. The most difficult days for President Obama are certainly yet to come. The challenges are staggering. But for now, I think it’s okay to tell these warm stories of redemption. [We remember the story of Ruth, the Moabite widow who leaves her own people to support her widowed mother-in-law When she speaks to her master Boaz, Ruth reveals] the longing of every alienated heart, effectively saying: “You noticed me; you included me; now redeem me.”[5] Our lenten journey is a journey of redemption that is tested at the cross and brought to fulfillment at the resurrection. Our journey reminds us of the One who notices and includes and gives worth to every one of us. “In terribly difficult economic times, Ruth’s commitment sustained her relationship with Naomi.”[5] The psalmist reminds us that even in these most difficult times, God’s commitment, God’s covenant with us is unwavering. *** [1] Buechner, Frederick, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, Harper & Row, © |