Minding Your Own Business

 

Minding Your Own Business

 

Psalm 27:1, 4-9
27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

27:4 One thing I asked of the Lord, that I will seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in God’s temple.

27:5 For God will hide me in a shelter in the day of trouble; God will conceal me under the cover of a tent: God will set me high on a rock.

27:6 Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in God’s tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

27:7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!

27:8 "Come," my heart says, "seek God’s face!" Your face, Lord, do I seek.

27:9 Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!

 

Back in the 1980s, when I was studying for my Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, I remember one really challenging week. The “normal” pressures of working toward a graduate degree at a “tough” school, coupled with pastoring a “recovering” church in a Mon Valley community, were enough, but this week was even worse. I can’t recall some of the extenuating circumstances, but I do remember that Dara was out of town for a few days attending a conference, so I had “charge” of our two small children, one of whom was just a toddler, and who had come down with a virus, of some sort. He was running a fever, which, as usual, peaked in the evening, and I remember that the night before my heaviest day of classed, it really spiked. I knew I had to take him to the emergency room, as he just felt like a little pot roast, as I held his listless body. I dropped our daughter off at a colleague’s house up the street on our way to the ER. They were able to get his fever down, and we finally all got home in the very early hours of the morning. Already feeling pretty exhausted, I left the children off at my colleague’s house again (his wife was watching our kids while I was in class), and headed for the seminary. Now, I was not alone in my exhaustion and anxiety. A number of my fellow students were living through similar challenges, and it was that point in the term when the pressures on all of us were just “off the charts.” After lunch, I had the seminar half of a required Pastoral Care class, taught by one of our favorite professors, Dr. Andrew Purves. [Each major, required class was held two days a week, with the first class being the lecture, and the second class, a “seminar,” wherein the larger class was divided into smaller groups to discuss what had been presented in the lecture, as well as share presentations on various case studies we were assigned.]

As we filed into the seminar room and took our seats around the large conference table, the tension in that room was palpable. We all “sat up at attention” when Dr. Purves entered the room and took his seat at the head of the seminar table. Dr. Purves set his notebook down, opened it for a moment, closed it, looked slowly around the room at his students, and said, in his characteristic Scottish brogue, “How is it with your SOUL, today?” I think every one of us literally broke down and cried, as in this simple Wesleyan question, he gave us permission to let out the tension in a sudden burst of emotion. Next, he had us each share what was on our hearts, one by one. In abandoning his agenda for the class in pastoral care, he provided a grace-filled example of exactly what pastoral care IS! I will never forget that day, and the great gift Dr. Purves gave to us that day. 

 

I begin this message with that story because today’s scripture from Psalm 27 is ALL ABOUT YOU. As a preacher and Christian leader who believes in and promotes the idea of our fellowship being a living, breathing, supportive faith COMMUNITY, my messages usually gravitate toward how to build this community and its “care and feeding.” Often, I push this toward how the community of faith makes disciples of Jesus Christ out of us, and how this mission leads to our community being God’s witnesses and servants in a needy world. Not today. Forgive me for not spending as much time in my messages on what YOU need, as my listeners and colleagues in the journey of Christian discipleship. An old TV commercial used to say, “Life comes at you hard,” and it does. If our faith does not first provide support to each of us, and a timely release—Dr. Purves style—for our tension, then it is nothing but another “thing” that dumps “requirements” on us—yet another stressor. One might just hear the voice of God saying in Psalm 27, “How is it with your SOUL, today?”

 

The Psalmist is not asking for God’s presence and intervention for any faith community. He or she is crying out for God’s “salvation” for themselves. Period. The Psalmist is looking for something much more holistic in their understanding of “salvation” than we usually do in Christian circles. Do we not too often limit “salvation” to having a SIN-ectomy? Like those twelve students in the seminar room in seminary, who were wound up tighter than the mainspring of a mantle clock, so the Psalmist wants God’s help to find release and refuge from the “battle.” Look what the writer is after:

 

LIGHT – without it, we stumble in the darkness, and can’t read a map, even if we have one to chart our course.

 

Freedom from FEAR – at its best, fear alerts us to danger, quickening a response leading to safety; at its worst, it paralyzes us, keeping us right in the path of the pending threat, or even worse, it lies to us and stokes more fear and anxiety in the face of a non-existent threat that may never occur.

 

A STRONGHOLD – one dictionary definition of a stronghold is: “a place where a particular cause or belief is strongly defended or upheld;” the writer wants God to be that stronghold of his LIFE. That day in the seminar room, both God and Dr. Purves, represented by the simple question, “How is it with your soul, today?”, were a sudden and welcome “stronghold” for us all!

 

A SHELTER – one that is a “house” where we may behold God’s beauty and worship God (a temple); “Home” may be a better word here, as if you are privileged to have the kind of peaceful, restful, and comfortable home with a loving companion like I do, you are always to glad to be there! The Psalmist—and WE—want so much more than just a “roof over our heads” in life.

 

CONCEALED and RAISED UP – while these may seem like opposite things, they are related. We want to know that God is there to protect us and even “hide” us from the threats that may come, but we also want the confidence in knowing that when the storms have passed, we will be “lifted up” above the fray, and may proudly view the world from “high upon a rock,” rather than from under the belly of the beast.

 

JOY, SINGING, and MELODY – Joy is such an elusive thing, but it doesn’t have to be! If we, like the Psalmist, cry out to God to be our stronghold, God will meet our needs. Joy happens when we know we don’t have to be afraid of anything anymore, including death! Singing is the most universal form of praise, and it has the ability to pump up and elevate the smarting soul. Singers know, too, that one must learn the melody of the song before one can compose the harmony of it. This goes to my point today that our own personal well-being and holistic “salvation” is a necessary building block to the harmony of the faith community. This writer gets that!

 

Seeing God’s FACE – this is something we read frequently in the Hebrew scriptures, and it is a multi-faceted issue for all of God’s people. Seeing God’s “face” means God notices us. We Westerners equate this with our concept of “eye contact.” When we make eye contact with someone, a connection is made. In the case of eye contact, this may not always mean a peaceful connection, but seeing “God’s FACE” is a comforting kind of eye contact for the Jews, as it means that God SEES THEM! God’s face also is often “shining” in the Bible, and this “shine” or Shakina glory offers not just God’s blessing, but also God’s power. God’s “face” is often also a symbol for God’s “graciousness” or grace. Remember the famous benediction from the book of Numbers: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” Seeing God’s “face” is so much more than just a look in the eye!

 

HEAR me and do not FORSAKE me – If God is not “hearing” us, then why do we pray? Therein lies the reason some stop praying—they don’t think God is really listening. But God DOES listen. In fact, if we believe the biblical record of both the Old and New Testaments, and the very words of Jesus, himself, we know that God never does NOT listen to us. Keep praying—keep seeking that “face” of the Divine! And the Psalmist’s plea for God to not “forsake” him is a poetic way of stating his confidence that God will most certainly NOT abandon him. Israel had learned, down through the ages, that God NEVER abandoned or “forsook” them, but instead, it was THEY who had forsaken God. When they once again turned their faces toward the Almighty, what did they see, but the “face” of God still looking lovingly in their direction, and offering renewal, revival, and “salvation.”

 

This scripture—and this message—is for YOU! Leave behind your martyr complex and adopt the reality that God wants YOU to successfully navigate the rocky roads of life, keep your eyes locked on the gracious face of the God who loves you, and continually renew the joy that life is meant to be, as designed by our Creator. One of the worst feelings in the whole world is the “lie” that we can’t be happy unless everyone can be happy at the same time. Put in another way, we can’t have joy unless our whole church, or our whole faith community, is in a place of joy as well. I don’t know whether this “lie” is from old “Screwtape,” or from the too often beat-down spiritual “child” from within the human psyche, but it doesn’t matter. Leave it behind. Allowing God to help US get to a joyful, safe place is one more step toward the broader community finding a shared experience of such grace. Think, too, of the witness—people are less “attracted” to a church or a faith community that “seems” joyful from the outside, than they are to a close friend or family member who finds genuine fulfilment and joy (“salvation”) in themselves. This is the difference between “discipleship” and public relations. Jesus, himself, utilized the “each one reach one” method of making disciples, and would he have done that if a public relations campaign would have brought them in? 

 

So, mind your own business! Use the words of Psalm 27 to connect with God in a very personal way. And don’t just ask God to “fix” you so you can “be a productive disciple,” or “be a better leader in your church.” Just let the Holy Spirit of God, the joyfulness of the Son, and the intent of the Father shine God’s “face” upon you! We will all be stronger when YOU are strong, Dear Ones! Amen.