Loading...Just in case you missed the memo,
things – they are a-changin’.
Indeed, how does that aphorism go?
“Everything changes and nothing stands still” (Heraclitus, quoted by Plato)
We are back in our vestments after the summer heat;
the liturgy has changed for the Fall season,
including the use of approved updated language for some of the spoken parts of our liturgy;
we observed a minute of silence following the readings from Hebrew Scripture and from the Epistles.
Changes are afoot in the world at large as well:
the death and funerals of two notable and memorable people this past week;
the season is changing (oh, not officially, but September 1 always feels like the beginning of Fall to me);
and, lest you forget, school has started up again for students and teachers!
Finally, I’m going to try something new today for the sermon:
I’m going to use the Psalm as the place for us to pay attention to and listen for God’s grace, challenge, and good news.
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“O Lord, who may abide in your tent?
Who may dwell in your holy hill?”
This opening verse of Psalm 15 is neither about camping nor about hiking.
The “tent” refers to the dwelling place of the ark of the covenant while the Israelites were wandering the wilderness area before entering the land promised them. The “tent” is also sometimes called the “tabernacle”.
The “holy hill” is the hill upon which the city of Jerusalem was built, especially the pinnacle of that hill – the Temple, which, generations after the wandering desert “tent” became the permanent place for God.
Both of these, tent and holy hill, were understood to be where God dwelled. God is firmly planted and rooted in and amongst the people,
and God is the One in whose presence we humans live.
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“O Lord, who may abide in your tent?
Who may dwell in your holy hill?”
Who may come as God’s guest to abide, to dwell, to live, to be with God?
After all, we’re all invited by God; we are all God’s guests.
The psalmist tells us what the characteristics of God’s guests are to be:
blameless, do what is right, and speak the truth.
Or, from another translation from Biblical Hebrew scholar Esther Menn,
the person who walks with integrity,
the person who does what leads to reconciliation,
the person who acknowledges truth when making decisions.
Rather than turning this into some sort of morality checklist for ourselves or for others, trying to determine who is good enough to come to worship,
the Psalmist is describe the way of life of someone who is
centered on God,
living deeply in the covenant with God,
and celebrating the gift of life for each of us who live together in community.
In other words, the psalmist is describing the people who come to the holy hill,
not prescribing what you have to be like in order to get in.
The psalmist is describing a way of life –
not a way to earn our way into the tent, or a way in to the Temple.
We are not being threatened here with cut-off, banishment, or punishment if we do not do these things.
Why?
Because we are already invited to be guests.
We are not just visitors passing through, and kinda, sorta hoping to stay.
We are guests who move in
and because of the invitation and the One inviting us
(ESPECIALLY the One inviting us)
we take on this way of life.
We walk this path as our journey.
We choose this hiking path to be our way on the holy hill.
Then, as God’s guests, walking this way presented to us, we live with resiliency and stability.
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The psalm --
actually, all of the readings when you ponder them –
teaches us to think about how we live as individuals, families, and communities who live in God’s presence with joy and integrity.
Not as a checklist to get in,
but as a way of life as guests welcome to be part,
as a way of life with relationships strengthened and healthy as a result of our behaviors together as well as our center and grounding:
God who choses you and you, and you, and all y’all
as the beloved community.
Amen
