Psalm 122 (NRSV)
A Song of Ascents. Of David.
I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
Our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem—built as a city
that is bound firmly together.
To it the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
For there the thrones for judgment
were set up,
the thrones of the house of David.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls,
and security within your towers.”
For the sake of my relatives and
friends
I will say, “Peace be within you.”
For the sake of the house of the
Lord our God,
I will seek your good.
Most of us are familiar with the Psalms,
we may have maybe even memorized
some, like the 23rd or 100th
But very few of us tend to read the
Psalms.
And that is pretty surprising since the Psalms are the most
quoted literature of the Hebrew Bible in our New Testament.
The early
Christians saw in Jesus the fulfillment of the Psalms
Today as
Christians we tend to see the Psalms through the lens of Jesus
Even though many don't read the Psalms, they are at the
center of Christian worship
We hear them read, we sing them, we even use them in our
prayers --- often in fragmentary form.
But the Psalms as whole texts often seem to our modern ears
to be strange if not even foreign.
And though the Psalms were created in an ancient culture ---
the language that they use --- the amazing poetry ---- seem to wrestle with the
question of what it means to be fully human.
The themes that are found in the Psalms include:
·
our longing for justice
·
the poverty of riches
·
caring for the poor
·
wonder of creation
·
the search for happiness
·
the quest for integrity
·
the need for silence and solitude
·
the struggle with grief, loneliness and mental
illness
·
and the realization of our mortality
And at the center of it all --- is God.
You cannot open the Psalms without encountering God
Patrick Woodhouse, in the quote at the top of the bulletin
said:
Could it be that, . . . the Psalms
are in fact pointing to the greatest malaise of our times: the erosion of belief
in a transcendent reality which all our lives can be measured and shaped, and
given hope and meaning?
The Psalms are full of God
Woodhouse continues:
The one thing you cannot escape if
you read the Psalms, is God. They are
shot through and through with the divine presence, the divine grace and the
divine call. This is why, despite the difficulties
of their cultural context, they need to be valued and loved and known, not just
as odd fragments but as whole texts, which, when deeply pondered can kindle faith
afresh and reorient a person's entire perspective.
It is my hope that over this season of lent that the Psalms
will help you to learn to live differently in the world.
We are hoping to help you do this though the daily devotions
we are sending you, our sermons on Sunday mornings, and the workshops that Matt
has put together to help us learn to pray the Psalms.
The Psalms invite us in and offer to help us to discover
life.
The abundant
life that Jesus talks about (John 10:10)
Over the six Sundays of Lent we will seek to open the Psalms
to you.
All the great religions include the practice of pilgrimage
Certainly, the foundational story not just in the Christian
tradition, but also Judaism and Islam is the story of Abraham.
Abraham was called on a journey --- just like you and me.
Every human --- even though sometimes we are deaf to it ---
has been called to travel beyond what we know.
To be a pilgrim is to travel in search of God.
Have you ever gone some place that you just knew you
belonged?
The year was 1992
Nancy and I were given the
opportunity to go to Israel for the first time.
When you landed at Lod (Tel Aviv) the airplane didn't pull
up to a gate, instead they brought out stairs and you walked out onto the
tarmac.
As soon as my feet hit the ground --- I knew I was home.
I don't even
know how to explain the feeling I had
It
was like I was where I always belonged.
A little over a week later, when we boarded the plane to
come home --- all I could think about was how I could get back.
And since then I have returned almost every two years.
It has been 5
years ---- and I am itching to get back.
But when Nancy and I boarded the plane to go to Israel I was
going as a tourist.
I was anxious to see the sites that I had read about and
take in all the history.
When I left,
to go home, I understood that I was had become a pilgrim.
The difference is significant.
One of the things that the Psalms has done is help me to
understand why being a pilgrim is so important
Psalms 120 - 135 are all songs of pilgrimage.
In your bible
they are often given the label --- "Songs of Ascent"
The reason why they were called that is because pilgrims would
sing these songs as they literally made their way up to Jerusalem
Of all of these Psalms --- in my mind --- Psalm 122 is the
greatest of the songs of ascent
The Psalmist begins: (The Message)
When they said, “Let’s go to the
house of God,”
my heart leaped for joy.
And now we’re here, O Jerusalem,
inside Jerusalem’s walls!
my heart leaped for joy.
And now we’re here, O Jerusalem,
inside Jerusalem’s walls!
I said that when I went to Israel for the first time I went
as a tourist --- but left as a pilgrim --- what is the difference?
First, for tourists --- when they go on a trip (on a
journey) they are taking time off from their busy hectic life and will return
to the same busy, hectic life ---- hopefully --- refreshed but basically
unchanged.
But when you travel as a pilgrim --- what you are seeking is
an entirely new life --- a new way to look at the world --- a new beginning.
Not just more
of the same
Second, you build a different kind of relationship with
people when go through life as a tourist verses going through life as a
pilgrim.
When you are on a tour, the goal is to make the tour as
pleasant as possible.
In other words, you will engage your fellow tourists with
safe conversation, never allowing yourself to go too deep that might result in
making the trip unpleasant.
Unfortunately, that is how we often treat church.
We do our best
to avoid subjects that might be uncomfortable, or controversial
Immigration,
poverty, gun violence --- need I go on?
(I
pray we not stifle the young people of Parkland Fl)
But pilgrimage is different.
When we journey not for our own sake, but because we want to
be transformed, we are willing to wrestling the hard, difficult, and sometimes
uncomfortable subjects.
Third, one of the great things about being on a tour is
somebody else takes care of your luggage.
You pay to have them do that
for you.
When you are being a Christian as a tourist what the tourist
puts in the offering plate is a fee for a service.
the sermon
the beautiful
music
it is a brief vacation from the cares of life.
But a pilgrim sees things differently.
To be a pilgrim means that you joyfully consolidate your resources
with other pilgrims.
Sharing the responsibility and the
load.
Pilgrims offer their tithe (10% or more of their income) to
God not as a tip or a tax.
Not as a
response to great music or sermons.
They offer their gifts because they understand that all of
it already belongs to God.
Sure, the pilgrim is still the steward over the money ---
but what has changed is our understanding of it.
Our understanding of money expands
and not contracts.
If we give our money without participating in the ministries
that spend the money --- then we are only tourists, and not truly pilgrims.
Fourth, tourists want to have a clear understanding of
exactly where they are going and what they are getting. Pilgrims trust that God will lead them.
Let me try to explain
When I get ready to take a tour, I do a great deal of research and shopping before I go.
I want the most value for my dollar.
So I pick a tour company that will give me, what I think is
the best value.
I want to know, exactly what the itinerary is,
what we are going to see,
where we are going to stay.
And if something doesn't go just right --- I expect the tour
company to make it right.
I bet you are all the same way . . .
But when you are a pilgrim, you put your trust in God.
Remember the Abraham story?
In the book of Hebrews, the 11th chapter, the author talks
about having faith in things that we cannot see.
He uses the story of Abraham to illustrate his point and he
says in verse 8: (NRSV)
Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that
he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he
was going.
Please don't misunderstand me
I am not suggesting that when one is a pilgrim that they
don't care about where they are going.
That they should not create a
budget or a plan
I am not saying that at all.
What I am saying is that when you are a pilgrim --- you are
willing to adapt to whatever God throws at you.
A pilgrim plans for the journey, but a pilgrim is un-anxious
about the future
The reason a pilgrim can be un-anxious is that a pilgrim
knows that God will provide.
Remember how our understanding of our financial resources
changes as we become a pilgrim?
Well, one of the ways that God
provides is through the shared resources of the other pilgrims who are on the
journey with you.
Finally, Tourists are more interested in taking pictures of
the sights ---- Pilgrims are more interested in transformation.
For many Christians there are three primary photo ops in
their life
When they get
their child baptized
When they get
their child confirmed
When their
child gets married
And you could throw in the photo ops of Christmas and Easter
I know that is kind of uncomfortable for me to say . . .
Christian tourists can even go to church regularly, and
attend bible study --- but if they aren’t willing to become a disciple --- if
they aren't willing to be transformed --- they have missed the point of the
journey.
The point of the journey is to meet Jesus --- and to fall in
love with him.
During this season of lent, I invite you to become a
pilgrim.
I invite you
to seek God's face
To fall in love with Jesus, and to allow that love to change
you.
I love this Psalm
I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
“Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
I was excited because, the Psalmist says, I was excited that
I was invited to pilgrim to God.
But more than that --- this pilgrimage represents all that
is good about God.
A place of shalom
peace
justice
home
I long to go back to Jerusalem --- to set my feet there
again.
Not to see
the sights --- which the history geek in me enjoys . . .
But to allow
me to grow closer to Jesus