RVCC Pastor's Sermon

Sermon - January 18, 2009

“Presidential Psalm”

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

When life is at its most extreme – when we feel that nothing can touch the heights of our elation or reach the depths of our pain – when we crave an anchor, a foundation, something to believe in and trust – in those times when we reach for the Bible, more often than not we find our way to the Psalms.

When we are so filled with joy that we feel like dancing and our own words fail us because they get all mixed up with our laughter, all we can do is “Praise the Lord! Praise God in his temple! Praise God with trumpets, with harps and lyres, with drums, with flutes, with cymbals, with loud clashing cymbals. Everything that has breath, praise the Lord” – as the words of the 150th Psalm urge us.

And when we are pulled in a million different directions and fear that we can never hold it all together and all we want is a moment of comfort and a time of rest and renewal, we need to find a place to go where “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures and restores my soul” – as the familiar words of the 23rd Psalm remind us.

And when we feel so small and alone, and our responsibilities are so enormous, but we know that God is calling us even though we wonder if we are up to the task, the big task of building a world of peace, of feeding the hungry, and ministering to the poor, and it all seems so overwhelming and where will we find the strength and the wherewithal and we sometimes even wish that someone else was in charge, we can take solace and refuge in the incontrovertible fact that “You, O God, see me, whether I am working or resting; you know all my actions. You are around me on every side; you protect me with your power.”

That is part of Psalm 139, most of which we just listened to as our scripture reading this morning. This psalm is an ancient poem written by a nameless Israelite who thousands of years ago articulated this beautiful and timeless statement of faith in an all-knowing and all-powerful God. It is a poem that powerfully illustrates our unique relationship with this Holy One who calls us with mighty authority and sends us forth in love.

Psalm 139 is, I think, a most appropriate psalm to ponder on this weekend before our presidential inauguration, this day when in churches all over our nation, sermons will be preached with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.

However, whether we label ourselves as Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, my prayer is that we have set aside our political differences and will come to the events of this coming Tuesday committed to our support of President-elect Obama and his vision for change and a new direction for our nation. That does not mean we have to all agree – how boring that would be – but surely we are called to positive and constructive dialogue and not to negative and destructive criticism.

President Bush said in an interview this past week that when he entered the Oval Office for the first time after he was sworn in as President, he experienced not only awe but also a feeling of being utterly overwhelmed by the immense responsibility he had undertaken. Undoubtedly, as President Bush has predicted, President-elect Obama will feel the same way.

And when he does, perhaps he, in his own way, will recall the Psalms. I hope so, and I hope that if he were to reach out and pick up a Bible to thumb through that he would come across the 139th Psalm.

You see, this psalm that is both comforting and empowering focuses on the intimate knowledge God has of each one of us, we who are the beloved sons and daughters. In short, the Psalmist sings that God knows all that we are and is eternally present in this world.

A.J. Vanderhorst puts it this way, “In Psalm 139, we discover that a mysterious and powerful deity has been shadowing us for every hour of our waking lives and has, in fact, (been) involved in the creation of our DNA, the rhythms of our REM sleep, and the events of our supposedly secret getaways.

Vanderhorst goes on to say that “I find God's expertise on the subject of me to be terrifying. There's no question that it is inescapable, and, to a degree, unbearable. ..This infinitely involved (parent) represents a new kind of parenting: all power coupled with immense compassion. God doesn't need us, has no desire to control us, and certainly has nothing to gain from vicariously living through us. God has everything to give and nothing to gain.”

I hope that President-elect Obama recognizes that he – like all of us - is indeed made in the image of this God of such great compassion, so much so that God’s heart beats to the rhythm of his own - “You created every part of me; you put me together in my mother’s womb” - and that what he sees in the world is what this God sees in the world – tragic death in Gaza, growing fear and poverty near and far, a world groaning from energy overuse. “From far away you understand all my thoughts.” God knows us – and our world - like the back of our hand.

If I were President, I would want to remember that at the root of my being is God. I am one of God’s beloved, and because of who God is, when I was not sure what to do, I would be best to err on the side of justice and love. However, even though I am not the President, I too have been called to do God’s work and be an instrument of God’s compassion. God shadows me – and you - as well. I hope that President-elect Obama is also comforted by some of the words of the 139th Psalm because surely there will be times when he will be sitting in that Oval Office of his feeling very much alone – with the weight of much of the world on his shoulders. Maybe he will have heard of families in Maine without heat or someone else in the rural South without health insurance – with his personal hopes for change not becoming realities as soon as he wanted them to because the wheels of a democracy sometimes turn slowly.

At times like that, it might help him to know that he is not alone. After all, God’s Spirit is inescapable. "Where can I go from God's spirit," sings the Psalmist. "If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the outermost parts of the sea, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, the place of death, where there is no life, there is no light, nevertheless, your light is there. There is no place where you are not." If I were President, I would want to remember those words in all my struggles and moments of self-doubt, that God is there with me in the darkness – and, if I let the Holy One speak to me, will lead me into the light. I would want to remember that whatever stumbling blocks I encounter, God is with me in the midst of them.

However, even though I am not President, I too have been called to do God’s work and be an instrument of compassion. God works through me just as God works through our President-elect. I am not somehow off the hook – and neither are you.

And finally it might help Mr. Obama to remember that along with the comfort of Psalm 139 comes a very clear challenge. As David Renwick wrote, “we can not put God in a box.” We can not tuck God away when life is simpler not having God around.

One translation of our Psalm reads that God “hems” us in. “You are all around me on every side; you protect me with your power.” God is in front, beside, behind, in, around, and through us – not only comforting, but also nudging, prodding, never quite letting us forget that our task is to do holy work and sacred things.

As Francis Thompson wrote in his poem, “The Hound of Heaven:”

“I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him down the arches of the years;
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind;
and in the midst of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter,
Up vistaed hopes I sped and shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears
From those strong feet that followed, followed after.”

We cannot escape God – and the challenges God puts before us. God will not let us forget the hungry, the lonely, the ones who have lost jobs and homes, the ones who fight for us, the families of the ones who have died for us. And yet, in the midst of such challenges is an affirmation that we can – and ought to – launch out into bold, new adventures without fear since God has already gone on before us. “If I counted your thoughts, they would be more than the grains of sand, and when I come to the end -- I am still with you.”

If I were President, I would want to remember day in and day out that God pursues us and never lets us go. God never ceases to remind us of the responsibility that goes along with being made in the Holy Image and with proclaiming that we walk in the footsteps of Jesus. I would want to be reminded that in the end, it is God pursuing us – rather than the other way around.

However, even thought I am not President, I too have been called to do God’s work and be an instrument of compassion. I too can not escape God and the responsibilities God sets before us. God hems me – and you - in as well.

In the end, the message of Psalm 139 is a simple one, and it is this: Though the world may say, “It's who you know," the Psalmist says: "It's who knows you."

And because God knows us in such a close and intimate way, God loves us. God always has and always will. God can show us the way to peace and will protect us as we seek to do God’s will. God will walk beside us in all our struggles – because we have been called and so belong to God. Therefore, President-elect Obama, because we have called you as a nation to be our earthly leader and because you have been called, as we all have been called, to do God’s work, I share with you the blessing –a benediction of sorts – that Psalm 139 offers: May the all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-present God be with you: may God go before you to show you the way, behind you to protect you, beside you to befriend you, above you to watch over you, and within you to give you peace.”

Sermon - January 18, 2009

“Presidential Psalm”

By Rev. Nancy Foran Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18