Before we get really started on the homily, and yes, I will be short since our focus today is on prayer, I need to encourage all of you gathered today to give yourselves a pat on the back. I was explaining to Funmi in the vesting room that today is Low Sunday in the parlance of liturgical churches. Great emphasis is placed on the Easter celebration, in our context, but then few people think it necessary to come to church and celebrate the Second Sunday of Easter. I always remind people that I assume we get extra gems for our crowns for coming on Low Sundays. We toss those crowns at the feet of Jesus at the end of the age, so don’t get too attached to the crowns nor the gems. We were prompted into the discussion, though, as many were running late. When I plugged in the receiver for the microphone, there were just two people in the pews.
Our psalm today is the fourteenth of fifteen psalms described as “Psalms of Ascent.” Psalms of Ascent are thought to have had two uses in the life and worship of Ancient Israel. For pilgrims, who were expected to attend Temple Worship at least once in a lifetime, but as often as possible, the psalms served as a way to pass the time as they climbed the holy mountain to Jerusalem. Think of people gathering and looking to group up to protect against bandits and wild animals. The whole group would be climbing the mountain expectantly, recognizing they were soon see the city and the Temple of Yahweh. The psalms would help pass the climb and heighten the anticipation.
The other use seems to be more clerically focused. The psalms were sung by the priests as the headed up to the Temple. Think of your favorite high Anglo-Catholic chant and the priests singing it as they went about the work of preparing for worship. Some argue that the psalms were even sung by the priest as they headed to work. I guess I do a chant of sort, much like Fr. Randy Dunnavant’s reputed morning chant—Give me coffee. Give me coffee. Lol
This psalm, of course, is short, but has a mighty purpose. The theme of the three verses is obvious. The psalmist is reminding all who pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and all those with liturgical responsibility, that those coming to the Temple for the worship of God are all family. Most would have understood themselves to be at least kissing cousins, to use the language of WV or East Tennessee. Leave it to our Alabaman in the choir to snort loudly. All would have counted Abraham as their ancestor, though there might have been some God-fearing Gentiles included in the pilgrimages.
What is not so evident in the English translations of the Hebrew, though, is the theological intent and description. Those singing the psalm in the original language would be unable to miss the tov. You have seen that word most often in your translations of Genesis. Each time God describes His handiwork in Creation, He calls it tov. Theologically speaking, as you are singing this song and ascending to the Temple, you are specifically reminded of Creation and of God’s intention that humanity live together in unity. Pretty deep for relatively short verse, eh? Like us, Israel understood that Creation was marred by human sin. Like us, they were called to realize that the divisions among people dishonored Yahweh. Way back in Genesis 12, God specifically calls Abraham and Sarah into relationship so that their descendants might be a nation of priests, drawing the Gentiles to Yahweh. To be fair, it takes them a while to figure it out, and not all their descendants understand God’s call on their lives; but we Christians know many who have forgotten Christ’s instructions and promise of empowerment to draw the world to Him today.
The second verse moves from Creation to the establishment of the right worship of God. For the poets among us, the psalmist does this by the use of simile. We all watched the Ten Commandments last week and we have reminded ourselves of the Exodus from time to time, so this verse should be easily understood. Why did God send Moses to Pharaoh in the beginning? Right! To bring His people to Sinai to worship Him. Pharaoh refuses, and the cosmic battle, if we can call it that, between Yahweh and Egypt begins. That battle ends with the deaths of all the firstborn of Egypt, the institution of the Passover Meal as a perpetual ordinance, and Israel’s freedom from bondage.
Israel asks God what it means to live in communion with Him. God’s answer is what we call the torah. Contained in that torah of right relationship with God is the proper worship of God. Famously, Aaron is anointed priest of God’s people. In fact, all the Levites are chosen to be priests, but Aaron will be their high priest. Moses famously anoints his brother, in obedience to God’s instruction, with the oil that runs over the beard and the collar of Aaron’s robe. For a nomadic people, enslaved for generations, and now placed in proper worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the imagery is glorious. At this point in their collective life, this is a festal experience! God, who first called Abram out of Chaldea and then Israel out of slavery, is now instructing His people about the proper worship of Him in song. Maybe best of all, God has instructed Moses to anoint his brother with oil that he, Aaron, may bless the people. No-one climbing that mountain would not know the image or the importance. Of all the people in His Creation, Yahweh had chosen them to lead the world to Him!
Of course, the psalmist is not finished. The psalmist draws our attention back to nature, specifically to Mt. Hermon. Most of us do not know the geography of Israel, but Mt. Hermon is located in the northern part of the country. Apparently, the mountain is about 9000 ft. high. Because of wind patterns, though, it receives a great amount of moisture for that arid climate. The winds blow off the Mediterranean, rise and cool as they hit the mountain, and release their moisture, often in the form of morning dew like we experience in the Appalachians or Rockies, and sometimes in rain. As a result, Hermon gets about 60 inches of precipitation each year, much of it as foggy dew like we see in TN. In such an arid climate, it is not too hard for us to imagine the impact of the water. The vegetation is green and abundant. Herds can be pastured there easily. Wild game is abundant.
But there is a problem for those of us who understand the geography of Israel. Mt. Zion is about 200 miles south of Mt. Hermon. How does one get the moisture of Hermon to Zion? Could it be that the psalmist has an idea that Zion will one day experience the abundance of moisture like Hermon? Sure. John reminds us in Revelation that streams of living water will flow from Zion when God recreates the world. But the focus of the psalmist seems less upon the moisture and more on the image it is meant to portray. Dew is one of those riches of the earth described in Genesis. Haggai ties dew to the provision of the heavens. Isaiah uses the image of dew to proclaim to those who read and hear his word that dew of God will come and cause the earth to give birth to her dead.
What’s going on? The psalmist is using the image of dew to remind God’s people, including us, that our gathering together, that we are drawn into one great relationship. Because we are God’s people, we are all part of God’s family! And our unity, our gathering to celebrate what God has done for us, is like the dew or Hermon and the dew of heaven. Our living as God calls us blesses the world around us, just as our living divided is like an arid wind that drys the life around us.
As always, the psalm is about Jesus. But we read it this day in the season of Easter. How are we united to God and to one another? Through the work and person of Jesus. How often does Jesus remind us that we are brothers and sisters in Him? How often does He command us to love our neighbors as ourselves? These statements that are popping into our heads are in red letters in our Bible, as I remind some folks who claim to be His disciples but ignore His instructions. Jesus instructs us to live our lives as a family united by and in Him, that we might be a blessing to the world and draw others into HIs saving embrace from the Cross. Put in the language of the psalmist today, our family gathering is dew for the arid world!
There are, as you all know well, a couple banners that hang in our parish hall reminding ourselves and telling those who visit we are a family. The claim, of course, is that we all recognize we are part of God’s family and, as a result, thankful, joyful, and purposeful. We don’t look alike. We don’t always think alike. We sure as heck don’t all vote alike. We even have a couple black sheep and crazy aunts and uncles. But we are united in the simple truth that He has redeemed each one of us and adopted us into His family. Like all families we put a bit of fun into dysfunction. We share potluck meals. We have game nights and talk trash to each other. We spend time getting to know one another. We might argue how best to spend our resources. We might argue over who gets elected to Vestry (in the old days, I know we look for warm bodies today lol). We might fuss about the color of new carpet or the wattage of the lights. But we do all that reminded day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out that He makes all this possible, that He calls each one of us for His purposes. And we do that all cognizant that He is every bit at work in the life of our neighbor as He is in our own.
The world calls it some humility. Some with church language may say it is missional attitude. The psalmist reminds us it is dew in an arid land. Our ability to love one another as a family, and our ability to work together to serve God in our lives, is a special kind of witness. You and I live in a dog eat dog world. We live in a divided world. In other words, we live in an arid world. These divisions and idols make it challenging for us to live as He calls us and to be taken seriously. But such is His call on all who claim Him Lord and all who pledge to pick up crosses and follow Him. We may differ how best to feed the food insecure; we may differ how best to handle immigration; we may have different ideas as how to address homelessness and countless other evils that marginalize others. But we are united by the Head of our Church and the Author of our salvation that such evils are meant to be addressed, that those suffering are meant to be served, that those on the margins are meant to be drawn into His saving embrace by us. The psalmist, like God, knows that such reaching out, such inviting, such fellowship or family, will bring forth abundant life in us and in these whom we serve. It will serve as dew on our own little hill here in Nashville, until He calls forth the streams of living water from Jerusalem and calls us all home.
In His Peace and Fellowship,
Brian+
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