Psalm 131 A humble trusting hope in the LORD.

When you have small children going for a walk will inevitably turn into going for a carry. With toddlers there comes a time when all their energy has gone and you just have to pick them up and carry them the rest of the way.

When my kids were babies we’d have them in a back pack, and for the start of the journey they would wriggle and giggle, pulling hair and kicking there, then after a while they would be still and drift off to sleep. When they were toddlers I’d carry them on my hip or my shoulders. They would be happy to snuggle in and sometimes you’d be aware of a head coming to rest on your chest or your head as the exhaustion of a long walk and the rocking sensation of your own gate lulled them to sleep. Safe and secure in their parents embrace.  

Psalm 131 is a psalm of ascent and the pilgrims journey from distant homes to the temple that the psalm was part of the soundtrack for, was a family affair.  Little children being carried by their parents would have been a common sight. Children went with their parents. From Luke’s gospel, we know that was Jesus childhood experience, as like all Jews his family made an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for one of the festivals.

Psalm 131 has been described as one of the most beautiful of the Psalms not just because of its brevity but because it takes such an endearing and treasured picture of a child being carried by its parent to articulate succinctly a humble trust in God. An image that Jesus himself used in Matthew 18, when he put a little child in the middle of his disciples, arguing over who was the greatest, and told them “if they did not change and become like little children they would not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The Psalmist comes to a place of humility, realising that they are totally dependent on God.  “my heart is not proud, my eyes are not haughty, I do not concern myself with great matters, things too wonderful for me.” Critics of the Christian faith often take a childlike faith to mean simplistic and unthought out, and not standing up to the rigors of adult reflection and consideration and the realities of life. But the Psalm has the feel of not being an unthought out blind faith as a staring point, but a journey, the destination of a well thought out process.

Taken in isolation, this humility is not the unhealthy or smarmy “I am nothing” used by some to engender pity or excuse wrong behaviour.  Rather it is a coming to know ones limitations, the having a right understanding of one’s self that Paul talks of in Romans 12, that allows one to show the costly love of serving others. That allows one to take on the mind of Christ and view others needs as above ones own that Paul talks of in Philippians. That allows the psalmist to acknowledge their ‘spiritual poverty and need that Jesus in the beatitudes says is blessed by the kingdom of God.

AS part of the psalms of ascent, we see something of the process of coming to this place. The Psalms of ascent start in psalm 120 with a holy dissatisfaction with the way thing are; no longer willing to dwell amongst the tents of those who do not seek peace. Seeing God’s provision and protection on both the journey to Jerusalem and that journey as a metaphor for life. Knowing God’s rescue and help amidst the traps and snares of life, recognising that every blessing comes from God’s hand, family and land, provision and prosperity. God’s guidance and leading in the history of his people. As we saw last month in Psalm 130 through sorrow, pain and doubt and the deep dark pits of life ebbs and flow knowing God forgiveness and God’s unfailing love.

It’s a process that the psalmist says is like a child being weaned, it has been a process of wrestling and tears and upheaval. When we lived in Rotorua, we lived up sunset road and the city ended at the foot of the hills at the end of that road. On one side of the road was houses and on the other farm land. When the calves were being weaned we would be kept awake at night by the cries of both calves and their mothers in different paddocks pinning for each other. But after a few nights it was calm again as both became settled. It is not a simplistic faith but a simple faith and trust in the love and care of God, proven trustworthy amidst history and life.

The Psalm finishes by turning from an individual psalm to a communal one. The Psalmist turns from articulating his present place of contentment, forged in past experience, to encouraging the community of God to look forward and have hope in the LORD. Because of the psalmist hope and trust he calls us all to have hope and trust, for now and for a preferred future off into eternity. That hope is based on the LORD on God’s character and God’s action, here we see the psalm point forward to the coming of Christ, his death his resurrection his ascension into heaven and his ultimate return to make all things right. This is the hope that we have in the lord.

Bryan James Smith says “ The Solid facts about the future hope of Christians are a powerful motivation for constant faith and costly love in the present.” In his book the good and beautiful community he calls us a community built round a four part story of hope.

Firstly, death… which may not sound the most hopeful place to start, but our hope filled story is Christ’s story. In Christ’s death the past is dealt with, we are no longer prisoners of all we have done in the past, tied to the social structures of this world. We are no longer tied to all the false narrative of this world of where we find joy and fulfilment, but in Christ’s death they are defeated and we are forgiven. AS it says in Colossians 3:3 “you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God”. We have a new identity a new address.

We are people of the resurrection. God raised Christ to life again and we share that new life. Just as we died with Christ we have been raised to life again, we are a new creation, we are part of a new family, we have been filled with God’s abiding presence when the Spirit of God was poured out on all who believe. The power that raised Jesus to life again is at work in us.

Christ ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. Often people think of Jesus ascension as his heading off and leaving us back here to simply get on with it. The reality is that he is seat on the throne and his Kingdom his reign has begun. God’s Kingdom does not come seeping into this world into our realm like a military force with shock and awe, but rather as we live it out and sharing the hope we have in Christ, as Walter Brueggemann puts it

“ It is hidden in the weakness of neighbor love, in the foolishness of mercy, in the vulnerability of compassion, in the staggering alternatives of forgiveness and generosity which permit new life to emerge in situations of despair and brutality.”

Finally, in Christ’s return. The hope that Christ will right all wrongs and bring ultimate healing and justice. When the church has it’s eschatology right and its focused on Christ as the ultimate one, not on a calendar of possible events and weird theories of what will happen when, then it it as its most vibrant.

Not asleep but content in our fathers loving arms, waiting expectantly hope filled and living out the new and coming reality in the here and now, with childlike humble trust in our good and gracious Lord.  

Psalm 133 and the Spiritual Discipline of Community (Psalm 133, Hebrews 10:19-25)

Psalm 133 is a psalm of ascent.. It is a psalm that was used as pilgrims came to the temple in Jerusalem for worship, specifically for one of the big three festivals… Passover, Pentecost and tabernacles As such it is a journey psalm about travelling from afar and coming to worship.  A journey not just of distance but of preparing oneself to encounter God. A journey of spiritual growth and renewal.

 Psalm 133 is the second to last Psalm of ascent. It’s about arriving at the temple to worship. It’s a blessing on the pilgrims, who have come together as God’s People to worship.

Psalm 133 is a Psalm of relationship, community and unity. As the Pilgrims journeyed to the temple it is not just reconnecting to a place and growing in their relationship with God, it has been an identifying with God’s people. They belonging to one another, and in their unity God blesses them. 

I’ve been meditating on the psalms of ascent this year and using them as a basis for services I’ve taken at Edmund Hillary retirement village. There is a progression in each of them, where the pilgrim identifies his own experiences with that of all God’s people, it develops a sense of commonality: common discontent, common awareness of God’s help in times of trouble, God as the source of life and blessing, a common trust in and dependence on God. We can see spiritual disciplines and devotional life as solitary and individual, but the spiritual discipline of community is at the heart of the Christian faith…

 “The real meaning of life,” says Leonard Sweet, “is not a journey question or an arrival question. It’s a relationship question. Your journey and your destination are important, but neither is possible without an answer to this prior Question: who are you taking with you on the journey toward your destination?”

So come join me as we explore Psalm 133 and see what it has to say to us in our season of prayer.

The Psalm is a benediction on God’s people gathered for worship. It’s a proverb about family unity that has been turned into a blessing for all God’s people. The proverb is in verse 1 and the blessing is the last line in  verse 3 and in between are two examples that are used at metaphors to illustrate that blessing.

As well as being a Psalm of ascent it is acknowledged as being of David. In the time of King David the tribes of Israel were bought together, there is a sense of a national unity that enabled them to grow strong and become an empire. For Israel they looked back at that time as their golden age. But also from David’s reign when his own sons were divided we see the damage disunity and personal self-interest had on the whole kingdom.

Many modern translations translate the second line “When God’s people” which reflects the intent of the psalm, and is inclusive but hides its roots as a proverb about family life. The Hebrew is ‘when brothers’ live together in unity. In Israel’s agricultural background, sons would normally stay with their father and work the land they had together, even after they were married, land was distributed after the father had died.  So family dynamics were an important part of the prosperity of that family.  If it was good then they would be able to work together as a unit, if it was bad it could have disastrous consequences. In the book of Genesis we see this in the clash between Jacob and Esau. We see both the negative and positive it in the joseph narrative: Where jealousy and favouritism lead to Joseph being left in a dry well to die and as a compromise sold into slavery. Then with forgiveness and reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers God provides for the whole family in a time of dire famine.

That proverb for family life is then taken to apply to all God’s people together. It is not simply a family relationship but a covenant relationship. AS God’s people they belong to each other, and equally that unity and living together is the basis of blessing.

That is how we find ourselves as pilgrims standing in this Psalm. We are God’s people because through Jesus Christ we have been bought into a relationship with God.  We are Brothers and sisters in Christ. In our new Testament reading from Hebrews this morning, the author of Hebrews uses the image of coming to the temple to worship God to talk of through Christ, that we as brothers and sisters can gather into the very presence of God. Not simply stopping at the outer courts of the temple, or the holy place where only the priest could go, but having the confidence because of Christ’s priestly sacrifice, to come into the very presence of God, the holy of Holy’s beyond the veil, that was torn in two, as Christ died.

The pastor down at Mt wellington Community Church and I are often asked if we are brothers, we look alike… I think it has a lot to do with being men of a certain age with receding hairlines and gotees who wear glasees...  I’ve always find it hard to answer that question, and I’m so grateful for that most Kiwi of answers “yeah Nah!” or rather “Nah, Yeah!”  because nah we are not biologically connected but Yeah we are brothers in Christ, we have that covenant relationship in Christ. When we work together with other Christian leaders and our congregations work together, the community is blessed.

When we think of oil being poured out on clothes, we probably wonder how will we get the stain out right. But the picture here of Aaron being anointed for ministry, with a fragrant oil, frankincense. It was a symbol of being set aside for God service, to be the one who would mediate the people’s relationship with God. Lead them in worship, through sacrifices help them get their sins forgiven and proclaim them right with God.  It’s reformation Sunday today and its special today as it marks the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his ninety-five thesis to the door of the Wittenberg cathedral. The reformation reemphasised the fact that through grace and faith in Christ that we are put right with God. We are a priesthood of all believers. We are all called and set aside to serve God. The oil poured out is a foreshadowing God anointing us all with the Holy Spirit. We often emphasise the individual aspect of that relationship. But its a unity and community thing. The scriptures of the Old Testament is the story of God’s people and the scriptures of the New Testament are written to communities of faith, to communities working out what it meant for them to be followers of Jesus together.

The dew on Mt Hermon falling on Mt Zion, is a picture of God’s provision of plenty for his people. Zion was a mountain in a dry part of the country, barren and rocky, Hebron was well watered by dew and snow. God's blessing here is shown in the land spring forth with life that comes from a reliable water source. You may remember the imagery of Psalm 65 we looked at last month, where God’s blessing on Jerusalem was seen in the whole land being fertile and abounding with life. There is an ethical element here. The sense that that abundant life and plenty is for all God’s people, for all the people God loves and cares for. When God’s people dwell in unity, there is no poverty or want. Those who do not have do not miss out because they are blessed by those who have more than enough who share with them. Part of the spiritual practises of community for the Jewish people was alms giving. Giving money and a percentage of their crop for the sake of those who do not have. Community storehouses were set up. In Acts 2 the fledgling church in Jerusalem had a vibrant prayer life and worship life and teaching life, but they also gave hospitality to each other and didn’t hold onto what they had as their own but were willing to sell and give to those in need.  So it was said there were no needs. They were willing to look together at injustice and inequality, when the Judean Widows were getting more that those from a Hellenistic background. Prayer devotion and action go hand in hand.  

In that unity God bestows his blessing on his people. It is as we are together that God ministers to us and through us to each other. The picture is of Abundant life but eternal life as well. This passage looks forward to God’s blessing being fulfilled in Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection and the abundant and eternal life he brings. Life we share together here on earth and will share forever with Christ. In fact the whole of psalm 133 Jesus is the high priest who has offered the ultimate sacrifice in giving up his life for his people. Jesus is the source of the Holy Spirit poured out on all who believe. Jesus is the source of life giving water which changes the land from barren and lifeless to abundance that can be shared with all people. Jesus is the source of eternal life. 

I want to finish off this reflection in our season of prayer by tying it all down to some basic spiritual practises for our lives together.

Firstly, the psalm of ascent is in the context of coming together for public worship, it was used as pilgrims came to the temple for festivals and as people simply came to the temple for regular worship as well. Regular public worship is a spiritual disciple. It is part of the sacredness of time and using that time for worship and acknowledging God and Identifying with God’s people. We live in a world with real demands on time and it easy to put coming to church low on the priority list. Likewise we can see the festivals of Church calendar as times to get away rather than times to come together.  If we view attending worship as part a spiritual discipline it will mean some sacrifice. Like all disciplines it means setting priorities.

In his Book the Good and beautiful community James Bryan Smith talks of some simple steps to help make worship a  spiritual discipline. I was wondering if I should mention his first one as He says ‘come early’ like with any spiritual discipline it’s important to prepare yourself, like simply slowing your breathing before you pray or read scripture so you are relaxed. He says come expectant, that you will encounter God, “ Matthew 18:20 “when one or two are gathered in my name, Low I am with them” is usually used as a way of chasing away despondency when there is a poor turn out, but it is not it is the encouragement that when we gather together which includes for public worship Christ is present. In our reformed tradition, the flow of a worship service is that the focus is on the reading and preaching of the Word, what goes before it is designed to make us ready to hear the word and what we do after that is how we respond to the word of God. There is the expectation that we will meet God and he will speak to us through his word. Be expectant. Remember the focus on God… It’s easy to get distracted or to find ourselves struggling with style and form, but we need to remind ourselves the focus is on God. Lastly Come expecting to give… Now this is not in a prosperity we are after your money kind of thing OK… but rather as it says in our reading from Hebrews that we should encourage one another, we are to spur one another on towards love and good deeds. It’s easy to have a consumer mentality, we come for what’s in it for us… But God’s spirit dwells in each of you and you all have been called to witness to the hope you have in Christ and to minister to one another.

secondly, its about relationships, 'the church says Larry Crabb is a community of people on a journey to God. we need to develop a balanced set of relationships as a spiritual discipline for the journey and to enable us to arrive at our ultimate designation. Leonard Sweet, who I quoted at the start of this message maintains that for our Christian lives to grow and develop we need to cultivate a range of relationships in our lives. While he specifically mentions eleven, in his book eleven (and then adds a twelfth which is the Holy Spirit)... it is easy to break it down into people who are able to build into our lives and people who we invest into, and those who walk alongside us as friends and it’s a bit of both. Sweet says we need to find a mentor and encourager, but also people who we are open to being our editors and butt kickers as well, trusted prophets who speak the truth in love. We need to find a timothy or a protégée someone we can encourage and build up in the faith, a Zacchaeus, that outside who needs our love and our care. A close friend   who is with us all the way. In New Zealand society, men find it hardest to form that kind of bond. We used to having a mate, someone we work or hang out with, but really when you see the depth of care and concern that the likes of David and Jonathan had in the scriptures we kind of don’t really cultivate that sort of closeness. It is a dangerous romantic myth that we can have all our relational needs meet in a marriage. Spiritual discipline cultivating this range of relationships because there is a balance of people who fill our tank,… fuel our lives… that give to us and encourage and inspire us and those who drain our tank, that we give to, and inspire and encourage or carry and hold.

A healthy system is where there is a balance of these two things. Very often these relationships can’t be built up in a large group and one of the ways that Churches help in developing these is through forming small groups or cells. It is one of the goals in our five-year strategic plan is to develops small groups here at St Peters. Ralph neighbours says that for a church to really soar in the spirit it needs to develop two wings,  a big gatherings wing, like public worship and feeling part of something bigger than ourselves and a small groups wing, where people can develop the depth of relationships they need for real spiritual growth.   

Developing that balance of healthy and heal giving relationships is a matter of developing other spiritual disciplines: hospitality, opening your homes and your lives. Listening, showing kindness, forgiveness, caring, making time. In the end they are a source of God’s blessing for you, they can minister to you and enable us as a church to be a blessing as we practise the spiritual discipline of community.

For All the People... A Prayer of Thanksgiving and Confession

On sunday I am Preaching on Psalm 133 and the focus for the prayer of thanksgiving and confession is the relationships God has called us to live out our faith in: Our family and friends who walk along the road with us. The people who have spoken into our lives and God has used to bring us to faith and help us to grow to maturity in Christ. Those who Christ has called us to serve and show his to... and of course as this sunday is reformation sunday and we celebrate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing the ninety five theses to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral those who have reaffirmed salvation by grace alone and the authority of scripture.

As Always feel free to use any part of this prayer you may find useful... all of it if you like or none of it if you don't. 

Loving God

This morning we gather to give you praise and thanks

We especially want to praise you for the people around us

People who make life special and good

Who have spoken into our lives and bought us near

Those who we love and walk alongside us in you

And people you have called us to serve and care for

Righteous God

Thank you that we know what love is because you first loved us

You sent your son to die so our sins maybe forgiven

In his resurrection we know new life

As he ascended to heaven we know his kingdoms rule

In the small acts of love we see around us that rule makes itself known

We have hope it will all be put right when Christ returns

Gracious God

We thank you for those who have gone before us

Those who for two thousand years have witnesses to the gospel truth

Who in the face of persecution and trouble have spoken your truth

This morning in particular men and women of the reformation

Who reaffirmed salvation by grace through faith alone

Who Emphasised your word and reformed your church

Holy God who leads and guides

We thank you for the mentors and role models in our lives

Those who you have used to speak into our lives and inspire us

Who have used their talents and gifts to minister to us

Taught us, loved us, shown us and prayed for us

Those in the past who are now at rest with you

Those around us today who you continue to use

Caring God

Thank you for the people you have allowed us to show your love to

The ones in need who we have been able to help

The ones looking who we have been able to help see

The least whom in simple acts of kindness we have met and served you

Those we find it hard to love, who you call us to persevere with

Just as you will not let us go

Father God

Thank you for our family and friends

Parents, great and grand parents

For children, and great and grand kids

Brothers and Sisters, all those other rellies

For wives and husbands, we hold dearest in our hearts

For friends who are always care, and mates who are just there

Righteous and just  God

While our lives are enriched with so many people

We confess that we do not always love as you have loved us

We do things that are wrong and hurtful and unjust

We leave good things undone, and injustice unchallenged

We ask that you forgive us and wipe the slate clean

We thank you are just and righteous that in Christ we are forgiven

God who is with us on the way

We ask for your continued presence with us through the Holy Spirit

May the Spirit pour Christ like love on all our relationships

Bring the words of Jesus to our minds and help us to obey them

Enable and empower us to share you love and good news

 Break down barriers that divide, unite us with your people everywhere

 So you O God may be glorified, Father, Son and Holy Spirit  

Psalm 139.... Knowing the God who knows us so well (Psalm 139)

Psalm 139 says Leslie C Allen, takes theology from the “realm of theory, and turns it into news we can use.” It turns all those attributes of God that speak of God’s transcendence in a way that make God seem “far away”, like eternal, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence (always, all knowing, all powerful and all present) and brings God close, as the Psalmist experiences the reality of God surrounding him. In a prayer for vindication in the face of false accusations, his faith and hope is not in a God who is simply omni this or that, but who sees, and knows, who is with, where ever we may go, and who is mindful of us, a God who seeks us out and who leads and guides.

 It is what makes Psalm 139 such a magnificent Prayer, one of the most beloved in the book. We usually forget about the last section as people are not quite sure about the emotional outburst against the wicked in verses 19-22.  It’s headed up ‘of David’ and if it was written by David like many of the Psalms we don’t know which part of his life it relates to.  In Ancient Near Eastern wisdom if bad things happened to you, it was thought to be a consequence of something you had done wrong which had angered a deity. This thinking underlines the Psalms motivation. In Job, Job’s friends come to him and call him to repent of what he has done wrong, and part of Job’s suffering is this anguish over maintaining his innocence. Not that he is morally perfect, he’s never done anything wrong, But he is, like the psalmist pretty sure he has not done anything that deserved this. Jesus dealt with the same thinking in   Luke 13 when he is asked about people killed by Romans in a horrific way and others who dies when a tower collapsed. His response is to call all people to turn to repent, we all need to know God’s forgiveness and grace, likewise in Psalm 139 the psalmist finishes by wanting to be totally transparent before God, so he can know the God who knows him so well.

Let’s have a look at the Psalm.  Traditionally its seen as being in four sections or stropes.

Verse 1-6 deals with God’s knowledge of all aspects of the psalmist’s life. As he comes to pray it is in the sure knowledge that God sees and knows. Increasingly we live in a surveillance society, we are observed by cameras and scanners and kept tabs on. One of the reasons given for it, is that it will make us safer, and one of the other reasons is that it will modify our behaviour, if we know we are being watched we will behave better, like speed cameras are supposed to make us keep the speed limit.  But it also becomes more invasive and we ask questions about who is in control. If I forget to turn off the GPS function on my phone, I receive messages from google maps asking me if I would like to review a restaurant I’m in or post photos of the beach or park I’m at to help other people.  It is also open to negative abuse. On the news this week you may have seen the warnings about CCTV cameras connected over the Internet being able to be hacked and the videos broadcast on websites all over the world.

For the psalmist God’s seeing and knowing is a source of comfort and hope. AS we saw last week when we looked at Psalm 113, God’s seeing is aligned with his compassion, God stoops down to see and he acts and lifts the lowly and poor. From beyond the cross and resurrection we see God’s knowing takes on a whole different level of love and grace, that in Christ the word became flesh and lived amongst us, experienced human existence. As it says in Isaiah 55 became a man of sorrow acquainted with grief, and carried the sin of many, hat we might be reconciled with God. For the Psalmist the truth is that God’s knowing is comforting because of what he knows of God’s character, that God is all loving as well. He can be trusted to lead and to guide. “ as sure as water will wet us and fire will burn, So an all knowing God, will perceive, understand, bless, guide and judge.”

The second six verses focus on the fact that the psalmist is confronted by God at every turn. It deals with God being ever present. The ever present Spirit of God. The psalmist sees it as if he goes to the highest heavens or into the lowest depth. Wings of Dawn to the far side of the sea are a poetic way of saying from the east to the west. The wings of dawn are the fan of rays as that often precedes the rise of the sun, for the people in Jerusalem it would have been over the hills of Moab to the distant, and to the west where it sets would have been the Mediterranean Sea.

For the person who wishes to run from God, like the prophet Jonah, this was a source of great fear, but for the Psalmist it is a matter of reassurance. It speaks of the sovereignty of God over all the heavens and the earth and because of God’s love and concern it means wherever God can lead and to guide. For us as followers of Christ, we have the promise of God’s Holy Spirit having been poured out on all those who believe and dwelling within us. God is within us and with us. Be it in the dawn and joy of new things or in the depth of depression when it all feels dark, God is with us. In the near and familiar and in the disorientation of the distant and unfamiliar. The Spirit of God is there to lead and guide, to comfort and enable.

The third section Speaks of God’s constant and comprehensive concern. Who knows us better than the author of the very process by which we become who we are. We can focus on the biological process of human development and reproduction, but the psalmist is aware that who he is and who he will become and his very being is not hidden from God in fact our individuality is a gift from God. Ethically the psalm provides a theological basis for the sanctity of life.

When the Psalmist   tries to comprehend how great are God’s thoughts about him, we find his only response is wonder. Wonder which is the starting point of both Philosophy, trying to comprehend and understand, and of our worship, the adoration of God. 

 Then the psalmist turns to respond to God’s presence and knowing. In verse 19-22 he expresses his disdain for those who do not keep God’s ways. Maybe for many of us caricature of the loud angry fundamentalist who defines himself by who he is against crops up here. It is hard to comprehend the switch from wonder to wrath, and justify the jump from worship to waging war. Here perhaps we hear the pain and sorrow and suffering the psalmist has endured as his name and reputation has been assassinated in public. The good thing is that God’s response to this is not to agree and to answer the psalmists wishes, rather we know God response is with grace, a giving of himself in Jesus Christ to allow us all to turn from going our own ways be reconciled with God. In the end the Psalmist also opens himself up to the scrutiny of God, with great courage he invites the God who knows him so well and from whom nothing is hidden to reveal any wicked way in him. Maybe that emotional outburst is the first thing on the table.

Well October is the season of prayer at St peter’s where we are reflecting on selected psalms to see how they can speak to us to help us grow in our devotional life. So I want to draw out a couple of things from this Psalm that relates to that.

Behind me is an illustration of the Jahari Window, it’s a tool to help us to develop and grow in our communication and personal development. You can see four quadrant there. The open quadrant, which is the us we are happy to show to the public, the things we know about ourselves that other do as well. Our strengths and the weaknesses and failing we are openly working through. The bottom left is the things we hide about ourselves, that we don’t want people to know, the top right is our blind spot, the things other people know about us, but we are impervious to, we don’t see, it may be positives and strengths and there are definitely some weaknesses and negate in there as well that if we were aware of we’d be able to work on, the final quadrant is the unknown section, its that part of us that we and everyone does not know. In relationships work, community and life, it’s often the stuff in the hidden, blind and unknown that trip us up and stop us developing in our life and our faith. The psalm invites God in this process of self-development and spiritual growth. God knows all of us, what we hide or are blind to or totally unaware of and is able to bring these things out into his light and .  Prayer has as one of its functions the practise of utter honesty, seeking self-revelation and complete humility. The Psalmist is asking God to show the hidden the blind and the unknown to him that he grow into maturity.

In the 1920’s and 30’s there was a big revival in East Africa, and many people came into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, in places like Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya. Its effects were felt right up into the 1970’s and beyond with strong local churches. One of the things that people involved in the revival talked about was living in a house without walls or a roof. Being totally open and transparent to God and to each other. So that things were not hidden and if they were wrong attitudes or actions to take root and grow or fester. This is the attitude that the Psalmist takes as well. To be God’s change agent in the world we must open ourselves up to the God who knows us so well to change us.

Part of that knowing ourselves is knowing how we are wired to connect with God. God’s knowing of us, and his making us individuals means that God speaks to each of us in different ways. That we are wired to know and experience God’s presence in ways that are specific to us. While there are spiritual practises that are universal, like scripture reading and prayer, there are different ways that we feel close to God, knowing those ways and developing them can strengthen that knowing God. They are like natural gateways for each one of us. In education they talk of seven different kinds of smart… some people are academically smart, which is valued in our school system, others are musically smart, or practically smart, they know how to fix things, others are relationally smart, they know about interpersonal stuff, emotionally smart. Gary Chapman has written a very useful series of books called the five languages of Love that speak of how we are wired to give and receive love… when we know those things it helps our relationships to grow in depth.

 Well there are also what are called devotional pathways. That is ways we are wired to connect with God. It may not be exhaustive but people have identified seven different devotional pathways. A relational pathway. That you find it easiest to connect with God when you are with other people, and being told to do private bible study or prayer doesn’t do it for you, you want to be part of a small group and discuss and interact. The intellectual Pathway, that you need to Engage with your mind, you don’t want emotional fuelled spiritual experiences. For you reading a solid theological book just draws you closer to God. The Serving pathway, when you are helping people or caring for people then you fell closest to God. A contemplative pathway, it’s when you are alone and you flourish in private prayer and solitude and silence. The Activist pathway, you feel closest to God when you have a cause to champion an injustice to right, I wonder if the Psalmist wasn’t an activist and that loathing of injustice was behind that outburst. The creation pathway, its when you are out in the middle of what God has made is when you feel closest to God, and can pray. The Worship pathway, you just love singing and music, that’s one of the way’s I’m wired and I have to balance that by knowing many others are not. I went on a week long silent retreat and about half way through I had to go and find some worship music to play and sing along to, to feed my soul. By understanding which are the one or two ways you are wired and making time for that it will help you to grow to know the God who knows you so well. (material gleaned from Viv Coleman's Devotional pathways) 

This Psalm gives us confidence and motivation to pray and develop our relationship with God. Motivation that is based in the very nature of who God is. Both the transcendence of God, all the omni stuff but the reality that God is loving and a personal God, that God is immanent and with us. Personal God does not mean that God is at our beck and call, like a personal shopper, rather that God is knowable. God is with us and knows us and is concerned for us so there is the great privilege to know the God who knows us so well.  The God who knit us together and made us, who cared so much that he gave his only Son that we might be forgiven and have new life in him, the God who sent his Holy Spirit to dwell within us.  We have confidence to cast all our cares on him for he cares for us.

Being Known and knowing God: A Prayer of Thanksgiving and Confession based on Psalm 139

I'm trying to get back to the discipline of writing a prayer for public worship each week again. For the last while I've found myself being more spontaneous in my prayers, that's cool and great, but I'm aware that it is easy to fall into saying the same old thing over and over again. This week I am preaching on Psalm 139 as part a series of reflections on Prayer and prayer practises. So here is my humble written prayer based on a reflection on Psalm 139... and also on Leslie C Allens comment on the psalm that "God is not omni this and that" like we might see in a theological text book, but Psalm 139 brings it down to a real God who is really with and for the one praying the psalm... a very real existential reality. we are known, God is with us, he has shown that in sending Jesus Christ and it is real through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit... I may have got a bit flowery (as per usual) but it is simply put online if people find it helpful... so please feel free to use any line or phrase or the whole thing or none of it... 

Eternal almighty God,

It is beyond us to comprehend and to understand,

We are finite and small, rooted in time and space

You are infinite, without beginning and end,

Always being, knowing all and ever present  

We are limited by our language and craft to describe

You are the alpha and omega, wisdom and word itself

Life’s author, sustainer and ultimate fulfilment

It is with wonder that we come to worship you.

Gracious and righteous  God,

You are omniscience, omnipotence and Omnipresent

All knowing, all powerful and ever present

These words feel like we consigned You to theory and the ethereal,

But you are all loving, enfolding us in your everlasting arms

You know us intimately, thoroughly and totally, nothing is hidden

You are with us, on the great heights and the dark depths

From before birth to last breath, you see and know and care

We are amazed that you would think of us with such love.

God who became one of us

This is the most wonderous thing of all, totally mindblowing

That You humbled yourself and in Jesus stepped into our world

You became one of us and dwelt in our midst

Experienced our joy and sorrow our highs and lows

Proclaimed good news, bought healing and forgiveness

Welcomed back all who wandered to know God’s love

Then gave your life for our lives, so we could be set free

Thank you God for your son Jesus Christ.

Crucified and risen saviour,

We praise God you were raised to life again,

Because in that death and resurrection we have new life,

Life to be lived in knowing the one who knows us so well

Life where all we had done wrong has been put right with you

Life where by the Holy Spirit’s presence we are being put right

being made whole, called to witnesses to your compassion in Christ

Life that because it comes from you is eternally lived with you

We humbly acknowledge all you have done for us

Real and honest God,

We know that you see us, we know you know us

We cannot hide from you, so we open ourselves up to you

Search us and reveal our ways and thoughts to us

Where we have sinned and done wrong ,O Lord we ask you to  forgive

Where we have left your good undone, we ask you would forgive

We thank you that because you are faithful and just that we are forgiven

Change us O God, turn us from our ways to seek and follow yours

Help us to live out the good news of your just and righteous love,  

Holy Spirit, promised comforter and guide,

We acknowledge through Christ you are present in our lives,

We pray you will fill us up with your presence

Lead and guide us, as we fall in step with you

Draw us closer and closer to Jesus each day  

Enable and empower us to share Jesus Christ

To call people to know him as they are known by God

To hear all his has spoken and put it into practise

That in small way we may bring glory to God, Father Son and Holy Spirit

Amen 

I don't feel alive till I've had my... Psalm 113 and the discipline of sacred time (Psalm 113, Acts 3:1-10)

There is an image of God in Psalm 11 as both seated on high and stooping down to see and lift up. It reminded me of pictures of the royal family on walk about stopping and getting down to talk with a child. It reminded me of all the photo opportunities that disasters afford world leaders to go and be seen as comforting their people. like the well posed pictures of a US president hugging grieving people in the wake of natural disaster. But there is more here in God going to see which gives us hope and confidence in a God who cares, who isn't just breezing in to see or hug one or two or even toss some paper towels out as a dramatic gesture, but who makes a real difference. 

Psalm 113 is a communal call to worship. In verses 1-3 it calls God’s people to come and praise the name of the Lord. Then the next six verses it give us reason to praise God and content for praising  God. In verse 4-6 we have the big picture stuff, because of God’s glory and his grace and then in verse 7-9 it zeroes into two specific cases of God’s grace.

The Psalm is the first of what is known as the Egyptian hallell. A series of Psalms that start and finish with “praise the Lord” alleluia… and go on to encourage people to do just that. They came to be used at the three main festivals in the Jewish calendar, Passover, Pentecost and tabernacles. Psalm 113 and 114 were used at the start of the Passover meal to call those gathered for the meal to give thanks to God. This would have been the psalm that Jesus and his disciples would have started the last supper together with. That’s enough about the Psalm lets now turn to look at the Psalm itself.

AS I said it’s a communal call to worship God, to alleluia. It calls God’s people to give him praise. In fact it used the word his servants, and looks to us corporately and individually to carry out this wonderful task of Giving God praise, of reverently coming into God’s presence and acknowledging his goodness and greatness and the good things he has done. It’s a duty but also an honour. In 1 Peter 2:9 Peter picks up this idea and applies it to us as followers of Jesus when he says that we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that we may declare the praises of him who bought us out of darkness into his wonderful light”.

This does not simply mean in prayer or in worship but also as we sang in the hymn before the sermon Ye servants of God your master proclaims, it is a telling forth of the good things God has done the good news of Jesus Christ. The apostles were called to be witnesses to Jesus Christ risen from the dead to go and tell people of that and teach them what it meant. We often think evangelism or witnessing is something you wouldn’t do to your worst enemy, but in the end it is simply letting people know about the goodness of who God is and what he has done in Jesus Christ. Likewise speaking God’s truth in the face of evil and injustice is letting people know about the goodness and grace of God.

The call for God’s servants to praise the name of the Lord, then steps into the realms of time and space. This is such an amazing and wonderful task that it will take up eternity ‘now and forevermore’, to know God and experience all his goodness and to then give its due attention and acknowledgement is a task that will take forever. It’s will fill our days from the rising of the sun to the going down”. But not in that this is being drawn out, when is it going to finish, is this going to take all day, I’ve got better things to do kind of way, but in a way that we are filled with awe and amazement as we see God’s faithful love being new every morning.

The Psalmist then goes on to give us reason to praise the Name of the Lord. In verse 4 we see it is because of God’s sovereignty and glory. Then in a rhetorical question the psalmist presents us with the view of God seated on high but also the God who humbly stoops down to look on both the heavens and the earth.  For little Israel who is concerned about the powerful nations around them, the rise of empires God as being the one on the throne is of great importance. No matter which world power seeks to move against them there is the acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty, God’s rule and reign. When we face difficult issues and overwhelming situations, there is hope and assurance in the fact that God is sovereign. To praise him and acknowledge his as such in those hard times is both an affirmation of hope and trust in God’s ability to act and move.

The picture here of God stooping down to look, shows God’s grace. It is a posture of humility to get up off the throne and to see what is happening. This isn’t a glimpse from a far off distance, a cursory exploration so the ruler can simply shake his head and go back to the life of luxury, it is an engagement. In quantum mechanics there is a principle that by simply observing something that it changes it. The example that is often used is in checking the pressure of a tyre, you will let some air out and that changes the pressure, very slightly on that level but at a quantum level, it is enough to change what you are looking at. Now I can’t get my head round quantum mechanics, I struggle enough with basic car mechanics, But when God looks and sees, it talks of God acting and moving. At the burning bush, Moses is told that God has heard the cry of his people and that God sees their oppression, and so God sends a messiah and God goes with. The Aaronic blessing is that God might look upon his people… the Lord Bless you and keep you… the Lord make his face to shine on you… the lord lift up his continence upon you and give you peace.”

We see that stooping to look, which show God’s grace even more in Jesus. Humbling himself, stooping down, as it says in Philippians, to become one us, even a servant, obedient unto death, death on a cross.’ Almighty God, stooping down to be one of us, enthroned on high, king of creation, with a crown of thorns, because God has seen the pain and suffering of our sinful and broken world and wants to bring the great reversal of the kingdom of God to that.

The Psalm then applies God’s glory and grace to two  cases. God stoops down to raise up and lift up the poor and the needy where they have been tossed to the side line of society. Th dusty beggar on the side of the road, the image of sitting in the ash heap echoes the lot of Job, as his whole world has come crashing down around him his wealth, his family his health all gone and there he is sitting in the ashes. But as this psalm says the one who stoops down is the one who lifts up as well. We have this great reversal, those who are bought low and marginalised will be lifted up and given the place of honour at the royal table.

The Psalm follows closely the wording of Hannah’s prayer at the beginning of Samuel as well, Hannah was a woman who was unable to have children and came to plead with God even to the point of trying to make a deal with God. She was Samuel’s mother…and the Psalmist turns to address the issue of a women unable to have children. He may have even had Hannah in mind. In our day it is a matter of great pain and sorrow for many women and couples as they wrestle with fertility, in the psalmist’s day when the status of women was in their ability to produce children and sons in particular to carry on their husband’s family name. Their status in society, the love and care of their husbands and their ability to look after themselves or be looked after in later life depended on it. Here God’s grace is shown in his care for a childless woman in allowing her to bear children. 

In both these instances Israel and later we can identify with God’s sovereign power and his grace.

We’ll at St peter’s October is the season of prayer and what does this Psalm have to say to us.

I want to just focus on two things. The first is that while the psalm focuses on praising the name of the Lord. It provides us with a picture of God that encourages us to bring our prayers for other and for ourselves to God. The Psalm calls us to praise God for his sovereignty and for his grace. We have confidence because we have a God who is both almighty but also who stoops down to see. We have a God who sees and hears and cares and moves and responds… not just a disinterest observer but whose seeing leads to his lifting up and placing on high those.  The Psalm talks of God’s universal sovereignty over all the nations, big enough to hear and see our prayers for the big things that happen round the world. But also the God who acts in the lives of the marginalised and those considered the least.

Part of praising God is that it speaks to our hearts and tells us the very nature of God. Yes it praises him but it also gives us confidence and assurance of who it is we are serving. We praise God for what God is like and what God has done and not only is that proclaiming it in the world who needs to hear it… It is also inspiration for us who know this God to become like him. We are his servants and friends and as we see more the goodness of God we want to put it into action in our own lives. The more we see the power of god the more we are willing to facedown the evil and injustice in this world.

The second thing is that this psalm speaks of the sacredness of Time. We are given the great honour of praising the name of the Lord, from the rising of the sun to it’s going down. We are invited to boldly approach the throne of grace and cast all our cares on him for he cares for us.  Now it is not practical to spend all our day in prayer, although we shouldn’t separate things into sacred and secular. Work is a way of praising God as we use our god given skills and abilities to provide for ourselves and our family, when we enjoy the world around us it is using it for what God intended it, and in a way giving praise to its creator, when we care and show love for others or serve we are expressing the very nature of who God is and his love for us. We do all things unto the Lord.

Historically it has meant that people will regulate their lives and time around setting aside time for prayer and worship and devotions. We are used to seeing this in Islam with its insistence on five times praying a day, and a month of Ramadan for fasting and praying. The Jews had set times during the day for prayer, we see that in our New testament reading where peter and john go to the temple to pray and the time of prayer. Monks and monastic orders, order their day and week and months and years round a rhythm and practise of prayers. The modern monastic movements build not so much on people living in the same place and keeping these hours of prayer but living close to each other and keeping the same rhythms and rituals of prayer and service and life, that bind them together as a community.  Of course you look in various hymns books and prayer books are set up for people to have morning and evening prayers.

When I was in youth group one of the questions that used to come up again and again was ‘have you had your daily quite time? Have you started the day in prayer and bible reading. This was the evangelical equivalent. In fact, it got pushed so much when I was growing up I called it evangelical guilt.

There was also a move against this rigidness of setting time aside for prayer, as Christians we can pray anytime and anywhere, we don’t need these set times, they stifle the spirit and spontaneity.  There is truth in that that we have this wonderful ability to spend time with God all the time, I love Juan carols Ortiz’s comment when he was asked about how did he find time to be alone with god and he replied, when you leave then I’ll be alone with God. However anytime can easily become I don’t have anytime to spare, and anywhere can become I can’t fit it anywhere in my busy calendar.

In our reading from Acts the amazing thing was that God showed up by his Holy Spirit and did a miracle in healing the man born lame at the regular hour of prayer. During establishing a routine and rhythm a spiritual habit of regular prayer we may be surprised how much God actually turns up, stoops down, sees and lifts up as we praise him and bring his world to him in prayer.

There used to be this old TV ad for bell tea that said “ I don’ feel alive till have had my cup of bell tea”, if you’re younger than me you might not remember it. And you may have added to the end of the sentence I don’t feel alive till I’ve had my…’ with a cup of coffee. But apart from being a declaration of chemical dependency, the challenge today is to find a routine and rhythm where you can come alive as you encounter and praise and pray to the God who loves us: Who is seated on High, but who stoops down to see and who lifts up on high.