Psalm 1:1-6; John 7:10-18, and 37-39
Tomorrow is a day of reverence, mourning, and celebration in our nation. It is Memorial Day. While I do not normally entertain national holidays in worship, I recently learned something about the origins of this holiday that I think bears repeating in light of our scriptures today. Before getting into that I want to lift up John 7:18. “Those who speak on their own seek their own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.” I want you to know that is my hope every Sunday. In fact, it goes to the heart of who we are and what motivates us as followers of Jesus every day. If we are wise, then we will ask ourselves constantly, “Who does this glorify?”
Now, back to Memorial Day. I’ve learned that there are multiple cities that claim to be the place that started the tradition of honoring fallen soldiers and that it dates back to the period just after the Civil War. One of the most publicly witnessed and documented of these was in Charleston, SC in 1865 when freed blacks worked for 2 weeks to properly bury the bodies of Union soldiers that died in a prison camp there. After that, newspapers and other sources record that there was a parade of 10,000 people led by 2,800 black children.
It’s unknown how far and wide this event was published, and there are various accounts throughout the South of traditions led mostly by women adorning graves of their loved ones. In 1866, four women adorning Confederate graves in Columbus, MS began to do the same for Union graves as well. I don’t know if these were relatives of theirs, but they certainly could have been. One thing we forget is that many combatants were related. We joke today with our college allegiances about divided households, but it was no joke for them.
The thing that gets me about all of this, coming from a town that reenacted the battle of Kennesaw Mountain every year of my childhood as a part of a public festival, is that both sides thought that they were honoring God. People on both sides asked themselves, “Does this honor God?” and came away with a resounding “Yes!” that resulted in the bloodiest conflict of our 244 year history as a nation.
In that history, there have been many more wars and conflicts that have cost the lives of many, and it is good and right that we honor their sacrifice. It is also good and right that we honor them by questioning the resolve to pursue military solutions and the purpose of conflict in general in light of God’s calling to restore life and liberty and meaning and purpose in those places where it has been lost.
Many scholars believe that is exactly what God had in mind by inspiring the writing and the placement of Psalm 1. I say it that way because there are two different takes on the writing and the placement of the Psalms.
Tradition tells us that David sat around with his lyre and wrote these Psalms, sometimes while on the run, sometimes while on the throne (or wherever a king sits to right psalms). While it is most likely true that David wrote the majority of them, or had them written for certain occasions, many scholars and historians have noted some interesting connections between the themes of the Book of Psalms and some of the experiences of the Judeans in exile in Babylon. Some even think that the Psalms were compiled (if not composed) about the same time that Josiah found the buried copies of the law after Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Judea.
Now, what does that matter? Actually, quite a bit. The Book of Psalms begins with this. “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers, but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.”
Don’t get confused by that last word, prosper. We hear prosper and we think lear jets and champaign. No, we have to dial it back to the trees first. The trees are planted by the water. Someone put them there. They were planted and transplanted like the Israelites. Maybe you can relate to that Feeling. Maybe you did not grow up in the best situation. Maybe you have not lived in a way that is close to God’s heart. Maybe you have, but we all make mistakes along the way.
Meditating on the law of God, which is an expression of God’s providence, can transplant you from the driest desert to the most verdant stream. Then you can produce, but who does a tree produce for? Sure, it creates new life through the seeds that drop with the fruit, but the fruit is there for others. That’s what it means to prosper. It means that you get to be a part of the providence of God that includes you and me and everyone you come into contact with!
That’s why Jesus called out (v38) during the Festival of Booths and said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”
Of course, the text interprets this in v39 to say that Jesus was talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit, because it had not yet come because he had not yet ascended. Last week, you may recall, I said that the Spirit of God had already been active in the world, and we can find evidence of this throughout the Old Testament. Rather than seeing this as a contradiction, our tradition teaches us that the reality of God as Creator, Redeemer, and Restorer of life has always been a part of the story.
The difference is that – after the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus – we became aware of the fact that God is moving in and through us all the time. We became aware that we are literally in-spired. The Spirit of the Living God is within us, encouraging every good thing that glorifies God. In our Reformed Tradition, we call that the indwelling Spirit of God.
That sounds great, but what about those times when it just doesn’t feel like that is true? How do we reconcile it when we see people who are obviously in it for themselves and yet they seem to be the ones who prosper instead of falling into ruin like in Psalm 1:5? What about those whose hearts are hardened? What about those times when we all feel so stretched that there is literally nothing that we believe that we can do that will have any impact on the conflicts of the world?
Well, the first thing I would say is to look to the example of Jesus. He was taunted as only a sibling can. “Hey, big man! I heard about those miracles. Why don’t you go make a show of it, if you can.” That was definitely a sibling taunt. No one can push your buttons like those you were raised with.
Jesus didn’t take the bait, but he still went out of faith. He went to the Temple to teach. That means that he went to talk with those men (no women allowed) who were set and ready to debate the scriptures and he simply explained it to them in light of God’s love. It would be interesting to know which scriptures they talked about, but when they questioned his sources he said, “Those who speak on their own seek their own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.” (John 7:18)
Then he did something that seemed kind of the opposite of that at the end of the festival – unless you know what normally happens at the end of the festival. The Festival of Booths is a celebration of the way God provided for God’s people as they wandered in the wilderness, and it ends with a reminder of how the people cried out and God told Moses to strike the rock with his staff – so that water would pour out!
It all comes back to the providence of God. Meditating on God’s providence in the past – through the law, through Jesus, through moments of joy and pain that float by like sticks in a river – is what keys us into God’s providence in the present. It inspires us to act in ways that glorify God and leaves us thirsty for more from the well that never runs dry!
Here’s how I see it. Recognizing that God is active and present in and through each of us inspires us to act, and our actions (if done to glorify God) lead us to reflect on what God is doing and how we can continue to be a part of it. The circle never ends – contemplation, inspiration, action – and that is why our hearts, our expressions of love and mercy, are fountainheads of life-giving water for others!
You see, we can let the scholars debate things like the placement of Psalms and when, and how the Holy Spirit became active in the world, but what matters to you and me is whether we are bound by conflict or bound by love. Are we doomed to keep fighting wars of the past or are we ready to claim the victory that Jesus won?
I look at the baby we baptized today, Maggie Blue Olivier Blanchard, and I know what binds us. We are bound by the love of God, expressed perfectly in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and demonstrated faithfully by God’s people as we seek to restore life and liberty and meaning and purpose wherever it has been lost!
We will make mistakes along the way, but we will do it faithfully; and all to the glory of God – now and always. Amen!
Comments