Sermon

St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Durham, NC

8/6/06 - Proper 13

The Rev. The Rev Harriette H Sturges

Let us pray:

The Book of Psalms is usually referred to as the Prayer Book of the Bible.  As such it gives voice to the prayers of the psalmists and community through the ages. Our 150 psalms have been prayed for centuries by children, women, and men of the Jewish and Christian faith.  In our Episcopal Daily Lectionary, our daily pattern of readings, we read the entire psalter through every 7 weeks. In our daily and Sunday worship services the psalm is the one reading that the whole congregation participates in, not just responds to verbally as Ellen Davis points out in her book Wondrous Depth. She also states that the psalm coming before all scripture in the daily offices and before either the Epistle or Gospel at the Eucharist helps us engage in and thus opens up the rest of our scriptures for us. Therefore, we should conclude that the psalm for the day is essential and warrants close scrutiny before we even tackle the rest of the readings.

But most of us want to jump to the facts, just the facts as Joe Friday used to say. Although the psalms do contain lots of facts, they are presented in poetical form which claims more of our attention. The psalms especially do not move in linear fashion. But really what does. and I believe this is just what intrigues us.  We thrive on puzzles. I base this on the number of mystery books that are written and read, the fact that even crossword puzzles have their own movie now, Sudoku is an international pastime and so many of our vocations are based on puzzles.  Doctors in figuring out treatments for disease, researchers putting two and two together to make sense of random facts, comedians making us laugh, lawyers trying cases and working out the law, teachers trying new methods of teaching to reach all levels of students, architects making the most of space, economists deciding on what interest rates will  benefit the economy, detectives solving crimes, children figuring out what buttons to push next, generals strategizing plans for winning wars, and many of us ordinary citizens trying to figure out whom and what to believe with all the conflicting information we get. Puzzling out our lives is part of our DNA and poetry is many ways is easier to make sense of than most of our lives.

But all good poetry has many levels of meaning and each word is carefully chosen.  Thus we must pay attention and I always believe poetry should be read aloud to be heard as well as seen with our eyes.

Our psalm this morning is full of nouns, verbs, and adjectives that strive to give us a true image of God.  It begins with "The Lord is King!" A name and an image are given immediately.  I'm aware that many believe this image is obsolete and even offensive but mainly because human kings are often disappointing. This doesn't mean God is like them and moreover, we don't always have to take poetry literally. King is an image of power, of leadership, a symbol of the highest the psalmist can imagine.  Every verse adds something more about God or emphasizes a trait already named.  God is great, high above the peoples, God has a Name, is awesome, the Holy One, a lover of justice who establishes equity and demands righteousness and justice.  God answers and speaks; forgives and punishes. God is worthy of worship.

The adjectives and nouns are repeated not because the psalmist has run out of images or words but for emphasis. You can count the number of times the words Lord, great, Holy One, and King are used. In verse 4, for instance, lover of justice, establisher of equity, and executer of justice and righteousness are repetitive but spiral outwards to include all possibilities. This concept is elaborated again in verse 8.  What is the righteousness and justice of God but forgiveness although evil will not go unpunished. In verse 5 we are instructed to proclaim the greatness of the Lord and verse 9 echoes this almost word for word. Moses, Aaron, the brother of Moses, and Samuel, a prophet who are specific historical characters all found this to be true and thus offer exalted examples for us to trust and follow.

This psalm that can clarify, open up, focus the brilliant light of God and pierce the clouds of darkness surrounding the mystery of the transfigurations of Moses and Jesus and the puzzlements of our lives, this psalm reveals to us a truth about God and ourselves that we would often overlook as it may not be readily apparent.

Moses has been on a mountain top with God. The skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.  Jesus was transfigured on a mountain.  His whole being shining beyond all imagination and possibility while he was praying, talking with God. The author of Second Peter implies that we too can experience this light of dawning and of the morning star, an image of Jesus, rising in our hearts.

Aaron and all the Israelites were eye witnesses to this glory and the fact that God had spoken. Thus Moses became the intermediary between the people and God because it made the people tremble and the earth shake. The writer of Second Peter claims eyewitness status to this majesty as well which confirms the prophetic message as well as warns about its distortion.  Second Peter reveals God as powerful and present, honorable and glorious, majestic and beloved.  In both passages God, although the Holy One above all things, speaks to God's people.

In Exodus before our reading begins the mountain of Sinai Moses is on is covered with clouds and it is out of a cloud that God speaks to the disciples, Peter, James and John.  Like Aaron and the Israelites, they too are terrified. Moses and the psalmist have acknowledged the Lord is King and Peter has acknowledged that Jesus is the Christ of God, but more than confession is needed here.  It must become a part of them and of us. It is also as relevant today as it was then.

Our world is darkened by endless escalation of wars and the destruction that never seems to end.  So many suffer from war and the effects of war, physically, emotionally, mentally, economically, and spiritually.  Even those of us who are sheltered from the direct hit of bombs bursting not in air but into the buildings and bodies of human beings, we suffer from the fear, the terrorism, the poverty, the heat, which eat away at our economic, cultural, and political foundations like a disease taking over our lives.  We have to be reminded as well to be attentive to the power and presence of God and the light shining in the dark places until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts.

So as our collect puts it: may we be delivered from the disquietude of this world and behold the King in his beauty. It is usually this disquietude that clouds the vision of this truth and beauty.  However, if we look for the vision and listen to the voice speaking out of this cloud, this disquietude will be seen for what it is and our sight will be clarified.  This truth will give us hope and the peace that passes all understanding.

Proclaim the greatness of the Lord, our God and worship Him upon His holy hill; for the Lord our God is the Holy One. In this light we see light.

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