Five volunteers to “rub the lamp” making one wish
Text Psalm 27
Starting on August 10, just over two weeks from today, practicing Jews will recite this morning’s psalm twice a day for the entire month of Elul. Elul is the final month of the Hebrew calendar (like December is for us). It is a month of preparation, confession, a time to wake up, and to repent. In the church, it might be the equivalent of lent, the season when we are called to repent and turn from our sins as we prepare to celebrate Jesus death and resurrection. Elul is a time to evaluate where we have been and where we are going, particularly in our spiritual life and Psalm 27, in Jewish tradition, is used in that evaluation. This morning I invite you to look at this text through the lens of evaluating your spiritual journey and allow it to instruct you as you seek God. We will focus on three ideas from this passage: light, one, and face. Together this morning we will ask some difficult questions of ourselves using Psalm 27 as our guide.
The psalm writer begins with a simple and yet a profound statement of faith. The Lord is my light and my salvation. (light candle) 1 John 1:5 tells us that God is light; in him there is no darkness at all, and John 8:12 adds Jesus’ own clarification on the whole question of light saying “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.” But, what does all of that mean for us?
Imagine a candle being lit in a dark windowless room, it enables us to see things that are tucked in the corners, obstacles that are in our path, but it also allows us to see things like the dust that’s collected on the table, and garbage that’s been left on the floor. God, also, does that. God reveals reality. God shows us what’s been collecting in the room of our hearts. God, through Christ and the Spirit, opens up the eyes of the heart, bringing life into focus, and finally we see clearly, without distortion. It does not all happen in one amazing illumination; often it is a gradual process because we can’t handle knowing all the ugliness in our hearts all at once. So, God’s purpose as light is that we might see reality; that we might see ourselves truly. Light reveals, and so does God.
While I was in Michigan a few weeks ago, God shed some light on a few darkened spaces of my own heart. A long time ago, I noticed that I was not a very generous person, on most days I chalk it up to being frugal or cheap, but the sad truth is that I’m stingy, miserly, and self-centered. Now most of the time I kind of shrug off the truth of my cold heart, but while meeting with Christians from around the world, God brought this darkened corner of my heart fully into the light exposing all it’s ugliness. Three days into this meeting, I met Mfan a Nigerian sister, whose name means grace of God. Within moments of making introductions she was gave me this shirt. I must tell you, I didn’t know what to do, I had no gift that I could trade with her, I wanted to tell her to keep her shirt… but I swallowed my pride, said “thank you”, and had a good cry when I got back to my room. But God wasn’t through showing me the dark corners of my heart, several days later I met Freida, a Cameroonian pastor and one of the writers of this past year’s world day of prayer service. Freida is my mind’s picture of an African Queen, and she has a smile that lights up any room. Conversation with Frieda was a real challenge because her first language is French and she speaks only very broken English, I did however spend time just sitting with her especially during worship. On the final day of the meetings, Frieda found me after closing worship and said that she had something for me. She said she would like to give me the dress that she was wearing. Tears stung my eyes immediately. Frieda gave me one of her two dresses. By sharp contrast, my own ungenerous heart looked really appalling. God shone his revealing light using these two African sisters showing me how unlike him I really am. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Have you invited God to shine his light into the dark corners of your heart? What you find won’t be easy, it might be painful, it might be ugly, but He must show you because only then can he begin to clean up the mess, reshaping the space into a heart that is more like his.
You will remember that we began this morning with five volunteers “rubbing the lamp” and being granted one wish. Now, for the sake of time, I limited the wishes to one each but I wonder how many of us might be able to think of more. I have days where I wish for all kinds of things from cooler weather, to a bottomless bank account, from patience, or safety, to more family time with my nieces and nephews. Some of my wishes are noble and honourable, and maybe even godly, but David’s writing tells us he makes one request of the Lord. He says, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek …and does he continue with money, power, love, fame, strength or even wisdom? No! David asks to dwell in the house of the Lord for all the days of his life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. Of all the things David could asks for… he asks to hang out with God everyday. That’s it! He wants to have a consistent relationship with God. The surrounding text tells us that David knows the benefit of seeking God first; he knows that God will protect and sustain him; he knows that God will fill him with joy and confidence. But, David does not ask for the blessings of God, he asks for God himself. While we’re asking ourselves the hard questions this morning we need to ask ourselves if there are things that we are seeking rather than God? Jesus says seek first his kingdom, are you doing that or are you busy building your own? Are you pursuing God as the one thing that you desire, the only thing that you would ask for?
Okay, it’s confession time for me. Several weeks ago I was celebrating the fact that God was doing something new in Ken’s life…rejoicing that God was challenging Ken to seek after God’s heart with renewed passion and undivided commitment, but, and here’s the horrifying truth, my celebration has turned into a sad kind of jealousy. It’s kind of like being in a long distance race when you are being left behind in the dust while the runner up ahead races off into the distance. Have you ever felt like quitting the race when you compared yourself to the people who run ahead of you? I’ve felt like the child who consumed with self-pity sits down on the sidelines of the racetrack and quits running. Maybe you too know that feeling, resigning yourself to sitting on the sidelines while other people pursue God. Maybe you explain the longing in your own heart away by telling yourself that you are too busy, that you don’t have the energy, that pursuing God is something that is best left to the professionals, the pastors, the leaders, or the religious fanatic. Maybe you’ve suppressed the longing for such a long time that you no longer recognize that gnawing feeling, and that voice calling to you has been reduced to a mere whisper. Maybe you are trying to fill that void with stuff, relationships, addictions, but deep down you know that although those things offer temporary relief, they are a poor substitute for the real thing. I can tell you that all of those “maybes” have applied to me at various times in my life, but as of right now I am tired of sitting on the sidelines, I’m tired of comparing myself to others, I’m tired of my excuses and my self-pity. With David I cry out “One thing I have asked of the Lord…. Does your heart cry out too?
The final idea I want to focus on this morning is found in verse 8. “My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek.” What does it mean to seek God’s face? What’s in a face? Look at your neighbour’s face for a moment. What do you see there? Are they happy, sad, mad, scared, bored, or indifferent? Do you see warmth and love in their eyes? Do they look annoyed? A face tells you a lot about a person, it can even tell you what they think about you. When you are seeking God’s face, you are seeking both his mind and his heart. What could be more important that? The problem for most people is that they are content to seek the hands of God, not his heart. Their prayers consist of please heal, please give, please fix… Do not misunderstand there is nothing wrong with laying your requests before God, but if all of your prayer life is a list of requests you may be seeking God’s hands and not his face. Close your eyes for a moment and just imagine that you are looking into the eyes of God. What do you see in his eyes? How does he feel about you? Silence. Does your heart tell you to seek God’s face? Perhaps if it doesn’t you might need to develop the hunger and single-minded pursuit that David demonstrates in this Psalm.
Now, if you are at all like me you may feel like you’re hitting your head against a brick wall as you continue to hear all this talk about needing to seek God. In spite of the fact that Ken’s shared with us a few ways that we can seek: confession, meditating on the word, and awareness of God’s creation, do you still find yourself wondering how to go about seeking God? Here’s the difficulty, we cannot answer that question for you. No two of us are the same, your journey and mine are different, and although we may share some similarities, your experiences have taught you some very personal things. Some of us love God best in the outdoors, celebrating that nature clearly proclaims: ”God is!” others of us seek God using our five senses in worship, pursuing God through art, and music. Some of our souls are fed through rituals, sacraments, and symbols; others of us seek God through simplicity and lengthy periods of private prayer. Some of us love and serve God through justice and standing against evil, while others of serve God by serving others. There are those of us who seek God through excitement and mystery in worship, those who focus on having the purest and deepest love for God through contemplation and those who seek God through study and doctrine. How do you seek God’s face? There is no formula for all of us seeking God, no simple steps to follow. That is a question that you must wrestle with, and your answer will be different from mine and probably different from your neighbours’. We can learn from one another and maybe even trying out new and different ways of seeking God together, but each of you have been uniquely designed to seek God and no one program, style or practice is going to work for all of us.
Gary Thomas writes in his book Sacred Pathways “We were made to love God. Think about that for a minute – we were made to love God. Like a gardener, we stand before an open plot of land. God will search heaven and earth to provide us with what we need to plant and maintain a beautiful garden of love, intimacy, and fellowship with him. Not a second of our existence passes without God thinking about how to turn our hearts toward him. Not a single second. The almost unbelievable joy is that you can enjoy a relationship with God that he will have with no one else. And God eagerly, passionately yearns for that relationship to begin. God is just as eager to love and know you as he was to know Moses, David, and Mary. You are no less precious to him than were these heroes of the faith. But each one of these saints – Moses, whom the Lord with speak with face to face; David, the man after God’s own heart: Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said while her sister was cooking dinner – each of these saints spent time cultivating and growing their relationship with God. Each one made knowing God and seeking his face their chief passion, the one pursuit of their heart.”
We’ll conclude this morning’s sermon by reading the psalm once more. While I read, allow yourself to ask the hard questions, like:
Am I allowing the light of God to shine into the dark corners of my heart or am I too busy trying convincing myself and others that I’ve got it all figured out?
Am I able to make the request of David, seeking only to dwell everyday with God or are my priorities mixed up?
And, am I truly seeking the face of God? How am I uniquely designed to seek him?
The reading will end with a traditional shofar blast, one of the unique sensory ways that the people have traditionally awakened their souls to the cleansing, healing power of God. I invite you to close your eyes and just listen.
