Peace
Acts 2:14a, 22-32; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31
Every Sunday, for the past year or so, we have been reciting a Psalm from the Old Testament as part of our worship, together. I know. For some of us, this hasn’t been the most pleasant thing we’ve done in worship. It takes work. But, in fact, use of the Psalms is a practice that goes back to the Church of the apostles and has its roots in the worship that Jesus, himself, participated in as a Jew. What better model for contemporary worship could we have than that? Every week, as they gathered together for worship, the Jewish people would read selected lessons from the Hebrew scripture – first one reading from one of the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, or Deuteronomy), then one of the Psalms, which was always sung pretty much like a hymn. And then there would be one reading from one of the books of the Prophets. And then all of this would be followed by a sermon. Then after the sermon would come more prayers, including prayers of confession and assurances of God’s love and forgiveness, followed by an offering, and other concluding acts of worship.
In fact, the order of worship that was followed by the Jewish people in Jesus’ day formed the basis for the order that was used for worship in the first centuries of the early church, with the addition of readings from the New Testament. And the Lord’s Supper was incorporated into weekly Christian worship as a part of the offering. And so that is the basic order of worship that we United Methodists and many other Christians use today.
Now, as I mentioned, the Psalms have always been an important part of Judeo-Christian worship. For hundreds of years, they were the praise songs of the people of God. Sung in Hebrew, there were actually tunes that went along with the words that the people would sing as they worshiped in the synagogue and in the early church. And the words had meter and rhythm and rhyme. In fact, some of the Psalms were even written according to the order of the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, like Psalm 9, for instance.
Unfortunately, after a period of time, as other hymns were written and sung, the tunes to the Psalms were forgotten by the church, even though they were included in the bible. And, so, over the years, especially in the last hundred years, or so, as Christian people read their bibles, they forgot that the Psalms had been sung as a regular part of worship and eventually got left out of many worship services, altogether. And it is sad that today, many Christians are only familiar with a very few of the 150 Psalms that are in the bible. I mean, we all know the 23rd Psalm. And most of us are familiar with Psalm 100, or Psalm 118 or Psalm 150. But, how many of us are actually familiar with the words of the other Psalms? For these words are every bit as important to our understanding of the Christian faith as are the words of the books of Genesis and Exodus, or the words of the gospels, or the words of the Epistles, including the book of Revelation, which seems to be very popular among many so-called evangelical Christians, these days.
And, so I say that it is very important that we read the Psalms. And over the years the United Methodist Church has been encouraging the use of the Psalms in Sunday worship. That’s why we’ve been using our hymnal to read a Psalm, each week. And the use of the antiphonal responses that we sing with those Psalms is a reminder to us that the Psalms were written, indeed even inspired by God, to be sung. For, in singing, we approach the Lord differently than we do in simply reading or in hearing something read. When we sing, it is like crying out to the Lord and involves us more completely in body and soul as we approach and worship the Lord.
This morning, in our antiphonal response for Psalm 16, we sang: “Preserve me, O God, for in your I take refuge.” These words come from the first verse of the Psalm. Another way of saying it would be, “Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.”
Then, in verse 5, the Psalm says, “Lord, you have assigned me my portion and cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”
The question is, “How many of us can say these words with confidence?” Let’s hear those words, again, only perhaps a little more differently, only in words attributed to 20th century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: “Lord, I am at peace and I am happy with what you have given to me in my life. You give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Again, how many of us can say these words with confidence? After all, the world we live in teaches us from the very beginning to be dissatisfied. Children are taught very early on that what they have is never enough. We look at what our friends, relatives, and neighbors have or don’t have and judge ourselves, accordingly. Our little girls are taught that they’re never skinny enough. Our little boys are taught that if they’re not winners, they’re losers. Our children are convinced by Jessica Simpson and Proactiv Commercials that they can’t really have friends or be popular if they even have one little zit on their face; that they can’t make it through life without a cell phone and text messaging; that in order to be successful they have to be richer and dress nicer and have four wheelers and $500 dollar shoes and live on the “ritzy” side of town. Thousands upon thousands of books have been written that have the words “success” or “successful” in them. Whole churches have been created over the last forty or fifty years that preach the gospel of success, rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ. Feel-good, easy churches whose worship services are more like motivational seminars have grown in popularity at the expense of churches that have taught orthodox, deeper, more complete biblical theology. As a result, for the past forty years, or so, the Christian faith in endangered from wandering in a wilderness of what society thinks is popular. We are in danger of losing touch with the rich teachings of the apostolic church, trading them, instead, for marketing a church that seems exciting and more accomodating to the 21st century.
And, so, reading the Psalms on Sunday morning isn’t popular. Of course, they’re not popular! The Psalms aren’t popular because they’re deep and require meditation and repetition and study for us to more fully appreciate them. Of course, they’re not popular! They aren’t popular because they challenge the shallow laziness of our 21st century religion and the laziness that has led to it. The Psalms aren’t popular because they demand us to think and to learn and to go deeper.
As you go deeper into Psalm 16, you read the words in verses nine and eleven, words that are read in about every funeral service you go to, even though most folks don’t know where those words come from: “Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure. You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
But, again, the question is, “How many of us can say these words with confidence?” What does it take to have a glad heart, a soul that rejoices, a good night’s sleep, to have fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, especially in a world where we taught that we cannot be content?
This morning’s reading from 1st Peter 1 gives us a hint for the answer to this question. These words are also said at about every funeral service without most folks knowing where the words come from. Here the author of 1st Peter says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
In other words, having a glad heart, a soul that rejoices, getting a good night’s sleep, having fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, especially in a world where we are taught that we cannot be content, comes from a faith in Jesus Christ, from being reborn into a living hope through the resurrection of our Lord! That’s something that can never be taken away! It won’t ever fade away, because it’s something that is kept in heaven and which is protected by God, himself, for you. What better security is that?
A lot of people, these days, have lost or are losing their homes because of the mortgage crisis. And contrary to what you have heard, most of those persons who have lost their homes did not lose them because they were irresponsible. That is simply not true. And many people are losing their jobs. And, contrary to what we’re being told, it isn’t because they’re losers. And many folks have lost their pensions and their 401Ks. And people are worried about food prices, paying the bills, and what it costs to drive a car and go on vacation, or send a youngster to college. But, just because people have lost their homes or their jobs or are concerned about all these other things, doesn’t make them losers. Rather, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ we’re winners. And nothing can take that away. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Social Security may pass into oblivion, but the security that comes from faith in Jesus Christ is ours forever, protected by God, himself.
Jesus never promised that being a Christian wouldn’t hurt, sometimes; that it wouldn’t take effort on our part to be faithful. On the other hand, at the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus did say to his disciples, “Peace be with you!” Showing them the wounds in his hands and side, Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
One of the more clever advertising campaigns that has been on television, lately, is the one done by Staples, featuring a big red button that has the word “Easy” written on it. For no matter what comes along in your business – all you have to do is push the “Easy” button. You need ink for your Dell printer? Don’t worry! Just push the “Easy” button.
We’d all like everything to be that easy! We’d like our religion to be that easy. But even Jesus showed the wounds in his hands and side as he said, “Peace” to his disciples. What he didn’t show them was an “Easy” button. Instead, he showed them his wounds and he told them that this is how God had sent him and that this is how he was sending them into the world.
There’s no “Easy” button. But, there is the eternal security and the peace of Jesus Christ. Amen.