“Focus on the Beauty”
“Focus on the Beauty”
Psalm 84 Ephesians 6:10-20 John 6:56-69
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, August 25, 2024
First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
Andy Kennaly, Pastor
How lovely the LORD’s dwelling place is. Psalm 84 begins with reference to the beauty of Jerusalem and the Temple where it was assumed God dwells. The Psalmist feels this is their true home, in the courts of God’s holiness. Like the Psalmist, religious pilgrims would reflect on this psalm as they made their journey, as they chose to focus on the beauty of God’s presence.
In the same way we hear that phrase, Think Globally, Act Locally, a similar dynamic is at work. That local experience of devout worshippers in the Temple courts of the living God ripples out. Not only does it ripple across space, which means God’s presence can be experienced in other places, but it ripples through time, which means generations of people can reflect on their own true home in the presence of God wherever and whenever that may be.
This makes an exclusive localized Psalm accessible, and a specific reference becomes universal. The same is true for the second verse, which is packed with importance not only to those first worshippers, but for all ages, eras, and times.
In verse two, the Psalmist says three things that stand out for us, saying
My soul longs, indeed it faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
The first thing involves the soul, which longs, or yearns, and faints, all of which are words that take us to our limits, and then beyond as we give ourselves over to what those limits cannot grasp. Many people in our world don’t even realize they have a soul. But as Christian mystics share their contemplations through the ages, we’re reminded that our soul is that deepest part of us created in the image and likeness of God that has always been before creation took shape, and will always be held in God’s care. Soul, if I may paraphrase my understanding of mystical mentor, James Finley, soul is our God-given, Godly nature in our total nothingness without God.
Our God-given, Godly nature in our total nothingness without God. In church language, we could add some nuance: that we are created in and through Christ and Christ lives in and through us. This is why we are new creations in Christ, and we can awaken to the transformational realization that we are Christ’s body in the world.
Again, not everyone recognizes they have a soul, and not everyone is comfortable in identifying as the Body of Christ in the world. This is why, perhaps, in John’s gospel, as Jesus shares about the True Self verses the false self, the spirit that gives life verses the flesh, or ego, these words of spirit and life are a hard teaching, and
many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.
But his closest followers stay, they recognize the qualitative life Jesus shares. They trust and experience God’s holiness and unity in and through Jesus.
This also, like the Psalm, has local and global effects. The story talks about them, but it includes us, and everyone who throughout the ages seeks enlightenment, illumination, and spiritual renewal live as extensions of this biblical narrative. To live in and follow Christ, some would call it salvation, others redemption, some might use justification and the sanctification that goes along with that. But really, all words fall short, and even systematic theologies cannot contain the bottomless mystery, the indescribable, internal, inner transformation of a soul at home in God’s Presence.
Mystical encounters don’t need words. Spiritual fulfillment doesn’t need explained or parsed or exegeted, which is a fancy seminary word for studied or examined in detail through multiple techniques of critical analysis. Maybe this is why Jesus uses something ordinary, like bread and wine, because when we eat or drink something, that then becomes us. We don’t need to expound on the organic biology of digestion, we just know that what we eat and drink gives us energy and helps us live.
Jesus gives us life, life abundant, a fullness that comes from and leads to the inner depths of our soul. We do have a soul, that place inside where God meets us. Indeed, God has always dwelled there and waits with patience for us to notice. Like an old story of Moses at the burning bush, maybe something in life comes along that helps us to turn, pause, and inquire. This creates a listening pose and with our spiritual ears open, maybe we can hear that still, small voice, that deep Silence of God that speaks to us in ways that breaks the cycle of being stuck in our head, caught in first half of life dualistic thinking of either/or rather than both/and. Those soul-informed moments become pivot points that invite us toward second half of life spirituality that loosens its grip, practices release of that which we cling to, looks behind frameworks of externals for the inner truth they point to, and how we are invited to grow and give ourselves away to share these truths.
Like Richard Rohr mentions in a recent devotional, our culture is very good at creating elderly people but lacks in the capacity to form elders, mentors who become reliable guides that help shape others without the need for rigidity or defensiveness but through a deepness of spiritual wisdom that is mature and patient. The work of our soul is difficult, but trustworthy.
A second and third thing mentioned by the Psalmist in verse two have to do with the heart and the flesh.
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Heart reminds us that we are more than the limits of our concepts, our thoughts, our rational mind, or singular perspective. Reality is much more encompassing. To receive revelation from God’s larger reality involves opening our heart. This is intuitive, involves feeling, recognizes, honors, and feels emotion, and engages our spiritual imagination with trust of our own inner experience. When heart capacity is open and developed, joy resonates. If this capacity is shut down and diminishes, joy makes no sense because it is suppressed. Spiritual disciplines help us practice opening up, teach us to allow the flow of joy in God’s presence.
That other word, flesh. Remember, this is a Psalm that speaks to pilgrims on a journey. This involves full body participation, dynamic movement, and change. Our physical body, and our mental ego are absolutely necessary as we sing for joy to the living God as spiritual beings having a human experience. Christianity is based on incarnation, of spirit and matter merging to express God’s righteousness, God’s intent for creation as all things work together for good. Our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, Christ dwells in our hearts, and Christ lives as our life. On Earth as it is in heaven means spiritual truth has a physicality to it.
At one point my friend who was on hospice with cancer mentioned to me something that really stuck. He looked at his arms and rubbed his hands along the length of them, and he looked at his fingers as he shared about his body. He knew he was dying from cancer, but he said he could feel that,
Every cell in my body wants to live.
The miracle of the physical, that our bodies participate in life’s relentless expressions of creativity; even in the process of dying, this was held in a larger realization that life is more than it seems, more than it may appear, more than our specific circumstance or the realities of disease we face.
Even in the face of death, the cells in his body felt the joy of life, a joy that is deep enough and strong enough that we can fall into it. We don’t have to control it or purchase it or measure it. We don’t even have to feel it as an emotion. We may feel bereft of joy, like we’ve lost it. But joy has not lost us. God loves us even in our inability to feel eternal joy that is always there, but if it were up to our ability and the fleeting nature of our feelings, it wouldn’t be the same joy. Joy is a divine gift that nothing can take away, just as your soul is a divine gift, a unique expression of the living Christ. God dwells within you now because you dwell in God forever. You exist because God is.
In the Presence of God: this is our true home, a full body experience of mind, heart, flesh, and soul. May we continue to invite Wisdom to catch our attention, teach us lessons that we can share with the world, and open our spirit to Loving Presence so we may radiate that love in and through our lives. This does not mean that we will solve everyone’s problems or be a source of constant inspiration and provision. Even Jesus has many people turn away, but like Jesus who invites us to follow, it does mean that we are pilgrims on a journey, and with humility and sincerity, we open ourselves to the Living God so we may love, live, and learn the joy of faith. In this, God is glorified, now, and always. Amen.