Psalm 1; James 3.13 - 4.3
The Bible is a big experiment …
From Genesis to Revelation …
Can human beings live a good and decent life?
The Psalmist writes:
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 …
The wicked, the sinner, the cynic …
An unholy trinity …
A threesome of misery and greed …
A trio of lost souls and sorrow …
Don’t go there, says the Psalmist …
There are other pathways to follow …
But, still, the question:
Can human beings live a good and decent life?
We are creatures full of contradictions …
beset with fear and frustration …
We can be cruel.
Selfish … miserable.
But within each of us, there is faith, hope, and love …
decency, devotion, and wisdom …
we are generous and kind, wise and winsome …
we are merciful and loving …
we are profoundly intelligent …
we are inventive and resourceful …
we pay attention, and we help one another.
Can human beings live a good and decent life?
The strategy of faith is laid out …
First off: Don’t succumb to the trinity of darkness: the wicked, the sinner, the scoffers … with their false clues, absurd conclusions.
Rather: Take your delight in the law of the LORD … and on God’s law meditate, day and night …
Like a tree planted by a stream of water, in due time, fruit appears … leaves remain fresh and green …
In times past, travelers would scan the horizon, in search of trees … pioneers pushing westward searched for cottonwood trees - where the cottonwoods grow, there’s water.
Find the water, not the dust …
Look at the good, not the bad …
Be aware of the bad, but keep your eyes on the good.
Find a mantra … a word, a thought … say it throughout the day, and when you can’t sleep … Jesus my LORD … all will be well … I am loved … God at work in all things for my good …
We’re talented with meditation - with consummate skill, we meditate on our fears and frustrations … we lay in bed at night and imagine the darkest kinds of outcomes … years ago, I had a bit of a health issue, and before I found out it was nothing, I laid in bed and had myself sick, dead, and buried … I lost control of my mind.
We’re talented with meditation: we remember and replay a insult, a harsh word, a terrible moment … our mind rummages around the in the past, digging it up again and again … our mind conjures up futures that are likely never, ever, to occur.
We’re talented with mediation; easy with the negative … so we work to settle ourselves on God’s love … to be patient, to stay steady … to believe, again and again, in the promises of
God: I will never leave you or forsake you.
Do this, says the Psalmist, and be happy!
Happy??? - in the deep places of the soul … not the passing happiness, or giddiness, of a new car, or a new job, but the happiness of knowing the heart of God … the soul within … not the opinion of others, nor the possession of things … there is nothing “out there” than can make us happy … it’s only within our selves … day-by-day.
God’s Law! says the Psalmist. The Law of life, the law of love, the law of freedom and goodness …
The Ten Commandments …
How do the Commandments begin? (trick question …)
The Ten Commandments begin with a Declaration of Deliverance:
I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery …
Only then, is a commandment given: you shall have no other gods before me.
Or, as I put it:
Don’t waste your time with other “gods” …
don’t spend your spiritual capital on foolish ideas and silly pursuits …
Center yourself in the One who liberates,
the One who sets the people free …
Spend yourself here, devote your soul,
build your life, on the Eternal God of Freedom, and make something of yourself.
This is how I read the Bible … seek the light, find the love …
Others read the Bible differently …
People read their Bibles and move into the land of hate …
A copy of the Ten Commandments on the wall of a schoolroom is not the best way to honor God’s law.
What does the Bible say?
Write it on the heart …
Psalm 40.8 - I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart …
Jeremiah 31.33 - I will put my law within them, says God, and I will write it on their hearts …
Which commandment is the greatest? someone asks Jesus.
Jesus answers:
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.
And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
The Apostle Paul writes:
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
I add my own translation:
I may preach the greatest sermons in the world, and know my Bible through and through, but if I do not have love, I am nothing.
I may have all the right answers, I may believe in Jesus with crystal clarity, but if I have trouble loving my neighbor, my belief system stinks.
I may build the most beautiful church in the world, with soaring steeple and great organ, but if I lack love, it means nothing.
I may accumulate wealth and power, and have the world at my command, but if I lack love, all of it is just so much dust and sorrow.
“What is love?”
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
I don’t know what love is like for you …
I hardly know myself sometimes, but this I know:
It’s good to be here this morning, and touch the hem of God’s garment … like the woman in search of healing …
It’s good to be here, with one another … to pray, weep for the sins of the world, ament our own sins … and sing the songs of Zion …
It’s good to consider the birds of the air … the lilies of the field … all creatures, great and small … it’s good to take a deep breath and listen …
It’s good to look upward and beyond - search the far horizon for the cottonwood trees, the streams of living water …
The LORD God Almighty … whispers to us in the darkest of times, and in the bright moments of joy - you are loved, you are loved, you are loved … all the time, and everywhere, morning, noon, and night … from the first breath of life, to the first breath of eternity, you are loved!
This - is the Law of God!
Mediate on this, day and night …
Amen and Amen!
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