Road Signs and Wonders – Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Psalm 85)
Good morning, it is good to be back with you all today. I am glad to be home after two weeks away that were filled with travel and busyness. This journey was traversed using planes, trains, and automobiles. I took the train to Illinois to visit family, rode in a car down to Memphis, TN for General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Then I took two plane rides to get from Memphis to Northern Michigan where I spent time at Camp Crystal, and finally, another car ride to get me back to Troy. The trip was tiring, just because of the length of it and all the activity, but it was also tiring because travel can be stressful. I was especially stressed because instead of driving my own car from place to place as I would normally do, much of the travel was out of my hands. I was relying on other people -on Amtrak, on United Airlines- to get me where I needed to go. I also am not a seasoned flyer, and I had never made a long trip by train before, so I was worried about all of that as well. Would I miss my departure time? Would I lose a bag? Would my flight be delayed? On those days I found myself obsessively checking my phone for the time and the status of my flights. When I was at the train station in Chicago, I was frequently checking the arrival and departure board hoping my train was running on time, and trying not to miss it if it was. Luckily, there were no hiccups in my travel itinerary. I got where I needed go, and arrived when I needed to be there. It was a successful journey, in that regard.
It was also a fairly typical journey in this day and age. Nowadays most of what we need for a trip is found on our phone. Our tickets, our travel itinerary, our maps, our clocks. These are the signs that guide us. People aren’t charting a course based on the position of the sun and the starts these days. Their map and their compass are in their pocket. Still, we usually don’t set out without knowing where to look to find the signifiers that point us in the right direction. As with any journey, our faith journey often has us on the look-out for signifiers that indicate we are going in the right direction, doing the right thing. If we do find ourselves driving someplace without our GPS, we look for certain road signs or landmarks to let us know where we are and how we are doing. We do this in our daily lives, as well. We look for signifiers.
Unfortunately, society will tell us that those signifiers have to do with our bank account or the kind of car we drive. The bigger the number, the more expensive the car, the better somebody must be doing. Also, as teachers and students return to school, we will begin to look at the signifiers of grades and test scores and behavior reports to let us know how our children are doing. All these things have different meanings to different people, but still, they are sign posts on our way. As we move through our life of faith, we similarly look for things to tell us how we are doing. What are some of those signs? Do we pay attention to how often someone comes to church to let us know about their life of faith? Perhaps the amount they tithe in offering? Maybe we should pay attention to how a person lives by their morals. Certainly, all of this plays a part but it does not give us the whole picture. There are other signifiers we could use to make things clearer. For one thing, if we feel lost amid all these questions, we could do that thing that is often suggested by someone on a road trip -though probably not the driver- we could just ask for directions. We often ask God for a sign to let us know if we are doing the right thing. I am reminded of the scene in The Muppet Movie, when Kermit and Fozzie are driving along and they come upon a literal fork in the road. This can by the nightmare scenario, a blatant sign that there is a decision to make, but no such sign telling us which way is the best way.
The psalms have long been a way in which people of faith have communicated with God. In these ancient songs many emotions are expressed toward God; there is lament, praise and worship, doubt and questioning. Psalm 85 comes from a time when the people of Israel were facing a lot of questions, looking for signs that their faith in God would lead them in the direction of salvation. It most likely comes to us from a post-exilic context, though that is not certain. Meaning it was either written during the Jewish people’s exile in Babylon, or after they had returned home to Israel. So, the psalm was written by someone who was anticipating Israel’s return from exile in Babylon and their return to their homeland, or by a people who had already returned home but were now facing new challenges in rebuilding.
The Israelites spent a long time in exile. They spent many hours in prayer asking God to return them to their homes. Many Psalms were dedicated to this desire, as well as to repentance for sins, calling God’s forgiveness upon the people. This Psalm carries these aspects of praise, prayer, and repentance on the occasion of their return home. They have finally returned home, but even then, there is a sort of fork in the road. The people must now decide how to live going forward.
Much like the people of Israel, many people find themselves today living in a world that feels like it has changed. There are questions about how to live going forward in this new reality. During my travels recently, I go the chance to chat with new people, and what these people wanted to talk about was how they could respond to the trouble in our world today. They were looking for a direction that would lead them away from the division and the hate and the violence and the disregard for human dignity that they saw all around them. Maybe you feel the same way. This is an example of people on a faith journey and seeing signs that tell them that we are headed in the absolute wrong direction. The persecution of people because of what country they were born in, even to the point of imprisonment without due process. Stripping away rights from marginalized communities. The stripping away of the social safety net. None of these are signs that point in a positive direction. Not to the people I talked to anyway. Many have spent hours in prayer with God, grappling with the reality of life during these trying times, asking why it is happening, how to best respond to it. People longed to return to something familiar, to a way of life they were accustomed to. Or to heal the wounds of division between them and friends or family who see these signs as good things. We can imagine that the Israelites living in exile had many questions of their own that were weighing on them, preoccupying their thoughts, as they tried to simultaneously live their lives in Babylon and plan for a return to Israel. We see this in these verses from Psalm 85, even as they anticipate a return to Jerusalem, they are still trying to petition God’s favor. Asking God to guide them home, and asking what it is they need to be doing to achieve this goal. I think this sums up how many of us are feeling these days. Trying to live our lives in Babylon, while we anticipate and pray for a return to the hoped for future.
It is this kind of worry and uncertainty however that makes the Psalms so important. The Psalms are a way of communicating with God, but they also provide a way for God to communicate with us. The psalms are recited and read and performed as a way of reminding us that God is not absent; God is ever present in our lives. As people of faith, we are always in the process of reorienting ourselves to God’s presence in our life. Psalm 85 is a celebration of this presence, but also a reminder and a warning about a life that finds easy satisfaction, or satisfaction without God. A satisfaction that is found in the conditions of human virtue or achievement, or by the standards of what the world finds valuable would be hollow. So, the people remind themselves that God is the one that has brought them this far. The Israelites would not have made it without God’s presence in their lives. Their freedom from Babylon, if it was built on the human values of wealth and power and autonomy, could quickly turn into aimlessness, or worse, selfishness. It could be corrupted if they became untethered from their relationship with God. Freedom in itself can be a sign that we are headed in the right direction, but we will not arrive at our destination unless or until that freedom is in step with God’s desire for the flourishing of God’s creation.
Luckily, Psalm 85 signals for us the ways in which we can stay connected to God’s presence in our lives. In verses 10-13, the psalm lists some very specific attributes of God, and what it looks like when the world honors God’s presence. There will be love and faithfulness. Righteousness and peace. All these things will come together, creating a beloved community. They will serve as messengers and road pavers making ready the way of the Lord. Preparing the earth for God. When we arrive will God be there with us? How will we know? Faithfulness and love, righteousness and peace, these are the giant forks in the road, when we see them, we will know we are getting there, we are on the right path. Or, as famous baseball player Yogi Berra was once reported to have said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” What does that mean, I don’t know, but I think it must be true if you come to find righteousness and peace, faithfulness and love.
Righteousness especially, is a signifier of the presence of God. The psalms speak often of righteousness. They speak often about righteousness as the way for people to become closer to God, to be in favor with God. In our time, we often think of those who live righteously as those who behave a certain way or abstain from other types of behaviors. People who do “the right thing.” However, as we can see in psalms, righteousness is not prescriptive behavior. It is not a set of rules to follow so that we are rewarded. It has nothing to do with reward or punishment, good behavior, or bad behavior. Instead, righteousness has everything to do with our relationship with God. Psalm 85 is telling us that to live righteously means to live in a way that acknowledges our fundamental dependance upon God for life and for a hopeful future.
Luckily, God’s faithfulness is not dependent on our human actions. It is not dependent on a righteousness that is all about right or correct behavior. God’s steadfast love is ever-present, omnipresent, so all that is left for us to do is to respond to it by living in relationship with God. And, to live in right relationship with God, we must also live in right relationship with one another. This is the relationship that was exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ, which continues always to make us aware of God’s presence in this life. For Christians, Christ is the ultimate sign that lets us know if we are on the right path. When you come to a fork in the road, take it and ask yourself which way best serves the other. Which way will lift up the oppressed? Which way honors my relationship with God? Which way brings peace? God promised us a world of righteousness, faithfulness, love, and peace, and called us to help form it.
So, when we sit down to try and solve the problems of the world, remember these traits. Because there will be times when we are told to go left, when we know for a fact that we can go right. However, if we are intentional in our relationship with God, and base it on the traits of righteousness, love, faithfulness, and peace- that will tell us where we need to go. All we must do is acknowledge and trust that deep within our soul, we know the way, because God has shown us the way.
Amen.