A Message of Hope!

Psalm 27 is one of my favorites.  I invite you to read it, and see if you  understand why I might like it so much.  And see if you can identify with the Psalmist.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 

2 When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh— my adversaries and foes— they shall stumble and fall. 

3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident. 

4 One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. 

5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock.

6 Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord. 

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me! 

8 "Come," my heart says, "seek his face!" Your face, Lord, do I seek. 

9 Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation! 

10 If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up. 

11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. 

12 Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they are breathing out violence. 

13 I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. 

14 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!(Ps. 27)

Did you hear the vacillation between trust and doubt?

It is so very human to me!  Because we all, or mostly all, wonder from time to time where God is in all the crap of life that invades our peace of mind. That interrupts our ability to be free to believe in God's amazing grace.  

The Psalmist, as faithful as he must have been, is perfect for allowing us permission to have fear and doubts, as will as faith and trust. I'll say we are given a profound truth here.  The truth that fear and doubt exists, in the most faithful of souls, along side of a confident display of trust in God.

In the presence of obvious enemies, evil activity, dishonesty, and whatever else is bothering him; the Psalmist chose not to be afraid.

Faced with the limits of human control, he places his energy into trust and faith in God's unlimited ability.  Calling upon God to keep him safe and strong.

He begins with the hope of God's promise of presence, by naming it: His, light and salvation.  The stronghold of his life.  Well stated faith!  

Then he asks the question of questions: "...Of whom shall I be afraid?"

A radical display of trust in the face of what life hands every single one of us!

I make this point this morning  because so often I hear people chiding themselves for doubting and/or being afraid.  They assume a weakness of  faith upon themselves; because of these two very human qualities.  

When the truth is, doubt and fear have always been apart  of any faith journey. 

I remember so clearly the first time I heard the permission to have doubts and fears.  I was in class at Carthage College.  Duddly Riggle, the Department Head for Religious Studies, made this statement in class one morning:  "Out of honest doubt comes the strongest faith!"

That simple little piece of information was freedom for me!

You see,  I had grown up being told, at Sunday School, that I should "never question God."  And that when you doubt God it meant that my faith was not good enough. 

"Balderdash!" As my freshman English Professor would often say.   Usually she would say that to shut us up after saying something not-so-smart.  It is a good word for those who tell little, or big, children not to question or doubt God.  Those Sunday School teachers must have never read Psalm 27.  

In truth we vasolate between trust/faith and doubt our entries lives.

As a matter of fact both our doubts and our faith, living inside our small brains, means the we are taking the reality of God seriously. 

When we are wiling to entertain our doubts.  Allowing ourselves to be involved, in the most honest of conversations, about doubt and about God in all those doubts. Then, and only then, are we free to believe and have faith in this elusive God we so quickly call upon in times of stress.

Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher,  has this to say about our human understanding of our invisible God:  

"What can be seen on earth points to neither the total absence, nor the obvious presence of divinity; but to the presence of a hidden God! Yet, everything bears his mark." (Pensee 1962 Harpers)

You and I know that, in solid truth, we have limited control and no absolute certainty with respect to the future.  However, because we believe in a God without limits we have the precious ability to hope.

And like Tigger!  Hope "is a wonderful thing!"

Do you remember when Mother Teresa's memoirs came out?  The title is: 'Mother Teresa And The Mystery of God's Absence.'

It caused quit a stir among the "religious." They wanted to have her band from her position of honor in the Roman Catholic Church..  Calling her a "phony."  A phony because she admitted to her "doubt and dark night of the soul."

I continue to be appalled by such judgments!  First of all, no one has the privilege, nor right, to judge someone's else heart.  Secondly, how many of those "religious" folks would bow low and pick up a dong-dirty person out of the cutter and hug them close speaking of God's love for them?  She may have had her doubts!  But she lived her life serving the God she sometimes found difficult to believe in.  

Mother Teresa, instead of falling away from the faith, continued to enter the conversation by living in the grace of God.  Knowing, sometimes doubting, yet pursuing this truth that sustains us all in time of our own "dark nights of the soul."  

Choosing to believe in the midst of it all.  

Hoping beyond hope that she would see "the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living."

She did that, and we do that, by "waiting for the Lord, being strong and taking courage," by the grace of God. 

May we, like Mother Teresa, continue our own faith journeys that leads us every closer to a very real God.