INTRODUCTION: Our Scripture Reading for today is from the Book of Psalms, which “represents the hymnbook or the prayer book of the Second (and perhaps the First) Temple in Jerusalem… Psalm 46 is fundamentally an affirmation of faith in God; it is often classified as a song of confidence or trust.”
Scripture: Psalm 46
1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
6 The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord;
see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
SERMON: “Noticing God in the Ordinary”
Growing up, I was a somewhat anxious child. I worried a lot. Would the school bus be on time? Would my mother remember to pick me up at camp? If I took off my glasses at the beach to go swimming, would I be able to find my family again when I came out of the water and couldn’t see them from a distance?
Because of this tendency to worry, my mother taught me to use a technique she called, “worst case scenario” that she hoped would help me teach myself how to alleviate at least some of my anxiety. You probably know what I’m talking about. The way this technique works is that the person who feels anxious imagines the worst thing that could possibly happen, then figures out ways to cope if the worst thing actually did happen. And then, more often than not, the person ends up pleasantly surprised when reality turns out to be MUCH better than what was imagined. Even if there are some challenges, the person is less anxious and better able to deal with them. At least that’s the theory. And, actually, most of the time it worked, though I’m not sure I ever admitted that to my mother. (Mom, in case you are tapped into this livestream up in heaven, “thank you!”)
But back to our text. Imagine my surprise this week when I read that the psalmist--the anonymous author of Psalm 46--was using the same technique my mother taught me to help the people of ancient Israel deal with their anxiety when facing the chaos that is sometimes present in our world. Biblical Scholar Professor J. Clinton McCann, Jr. says, “to illustrate how powerful a help God can be in [times of] trouble, [verses 2 and 3] present the ultimate worst-case scenario.” (New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Vol. IV, p. 865.)
“Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.”
Professor McCann reminds us that in the ancient near east view of the world, mountains represented stability. It was thought that mountains BOTH literally served as the foundations of the earth AND acted as pillars that held up the sky. So, in this worst-case scenario painted by the psalmist, if the mountains shook, then the earth would be “threatened from below by water and from above by the sky falling.” (ibid., p. 865.) The Professor asserts that the psalmist’s “worst case” is akin to any contemporary doomsday scenario that we could imagine--from nuclear devastation to extreme climate crisis to deadly pandemics. It is what Martin Luther talks about in our first hymn, where he describes forces that “threaten to undo us.”
The good news--the really good news--of Psalm 46 is that even when the worst-case scenario happens-- when human beings experience forces or circumstances that threaten to undo us--we do not have to be afraid. God is still with us. Verse one: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” AND, in case we missed it in that verse, the message repeats as a refrain in verses 7 and 11: “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” And the words “with us” don’t just mean “standing near us” or “in the same room with us.” The professor tells us that combined with the word “refuge,” they carry the connotation of being “for us”--that is, “inclined toward ‘our help.’” (ibid., p. 865.) In Luther’s words, “like a mighty fortress,” God is actively protecting us.
But, this psalm is clear, God’s protection of us is not the same as a human ruler who might protect us through military means. No. In this psalm, God is not portrayed as a warrior who swoops in with his angel armies to annihilate our enemies. Just the opposite, in fact. God “makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; God breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; God burns the shields with fire.” (verse 9) In other words, God doesn’t help us to fight back; God uses the force of Love to protect us and give us a refuge of calm in the midst of chaos. And, almost counter-intuitively, as we begin to experience that refuge of calm, we actually begin to have a calming effect of the chaos swirling around us.
“But,” you might be asking, “How exactly does God do that?” Or to put another way, “How do we gain access to the refuge that God provides?”
That is where Richard Peace comes in. In chapter 3 of his book--the chapter that is entitled, “Noticing God in the Ordinary,” Peace talks about what he calls the “spiritual discipline of noticing.” His premise is that God is always present, but we need to train ourselves to notice God in the midst of our ordinary days. We need to look for ways that God’s Love shows up, particularly when we need it most.
Peace outlines a practice created in the 16th century by St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Spanish nobleman turned monk who founded the Jesuit movement of the Catholic Church. St. Ignatius practiced a type of prayer called “the examination of conscience” or “the prayer of examen” for short. With the help of a spiritual director, Peace adapted this practice to make it doable in our modern-day world. You can read in detail about the prayer of examen in chapter 3 of Peace’s book, if you are interested, but in short, the practice is taking time each day to reflect on the past 24 hours and to notice where we felt that God showed up for us.
The practice begins with gratitude. One way to engage in this practice is by keeping a journal. (I do this these days on my phone…) Write down at least 5 things you are thankful for in the past 24 hours. And then, when the gratitude has opened your heart, then go back over the same 24-hour period and look for ways God has been present. And the more we do this, the more we notice God in the ordinary moments of our lives. At first, we notice God in the things we are thankful for: the gift of a fun time spent with a grandchild; the gift of a beautiful day. Then, we begin to notice God in other places too. In the “hard times” as well as the “joyous moments.”
I think Psalm 46 is making the same point. In the hard times, when we feel like the mountains are shaking around us, when the waters roar and foam and our society is in an uproar, we can take this opportunity to be still and look and listen for God. This psalm invites us to notice the times and places where God has shown up for us as a refuge in the midst of pain--our pain or someone else’s. For example, when someone texted us a prayer while we were waiting for the results of a Covid test. When someone reached out to us in our grief and reminded us of a joyful memory of a loved one who has died. When our pain of being hurt by dysfunctional systems in this pandemic gave us insight into the pain of our black brothers and sisters who have been hurt by dysfunctional systems for centuries. May we practice the habit of noticing instances of God’s love-- not just in times when we are comfortable, but even in the midst of the pain.
May we hold in our hearts the words of this psalm as we practice the spiritual discipline of noticing God in the midst of ordinary life: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Amen.”
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA