_Psalm 62 For God alone my soul waits in silence; from God comes my salvation. 2The Lord The Lord alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken. How long will you
assail a person, will you batter your victim, all of you, as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence? Their only plan is
to bring down a person of prominence.4
They take pleasure in falsehood;they bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from God. The Lord alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be
shaken.
On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is
in God.
Trust in God at all times, O people; pour out your heart before God; God
is a refuge for us.
Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a
delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.
Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if
riches increase, do not set your heart on them. Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to
God,
and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all
according to their work. ************************* Mark 1:14-20 Now after John was arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time
is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God
has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." As Jesus passed along the Sea
of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into
the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them,
"Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left
their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther,
he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat
mending the nets. Immediately he called them;
and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed
him. *************************
Psalm 62 is fantastic. The psalmist begins with a simple phrase… (Mozart in the background please) "For God alone my soul waits in silence; from God comes my salvation. The Lord alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken." In essence; whatever she is going through, she’s going to
trust in God.
God alone is her security and she
knows it... Or does she? Because
immediatesly in the next paragraph she jumps back into her own worry: (cue the Metallica music)
"How long will you gang up on me?
How long will you run with the bullies?
There's nothing to you, any of you—
rotten floorboards, worm-eaten rafters,
Anthills plotting to bring down mountains,
far gone in make-believe.
You talk a good line,
but every "blessing" breathes a
curse." (Msg)
Now, I don’t know what happened next. Maybe she took a breath and caught hold of herself. Maybe she remembered. But right
after she spouts off like that., it’s almost like she collects herself... and
brings her emotions back to center… "Oh yeeaah! I’m supposed to trust God!" And the next thing you know, Mozart is playing again, and she is repeating her opening refrain… "For God alone my soul waits in silence... I only trust God…
" In fact she repeats this pattern
again before she ends the Psalm.
What a wonderful illustration of how we humans pray... and
worry... and pray... And who and what we humans put our trust in (and withdraw our trust, and trust again); Psalm 62 is a picture of how we wait…
This week I couldn’t get this psalm
out of my head: “For God alone my soul waits in
silence..." I had been wanting to focus on Jesus rounding up
more disciples. But I couldn't get there. Something was missing...
I kept hearing, and humming “be
still and know that I am God” and so I decided, finally, to do that. It’s amazing sometimes the lengths God has to
go to, to get us to slow down, isn’t it.
I looked at the Mark passage- and I saw the disciples going about their
business before Jesus got to the shore line… it’s almost like they werewaiting
for him to get there- and they seemed like nice people… so I decided to park
myself on the beach with them and wait with
them for God to speak.
I will be still- I’ll trust in God
alone… I’ll wait in silence-
While I was waiting-
While I was waiting-
While I was waiting –
I
got an email from the church that
the pipe in the parsonage had burst, and that there was an accident in front of
the church taking out the tree and the sign.We waited, for assurance that no one was hurt… we waited… for word that
the pipe was repaired and maybe it wouldn’t be as much damage as it could have
been- that maybe what we the church had been working on this far hadn’t been
undone… I waited for good news on our buildings… for security.
This
brought me to yesterday, when I finally sat down to write this message to all
of you.I laid out the psalm next to the
text of Jesus calling the disciples, and asked the question… “if we are waiting
now… and what we wait for is some good news… some security…. Couldn’t that be
the same thing the disciples… fishing on that fateful day when Jesus came to
call them… have been waiting for the same thing?Were they waiting, like me this week… for
assurance… that someone was going to bring some good news…. Some security to
their lives?”
I
thought about what that scene must have been like- Jesus walking along the
shore line, and people going about their business.Jewish society during the lifetime of Jesus
was essentially divided into four levels. Those at the top were the
governing class of Gentile and Jewish rulers and the Jerusalem Clergy Aristocracy.
They made up, at most, 2-7% of the population. Merchants and artisans
made up of the second level of society. They made up about 13% of the
population. Below them were the peasants who worked the fields of the
merchants and landowners and who were employed in the shops of the artisans;
they made up about 70% of the population. At the bottom of society were
the unclean and the expendables. According to the economic health of the
nation at any moment, those at the bottom could vary between 10% and 20% (when
many peasants would fall into the expendable category) of the population.
According
to our text “James and John left their father Zebedee in the boat with the
hired men and followed Jesus”. With the hired men! The
Zebedee Fishing Company had employees! That meant that the family of
James and John was at least economically “comfortable”. They belonged to
an independent artisan class of people. They were not day laborers, the
peasants or the poor of Israel.
So
what? Why is that important?I’m so glad
you asked…
It’s important because of what they
were waiting for- and for the “good news” that Jesus would bring that day.Jesus said “Repent and hear the good news of
the gospel.Follow me, and I will make
you fishers of people!”Let’s take it
apart a little bit…
Repent… a term that literally meant
“turn around… stop what you’re doing and take a new direction”
SO the people were to turn- and to
hear the good news.. the gospel.But
what is the good news?Jesus says “The
Kingdom of God is here!” (not… it’s coming- but that it’s already here in
Christ!) “Follow me,” he says, “and I’ll make you fishers of people.”Now, I know that traditionally the church
takes that to mean that we are supposed to go out and create followers and in
some circles “save souls of win people to Christ.”But there’s an interesting twist here.If we look at the phrase fishers of men, and
look at the times when that phrase had been used among the Jewish people in the
time of Christ, we can get a better sense of what Jesus might have meant by
it.
There are only three places
in the Old Testament in which this same image was used… in Jeremiah, Amos,
and Ezekiel 29:4… And each of these passages talks about judgment
coming on oppressive rulers and governments- and the powerful in society (business
people, merchants…the middle and upper middle class) are criticized for not
using their power to move their society toward increasingly becoming the Kingdom
of God!
Now Jesus is coming to the
shoreline basically saying “Time’s UP! The Kingdom
of God is Here! Let’s go make fishers
of people- in other words- let’s go change the world- use what power we have to
make our community, our nation- our world a better place!”
Puts a whole new twist on it doesn’t it?That maybe when James and John were on their
way to work that day, that maybe they talked about their neighbors who were
getting thrown out of their house because they couldn’t pay the mortgage, or
maybe they emptied their pockets of the change at the bottom to give someone
money to buy food- or maybe they balked at a peasant being beaten for not
working hard enough, or the incredibly unfair taxes, or the fact that over 70%
of the people in their community lived below the poverty line.That they were also waiting for some good
news… news that things were going to get easier… safer… for some security for
the lives of those in their community.
But then,
Jesus shows up with Good news… Follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of me.Maybe for the first time, they heard it.That the good news, that the act of following
Jesus, meant that they could be a part of stopping the system of injustice that
held the whole population captive.That
following Jesus meant that they could be a part of something bigger then
themselves… that for the first time, maybe they realized that the good news
they had been waiting for didn’t mean security for themselves at all… but that
there was instead, a chance for them to participate in changing the way things
were- that they didn’t have to sit back and let things just happen to those
they loved… that they could be an agent of change, an agent of peace, an agent
of Shalom… because they could be secure in something bigger than their world.
That being
a part of the radical ministry of Jesus Christ meant that they could
participate in God’s righteousness making activity on earth.That there was no good news going to come down in any form that they had hoped for or had trusted in… whether from their government, or from each other- and
that their only hope finally laid in their trust in almighty God and author of
creation. And if they would put their trust in that God, they could be a part
of making things better… That’s the news they needed to hear, and that’s what
finally, I believe, made them drop everything they were doing and follow
Christ.Because they realized that the
things that they had put their trust in for their own security- their
businesses, their bank accounts, their government… didn’t bring security at all.
In fact,
it’s the same security the psalmist talks about… that as much as we run around
and try to worry ourselves into a frenzy… there is finally, at the end of the
day, no trust in anything except in God alone.That our trust can’t lie in our government, no matter who our president
is- or our businesses, or our economy… we can’t trust in our health… or our
families health being great- we can only trust in God to be with us, no matter
what the report says… and to stay with us through it… We can’t trust in the
state of our church… even when things have come so far... even when we’re fiscally
healthy or have two hundred members… because our trust can’t rest in that… because
the minute we start to rest secure in ourselves, or the things we have done… or
buildings, or numbers, or finances… and God knows… even in each other- then we
have given our trust over to things that are temporary... what the psalmist
calls… a breath.
The only thing we can really trust in… the
only thing we can depend on… is that God
alone is our rock, that God alone is our salvation, that God alone is our fortress… and that regardless
of what things look like right now or how we feel or what people tell us...
that this God of wonder and might and power, loves you more than anything or
anyone on this whole earth- regardless of where you’ve been or what you’ve done
or what you will go through… and has promised to always love you and always be
with you.
And when
God’s time is right... we look to the left and see Jesus walking down the
shoreline… and He puts out his hand and he makes us an offer… to stop casting
our nets out into waters that are only going to come up empty and to start
being a part of something that is bigger than ourselves… to begin to put our
trust in the only thing in this whole creation worth trusting… and to follow…