When my son William was a toddler one
of his favourite things to do was smashing the block towers that Dana built with
his little wooden blocks. He thought it was
enormously funny. Dana would build some
elaborate tower and say, “William” and he would turn, see the tower, laugh, and
then charge and with one fell swoop of his arm destroy the tower and laugh some
more. Then, the cycle repeated itself. Over and over this little game went on.
William really enjoyed that game. But something happened that put an end to it. William began to stack the blocks
himself. He’d grab some blocks and leave
behind a little tower on the coffee table stacked three high, a little tower on
the windowsill, in the middle of the floor and oddly, he didn’t smash those. I guess his mind hadn’t made the connection
between his own building and the fun of smashing. Smashing is the game he plays when somebody
else is building. Build and smash and build
and smash and then, suddenly, he’s building.
It’s amazing how children learn.
Well, Psalm 85 brought to mind for me
this building and smashing game. Actually,
that’s the picture the Old Testament paints of the relationship the LORD has
with his people. They are continually
going through a similar pattern of building and smashing; except, it is no
game. Rather, it is the reality of the
LORD trying and trying to build his kingdom within his creation in and through
his people only to have his own people, us included, smash it time and again.
Psalm 85 reflects a time when God’s
people had once again smashed what the LORD was building and it’s a prayer that
God would yet build again. His prayer is
essentially: “LORD, in times before you have shown favour to your land; brought
your people back from captivity. So many
times you have withdrawn your anger from us, taken away our iniquity, and
covered over our sin. Do it again. But this time, you turn to us, you, your very
self and revive us that we might rejoice with you in sharing your work. Show us you loving-kindness. Give us your salvation.” In that prayer Psalmist pleads the true need
of his people. They need the LORD himself
to come and be with them because the LORD’s living presence with them is the
only thing that will revitalize his people.
He prays for a new creating word from the LORD to make revitalization
happen.
In verse 8 the Psalmist makes an
interesting move. He goes from praying
for the people to praying for himself asking for the Lord to do in him what
he’s asking God to do in the people. He
says, “Let me hear what God the LORD
is speaking.” Let me partake of this new
creating act that God is speaking into existence. This was a very wise insight on the part of
the Psalmist. Too often we in the church
ask the Lord to do things for others not realizing we need it ourselves. We need the life-giving presence of the
living Lord to flow in us that it may flow through our lives. Blessed to be a blessing.
But anyway, the Psalmist is praying to
the God of salvation to bring salvation to his people and by salvation he means
for God in his steadfast love to speak a new creating word, the word of
peace. Peace as the Bible presents it is
a really awesome concept. It is what
spontaneously erupts when God himself lives in and among people. It is a word that describes relationships
between people that exudes the steadfast love and faithfulness of God. Where God lives in his people there is to be
no injustice, inequity, poverty, hatred, malice, none of that. Rather, life is full and fulfilling and the
sense of community is rich.
This prayer was answered with the
birth of Jesus. God himself, God the Son
became human and set it in motion. At
Pentecost God the Holy Spirit came and gave living breath to the new humanity
the Trinity created in Christ. Now
something new has begun to happen. In,
through, and as Jesus Christ something new has begun to happen. Human beings empowered by the Holy Spirit
have begun to build. Just like when my
son had that “aha” moment of realizing he could build the towers, so something
new has happened in humanity and we are a part of it. Jesus Christ, God the
LORD himself has come to humanity and revived us, made us live anew. The salvation the Psalmist prayed for has
come. God has spoken the word of New
Creation in the Incarnation of the Son and by the gift of his very self, the
Holy Spirit, we each can hear, know, and experience God’s peace as it is coming
to be…and having heard it, we by the power of the Holy Spirit are made able to
build upon it.
The Psalmist says something else that
is interesting. “Surely his salvation is
near to those who fear him.” I saw something
new this week. I have always read the
word “near” as having to do with time as if this verse read, “Surely his
salvation is soon to come to those who fear him.” Well, near doesn’t have anything to do with
time. It has to do with proximity so
that the verse reads, “Surely his salvation is in the proximity of those who
fear him.” This means that if one wants
to know the LORD, to know salvation, to experience peace, then one can find it
in the community of those who know and revere the LORD. This means that God’s salvation is actively
present in this world right now in our midst.
God is assembling the building blocks of his kingdom in the midst of his
creation through his people and we are among his people.
“But, wait a minute.” You say. “God’s salvation is in the proximity of
Christian community,...us?” Yes! In, through, and as Jesus Christ by the power
of the Holy Spirit God the Father in his loving kindness has spoken his salvation
into us and through us he demonstrates it to humanity. He has spoken the New Creation that began
with Jesus’ resurrection into us and by the power of the Holy Spirit it is at
work in us so that through us God is beginning to bring New Creation about
until he renders it in its fullness when Jesus returns. Our works may only be like William’s little
three block stacks. Nevertheless, the
Trinity is using us to build now his kingdom of peace here on earth as it is in
heaven.
The love of God present in Christian
community - community that we share and extend to others at work, at school, at
home, and even in the checkout line at Wal-Mart - is like John the Baptist in
the wilderness proclaiming that as Jesus Christ God himself has come and is
coming with salvation for humanity. The Holy
Spirit filled fellowship that we share is salvation present now. The Christian faith is not a personal matter
of private belief. It is an act of new
creation that God is doing and we are the living proof and proclaimers of it. The world out there needs the salvation we
share in here. Let us not be shy about
it. Let us build with these blocks so that right here in this little corner of
Grey County there is peace. Amen.
