God creates. God invites us into family. God transforms us to be God's own people.
We respond faithfully. We respond in love. We respond with hope.
This is fundamental. This is the beginning and end of true religion.
Most of our lives are not spent on fundamental things or even the instrumental and incidental things which accompany them. For a moment I want to reflect on life when it is not fundamental, life as we live it from hour to hour and day to day.
I suggest that a lot of our time is wrapped up in Nostalgia, Fantasy, and Politics.
During moments of Nostalgia we remember and long for a past which probably never existed. In Fantasy we imagine a future we do not really want and are not cultivating. Always there is Politics which allows us to complain about those Nostalgic days we did not lose and color over the future into which we are racing headlong.
Nostalgia, Fantasy, and Politics are not fundamental but they are frequently where we live out lives. Nostalgia, Fantasy, and Politics are not fundamental but they are a very human experience.
With that in mind, I turn back to the Psalms. The Psalms form a most human kind of book: They are a song book. In the Psalms we sing to God from where we are, wherever we are.
Today we look specifically to Psalm 89. Like all the Psalms it is a song we sing to God. In this Psalm we hear our Nostalgia, our Fantasy, even our Politics as we cry out to God. Maybe you want to open a Bible to Psalm 89 or look back at the liturgy which is based on it.
Nostalgically we remember how God raised up King David. how God annointed him, gave him victory, kept him from death and humiliation.
But that was then. That first David died centuries ago. Times have changed. Now the defensive walls are broken down. Now our enemies are celebrating.
Or perhaps we remember more recent history. Perhaps we think about the promise of the Age of Enlightenment within which our modern nation was founded. Or we are nostalgic for the simplicity and clarity of the way we lived when we were 8 or 10, or when our parents were 9, or our grandparents.
But now life is filled with complexity and contradiction and people complain about each other and our nostalgia is different for each of us.
We sing to God, Take note, O Lord, of the way
your servants are taunted, and of how I must bear
so many insults from people!
We ask, How long will this go on?
We ask,
Is God going to be faithful to the promises of our history?
In Psalm 89 we say ...
I will proclaim your faithfulness
;
in the skies you set up your faithfulness
;
Your faithfulness surrounds you
.
And we mean ...
I will proclaim your faithfulness, God,
as soon as you fulfill your promise.
We mean ...
You are faithful in heaven, God,
but I am hoping for some of that here on earth.
We mean ...
In your faithfulness to us, God,
share some of your power to advance our dreams.
God promised a descendent of David would always preside over God's people. We do not see very much of our nostalgic view of David in the leaders of the nations today And so we fantasize about a new King David to rise up as the leader of God's people now and to take the reigns of government.
We fantasize about all our difficulties being wished away.
We ask God: Why do you make all people so mortal?
Why is there sickness? lying? corruption? selfishness?
We ask, How long will this last?
We ask, How long until a Descendent of David sits at the head of our government? God answers, No time at all. Already, Jesus is Lord.
We ask, How long must we deal with such brief lifespans? God answers, No time at all. Jesus has conquered death.
We ask, How long will you continue to forget about us? God answers, No time at all. Already I am transforming you into my own people.
We ask, How long?
How long? No time at all.
God creates, has created, is creating.
God invites us to be family.
God transforms us into God's own people, the people who live God's promises now and tomorrow, the people who are not longing for God to remember us or for us to remember God because we stand in God's presence already and will never be sent away.
God transforms us to be God's own people. How long? No time at all.