The Lord Was With Him

A Sermon for the 6^th Sunday after Pentecost (RCL B) 7-8-2012

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:              2 Samuel 5:1-5,9-10; Psalm 48; Mark 6:1-13

Themes:         Jerusalem, David, the Temple, seeking control over life’s chaos

Title:               The Lord Was With Him

In honor of this week’s All Star Break for Major League Baseball, I would like us to consider for a moment some of the strangest rituals ever practiced on the baseball diamond.

Baseball players tend to be highly superstitious. You know that, right?!

These superstitions are very often special rituals or special objects – talismans – that are believed to ensure the player’s best possible performance.

On his way into the dugout, it is said that Joe DiMaggio would always run in from the outfield and make sure to touch second base.

It’s said that Wade Boggs would always eat chicken before a game, take exactly 150 ground balls during warm-ups, and then would always draw the Hebrew letters signifying “Chai” or life in the batter’s box before taking any pitches.

Tim Wakefield would always eat one pound of spaghetti before pitching a game.

Perhaps the strangest set of rituals was those of journeyman pitcher, Turk Wendell.

It’s said that Wendell had to wave to the centerfielder AND receive a wave in response before he would pitch. And after each inning in which he pitched, he would chew four sticks of licorice and brush his teeth. And then, whenever the catcher stood up while he was on the mound, he would then crouch down and stay down until the catcher resumed his crouch stance behind the plate. 

Why do baseball players do such strange things? Well, everyone is different, but I bet that all of us can relate to the underlying need of these men. You see, baseball is a strange, unpredictable game.

These little rituals give players some feeling of control in the face of so much uncertainty.

Well, my dear sisters and brothers: life on planet earth is strange and unpredictable.

How many of you struggle to gain some feeling of control in the face of life’s uncertainty, when dealing with so much continual change and variability in life?

To be a human being – to be conscious and alive on this planet – means being susceptible to a wide range of dangers and threats on a regular basis. Life is vulnerable; life is fragile.

This is just as true for human communities and nations as it is for us as individuals.

Just as you and I live every day with no promise, with no certainty, that we will see the sun rise tomorrow, so every human community also faces the real possibility that their community will collapse or disappear or disintegrate.    

This is precisely the dynamic that we see in this ancient history of the tribes of Israel: it is the saga of their on-going attempt to deal with this vulnerability, to gain some sense of control and certainty.

In this saga, it began with the ark. The prehistoric origins of this box called the “ark” are hidden in the mists of time. But it’s clear that this box came to symbolize the presence of God in the midst of the community. And this presence was looked to – with the eyes of faith – as the means by which they would be protected from their enemies.

This was vital to the ancient faith of the early tribes. As long as the ark of the covenant was in their midst, then their God was with them and God would protect them!

But then the Philistines came and defeated the tribes of Israel in battle and took the ark away!

And for years the ark wandered throughout the territory of the Philistines.

So the faith of the tribes was shaken and challenged. It didn’t work! Surely then, something else was needed to protect and safeguard the ark! And thus, to ensure the protecting presence of God among the people!

So the elders of the people decided that what was needed was a king! A king would protect the ark and would maintain the presence of God among the people, and thus ensure the future of their community! And so Saul was anointed as king, but he failed to follow God’s instructions. And he was not strong against their enemies.

David, however, was stronger and more faithful, and so David was chosen to succeed Saul.

This appeared promising to the people at first, but remember that this ancient history was itself edited and put together into its final form during the time of the Babylonian exile.

And why were the people in exile in the first place?

Because the kings failed! Because the House of David failed the nation. That was the consensus at the time.  

And so the faith that was placed in the kings to protect the community, to ensure God’s blessing and protection, that too was shaken and challenged!

Surely, something else then was needed! Ahh, the temple! In the next few weeks, we will hear the story of the building of the temple – the house of God whose primary purpose was to protect and safeguard the ark of the covenant. And thereby – I think you know the drill by now – to ensure God’s blessing and protection over the community of the tribes of Israel.

You can see this view of the Temple in our Psalm appointed for today. Tradition has ascribed the entire Psalter to King David himself, but you can see right here that, of course, this is impossible.

Replica of Second Temple

The Temple did not exist in the days of David! Yet Psalm 48 praises the Temple as the center of the world, the primary spot on earth where the presence of God could be found.

In the words of our Celtic Christian forebears, the Temple was seen as a thin place – or more truly, as the thinnest place of all, where the integration of the earthly and spiritual realms of reality was most complete.

Most of the Psalms that we have today in the Bible were written down during the time of Exile.

The kings had failed, and now the people looked to the Temple – to the rebuilding of the Temple after the Exile – as the one thing that would ensure the protecting presence of God among them.

Do you see the pattern, my friends?

Life is unpredictable. For individuals, for families, for tribes, for nations – in the ancient Near East, life was extremely fragile and vulnerable, more than we can even imagine today.

The desire of the people for a way to gain some control over this chaos is perfectly reasonable.

We all understand that feeling. The problem is that they were misguided.

Our Lord Jesus, of course, teaches us that this is so.

Think for a moment about the utter shock of his students when he explained to them that the entire Temple complex would be torn down and destroyed in just a few years! (cf. Mark 13:1-8).   

For nearly four centuries, the Jews had looked to that Temple as the sign and the promise of God’s abiding presence. Jesus knew that it would be destroyed, and yet he was not a bit bothered by that fact.     

Why not? He knew that no building could hold the presence of God, and that nothing can shield us from the trials of life.

So what do we - as followers of Christ - learn from the perfectly rational and yet misguided attempts of the Hebrew tribes to gain some certainty and some assurance in the various objects and rituals of their faith?

There are two sides to the coin of this teaching.

The truth is, as Christ teaches us by his own example, that there is no short-cut, no easy formula, no special object or ritual which will protect us from the uncertainties of life.

You and I cannot shield ourselves from the native vulnerability of life on earth.

God will not protect us from the difficulties and vagaries of life.

That is the hard truth. But there is also a tremendous gift of hope and freedom contained within it!

In Christ, we know that God is with us, no matter what.

It doesn’t matter how many crucifixes you have in your house. It doesn’t matter if you attend Mass daily or read the Bible daily. It doesn’t matter if you give all of your money to the church! It doesn’t matter if you tell everyone that you’re born again, or if you say “Hallelujah” all the time!

We all are tempted at times to try this kind of strategy, but there is no special formula to secure God’s blessing.

There is no special object that can ensure God’s presence!

Because that Presence, and that Blessing, are given as a free gift of grace.

THAT is the promise. We can’t manufacture that promise, and we cannot manipulate that presence.

We can only receive it as a gift, as a truth – as THE most important truth of our lives!

We can receive that truth, and we can rest in it.  

Now, I do NOT know whether any of the superstitions of baseball players help them in any way – though I doubt it very highly!

But I DO know that no matter what crazy and unpredictable things in life will come our way, God will never leave us nor forsake us, no matter what.

And THAT is a real hope upon which you can build your life. Amen.