Sunday, April 14, 2024
/3 Easter
Acts 3: 12-19; Psalm 4;1 John 3: 1-7; Luke 24: 36b-48
The Rev. James M.L. Grace
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.
It is not often that I preach on a psalm, however today I am. In looking at today’s psalm – psalm 4, it appears that the author of the psalm was clearly tempted by at least two things which can easily tempt us today. It is these upon these two temptations expressed in the psalm that I would like to build today’s sermon.
The first temptation the author of the psalm confronts is one found in verse 2, where the author says, “You mortals, how long will you dishonor my glory.” What is the author saying? He or she is expressing concern about their reputation – what other people think and say about them. Maybe the author is reacting to some personal attack or confrontation.
Regardless, the psalm is clearly a lament – it is the author’s cry out to God for justice when people speak ill of either him or her. So, a moment of personal disclosure. I am a people pleaser. In some ways that is a positive attribute. Many clergy, it seems are people pleasers. Clergy want to be liked or arguably they need to be liked, because our system is set up in such a way that if we are not liked by you all, there is a financial impact when stewardship season rolls around, as it will in six months.
Before attending seminary, I went to a gathering for people interested in the priesthood. I felt like I was the youngest person in the room and was so intimidated. My feelings were not helped much when the facilitator said, and I quote, “if you are praying about becoming a priest, you better have a thick skin, because people will attack you from all directions.”
Maybe not the best way to sell priesthood as a vocation? As a people pleaser, I wasn’t sure how to respond to what she said. So I just went to seminary. After I was ordained, and placed as a curate in my first parish, the Rector said to me other words that I also remember: “Jimmy, if everybody likes you, you’re not doing your job well.” In the almost twenty years of ordained life, my skin has gotten really thick.
I have no concept of what my reputation is here, but I will tell you how I choose to manage it. I do it this way - if I am going to say something about a person who is not in the room, I make sure I speak as if the person were in the room standing next to me. That goes for everyone in my life – family, friends, parishioners, etc. In keeping this as a daily practice, I do not dishonor the glory of any person, and I don’t have to be concerned about my reputation.
The second temptation the author of the psalm expresses is found in verses 6-7, where the author writes: “Many are saying, ‘Oh that we might see better times!’ Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord.” The author is describing a temptation and concern over material possessions, particularly a fixation upon others seeming to have more than we do.
I am most prone to this temptation when I compare my insides with someone’s outsides. For me it can happen in a half of a second, and here’s how it works. I am walking down the sidewalk, completely content, and feeling joyful. A convertible drives by and in it are a husband and wife, and two smiling children in the backseat. In less than a second my brain makes up a story about that smiling family in the convertible. They have more money than I do, they are happier than I am, their kids are going to better schools, they work a less stressful job than I do, and they are just better people all around. In less than a second, I move from joy and contentment to despair.
Now – a caveat – if I am spiritually fit and in right relationship with God, the convertible with the family in it drives by, I notice it, think nothing of it, and thank God for a beautiful day. It is only when I am pursuing a deliberate manufacture of misery or choosing to swim in self-pity that I fall into this temptation to compare what I have with what someone else has. “Comparison is the thief of joy,” Theodore Roosevelt once wisely noted.
Psalm 4 is about much more than temptation over reputation or what people own. Ultimately, the psalm argues the answer to both of these temptations is simply to trust God, always. Today’s psalm presents a powerful teaching, which is that only in God alone do we find ultimate security and peace. When we place ourselves within God’s peace, we lose interest in comparison and our reputation. God removes these temptations, if we trust God to handle that work for us.
So, if you are concerned about reputation or what you do or do not own, you may be spiritually unfit, and not in right relationship with God. I promise you that no amount of reputational posturing or acquiring will get you into God’s peace. To enter God’s peace, you have to grow up, and let go of childhood temptations, which do nothing but arrest your spiritual development. Growing into God’s peace not only liberates us from temptation, it frees us to live as vibrant and spiritually awakened people. The kind of people God desires us to be. AMEN.