Walk With, Not When
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Jewish Meditation Literature
Jewish Meditation Literature
For the last few months we have been exploring select Psalm’s and seeing how we can incorporate them into our daily lives. They were written and intended to be meditation literature, where you read them quietly out loud to yourself, in the morning and evening, and see yourself in them. When you do that, you find relevance to your live today.
Today is Easter Sunday, a day we set aside to remember and honor the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. This story is scattered throughout the Psalms, often talking about a man named David, who was a king over Israel.
We don’t really see Jesus directly mentioned, not in the way we would expect at least. Rather, we see descriptions that only fit him.
These descriptions are directly relevant to us, even though they were written such a long time ago.
We have this perspective that ancient authors and people cannot really understand our modern world. I think that is a poor approach to what the authors are trying to communicate. They are human beings too, having doubts, fears, anxieties about their life and their world. They had political upheavals too, it just might take them a bit longer to learn about them.
And, like us, they wondered about God. They also thought about how to be with God, in his presence. So, one day, one of these authors simply asked the question.
SLIDE:
Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?
Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?
This question is being asked in a time when only priests could go into the certain parts of the temple, the sanctuary and you had to be ritually clean to be in the presence of God.
This is a relevant question for today.
In other words, what is the requirement to be in your presence?
We might ask it this way: Is it okay to come to church? What must I do? How do I need to behave? What do I need to believe?
SLIDE:
When will I be acceptable to be with God?
I promise you, people are confused about this question. And not just people who don’t know or believe in God, but many Christians are confused about this. Often we, as in Christians, communicate to the world that they need to behave in a certain way, and when they do, they will be accepted into the sanctuary. This is communicated by how we tell others they are not accepted when they do things in violation of scripture.
Enter on the scene Jesus. Who minces no words with those who are in violation of scripture. Yet, when he is talking to them they are not rejected and they are not afraid. In fact, they want more of him.
Why is that? Jesus answers that question in the context of the Psalm as the writer of the Psalm answers the question “Who.”
SLIDE:
Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,
speaking the truth from sincere hearts.
When you look at the gospels, we see that Jesus is leading a life where no one can blame him for anything he has done wrong. Even when it seems he is violating the very laws of the Torah, he always has an answer as to why. Doing what is right always triumphs.
He is speaking truth all the time, but with a sincere heart. He is not using truth as a weapon. He is using it to reach deep into the people around him. There are two examples that concern women, where they are tangled up in sin and Jesus calls them out on it, but forgives them and shows compassion towards them. You never get the sense he is rejecting them, rather his heart longs for them to know the love of God.
SLIDE:
Those who refuse to gossip
or harm their neighbors
or speak evil of their friends.
You never see Jesus gossiping. This is such a funny word today. It happens so quickly and frequently and we just don’t consider the consequences. There is a moment when Jesus heals a blind and mute man, and the religious leaders start gossiping among themselves. Jesus answers their thoughts, but he answers them out loud, in front of everyone and says, “you will have to give an account for every idle and careless word you have spoken.” He just refuses to engage in this.
You never see Jesus looking to harm others. He may talk about the harm humans do to one another, but you just don’t see him engaging. Jesus will go to the non-Jewish areas around Israel, into “enemy” territory, so to speak, and heal, teach, feed and care for his enemies.
When did you see Jesus speak anything evil about his friends? You did not. When Judas is ready to betray Jesus, you don’t see Jesus engage Judas. You don’t see Jesus engage the evil spirit that engulfed Judas either. Heck, when Jesus is being tempted by the devil, you don’t see him speaking evil of the devil. When the disciples learn at dinner that someone will betray Jesus, they all lean in and ask him who it will be. Jesus simply says, “one of you here.” And even then he does not gossip!
SLIDE:
Those who despise flagrant sinners,
and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,
and keep their promises even when it hurts.
Question: who is a flagrant sinner? In the original it simply means to be rejected after you have seen it. Here is an example: God shows up for Moses on the mountain, he is seen and heard by all the people. All the people acknowledge God and agree to obey him. Then they reject him and don’t believe. Instead of following the law, love God and love your neighbor, they reject God and kill each other. That is a flagrant sinner. Do some of you need to adjust the meaning of flagrant sinner? Jesus is constantly at odds with the religious leaders because they distort the law of God, the make the burden heaven for the people, they steal from the poor and they are hypocrites. And, on top of all of that they claim to represent God among the people. That is what Jesus despises.
Instead, Jesus calls attention to a man and a woman in the Old Testament who were not Jewish, they were pagans. These two people in the Old Testament are held up by Jesus as two models of faithful people, and he says they are more faithful than all the people he has met so far. He honors them and they are honored as their stories are included in scripture and told by Jesus.
Did Jesus keep his promises, even when it hurt? Yes, we watched him do this on the cross, when he kept his promise to all humanity to make a way for anyone to worship in the sanctuary of the LORD, to enter into the LORD’s presence.
SLIDE:
Those who lend money without charging interest,
and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.
Such people will stand firm forever.
We never see Jesus lend money, but we see him direct his disciples to spend money on others. We see Jesus teach about money and giving, even to say that you should lend freely to your enemy. Talk about radical!
Jesus is the consummate defender of the innocent. He cannot be bribed. There is a scene where Jesus is being tempted by the devil and the devil is offering Jesus the opportunity to rule the nations of the world, he is offering Jesus everything, and it turns out that Jesus cannot be bribed. Even when his disciples are caught doing something that is against the religious leaders laws, he defends his disciples, because they are innocent. He does not lie, even about himself when he is on trial, when he could lie and save his own life.
In modern language, Jesus is a rockstar! He is legit!
He is going to stand forever in the sanctuary of the LORD, be in his presence.
The entire list is a set of characteristics of someone who will occupy the presence of God.
Not sure if you noticed, but each and every one of these has to do with how you related to your fellow human being. That is of critical importance.
And, “when” you do these things, then you too can stand firm forever. That is the message we are given. There is a list of things we need to do.
SLIDE:
When we do good, then we get to be with God
I am going to be in charge of how I get to be in the presence of God. God must reward my good works so that I can be with him.
SLIDE:
When God walks with me, then I am good
I am going to wait until God takes the lead in a really obvious way, like leaving sticky notes on the fridge. God will give me a daily to-do list. Then I will know that I am good. Except Psalm’s gives us that list already.
SLIDE:
When life is bad, then God is mad
My life does not look like it should and I have trouble all around me. Clearly I am doing something wrong, so God is mad at me or trying to get a message to me. I am being punished for my bad behavior.
None of that sounds like someone who is standing firm. It sounds like you are in and out of the presence of God. Paul gives us an answer.
SLIDE:
Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it.
There is some Good News in which we can stand firm. Paul, the writer is riffing off of the idea of the Psalm about how to stand firm.
SLIDE:
It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.
This Good News has the power to save you, when you continue to believe the message you were told.
What is that message? More things to do? What could we learn that will place us in the house of the LORD?
SLIDE:
I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.
It is not about when we do something, it is about walking in belief and faith in the Good News of what Jesus did for you and for me.
SLIDE:
“Walk With Jesus, not When Jesus”.
Here is the picture: Jesus has lived out the characteristics of Psalm 15. He then turns towards us and invites us to walk with him.
When we walk with Jesus, we show the same Psalm 15 characteristics towards other people. He invites us to come to the sanctuary of the LORD, into his presence. Then he tells us to follow him and do the kinds of things he did.
Now you are free to respond to the world around you as a Psalm 15 citizen of the Kingdom of God.
That is the whole message of Easter, of the resurrection of Jesus. He made it possible to go immediately into the presence of God.
And then he immediately sends us out into the world to live out the Psalm 15 mission, doing it as a citizen of the Kingdom.
I want you to imagine what your world would look like if 1/6th of the entire population of the world were to live out Psalm 15.
SLIDE:
How would our world respond when we:
Do what is right and speak truth with kind, sincere hearts
We refuse to gossip, harm our neighbors or speak evil of friends
We honor those who follow Jesus
We give our time, talent and treasure without exception
We cannot be bribed to deceit
We keep our promises, even when it hurts
This is the vision of God. This is the purpose of Jesus. This is what Easter made possible.
This is what our world desperately needs, people who are willing to walk with Jesus.