August 12, 2007Proper 14 / Pentecost 11
NOW I LAY ME DOWN... Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep.I'll skip for now the spiritual stream of consciousness which accompanies those words as I lay in the dark, but they are comforting, those words. They seem to pray away my fears, my worries and self-criticism, and I'm often asleep (or back to sleep) by the time I hit Amen. So it caught my eye this week when I came across this information. It says that "Now I lay me down to sleep..." is a shortened version of an old English prayer, which went like this: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Bless the bed that I lie on.I like that! I think that original refrain is an improvement over the one I learned... not just "I pray the Lord my soul to keep... (or) my soul to take..." but "I give my soul to Christ to keep," and "If I die before I wake, I know that Christ my soul will take." Friendlier, somehow, more confident and more personal. ('Course, I gotta tell you, now I lie awake at night trying hard to remember these new words and insert them into my ingrained memory!) In times past it was thought that we are never nearer death than when we slip into the unconsciousness of sleep. That may or may not be true, but it was an ancient fear, and so this prayer originated... because at night, in sleep, we are vulnerable and defenseless. We want someone watching over us, and we prepare ourselves for whatever is ahead by prayer. "If I should die..." Not just "before I wake," either. Since the 35W bridge collapse we're all quite aware how vulnerable we are... and not only when we sleep. There's been quite a bit of comment about the level of trust required of us in modern life - in the safety of our food; crossing four lanes of Highway 5 at rush hour when the light turns green for us; not to mention the truly remarkable experience of entrusting ourselves to a tube of alloy and aluminum resting on nothing but the air beneath its wings. Faith, trust, and reliance on someone's promises - these are not experiences limited to religious territory alone. They are requirements and essentials of daily life in our world. We cannot survive or thrive without some form of "faith." The difference is, you know and I also know that Someone catches me "if I should die before I wake" or at any other time. That, too, is "faith" but another, deeper kind. Biblical, God-centered faith is based not on ourselves and our courage or strength of character. It's not our decision not to think of what could happen, or our naïve belief that it can't happen to me. Biblical, God-centered faith is not based on ourselves or someone like us but Faith is based on what God has done... once in Jesus Christ... and then reproduced in the lives and hearts of other... what do we call ourselves? ... people of... faith. We believe in God's presence and power, we trust it, have faith in him, because of HIM, because of who God is and what he's done repeatedly. Thus we have (today) the example of Abraham and his wife Sarah. Those are stories of faith we tell. This weekend I offer you also the story of a young man in this church - I'll invent a name; let's say it's Sam - a boy who left his game during Vacation Bible School day camp here, knocked on the outer office door, and came into my room. He said, "I've been thinking, how do we know God is real? So I thought I'd come in here and ask you that." I told him what we know and what I think, and then I asked, "How was my answer?" "OK," he said. "It's kinda what my mom and dad told me... only better." Hmmm, now I get careful; don't want to undermine the parents, you know, so I asked, "What do you mean?" "Well," Sam said, "I know God's around me... because you tell me that. It seems easier to believe." "Not easier just because I tell you that, Sam," I said, "but remember my first answer? We know God is real because we can often feel him 'in here.' AND we see all the good that happens around us. AND many other people have experienced God, too, asked the same questions, found the same answers. So your parents are some of the answer for you. And, yes, so am I and the rest of the people in this church - but so are you, Sam. You're one of God's answers." I told him that when he came to me on Thursday morning, Sam helped ME to trust and believe because he's evidence that God is working in our world. Right? It's the very purpose of the church, the preaching of the word, AND the "stories to tell, gifts to share" in VBS... parents at the bedsides of children... the family at the kitchen table... adults with our internal dialogue... asking the very same questions. Well, it's our purpose in life to tell each other what we need to know, especially when we're not sure, when we're skeptical or scared because bad things have happened to good people. For the Christian, Faith is not trust in something with a good safety record or a history of dependability. It's neither naïve, blind trust nor taking a calculated risk that things are going to be all right again this time... nor is faith merely facing fear and pain with courage. Those are forms of faith, to be sure, indicators of something deeper in the human psyche, that need to connect beyond ourselves, and these forms, those prototypes of Faith point to a more complete faith... a relationship with Someone who himself lived (and died) by Faith - was not disappointed in the faithfulness of God - and with it created and recreated that faith in us. Contrary to the senator, bridges in America do sometimes fall down. And airplanes sometimes drop from the sky, food can make us sick, doctors can misdiagnose, surgeons make mistakes, and medication errors can happen to even the best nurse. Death can strike at any age. Nothing in this life is reliable enough for us to trust without some doubt or fear or some percentage of risk. So we help psych each other into some form of "faith" and trust in order to get to the end of the day and through the night. It's good to do that for each other; it's a form of ministry, even if we're unaware of it. But we can't psych ourselves into faith in God. That faith is a gift for everyone, a relationship in Jesus Christ shared within the community of Faith and held out for us to receive in order to fill the holes in our hearts. Then whether I sleep or I'm awake, "I give my soul to Christ to keep" and he does... and at The End, "if I should die" in my own bed or suddenly, with my boots on, "I know that Christ my soul will take" in true safety and in peace. Have no fear, little flock, great is the faithfulness of God. Nathan Castens Chanhassen, Minnesota [1] Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com |