Meditation for October 8, 2008

From The Rev. Peter A. Munson

Psalm 131 (The Book of Common Prayer version)

 

1 O Lord, I am not proud;

    I have no haughty looks.

 

2 I do not occupy myself with great matters,

    or with things that are too hard for me.

 

3 But I still my soul and make it quiet,

    like a child upon its mother's breast;

        my soul is quieted within me.

 

4 O Israel, wait upon the Lord,

    from this time forth for evermore.

 

Quieting Our Souls

 

Julia and I attended the fall choir concert at Pomona High School last night.  Our daughter, Hannah, who is a freshman this year, is in one of the seven different choirs that performed.  One of the fascinating parts of the evening for me was to observe the contrasts in facial expressions and body language among the various young men and women who were on stage.  Some of them were clearly quite nervous.  You could see this in their tight facial muscles. For some of the young people, their entire bodies looked tight.  (Perhaps this is how I look sometimes when I am not feeling very sure about a sermon that I'm about to give.)  One young man was sitting on stage and playing guitar for one of the songs.  When it came to a place in the song where he had a rest, one of his legs was bouncing around so much that Julia and I thought he might bounce right off the stage, due to all his nervous energy.  On the other hand, some of the more seasoned performers (Can you be a "seasoned performer" while still in high school?) had such stage presence!  Their voices weren't tight or constricted when they sang, their confidence came shining through in their dance moves and in their facial expressions.  They were having a great time on stage, and performing at a very high level - at the same time.  One group in particular, made up of ten young women and ten young men - "Soundsations" - stole the show.  Hannah told me later that this group is made up of all juniors and seniors.  They danced in pairs while they sang some high-energy numbers, and it was delightful.  Hannah also commented about them after the concert was over.  "I'd love to be in that group.  They were having so much fun!  And when you are around them in school, they have such great energy.  I've decided that more people should be like that!"

 

The Psalmist in Psalm 131 talks about quieting the soul and waiting upon the Lord.  What he or she is really talking about, it seems to me, is having a certain confidence that comes from trusting in who God is.  In fact, confidence comes from the Latin root fidere, which means "to trust".  The first definition of confidence in the dictionary is "firm belief; trust; reliance".  We can have confidence in ourselves, but that notion of "self-confidence" is only the third definition in the dictionary.  The Psalmist is talking about having confidence in God.  When we can be present in that place, our souls can be quieted.  To put it in another way, when we get quiet and really wait on the Lord, the Lord shows up, and a deep quietness starts to resonate throughout our entire bodies, and suddenly we have the kind of trust and stillness in us that you see in a child who is upon its mother's breast.

 

Many of us have a strong tendency to take ourselves too seriously.  I certainly have that tendency.  Certainly there is a lot of bad news in the world, and there are enough challenges for all of us.  On the other hand, we can't respond to the world or to the people in our lives very well if we are always uptight and tense.  In the same way that a singer who is all tense and uptight can't sing very well... in the same way that a nervous speaker can get so flustered that he or she practically forgets to breathe, and the words are barely audible... you and I can be so uptight about "the things of this world" that we can't relax into God and be free to move through the world in confidence, responding - with flexibility and creativity - to the things God is calling us to do.

 

The funny thing in all of this is that you can't get all serious about being less serious!  This isn't a matter of will, as in, "I am going to will myself to be more relaxed!"  There cannot be a striving when it comes to quieting our souls, relaxing, and taking ourselves less seriously.  The only thing that "works" is to be open to a certain kind of surrendering, which involves an openness to the movement of God's Spirit.  More than anything, we need to learn how to trust in God, in the very same way that a baby trusts in a parent so much that he or she can just fall asleep - just like that! - on its parent's chest.  (And if you have ever had a baby fall asleep on your chest, perhaps you have had a "Godly-glimpse" of what God might feel like when we really let go and trust God.)

 

In a time when the entire world seems to be scared and ready to panic about the economic crisis, in a world where there are a lot of people who seem to be more bent on destruction and self-destruction than on helping to build the kingdom of God, there is still hope.  Because there is a God available to us, a God who is actually for us, a God who initiates a relationship with us, who loves us way before we are even ready to love God.  This God says to us, "You don't need to be afraid.  You don't need to panic.  I am here.  Shhhh!  Be quiet.  You can be confident.  I have come to the world, and taken on the very worst things that the world can dish out, and I have overcome the world.  So take it easy.  It's going to be okay.  You can still laugh.  You can still cry.  You can still get up and go to work, and get excited about all the different ways that you can serve Me.   You can be relaxed and do wonderful things, just like a seasoned performer on a stage.  I am with you."

 

When I allow myself to hear that voice, what I notice is that my soul gets quieted.  I can rest in God, and then go on with my day - no matter what the particular news of that day might be.

 

O people, wait upon the Lord, from this time forth and for evermore.  And your souls will be quieted.