The Soul that is Satisfied

The Soul That Is Satisfied
Psalm 63:1–8; Luke 13:1–9

March 11, 2007: Third Sunday in Lent

Rev. Kathleen Crockford
United Congregational Church of Westerly
United Church of Christ

There is a story of a teacher who was observing her Kindergarten classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, “I'm drawing God.”

The teacher was surprised at the little girl’s response. So she said, “But no one knows what God looks like.”

The little girl continued to draw and didn’t even look up. With certainty in her voice she said, “They will in a minute.”

Ah, to have such confidence in our ability to recognize God in our midst. So often children help us to see God because their observations about life are pure and at the same time profound. They have not become complicated and wrapped up in life’s challenges and distractions. As we travel through life, sometimes the simple things like our relationship to God becomes just one more duty to fulfill in the midst of competing demands on our time—time to give our family, or our job, or taking caring of our house, or even finding time to play. We are left with too many choices and God is often left behind. Sometimes we just need to find a way to get back on track.

The psalm we read this morning expresses a deep longing for our need to find God and get back on track. The writer of the psalm longs to take shelter under the shadow of God’s wings. We know what those things in our life might be—the things in life that challenge and perplex us, like fear, grief, conflict, and doubt. The writer of the psalm looks to God to be filled with the blessings from God that can sustain us when we struggle with all these things. The psalmist describes this longing in very physical terms, saying “O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you” (Ps. 63:1). The longing feels like being parched and thirsty, like we would be in a desert where there is no water. The longing feels like being without the most essential things that make for life.

So the writer of the psalm seeks God and finds God, first in the sanctuary, the holy place of worship. The psalmist expresses praise with voice and upraised hands, beholding God’s power and glory with the eyes of faith. But this sense of God’s presence and fulfillment continues even when the psalmist returns home and goes to bed. Lying peacefully in the deepest night, when fears often loom large, God is there, a very present help in trouble.

This psalm helps us to know that our God is a God who is moved when we are struggling. When we are perplexed, God knows. When we hunger and thirst for righteousness, God knows. When we long for justice and peace, God knows. When we try our best to fight the foes that plague us, God knows. Sometimes the foes we are fighting are of our own doing—like believing that we are not worthy or valued or loved. Sometimes they are the self-destructive behaviors that we engage in that chip away at our wholeness. Sometimes the foes that we are facing are outside of our control—relationships that we pray would be reconciled. Or situations at work or in our families that seem hopeless. Sometimes the foes are our own feelings of grief or anger or guilt. And when we experience these perplexing and often immobilizing times in our life, we have this picture of God to hold on to from Romans, chapter 8. It goes like this: “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31b). If God’s love and power and justice surround us, the foes we face can have no power over us. Our self-defeating thoughts and behaviors—they can be gone! Our fears that broken relationships can’t be mended—they can be gone! Our feelings of guilt or remorse for what we could have been or done—they can be gone!

And how do we hold onto this picture of God as our ever–present help at all times? How do we hold onto the image of God as the one who quenches our thirst for healing and wholeness? How can we see God as the one who can satisfy our souls? We can do it by keeping the image of God always before us.

How many of you have pictures of loved ones in your wallets, or on your desk or on your dresser or mantle? We like to surround ourselves with the pictures of those whom we love and want to remember. If we practice this kind of remembrance of our family and friends, how much more important is it that we practice this kind of remembrance of God?

So how would we do this? How do we remember God? The best answer that I’ve come up with so far after searching scripture and the writings of other faithful people throughout the ages is do what Jesus invites his followers to do: pray always and do not lose heart. Pray for the grace to know that God is always with us. That “nothing can separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:39b).

Now many of us remember the “bow your head, close your eyes, and fold your hands” kind of praying. We pray that way in worship most times, so it may get labeled as the best way or even the extreme, the only way. But I don’t think our mode of praying has to be that narrow and defined. After all, if we are invited to pray always, that “bow your head, close your eyes, and fold your hands” just doesn’t work when you are driving in the car. It least I wouldn’t recommend it! So, you can pray while you sing or fold laundry or cook dinner. You can pray with your eyes wide open and reading the newspaper. You can pray while you are playing with your children or grandchildren. Or you can pray while simply sitting in a quiet place and being conscious of each breath you take as you thank God for life itself.

Just like the idea that nothing can separate us from the love of God, there is no place or circumstance where we cannot pray. In the late 1600’s a monk named Brother Lawrence wrote a series of letters to a friend who asked him for help in learning to pray. Brother Lawrence had been a solider when he was younger and had suffered a debilitating injury. He went to live in a monastery and spent most of his time there as a cook. His letters were collected in a little book called Practicing the Presence of God. In the introduction to the book, one of his fellow monks described Brother Lawrence by saying that even in the busiest times in the kitchen he still preserved his “uninterrupted composure and tranquillity of spirit.” And in one of the letters, Brother Lawrence said, “The time of work does not with me differ from the time of prayer. In the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great a tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Supper.”

The power of prayer has a way of helping us frame a picture of God that can stay with us, give us comfort, remind us of who we are and whose we are, when the foes we face are nipping at our heels. When we tap into that prayer power we can have a relationship with God that is as close to us as our breathing. Like Brother Lawrence, we can possess God. Like the psalmist, we can experience that deep, soul–satisfying blessing that brings us to say, “O God, you are my God…my lips will praise you. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me” (Ps. 63: 1; 8).

What does God look like? God looks like love, strength, compassion, justice, mercy, and wholeness. These are all the qualities that will quench our thirst for God and satisfy our souls. Practice the presence of God, in this holy place of worship and in your everyday moments. And then we can show the whole creation what God looks like. Amen.