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    Feb 24, 2019

    From the Bottom

    From the Bottom

    Passage: Psalms 131:1-3

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Category: Faith

    Israel, wait for the Lord – from now until forever from now!

    Fun Fact:  Did you know that John Wesley would often open his Bible at random to see what God would say on any given day?  

    Frederick Buechner did that – maybe just one time when he was at the end of his rope. His young adult daughter was living in Seattle, and he and his wife were called to come because she was in danger of dying from anorexia. When he entered his daughter’s hospital room, he saw that she was so depleted that if they hadn’t known it was her room they wouldn’t have recognized their daughter. She was starving herself to death and her parents were desperate.

    Nothing came to mind. No scriptures, no hymns, no wise words. Sitting in the hospital, desperate for hope, Buechner let a Bible open randomly on his lap, and as often happens since the Psalms are smack in the middle of the Bible, it fell open to a Psalm – Psalm 131. Three short verses:

    Lord, my heart isn’t proud;
         my eyes aren’t conceited.   
         I don’t get involved with things too great or wonderful for me.
    No. But I have calmed and quieted myself
        like a weaned child on its mother;
        I’m like the weaned child that is with me.
    Israel, wait for the Lord—
         from now until forever from now!

     

    He wrote this about his experience:

    I had never lived through a time when, in any obvious way, God seemed more distant… It was a horrifying, terrifying time. Which might well have given rise to the sense of, ‘If there is a God, what… is going on? How does this kind of thing get to happen?’ But instead, by grace, I had this overpowering kind of comfort. God was silent. [God] said nothing I could hear, did nothing I could see. But I had this tremendous sense that [God] was doing [everything possible]. 2
     

    That grace came through Buechner’s finding Psalm 131. He’s not sure he had ever read it before. He didn’t remember it. But in this desperate reading, he found grace. (There was another thing that brought him grace, but we’ll save that for next week.)

    Psalm 131 is one of a series of Psalms labeled A Song of Ascent, one of the songs that “pilgrims in ancient Israel likely sang as they traveled up to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple.” 3 Pilgrims literally had to ascend the temple mount. They started from a low place.

    Buechner says God helped him through Psalm 131 because the psalm spoke directly to his emotional situation: ‘My eyes were not lifted up, my heart was not high. I was not occupying myself with anything except how I was going to survive the sight of my child.’ When we are standing at the beginning of what we know will be a long and difficult journey out of the depths – a physical climb up from a low place to a higher one, as the ancient worshipers faced, or an emotional and spiritual climb up from deep suffering and pain, as Buechner faced—we can find the strength for the road ahead by waiting on God, who nurses us like a loving mother until we are satisfied with peace… 4
     

    Israel, wait for the Lord. Waiting is not something many of us do well. Anyone here a good waiter? How long can you wait before annoyance begins creeping up your neck? In the doctor’s office, for example? I can hear the internal dialogue:  

    My time is valuable. I have so much to do? Why can’t they schedule better and honor MY time?

    There are two wonderful examples of how Buechner waited for the Lord. One is how he went to the scripture in desperation. That was an active kind of waiting. He actually pulled out a Bible instead of twisting his handkerchief and worrying. 

    Those of you who were here last Sunday know that Buechner’s father committed suicide when he was 10 years old. After that horrifying event, Buechner’s mother decided that she would take her boys to Bermuda for a time to heal. His grandmother was horrified. She was a strong German woman – his description – who had a “get up and dust yourself off and go back to business” kind of attitude and way of facing life.

    But his mother stayed resolute and took the boys to Bermuda. On reflection, Buechner credits the time in Bermuda as holy time. He recounts people and events during their time there that seems to me a kind of waiting for God. It was less active – or maybe the better word would be purposeful – waiting. Yet in the calmness and the beauty of the island, “rocked” by the slower, less demanding pace of life on the island, and stepping away from the physical reminders of their dad, Frederick and his brother found peace and new life, as did his mother. They allowed time and beauty to heal them. It was by going to the island that they waited for God – and God took their hands, filling them bit by bit with healing and grace.

    2Buechner, page 29
    3Michael S. Poteet, A Crazy, Holy Grace: The Healing Power of Pain and Memory – Participant Guide. Copyright © 2018, Abingdon Press, Nashville, page 25
    4Poteet, pages 25-26