Rev. James K. Teall
First Presbyterian Church
Psalm 132 Sunday March 12, 2006
A Passionate Faith
Psalm 132
Trivial Brain
The average human brain weighs 3 pounds. The weight of the human brain triples during the first year of life, going from 300 grams to 900 grams. After age 30, the brain shrinks a quarter of a percent in mass each year. Now I know why after I turned 30 I felt like I was losing my mind, in fact I am. The human brain is fascinating. One of the most interesting features of our brain is the ability to remember. “Memory is the capacity to bring elements of an experience from one moment in time to another and is unique to human beings. No other biological system has developed a more sophisticated capacity to make and store internal representations of the external world – and the internal world – than the human brain,” states Dr. Bruce Perry. The ability to remember is a major aspect of what it means to be human.
The Ability to Remember
Memory is a wonderful gift but it can be used as a destructive weapon. The psalms are full of prayers that utilize the human capacity to remember the past. The Psalmist in the Hebrew prayer book labeled 132 says, “O LORD, remember David and all the hardships he endured.” The psalmist is leading a prayer of the people to remember the past, specifically about their past King; King David. The psalmist is leading the people of God not to forget the faithful obedience of King David and how he risked his life to secure the Ark of the Covenant, which was the symbol for the very presence of God.
Remembering is a vital part of a life faithful obedience. Without memory we could not have faith. But you might ask, “Doesn’t faith require that we forget what lies behind us and to only look ahead, as the apostle Paul commands of us in his letter to the Philippians?” Well in faith there is a healthy memory and an unhealthy memory. Indeed Paul wants us to forget our sins and the sins of others that cause us to stumble and fall but he does not want us to stop remembering the faithful obedience of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thus Paul institutes the practice of the Lord’s Supper where we remember the past actions of Christ and his death and resurrection. To have faith we must remember but it is important what and how we remember. How we see things today and how we perceive the future depends so much on how we remember the past. A life of faithful obedience requires a healthy or redeemed memory.
How We See the Past Shapes the Present
Growing up there was the cartoon I watched called Mr. Magoo. Mr. Magoo was a crotchety, nearsighted, lovable old coot who lived his life on the edge of danger because he could not see. On occasion Mr. Magoo would drive his little Model T car the wrong way down a one way street causing confusion on the road to all those around him.
So many of us are like Mr. Magoo.
Our distorted view of that past distort the way we perceive the present and the future and we live much of our life feeling misunderstood and not be able to understand others. Mr. Magoo needed a pair of coke bottle glasses to see the world the world the way it is supposed to be seen. You and I need a healthy memory if we are going to see the world correctly. We need God to give us a new prescription lenses to truly understand our lives today. What kind of lenses are you seeing your present and future life through? How you remember the past will determine see today and tomorrow.
The Redemptive Memory of the Father
There was a man who had two sons. The younger son left the family, taking his share of his inheritance early and wandered off to a foreign land where he wasted his time, talent and treasure on destructive and harmful behaviors. The younger son lost everything. He squandered away his life on selfish living and when the last scrap from the garbage dump he was eating out of went dry, with his tail between his legs, he shamefully came home. The father, whom the younger son betrayed, ran out to greet him and threw his arms around him and kissed him and said welcome home. This son of mine who was once lost is now found. It is time to rejoice. However the older brother was not so excited about this new turn of events. The older brother did not even want to claim this poor excuse for a human being has his brother any more. He was outraged by the thought of having a party for this wayward son of his father.
The story I am referring to is the story that Jesus told as recorded in Luke 15 and is commonly known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The story I believe should be called the Parable of the Embracing Father. The father embraced his son. The older brother however excluded his own flesh and blood, why? I think it mostly had to do with their memories. The father had a redemptive memory but the older brother had a destructive memory.
When remembering the past there is a time for everything. There is a time to mourn and a time to refrain but there is a time to forgive and a time to heal. The father was hurt by his son’s actions. By taking the money and running he betrayed his family. The father experienced great shame and humiliation by letting his son go. The older brother was neither shamed nor humiliated but he did have more chores to do, which would tick off any sibling and he was probably hurt as well because his little baby brother left him all alone. Both the father and the older son were hurt and negatively affected by the actions of the younger son, so why was the father able to embrace him on his return and why did the older brother keep his arms folded in front?
The memory of the father had been redeemed but the memory of the older son had not. The older son could only remember on thing about his brother and that was the act of betrayal. He remembered the day his younger brother with all of his pride and arrogance packed up and left for a life in the fast lane and now he the younger son got what he deserved. However the Father had a different memory. The father remembered his youngest son bouncing up and down on his knee.
He could remember the talks they had as they walked together in nature. He remembered how strong he was as he worked on the farm and how smart he was in the classroom. He was so proud of his son. He loved him so much. He was his own flesh and blood and he could never forget the scent of his son, his smile, his laugh and even his tears when he scraped his knee as a little boy. The father also remembered the day his son left and how his heart broke but he never forgot the boy. The older son never forgot the boy either but his memory was only of his transgression but the Father remembered the boy made in the image of God whose sin was forgivable and redeemable.
The Redemptive Memory of the Psalmist and the People of Israel
The Psalmist is calling together the people of God to remember one of their own from the past. “Oh Lord Remember David and all the hardships he endured during his long journey of faithful obedience to you.” King David as we know was nowhere near perfect. He was not always obedient to God; far from it at times. David got himself into some trouble when he took fancy to another lady who was not his wife and then had her husband killed. Adultery and murder are not words we typically associate with obedience but what the Psalmist is doing is helping the people of God remember the past with a redeemed view. David in spite of all his failures lived his life faithful to God. David had to learn humility. He had to learn about forgiveness. He had to learn how to trust God in every situation and during his long life he learned how to be obedient. The psalmist leads the people of God to remember the faithfulness of the people in generations gone by and in this instance he refers to David, the chosen and anointed one of God who brought the presence of God symbolically into the Covenant Community of the Israelites. With all of the difficulties of the past in the history of the Hebrew people the psalmist leads the people to a memory of an imperfect man who demonstrated faithful obedience.
Redemptive Memories of First Presbyterian
What are your memories of the past like? When you reflect on the last 50 years of this church what comes to mind? When you think of the last 30 years, 10 years, past year, last week, what are your memories? The Holy Spirit has been active in this church since its inception over 100 years ago. The Spirit of God always dwells with God’s people and we have been God’s people in the past, we are God’s people now and the Spirit of God will be with us for the next 100 years. When we remember the faithfulness of the people of the past in this congregation it can and should encourage us to live a life of faithful obedience today and tomorrow. Remembering faithful members of this church enables us to trust and believe God and his promises today.
I remember to talking to a man in his late 80’s when I was serving at a church in Houston. The man was weak with IV’s coming out of his arm and a breathing tube under his nose. The cancer was due to take him within the week. It was my first visit to a hospital as a staff person on a church. I was scared to death. What would I say; what would I do? It turned out I had to do very little unless you count listening a major chore. I sat and listened to that man for about an hour.
He told me how he cared for his wife and visited her in the hospital every day as Alzheimer’s ate away at her brain. He told me about how he would take his wife and three kids to church every Sunday and how he worked with the youth as a young man. He talked about his faith in God and how God drew Him into a deeper loving relationship through the members and pastors of that church. What I thought was going to be a difficult experience turned out to be one of the most joyous experiences of my life. My faith in God deepened because that dying man brought me to the past and it changed the way I thought about the present and my future. I have had many similar experiences in this church. When a person is in the twilight of their life talks to me about this church and how God’s spirit was alive and active it gives deepens my faith for the day and for the future.
This might come as a piece of shocking news to you but The First Presbyterian Church is not a perfect church. We do not have a perfect past. However, we do have a faithful past. We have wonderful past made up of God’s people whom God’s Holy Spirit has dwelled among. We have a faithful past that is worth remembering and celebrating. Recently I was talking to a member of this church asking her questions about her long history and experiences in the life of this church. She said, “You know it is easy to find fault in this person or that person. We can knit pick about what people did or did not do, but at the end of the day the members of this church are my family and when I needed them they have always been there for me.” Then I asked her what she thought about the future of this church and she said, “We are in a great place and things will only continue to get better.” She had a redeemed memory of the past and it shaped how she saw the future.
Sharing Stories
Seventy Five percent of the Old Testament are narratives. The Old Testament is a compellation of stories about of the people of God and how God related with His people. The stories tell of a people who got it right sometimes but most of the time got it wrong. It was in the sharing of these stories about imperfect people who served a perfect God that others came to faith in God. We too need to find a way and the time to share our stories together.
75% percent of the time the people of God talked about their stories as they related to God but the other 25% of the Old Testament is made up of poems, songs, proverbs and promises. Though the people of God spent much of their time talking about the God’s grace among the fallible people of the past, they also looked forward to the future that was promised to them by God.
A Hope Filled Future
The Psalmist points to that future when he says, “The Lord swore and oath to David, a sure oath that he will not revoke: One of your own descendants I will place on your throne—if your sons keep my covenant and the statues I teach them, then their sons will sit on your throne forever.”
Well we know that not all of David’s sons, those in his line, were not faithful to God and His covenant. In fact most of the Kings from David’s line were horrible Kings that disobeyed God it seemed whenever they had the chance. So did this prophecy come true? It did. The King that sits upon the throne forever and ever is Jesus Christ. He is from the line of David. Even though the people of God were not faithful to God, God was faithful His people. God indeed has put a King on the throne whose resting place is forever, and that resting place where he resides forever and ever is in the very hearts and souls of God’s people. God’s Spirit is among God’s people and He is among us today, in fact each one of you carries the very Spirit of the Living God.
The apostle Paul I think summed up the entire gospel when he said, “God is faithful even when we are faithless.” God being faithful in spite of our faithlessness is called Grace. The story of God and His people is the story of grace. When we remember the 100 year history of this church and the people of this church with all their wonderful qualities and their fallibilities and what we see is God’s grace. So what awaits us today? What is waiting for us in the future? God’s grace! God has always dwelled among his people. In David’s time the symbol of that presences was the Ark of the Covenant, today it is in the very heart and soul of every person of faith in Christ. The Presence of the Lord is with us. He is here right now. He has never left us nor will He ever leave us.
Psalm 132 is a song of remembrance. The Psalm guides the people of God to remember the grace of God in years gone by. Psalm 132 is a prayer of hope for the future. The psalm points us ahead and allows us to see that grace awaits us tomorrow. So what awaits you and me tomorrow? One thing we can be sure of. God waits for us. God’s presence is always with us. His Spirit is always on the people of God. Even when His church acts in faithless ways, God is faithful. The First Presbyterian Church gets it right sometimes and other times we get it wrong but one thing we can be sure of God’s grace is always with us and His grace is more than sufficient to learn how to live a life of faithful obedience.
