I have a suitcase stored in a closet at the house. I have actually blogged about it before. It has taught me so much about the power of time and memories. Since I wrote that first post…there has been a pretty major change with the suitcase.
Inside the suitcase are books from my grandparents house. The suitcase is actually from there as well. For years I could open it up and smell their home, which has since been sold. I even kept the suitcase in a garbage back trying to preserve the smell. I would only open it up once or twice a year.
Remembering the past is a pretty big thing for many of us. We want to keep those experiences alive.
Our scripture this week is about experience. It is a song sung during specific moments in time.
Psalm 84
How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, indeed it faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.
Happy are those who live in your house,
ever singing your praise.
Selah
Happy are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
the God of gods will be seen in Zion.
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob!
Selah
Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed.
For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than live in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
he bestows favour and honour.
No good thing does the Lord withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
happy is everyone who trusts in you.
This is an ascension or pilgrimage psalm. They were sung during the journey to the Temple by folks coming to worship. You can imagine what those moments must have been like. Huge crowds of people coming into Jerusalem singing songs about the presence of God and how they have experienced and how they are expecting to experience God.
This psalm is all about an on-going relationship. A relationship that doesn’t just live in the past, but has a present and a future. For anyone who is searching for the presence of God their is a truth we find in Psalm 84.
We find the presence in the present.
Many people begin the new year making resolutions and goals. For many people who follow Christ, I imagine they set a few goals around their spiritual life. The thing about goals and resolutions is they take repetition. Big goals take time to put into habit. This article shows how some can take most of a year.
As much as I wish I had magic preacher dust I could sprinkle and give everyone a huge, abiding sense of the presence of God, we have to do the work to form the relationship. To build up memories of presence to draw on when we need them. Verse 7 of Psalm 84 talks about this, going from strength to strength, markers of time of the presence of God.
Years ago, a simple monk, Brother Lawrence, wrote a great book called The Practice of the Presence of God. In it he assisted a younger monk with the Christian life. The majority of his conversations where about finding God in the smallest, most everyday things. That is where a relationship was found. It was an expectation a person could consistently be meeting with God in the present.
About that suitcase…
I opened it up a few months ago. The smell has gone away. It doesn’t change the past relationships I had with my grandparents. But I no longer hold that part of the past. I remember them now by the person who I am, the person they were part of making me to be. The things in the suitcase are now on a shelf, serving as markers for the relationship. The past is the past.
The beautiful thing is the presence of God doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t go away. It doesn’t exist in one moment in time but is available in the present and future. God is truly here with us!
This Sunday we will talk about finding the presence in the present. It will be a great time of worship. See you at church!
Chad Brooks - January 5, 2014
The Practice of the Presence of God
Have you ever found yourself stuck in the past? Have you wondered where the presence of God exists in time? The best way for us to practice the presence is to find it in the present.
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Sermon previews are released on Friday’s. They are to give YOU a short glimpse of what the conversation is going to be like on Sunday morning. On Monday, the preview is updated with some discussion questions, scripture guide and an mp3 of the sermon. I do these for 2 reasons. The first is so God can continue working in your life throughout the week. The second is for you to share this with a friend. I invite and encourage you to share the preview on Facebook/Twitter and through email.
Chad Brooks is a United Methodist Pastor serving in Louisiana. Married to Meredith, he is currently starting a new church in northeast Louisiana. Host of the Productive Pastor Podcast and lover of motorcycles, Chad would love to find Bigfoot one day.