Commit Optimism Today

6 Easter   C       May 1, 2016             

Acts 14:8-18      Ps. 67

Rev. 21:22-22:5      John 14:23-29

Lectionary Link

 

  Today, I would like for us to look for good news in the Psalm of the Day.  Let us read it again together:

Psalm 67

1 May God be merciful to us and bless us, *

show us the light of his countenance and come to us.

2 Let your ways be known upon earth, *
your saving health among all nations.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.

4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, *
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide all the nations upon earth.

5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.

6 The earth has brought forth her increase; *
may God, our own God, give us his blessing.

7 May God give us his blessing, *
and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.

  Religions and their holy books are full of a diversity of material including people cursing each other and excommunicating each other and fighting each other and separating from each other.  And one could say that religion is an honest reflection of the diversity present in life.  One of the things which most so called New Age religions seem to do is to edit the materials found in religions and just choose the optimistic and hopeful stuff and try to sweep all of the bad stuff under the carpets.  There are some negative things in religions but let's not be reminded of it.

  Ancient pray formularies used to include blessings and curses.  It has often been acceptable to bless those whom one favors and agrees with one and to curse those who oppose or try to thwart one's purposes.

  In the midst of a world where there are significant pockets of cruel killings, hateful speech and just plain tiresome political rancor about who has the best solutions to world and domestic problems, we still need to have the permission to retreat to express our highest ideals and our aspiration for what would be the perfect conditions in our world.

  Psalm 67 is perhaps an expression of the most extreme optimism to be found in the Bible or in any holy book?  Certainly such extreme optimism could be called good news or Gospel.  What are the elements of extreme optimism found in Psalm 67?

  There is a confession that God belongs to all of the peoples of the earth.   There is a desire that God manifest mercy and blessing upon everyone.   The Psalmist asks that all be able to seeing the light of the divine countenance.  Let each person see this approving glance of Daddy and Mommy's loving approval upon them.  Seeing favor and approval from God is the foundation of personal esteem.  There is a saying that it is better to be lucky than good.  The Psalmist is not appealing to the goodness of humanity; the Psalmist wants mercy and blessing for all of us.  It is better to know God's mercy and blessing than to rest upon any sense of goodness, ability or even hard work in our lives.  We should be good, we should express our gifts and we should work hard, but beyond all of these things, we find that the great complimenting feature of life is the fortune of knowing God's mercy and blessing. 

   If God represents Greatness, then it follows that all people would have access to Greatness.  There is an expression of an invitation to freely acknowledge Greatness.  The Psalmist does not say, "Make all of the peoples praise you, O God."  It says, "Let the peoples praise you, O God."

  The Psalmist implores, "Let God's ways be known upon earth; let saving health be known among all nations."   This is the ultimate best wish for the well being of all in this world.  All of us at our best can identify with this prayer.  The words of Jesus to his disciples promises that the Advocate or Holy Spirit will remind the disciples and teach them all things about what Jesus taught them.  Jesus taught them to love God and love their neighbors as their selves. How much time in our prayers do we spend aspiring that God's saving health might be known throughout the earth?  Do we leave this to New Age, visualizers of world peace who are Pollyannaish about being able to meditate world peace into actual practice?  Do we think that we are better being realists to pray for world blessing while keeping our guns loaded? 

  The Psalmist is obviously a musician because the Psalmist says, "let everyone be glad and sing with joy."  So there is hope even for the tone deaf.  Singing can make one glad; music arises to express what we often don't think can be expressed with just words.  Singing and music are another kinds of language which humanity has to express our experience of the Sublime.  But notice that the best motivation for joy and gladness is the celebration of the way of God is known through justice.  "You judge the people with equity."  And isn't the practice of justice being realized the very best cause of joy and singing?  When we as Americans and when the people of world see justice being actualized, then we cannot help but make music.  Singing properly expresses our joyous response to justice.

  The Psalmist recognizes the reciprocity of the Earth and the Divine.  The Earth is a gift to us which bears sustaining fruit to provide us with life's necessity.  And yet we need the Divine to remind us that there is someone greater than us to give us wisdom in the distribution of the gifts of our good earth to provide for all.  Without an acknowledgement of God, human dominators take over and exploit and do not share the fruits of the earth so that everyone can justly have enough.  Human dominators do not care what kind of earth will left for our children.

  The Psalmist acknowledges that God allows people to connect personally with God; the Psalmist writes: "May God, our own God give us the divine blessing."  Jesus invited everyone to know God as he knew God; he invited everyone to say, "Our Father."  So you and I and everyone can say, "My Father God, My Mother God," not because we can presume to limit God to our narrow views, but because we can know a loving dependency upon God as simple trusting sons and daughters of God.  Instead of fighting over the superiority of my God, the Psalmist asks us to recognize that all persons can have a uniquely personal relationship with God.

  And may the ends of the earth stand in awe of God.  What is it that can qualify and interdict our behaviors?  Our appreciation of someone who is greater than we are.  In the lives of all great human beings we can find flaws and weaknesses.  Great people can inspire us but at some point we can arrive at disillusionment with all people. The very notion of God as the Greatest is the notion of ultimate horizons of surpassability.  The one who is greater than all is also the worthy authority to inspire us toward moral, ethical and loving behaviors, not because we fear God as the final Judge, but because we want to please God as our loving parent.

  The Psalmist wants the optimistic option; let us be those who are learning to be better because we know God to be great, merciful, and the one who is always blessing.

  As gruesome as some of the imagery of the Book of Revelation is, the writer also has a vision of a new earth and a new Jerusalem.  And God knows we need a new Jerusalem since the earthly Jerusalem, while being a holy city has been one of the bloodiest cities of human history.  How ironic that the city with the most religious significance in the world has been the site of such devastation and shedding of blood.  Indeed we need to visualize a New Jerusalem, a new condition between people who do not use religion as an excuse to hurt or harm other people.  In the vision of John the Divine, the Tree of life from the book of Genesis returns; it has twelve fruits, one for each month and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.  Don't we wish all of the nations of our world could start taking this herbal remedy now?

  Today, let Psalm 67 be the Gospel for us today.  If you are ever getting depressed about our world, if you are ever getting disillusioned with all of the religious and political disputes, just return to Psalm 67 and with the Psalmist commit the supreme act of optimism and let that optimism rise as the blessing of hope within us, even the blessing of God's Holy Spirit.

  May God give us and everyone God's mercy, favor and blessing.  Amen.