Rev. Victoria Decker Millar
Covenant
Presbyterian Church,
Refuge
Psalm 31: 1-5, 15-24
1
In you, O Lord, I seek refuge;
do not let me ever be put to shame;
in your righteousness deliver me.
2 Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily.
Be
a rock of refuge for me,
a strong fortress to save me.
3 You are indeed my rock and my fortress;
for your name’s sake lead me and guide me,
4t ake me out of the net that is hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.
5
Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you
have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
15 My times are in your hand;
deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
16
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your steadfast love.
17
Do not let me be put to shame, O Lord, for I call on you;
let
the wicked be put to shame;
let them go dumbfounded to Sheol.
18
Let the lying lips be stilled
that speak insolently against the righteous
with pride and contempt.
19
O how abundant is your goodness
that you have laid up for those who fear you,
and
accomplished for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of everyone!
20
In the shelter of your presence you hide them from human plots;
you
hold them safe under your shelter from contentious tongues.
21
Blessed be the Lord,
for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
when I was beset as a city under siege.
22
I had said in my alarm, I am driven far* from
your sight.’
But you heard my supplications when I cried out to you for help.
23 Love the Lord, all you his saints.
The Lord preserves the faithful,
but abundantly repays the one who acts haughtily.
24
Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord.
This is the word of
the Lord.
Thanks
be to God.
My question to you this morning is this:
What is your refuge?
If you are like me, your refuge has changed over time.
The earliest refuge I can remember is our bungalow house in
In elementary school, my brother, sister and I constructed our own summer day refuge,
which was a tent consisting of a picnic table covered by a blanket pinned on our lawn by rocks.
Later refuge was our uncle’s huge cottage with 7 flights of stairs down to the beach.
Today
I count the
and a vintage (that means 1981) sailboat my husband and I keep in
What is your refuge--
the house you live in,
a summer cabin,
a porch or a patio or a wood shop in the basement?
The word refuge literally means that to which one flees, again and again.
Fug means flee, like fugitive and re means again.
Refuge: that to which one flees again.
And in today’s text, the writer of Psalm 31, gives new meaning to the word refuge.
It is as though the writer has two voices---
one voice is a cry, a petition, for God’s help.
And the second is a voice which is confident God will respond.
In the psalm, the first voice sounds like this:
·
In you, O Lord, I seek
refuge.
·
Do not let me be put to
shame.
·
Incline your ear to me.
·
Be a rock of refuge for me,
a strong fortress to save me.
·
Take me out of the net that
is hidden for me, for you are my refuge.
The first voice
repeats: I
seek refuge, be a refuge, you are my refuge.
The first voice is the honest cry of human suffering.
Yet even in crisis, this faithful writer has a remarkable second voice
which is confident that God will act out of compassion.
The second voice sounds like this:
Let
your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.
O
how abundant is your goodness.
You
heard my supplication when I cried out to you for help.
The
Lord preserves the faithful.
Let
your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord.
Blessed
be the Lord for…his steadfast love to me when I was beset like a city
under siege.
verse 5 is the ultimate.
The psalm’s first voice cries in anguish: “Into your hand I commit my spirit,”
giving all that remains--jeopardized life, body and soul--over to God.[1]
One thousand years later,
Jesus will claim these words from this psalm with his last breath on the cross.[2]
But the psalm’s second voice speaks immediately.
And if the followers of Jesus knew the scriptures well,
perhaps one at the cross would have dared to whisper the continuation of his words
from the psalm which was their source:
“You
have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”
This psalm is about refuge.
Refuge is that to which we flee, again and again.
Refuge is indeed our homes or our cabins or our getaways
but the ultimate refuge is a relationship with God.
Yet ironically, it is dangerous to find refuge in a compassionate God.
Because you may find the contents of God’s heart are gently poured into yours
and you may find yourself caring about many people
increasingly beyond your circle of family and friends.
It is dangerous to find refuge in a compassionate God.
Because you may find you hear the cries of the suffering, nearby and far away.
It is dangerous to find refuge in a compassionate God.
Because you may question the American dream of having more of everything
and you may stay awake pondering how our consumption affects the world’s poor.
It is dangerous to find refuge in a compassionate God.
Because you may find yourself devoted to a church that wants to act like the body of Christ,
wants to multiply loaves and fishes, wants to heal the sick and wants to call Lazarus out of the tomb.
And if I think about a place desperate for loaves and fishes, desperate for healing the sick
and desperate for keeping Lazarus out of the tomb,
I think immediately of
I
was in
and I can easily picture the red clay land, the village huts,
the city shanties and the lovely yet ragged children.
It is dangerous to find refuge in a compassionate God.
Because you may find yourself emptying your pocket change daily into a little basket
for the charity Change for Children which this church has supported in recent years.
You may find yourself buying raffle tickets for a beautiful, heirloom quilt
and working next Friday and Saturday on a rummage sale, and might buy a cookbook
to send 11 ambassadors including me from this church to
where we will live with and serve alongside the staff at Change for Children.
And today’s psalm speaks to me when it says:
Blessed be the Lord,
for
he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
when I was beset as a city under siege.
No continent is
more besieged by poverty[3]
and AIDS than
Life expectancy is one measure of all their suffering.
The average life expectancy in
and UNICEF claims it is 41 years.[5]
Let’s say it’s 39 years life expectancy.
Who among us is less than 39 years old?
Imagine our society if no one lived beyond age 39.
Imagine no government safety net.
Imagine if neighboring countries gave no help
and had nothing to share.
Eleven of us are
going to
The organization Change For Children is committed to the care for children
—providing group homes for babies and toddlers without families due to AIDS,
milk supplements for infants,
and schools for children who could not otherwise attend.
We will be living in their dormitory,
holding and tending the group home children,
working with the teachers and pastors who have minimal educations and are eager to learn,
building projects with our own manual labor,
listening to them, worshiping with them, sharing morning devotions with them,
and praying with them.
It’s all building:
building emotional stability for infants
helping teachers and pastors build the foundation of the community
building shelter
building our understanding of God’s world and what God calls us to share with others.
And it will be an exchange because we will learn from them.
We will learn how not to hurry.
We will learn how to make do.
We will learn how to give up control.
We will learn about the depth of community that forms
when
people know they need each other.
Last year when I
was standing in line at the international terminal to go to
I met a young woman from
She would be there for a year for a program like the Peace Corp.
She was traveling alone but her nervous parents were standing in line with her as long as security would allow.
She had recently graduated from a Catholic college and had been on a few month-long mission trips.
But this was a far bigger step.
She looked confident. but her parents were clearly anxious.
I asked her father if they would visit her.
He said they hadn’t made plans but they hoped to.
He made some mention of owning a business.
I got the impression travel was an option they could afford.
I got the impression this was a daughter of privilege
who had a compassion that they didn’t quite share
but for which they were grateful,
even if it meant more risk and more separation than they bargained for.
And I made a prediction to this family—not something I normally do.
I
said I was sure that because they would not let go of their daughter, they would
visit
I
said their experience in
Their daughter would be the catalyst
by
which God would draw the whole family into care for
One of the ways I think God is working in the world is that twenty-somethings travel farther than ever before.
Whereas friends my
age spent their junior years abroad in
recent college students I know
have been on mission trips to
They bring home a bigger perspective,
a compassion for the
I predict they will each develop a unique commitment to help the people they have met.
And I am glad we have 3 twenty-somethings going on this church’s
Back to the family at the airport.
I’ve had more time to think since those few minutes I was with them.
And today, to us, I’d clarify that it’s not about us.
It’s not that God moves rich people to impoverished places for spiritual growth
although that is often a side benefit.
And by any measure in the Two Thirds world, you and I are rich people.
I am grateful this church is committed to responding to local needs.
I am glad there is a plan coming together to offer vacation Bible school here in August
not just for our congregation but also for the neighborhood children.
.
And I am also grateful this church has stretched
to
respond more to the relationship already established in destitute
This is the truth as I perceive it today.
When a person is besieged, the Holy Spirit sends help.
When a person is able, the Holy Spirit sends that person to help.
This is what God does,
within families,
within churches,
within neighborhoods,
within cities and
across the globe.
For those of us who seek to listen for and follow the Holy Spirit,
this is the cycle of life.
And through it all,
in outcries and in trust,
in plenty and in want,
in joy and in sorrow,
in sickness and in health, in youth and in age,
our relationship with God is our refuge.
In the name of the Father who sent the Son and the Son who sent the Spirit.
They are for us the divine search party
from whom we shall never be lost.
Amen and amen.
[1] [1] Brueggemann, Cousar, Gaventa, Newsome, ed, Texts for Preaching Year A: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1995), p. 294
[2] Luke 24:36
[3]
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/GNIPC.pdf
[5]
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/zambia_statistics.html