e-vo for week of February 1

Dearest e-votees,

During this week is the time (counting from Christmas) when Mary would have been expected to bring Jesus to the Temple and present him and an atonement offering (see Leviticus 12:1-8 if you want to see all the ritual expectations). That is why we commemorate “The Presentation of Our Lord” on February 2.

There are assigned texts for this holy day. This week, for our devotional reflection, we will linger with the appointed psalm.

Peace,
Karl

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1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! 2 My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. 3 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. 4 Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. 5 Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. 6 As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion. 8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! 9 Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed. 10 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. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.

Psalm 84, NRSV

One of my favorite encounters with this text was when I was about to have my first entrance interview with the folks at Luther Seminary. I had an appointment at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks, CA. I got there early and had some anxieties to tend. As I wandered around I found a chapel. I went inside and these words were beautifully and deeply carved into the dark wood walls. I sat in the midst of these words and my heart was soothed.

I cannot read these words without being transported in my mind back to this defining moment.

There was a place for me by the altar just as there is for the swallow and her young. There was a place for Jesus in the Temple—a place where Mary could come and lay her young. There is a place for all of us in God’s courts.

Of course the reality is that the Temple has been leveled. The place that was thought to house God had the door torn off it from top to bottom at the moment of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice. As Peter Mayer sings so eloquently (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHHDeWtoftw) “God is Loose in the World”. So we don’t really need to seek God in a chapel or a Temple or other concrete particulars—although there is a deep and abiding promise about God being found profoundly in Word and Sacrament. We can go out into the world with our God. We can be a doorkeeper or a footwasher or a faithful servant—a day doing that is better than a 1,000 days chasing after the things of the world.

Our happiness, better yet our joy, start when we trust the Lord. When we lean not on our own understanding (see Proverbs 3:4-5) God will straighten out our paths and help us know how to go. Jesus had remarkable and particular focus towards what God had called him to do. This granted him great freedom to be remarkably interruptible and to dwell in deep ministry moments with all of the wrong sorts of people. Might we know that paradox of incredible focus and gracious distractablity.


God, draw us up into your courts no matter where we find ourselves. Help us to make room for swallows and their young, tax collectors and sinners and all who might come seek asylum and comfort just as you have so graciously made room for us. Help us trust in you so very much that others can’t help but be drawn in. Amen.