Lenten
Mid-week homily
March
25, 2020
Please pray with me,
May the words of my mouth and the
meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable and suitable in your sight, O
God, our rock, our strength and our redeemer.
Amen.
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
So much of Psalm 46 speaks to me
this night. From God being our refuge
and strength – and being reminded that we will not fear.
That God is in the midst of the city,
God will help it when the morning dawns.
The reminder that the Lord of
hosts is with us, the God of Jacob our stronghold.
This psalm speaks to those who
are in turbulent times, for nations in uproars, in warring nations, as a
reminder that God is in it. All of it:
From the trembling mountains to the roaring seas. God is in it.
God is present.
And in the middle of all of
it…and several times in this psalm alone, we hear the word selah. It’s a Hebrew word that may mean
forever. But often times it is placed
within scripture, primarily psalms, as a direction. And the direction it gives? It is a direction to stop.
Yup, you heard me correctly, it’s
a direction to stop.
It’s a direction for the reader
or chanter or listener of the psalm to stop.
To pause.
To breathe.
To take in that moment before
taking the next step.
Selah, as
Glennon Doyle describes it, "is the holy silence when the recipient of
transformational words and music pauses long enough to be changed forever. "(Untamed,
p136)
I love that. It’s holy silence.
The holy silence when we are
invited to listen more closely, or dive into our hearts more deeply.
It’s the holy silence where God
says, hey beautiful, it’s okay, I’m with you.
It’s the holy silence when just
for one second of one moment we (you, me) do not have to do ANYTHING.
It’s the holy silence when our
senses are heightened and we are able to see, hear, smell and feel God’s
presence surrounding you, filling you and letting you be free from anything
else in that given moment.
When have you paused lately?
Or rather, when has God reached
out to you and said, selah, stop, child, listen, be, I am here with
you.
Life has changed drastically for
many of us in the past few weeks. It may
feel like you were on the treadmill and the incline shot up, and the speed got
faster and you are doing your best just to keep up.
Others of us were not even on the
treadmill when it started, and we’ve been dropped on it…not even knowing how
this thing works. You know, like George
Jetson, yelling to his wife Jane, get me off this crazy thing!!
In any event. I like to think of selah
as God pulling the emergency stop key out of the treadmill. It causes it to stop – yes, suddenly – but it
makes it stop. So that you must
stop.
In the midst of all the things
happening right now, it seems that maybe, just maybe, God wants us to
stop. To be. To feel and experience God’s presence here
and now. To know that the Lord of hosts
is with us and that the God of Jacob is our refuge.
I began tonight’s homily with a
way that helps me enter into the holy pause.
I often repeat this verse from
this psalm to help find that holy pause.
I invite you to use this when you
need that pause.
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
Amen.
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