17 Pentecost, Year A
Psalm 114
Sermon by Pastor Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson
Believe it or not, this is true: the city council
of Southampton, England, in order to comply with preservation laws, was
required to write a letter to a tree informing it that it would be cut down and
that the tree was welcome to make any objections or comments. The letter, which
was tacked to the tree’s trunk, began: “Dear Tree...” 1
As some of you likely know,
especially those of you who are familiar with aboriginal peoples and culture;
it was also a common practice among some of them at least to regard all of
creation as a unity. In some aboriginal religious traditions, everything in
creation had life, including such things as rocks and trees; therefore, it was
to be treated with respect and one had to talk to a tree, and ask the tree’s
permission to cut it down. Therefore it was not considered that strange to
personify nature and talk to nature.
In today’s psalm, which is
one of the Hallel Psalms (Pss. 113-118) that the Israelites included in their
liturgy during the Passover and other festivals; we encounter a similar kind of
phenomenon. The psalmist speaks of nature, of God’s creation in a personified
way.
For example, in verse 3, the
sea is described by the writer as supposedly having eyes and maybe even a body
with legs: “The sea looked and fled; Jordan
turned back.” Now, we contemporaries
of the twenty-first century would likely respond to this phenomenon in a
rational way and say something like this: “We must read this kind of literature
as poetry, and poetry speaks in figurative, symbolic language, which is not
meant to be interpreted literally.” That statement may be true for a lot of us;
but it likely was not true of the psalmist and of ancient Israel. For the
psalmist and ancient Israel, no scientific explanations of the natural world
existed. They were a people who lived very close to God’s creation and hence
were more in touch with and felt more connected to nature than we do today in
our world of advanced science and high technology. Furthermore, they saw God as
very active in the natural world--hence, the language of today’s psalm.
And what a creative language it is! The psalmist, so overflowing
with the exuberance of God delivering the Israelites from Egyptian slavery;
breaks into a moment of sheer joy by speaking of mountains skipping like rams, the hills like lambs. That’s quite a creative
way of expressing the joy of the psalmist and ancient Israel, isn’t it? So
elated, so free, so grateful and awe-filled was the psalmist that nature is also viewed as serving God’s
purposes and celebrating with the ancient Israelites in their joy.
Then, in verses 5 and 6, the
psalmist now, in the form of questions, speaks directly to the sea, to Jordan,
to the mountains and to the hills. In asking the sea and Jordan why they
receded, and why the mountains and hills skipped; the psalmist is preparing us
for the answer, which comes in verses 7 and 8. These verses speak now in the
form of a command and an invitation: “Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the
LORD, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of
water, the flint into a spring of water.”
In other words, the answer
to the questions as to why God’s creation behaves the way it does is found in the very presence of God. According to
the psalmist, God’s presence causes
everything in nature to submit to God in obedience by the power of God’s
Presence and God’s word speaking directly to God’s creation. This, of
course, is reminiscent of God at the time of creating the universe; whereby God speaks and in that speaking all
of creation comes to life.
The power
of God’s Presence and spoken word remains among God’s people to this very day. That is why we practice bowing our
heads when we address God in prayer, and bow down onto our knees when we
receive that sacrament of Holy Communion, out of respect and awe for God. And
that is also why the word of God continues to be of vital importance to us in
our worship services, along with the sacraments where the elements of nature;
be they water in baptism and bread and wine in Holy Communion; combined with
God’s word, carry with them the mysterious, forgiving, and saving power and
Presence of God. In our world today, I sense that there is a tendency to reduce
the awesome, wondrous, transcendent Presence of God; to make God as
domesticated as we can to suite our selfish purposes. Yet, the psalmist tells
us that the creation, the earth has enough “sense” to “Tremble, at the presence
of the LORD.” Deep reverence for God does not make God less accessible for us
or make God into some threatening and strange spooky Presence. Rather, deep
reverence for God draws us closer to our True Source of all life and helps us
to remain fascinated and astounded and excited about God’s Presence in our
lives—reminding us of our place as creatures of God’s creating to serve and
love God; not to be equals with God.
It is quite interesting that
in verse 8, the psalmist now describes a different kind of water than that of
the threatening sea and the Jordan. Now the psalmist tells us what God did
during the Israelite wanderings in the wilderness, God “turns the rock into a
pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.” In this nature miracle, water is now life-giving, not death
threatening. For those ancient Israelites, wandering in the hot desert heat
without water would certainly bring death. So God’s miraculous activity of
turning rock and flint into water was certainly life-giving.
In the
preface to her fascinating book, Water in
England, Dorothy Hartley writes, “Our water was always important. Before
roads were built it was our travel guide and map-maker. We caught it running,
kept it static, conducted it and made it work for us. We washed in it (homesick
Romans built Bath for it); we even drank it sometimes. Our saints made it
miraculous, minerals made it medical.”
Water!
How much we take it for granted! When next we turn the tap we might remember
that bit of potted history above and also the millions in the world who suffer
through prolonged drought and polluted water supplies. (Our) prayer for today
(may very well be), “Give us this day our daily water!” 2
As Christians reading this psalm, we thank Jesus for giving us the sacrament of Baptism--wherein God works the miracle of life and salvation through the natural element of water together with God’s word; by making us children of God and granting us the promise of forgiveness, new, resurrection life now and into all eternity. As Christians reading this psalm, we remember Jesus’ promise in the Fourth Gospel, that he offers each one of us would be followers of him the gift of himself--the Living Water, who will always quench our spiritual thirst. He will provide us with abundant life, now and always.
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