Psalm 121/Romans 5:1-5
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Israelites were a wandering people. From father Abraham, a wandering Aramean, to Isaac settling in Gerar under King Abimelech; to Jacob, fleeing to Laban, sojourning down to Egypt during the famine and being reunited with his son Joseph. And of course, the nation of Israel wandered for forty years in the wilderness, living by divine sustenance, before entering the promised land.
Yet even within Canaan the Israelites wandered. Three times a year they would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Three times; for Shavot, Sukkot, and Pesach. The Feast of Weeks, Feast of Booths, and Passover. Three annual trips. Leaving behind home and goods, setting aside work, trekking up to Jerusalem for the feasts.
And no matter where one lived in Judah, north or south of the Holy City, one always went up to Jerusalem. This was true not only topographically, but also theologically. Jerusalem was situated on a hill; one had to ascend the hill to enter the Holy City. But more, Jerusalem was the city on a hill, who gave light to the world; it could not be hidden. For within her walls resided the Temple, in which the Lord God of heaven and earth hid Himself in cloud and smoke atop the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. In her light one saw Light; that is, she reflected the light of He who is the Light of the world.
Now it is not coincidence that Lententide is forty days (not counting Sundays), mimicking Israel’s forty years in the wilderness, our Lord’s forty days of fasting and temptation. For Lent is a journey; a pilgrimage for the Christian and the new Israel of the Church. You wander. Called to take up your cross and follow after Christ.
Nearly six weeks ago you stood with Cephas and the Sons of Thunder upon the mount of Transfiguration; there you beheld the majestic glory of the only-begotten Son of the Father, the radiance that was His from all eternity, the power and might He set aside, hidden beneath the frail form of flesh and blood in order to dwell with you. Having come down from that mountain you set your face toward Jerusalem, the City on a Hill, and toward another mountain; toward Golgotha, the hill of the cross.
And so it is that descending from the Mount of Transfiguration, trekking toward Mt Calvary, you are presently within a valley. Surrounded on all sides by darkness and the shadow of death; that which lurks in the dark to destroy you. But it is more than what is around you, but also what is within you: the wickedness and perversity of your own flesh, a guilty conscience, an unclean heart. This is what truly seeks to devour you. Be not drawn into spiritual naval-gazing; lift up your eyes to the hills!
Behold the thundering blast of God’s holy Law revealed atop Mt Sinai. His Law demands complete and utter perfection. You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy (Lev 19:2). Here you encounter the terrible holiness of the Lord who would undue you, obliterate you with the voice of His Word. Touch this mountain and you will die. Yet we have. We have touched Sinai everyday, transgressing the will and Word of the Lord, seeking self-justification and the idolatry of our golden calves; whatever personal form they may take.
Repent. Be turned that the Lord may heal you. Lift up your eyes to the hills and travel with Joshua and Israel to Mt Ebal and Mt Gerizim, where the Lord who swears by His own Name renews His covenant promise with His people. For there altars to the Lord were established, as commanded by Moses. There, on these two mountains, Israel between them, all the Word of the Lord, His blessing and His curse, was read and proclaimed to the assembly of His people; a people for Himself, whom He brought into the Promised Land; a people He redeemed by blood.
He is your Guardian, your Keeper, who stands on the ramparts, the tower of His wall, and beholds you, His beloved. It is written, Behold, there He stands, behind our wall, gazing through the windows, looking through the lattice (Son 2:9). And the Lord who hid Himself at Mt Moriah as the Angel of the Lord, the Lord who hid Himself at Mt Sinai in deep darkness, the Lord who hid Himself at Mt Ebal and Gerizim in His Word, is the Lord who hid Himself in flesh and blood and was revealed, not only at the Mount of Transfiguration; but fully in His Passion and Cross raised atop Mt Calvary.
Beloved, your dear Lord God who is good, hides Himself among the sufferings of this present journey, within the afflictions of this pilgrimage. You have obtained access to this hidden God, revealed in His Word, through faith, says St Paul. In this grace you stand. And in His glory you rejoice. Only His glory is not found on Mt Transfiguration, not yet. It is found on Mt Calvary. Hidden in suffering; lift up your eyes to the hills! This is how St John understands the weight of this theology, a God known only through suffering and affliction, a God hidden beneath shame and weakness; a cruciform Lord, who is with you in this valley of the shadow of death.
And this is precisely why St Paul says, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put you to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
And God the Holy Spirit was given to you in your baptism. There you journeyed from the domain and kingdom of the devil to the font of blessing; from outside the house of faith, a stranger and a pilgrim, to being brought into the true Israel of the Church; redeemed, washed in the blood of the Lamb.
This is why the baptismal liturgy uses this psalm after the child has been exorcised, marked with the sign of the holy cross, denies the devil, confesses God - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and prays the prayer of His children, the Our Father. Then the child traverses the nave, from outside the Church to within her womb, coming to the font. And the word is spoken, The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Indeed the Lord keeps your life. He is with you as you trek through this wilderness, wandering toward your eternal home. Our Lord, who may have in fact sung this Psalm on the night of His betrayal as He went out to the Mount of Olives, travels with you from the hill of baptism to the hill of His Altar, where the fruits of Calvary are given; praying this Psalm for you and with you.
Indeed, your soul converses within you, I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Here is your blessed Shade, and your Guardian from all evil: the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, given and shed for you. He keeps your going out and coming in.
Indeed your whole life is lived in continual welcome and departure from the Table of the Lord; a rehearsal for the Last Day, when you shall behold with St John, the great high mountain, coming down from heaven, the Holy City Jerusalem. Her high walls no longer keeping you out, but her twelve gates flung wide open that you may enter in. The Guardian of Israel is there. He is her Temple. You shall enter, for you have been written in the Lamb’s book of life; inscribed with His blood.
And He shall keep your coming in to eternal life, where you shall lift up your eyes to the hill of which Isaiah wrote, saying, On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And He will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken (Is 25:6-8).
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Israelites were a wandering people. From father Abraham, a wandering Aramean, to Isaac settling in Gerar under King Abimelech; to Jacob, fleeing to Laban, sojourning down to Egypt during the famine and being reunited with his son Joseph. And of course, the nation of Israel wandered for forty years in the wilderness, living by divine sustenance, before entering the promised land.
Yet even within Canaan the Israelites wandered. Three times a year they would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Three times; for Shavot, Sukkot, and Pesach. The Feast of Weeks, Feast of Booths, and Passover. Three annual trips. Leaving behind home and goods, setting aside work, trekking up to Jerusalem for the feasts.
And no matter where one lived in Judah, north or south of the Holy City, one always went up to Jerusalem. This was true not only topographically, but also theologically. Jerusalem was situated on a hill; one had to ascend the hill to enter the Holy City. But more, Jerusalem was the city on a hill, who gave light to the world; it could not be hidden. For within her walls resided the Temple, in which the Lord God of heaven and earth hid Himself in cloud and smoke atop the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. In her light one saw Light; that is, she reflected the light of He who is the Light of the world.
Now it is not coincidence that Lententide is forty days (not counting Sundays), mimicking Israel’s forty years in the wilderness, our Lord’s forty days of fasting and temptation. For Lent is a journey; a pilgrimage for the Christian and the new Israel of the Church. You wander. Called to take up your cross and follow after Christ.
Nearly six weeks ago you stood with Cephas and the Sons of Thunder upon the mount of Transfiguration; there you beheld the majestic glory of the only-begotten Son of the Father, the radiance that was His from all eternity, the power and might He set aside, hidden beneath the frail form of flesh and blood in order to dwell with you. Having come down from that mountain you set your face toward Jerusalem, the City on a Hill, and toward another mountain; toward Golgotha, the hill of the cross.
And so it is that descending from the Mount of Transfiguration, trekking toward Mt Calvary, you are presently within a valley. Surrounded on all sides by darkness and the shadow of death; that which lurks in the dark to destroy you. But it is more than what is around you, but also what is within you: the wickedness and perversity of your own flesh, a guilty conscience, an unclean heart. This is what truly seeks to devour you. Be not drawn into spiritual naval-gazing; lift up your eyes to the hills!
Behold the thundering blast of God’s holy Law revealed atop Mt Sinai. His Law demands complete and utter perfection. You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy (Lev 19:2). Here you encounter the terrible holiness of the Lord who would undue you, obliterate you with the voice of His Word. Touch this mountain and you will die. Yet we have. We have touched Sinai everyday, transgressing the will and Word of the Lord, seeking self-justification and the idolatry of our golden calves; whatever personal form they may take.
Repent. Be turned that the Lord may heal you. Lift up your eyes to the hills and travel with Joshua and Israel to Mt Ebal and Mt Gerizim, where the Lord who swears by His own Name renews His covenant promise with His people. For there altars to the Lord were established, as commanded by Moses. There, on these two mountains, Israel between them, all the Word of the Lord, His blessing and His curse, was read and proclaimed to the assembly of His people; a people for Himself, whom He brought into the Promised Land; a people He redeemed by blood.
He is your Guardian, your Keeper, who stands on the ramparts, the tower of His wall, and beholds you, His beloved. It is written, Behold, there He stands, behind our wall, gazing through the windows, looking through the lattice (Son 2:9). And the Lord who hid Himself at Mt Moriah as the Angel of the Lord, the Lord who hid Himself at Mt Sinai in deep darkness, the Lord who hid Himself at Mt Ebal and Gerizim in His Word, is the Lord who hid Himself in flesh and blood and was revealed, not only at the Mount of Transfiguration; but fully in His Passion and Cross raised atop Mt Calvary.
Beloved, your dear Lord God who is good, hides Himself among the sufferings of this present journey, within the afflictions of this pilgrimage. You have obtained access to this hidden God, revealed in His Word, through faith, says St Paul. In this grace you stand. And in His glory you rejoice. Only His glory is not found on Mt Transfiguration, not yet. It is found on Mt Calvary. Hidden in suffering; lift up your eyes to the hills! This is how St John understands the weight of this theology, a God known only through suffering and affliction, a God hidden beneath shame and weakness; a cruciform Lord, who is with you in this valley of the shadow of death.
And this is precisely why St Paul says, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put you to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
And God the Holy Spirit was given to you in your baptism. There you journeyed from the domain and kingdom of the devil to the font of blessing; from outside the house of faith, a stranger and a pilgrim, to being brought into the true Israel of the Church; redeemed, washed in the blood of the Lamb.
This is why the baptismal liturgy uses this psalm after the child has been exorcised, marked with the sign of the holy cross, denies the devil, confesses God - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and prays the prayer of His children, the Our Father. Then the child traverses the nave, from outside the Church to within her womb, coming to the font. And the word is spoken, The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Indeed the Lord keeps your life. He is with you as you trek through this wilderness, wandering toward your eternal home. Our Lord, who may have in fact sung this Psalm on the night of His betrayal as He went out to the Mount of Olives, travels with you from the hill of baptism to the hill of His Altar, where the fruits of Calvary are given; praying this Psalm for you and with you.
Indeed, your soul converses within you, I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Here is your blessed Shade, and your Guardian from all evil: the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, given and shed for you. He keeps your going out and coming in.
Indeed your whole life is lived in continual welcome and departure from the Table of the Lord; a rehearsal for the Last Day, when you shall behold with St John, the great high mountain, coming down from heaven, the Holy City Jerusalem. Her high walls no longer keeping you out, but her twelve gates flung wide open that you may enter in. The Guardian of Israel is there. He is her Temple. You shall enter, for you have been written in the Lamb’s book of life; inscribed with His blood.
And He shall keep your coming in to eternal life, where you shall lift up your eyes to the hill of which Isaiah wrote, saying, On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And He will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken (Is 25:6-8).
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
RSS Feed