First Friends Meeting
Psalm 46
‘Giving Thanks’
Doug Gwyn

Thanksgiving seems early this year, doesn’t it? I had a brief conversation with Ellen Stanley about that. Being a librarian, she looked it up in an almanac. She confirmed that Thanksgiving was originally established by Abraham Lincoln as a national holiday the last Thursday of November. But it was changed to the fourth Thursday by FDR, as a way of extending the Christmas shopping season a bit. The way the holiday shopping season keeps extending, they may move Halloween up to mid-October.

So it is that Thanksgiving, like Christmas, is redefined according to its commercial importance. About this time of year, we get these predictions of retail sales for the holidays. The media deliver these projections with a very serious tone, as if the future of the free world hangs in the balance. National security is at stake. Nothing would make Osama bin Laden happier than a poor showing this December. Won’t you do your part?

Well, I guess national security and thanksgiving have been a potent combination for a long time. The two seem to go together in the Psalm that Laurel just read for us. The Psalms were written to be sung in the temple at Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the capital city of ancient Israel, established by King David. It was a walled fortress, with lots of outlying villages. If an invading force approached, people from all those outlying communities would flee to the walled city of Jerusalem as a refuge. Of course, an invading army might surround and lay siege to the city for months or even years. Food supplies would be strategic. Water would be even more critical. But Jerusalem had underground streams, accessible by tunnels, to keep the people from dying of thirst. The temple was in the midst of the city. In ancient cultures like Israel, people believed that their god really lived in the temple. Ancient Israelites knew that God is everywhere, but they tended to think of the temple as God’s special dwelling place. And because of the temple, God would never let Jerusalem fall to invading armies. So keep those sacrifices coming, folks – we need to keep the Lord well fed and happy. The Assyrians and Babylonians are always ready to pounce. Won’t you do your part?

That logic is there in Psalm 46. But there’s also a tension. Psalm 46 insists that God – not these walls and defensive towers – is our refuge an strength. In times of trouble, God is our present help. An invading army or an earthquake might breach the walls of this city. This temple might be burned to the ground (and indeed, it eventually was). And there may be underground streams in this city to quench our thirst. But the hidden streams of God’s presence, God’s Spirit are the real source of life. To put it another way, we may be killed or dragged off into bondage if an invading army comes and tears down the walls of this city. But we will die or fall into some kind of bondage if we don’t find our sanctuary in the Lord. The bondage might be some kind of addiction, some kind of distraction, or a despair of any meaning in our lives. The death might be the death of a marriage, the dead-end of a failed career, the loss of hope in this life or the next. There are invaders and oppressors we cannot see. The Lord is our only defense against these.

This meetinghouse has a similar quality of sanctuary and refuge for us. As Quakers, we resist calling this room a sanctuary, or calling this building God’s dwelling place. We insist that God dwells in each person. Focusing too much on special buildings, special people, special times distracts us from seeing that of God in other people, alienates us from finding God’s light in ourselves. God dwells here in this room only insofar as God dwells in us, the congregation that gathers here. And yet, we do come to cherish this particular place. A great deal of loving care, hard work, and hope for the future went into the planning and finishing of this building.

This building has no high walls or defensive towers. But we resort to this building from our various outlying neighborhoods seeking refuge and strength, seeking God’s present help in challenging times. We seek it partly through our own direct connection with God, that sense we have deep in our own hearts. But we also seek God’s presence partly through the good, faithful Friends, the reliable allies, the old standbys and inspired newcomers who gather here week by week. What a gift we are to each other! We mediate God’s presence to each other. We, not priest, an altar, or a holy day, make God real to one another. The sacrifice we bring to this room is our time, our energy, our loving attention and concern, to be here for one another before God. We come to rely on that. Our sense of security is grounded in the faithfulness we demonstrate to one another. Our faithfulness to one another helps us recognize God’s faithfulness to each of us.

Psalm 46 proclaims that national security is always relative, never fixed. The whole creation can totter and fall apart. But the Psalm repeats, “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” The Psalm proclaims, just look at how the plans of nations continually fall apart. See how powers rise in arrogance and fall by the same arrogance. Well, certainly, this is taking the long view! At any given time, the world can seem like a very dangerous, scary place. And vicious oppressors get their way for long periods of time. Where is the writer of this Psalm standing where he (or she) sees wars ceasing all over the earth?

That brings us to the punch-line of this Psalm: “Be still and know that I am God! I am exalted among the peoples, I am exalted in the earth.” Yes, God is with us, but we have to be with God to know it. To see what the Psalmist sees here, to feel the confidence and reassurance the Psalmist feels, we have to come to the real sanctuary of the soul. A week ago, five of us visited the Dayton Peace Museum. We listened to the presentation of a couple traveling around the country talking about peace. He was a UCC minister and a fan of Thomas Kelly. He quoted that great opening line from [‘The Light Within’? T. Kelly quote] It reminded me once again that the peace we seek for the world has to begin with us. And it begins with us from the center of our being, the sanctuary where God truly dwells with us. We have to become peaceful, we have to still our hearts and minds to know God is here with us.

When we come to that sanctuary, that stillness within ourselves, we know God. We also see God exalted among the peoples. America is not alone. Christians are not alone. Others are finding their way to that sanctuary too. Last Sunday, we listened to Mitchell Allen speak in our forum of his conversion to Islam. He grew up a Baptist. I’m sorry he didn’t find joy, peace, and fulfillment there. Many do. But I can rejoice that he found God as a Muslim, ten years ago. From the sanctuary of God in my own heart, I could sense the peace and joy he has found there.

And from that sanctuary of God within us, we also see God exalted in the earth. We savor the incomparable beauty of God’s creation. We absorb something of the vast wisdom of God that pervades nature. We learn to bring our lives more into balance with the natural world. Yes, God is exalted in the earth, when we are still and know God.

Of course, being still is the hardest thing for us to do most of the time. There are some moments when we slip into that reality easily. But much of the time, we are too distracted, too distressed even, oppressed. We are captive to those invading forces that permeate our modern society. The sanctuary is right here, but which way is that? How do I get here from wherever it is I seem to be? Some of us attended last Tuesday evening the first of six sessions my wife Caroline is leading at Earlham on mindfulness. She’s been studying with Buddhists to be a meditation teacher, and she’s very good at it. And as she emphasizes, you don’t have to be or become a Buddhist to practice their meditation and gain from it. It can enrich your prayer life as a Christian, for example. We can only come to God by way of our hearts and minds. And all people’s hearts and minds have the same strengths and weaknesses. There’s much that’s unique to our Christian faith, but we come to it by way of a universal human condition.

To be still and know God never becomes automatic. We can grow in practicing the presence of God. But centuries of Quaker, Buddhist, and other mystics have witnessed that we’re always having to start over. The heart and mind keep developing new twists that disorient us from God and we have to find our way there all over again. But when we get there, it is the place of true thanksgiving. We become as children once again, able to recognize and receive life as a gift, an amazing gift. We recognize how richly we are blessed. Yes, we’ve worked hard. Yes, we’ve earned much of what we have by steady, tiring toil. But in God’s presence, we see that our strength to do that work has been a gift too. In God’s presence, we’re back in the garden. Let us enter the garden together. Let us be still and know God among us.