Sunday night: Advent II

In our Advent reflections we've been praying the Psalms together - slowly - and that demands that we pay attention.  Each of the Psalter readings during Advent ask us to spend three days - what an important New Testament number - with each Psalm.  So Psalm 85 has been our focus for the weekend.

Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people,
to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
Two thoughts come to me this night as Advent II closes ~ thoughts that have been part of my thinking, reflection and prayer for years ~ and they are grounded in the word English word fear:  sometimes it is Yirah in Hebrew ~ as in "fear of the Lord." ~ and sometimes it is yawre ~ and the differences are distinctive.

+ Most contemporary Americans - whether they are part of a church or not - equate fear with terror.  And that is not what the fear of the Lord is most of the time; rather, Yirat Adonai is more akin to "a reverential awe for the way God's light (glory) fills creation."  What we're talking about is a deep sense of devotion - a sacred awareness - of the presence of the Lord in every detail of life. 

Consequently, for most of my adult life, I've spoken of an "awe of the Lord" rather than a "fear" because what is at stake is a deep and abiding gratitude for God's loving presence and power. Sadly, this is often sentimentalized in our slick pseudo-Christian pop culture ~ think of a "precious moments" versions of the way of the Cross ~ or what my children call the "shiny, happy, bouncy pastel" church ~ Kleenex Christians in Clarence Jordan's vocabulary ~ those who cannot stomach real life. 

But that is not what Yirat Adonai means: Psalm One teaches that an abiding sense of awe is the beginning of true wisdom.  This is "fear" in a reverential and respectful sense ~ and awe usually communicates this better to contemporary people, yes?

+ But there is also the Hebrew yawre ~ fear ~ and that IS a terror because it is what we feel when an offense that deserves punishment has been committed.  The liberal church rarely talks about the consequences of sin ~ except in a social justice context ~ while the conservative church tends to over-emphasize personal sin to the exclusion of social justice.

Anyhow... both types of fear of the Lord are found in the Hebrew texts in roughly equal amounts ~ and today's Psalm speaks of the fear of punishment: even Peterson's "The Message" uses the word fear.  The point is that salvation ~ healing and restoration of health on a social, emotional, spiritual and personal level ~ are at hand when we KNOW and ACKNOWLEDGE our sin.  No more denial ~ no more bull shit ~ no more faking it.

Now, truth be told, I don't think this can happen without a lot of practice with sin; we have to be sick and tired of being sick and tired.  We have to have tried everything else but God's grace before we're willing to let go.  As someone told me after worship today, "I'm ok with waiting but surrender... I'm not so sure?"  And I get that ~ we like to be in control ~ and some of us will fake it til we die.  But that isn't "fear of the Lord..."  I am taken by the way Peterson writes about the opening verses of Genesis:

Those first verses of Genesis are paradigmatic... the wonderful phrase 'formeless and void," is a mess ~ and then in that mess, that chaos, the Spirit of God begins working and slowly creation and covenant begin to arise out of it: light, form vegetation, animals, humans, love, virtue, hope, Christ. I once told a group of seminarians that the thing I like most about being a pastor is the mess. I do not mean I like messes as such, but I like that sense of being in a mess, held there by hope, knowing how God's creativity works ~ slowly, slowly, slowly ~ but always with surprises. Creation, creative work, never ends up the way we thought it would. It is always a surprise.

Tonight I am aware of sin ~ social, personal, corporate, institutional, intentional, accidental and all the rest ~ and give thanks for God's grace.  Both fears are worth exploring ~ especially in this throw away society that rarely takes responsibility for the pain it causes.

credits:
1) sleena @ http://www.deviantart.com/
2) Leandra20 @ http://www.deviantart.com/
3) sanmiguelarchangel @ http://www.deviantart.com/