Psalm 139:1-16 [The Message]
God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
then up ahead and you’re there, too--
This is too much, too wonderful—I can’t take it all in!
Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.
Last week, I spoke on the creation story and God’s repeated affirmations that everything created – including us – was good - even very good. And I spoke of how, over the centuries, believers and the church as a whole had somehow managed to turn this upside down so that we seem much of the time to focus less and less on blessing and more and more on sin.
Sin seems to be something that obsesses us. I have actually had more than one person tell me that they had been so sinful that even God could not forgive them – a statement that is just mind-numbingly arrogant, in my way of seeing things. Do they really intend to claim that they are more powerful than God? That their power to choose evil is stronger than God’s will toward blessing and affirmation? Surely not.
Last week’s creation story was a generic affirmation of life and creation. This week’s reading from Psalm 139 goes even further in this direction – but rather than a generic blessing, this is a very specific affirmation. This affirms that God know me and affirms me (and you). There has never been a moment when God has not known each of us through and through. Even before we were born God knew everything there is to know about us – inside and out. And yet, here we are. Even knowing everything about us, God still gives each of us, individually, life and blessing. Perhaps it is time we stop being afraid of hope and trust and start believing that it is true - God made us for goodness and loves us enough to continue seeing us as good.
Believing ourselves to be innately flawed and sinful is actually the easy way out for some. If we were born broken and bad then whatever we do or become in this life isn’t our fault - we are no longer responsible for ourselves. It makes it all so simple. I’m not saying that I find this a comforting notion but many people apparently do.
But our scripture today doesn’t allow that kind of game-playing. God created us, but even before that moment of creation, God knew everything there was to know about us.
Sin seems to be something that obsesses us. I have actually had more than one person tell me that they had been so sinful that even God could not forgive them – a statement that is just mind-numbingly arrogant, in my way of seeing things. Do they really intend to claim that they are more powerful than God? That their power to choose evil is stronger than God’s will toward blessing and affirmation? Surely not.
Last week’s creation story was a generic affirmation of life and creation. This week’s reading from Psalm 139 goes even further in this direction – but rather than a generic blessing, this is a very specific affirmation. This affirms that God know me and affirms me (and you). There has never been a moment when God has not known each of us through and through. Even before we were born God knew everything there is to know about us – inside and out. And yet, here we are. Even knowing everything about us, God still gives each of us, individually, life and blessing. Perhaps it is time we stop being afraid of hope and trust and start believing that it is true - God made us for goodness and loves us enough to continue seeing us as good.
Believing ourselves to be innately flawed and sinful is actually the easy way out for some. If we were born broken and bad then whatever we do or become in this life isn’t our fault - we are no longer responsible for ourselves. It makes it all so simple. I’m not saying that I find this a comforting notion but many people apparently do.
But our scripture today doesn’t allow that kind of game-playing. God created us, but even before that moment of creation, God knew everything there was to know about us.
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.....
Body and soul, I am marvelously made! .....
You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body.....
Before we came to be God knew us - and God gifted us with life anyway.
Do we humans sin? Do we hurt ourselves and each other and the natural world around us? Of course we do. There’s plenty of evil in this world all around us everyday – I’m not claiming there isn’t. The question is: do we accept this as our natural state because we see ourselves as naturally evil? If the answer here is “yes” then I suspect we accept the wrongness and the brokenness around us much too casually. We witness the wrong and we bemoan it for awhile and then we just move on.
However, if we truly believe we are created for goodness and we have it within us – in spite of surface appearance – to be good and do good – because God created us that way – then we will live this life expecting to be better and expecting healing and forgiveness and hope for us all and we will work to bring this about.
I’m currently reading a book by Barbara Brown Taylor – an Episcopalian priest and a superb writer. The book is titled, An Altar in the World, and deals with the physicality of creation, including the physicality of us. When the church was busy changing God blessings into our intractable sinfulness, one of the ways it did this was by arbitrarily (and quite against scripture) separating spirit and matter. In this non-canonical separation, our souls became holy and capable of being touched by divinity, while our bodies came to be viewed as gross and defiled and simply ambulatory occasions of sin. Everything about our physical selves was dirty and nasty in the eyes of the early church – especially sex – and even more especially, sex involving women, who were the ultimate in dirty nastiness. We are still a very long way from freeing ourselves from this pernicious teaching.
But God created everything – not just the spiritual but the physical world. Every physical attribute of humanity was given us by God. I suspect God actually likes the physical part of creation since so much variety and attention to detail goes into our beings. Here is part of what Rev. Taylor has to say on the subject. I have read this piece over and over because I so need to hear it myself:
Do we humans sin? Do we hurt ourselves and each other and the natural world around us? Of course we do. There’s plenty of evil in this world all around us everyday – I’m not claiming there isn’t. The question is: do we accept this as our natural state because we see ourselves as naturally evil? If the answer here is “yes” then I suspect we accept the wrongness and the brokenness around us much too casually. We witness the wrong and we bemoan it for awhile and then we just move on.
However, if we truly believe we are created for goodness and we have it within us – in spite of surface appearance – to be good and do good – because God created us that way – then we will live this life expecting to be better and expecting healing and forgiveness and hope for us all and we will work to bring this about.
I’m currently reading a book by Barbara Brown Taylor – an Episcopalian priest and a superb writer. The book is titled, An Altar in the World, and deals with the physicality of creation, including the physicality of us. When the church was busy changing God blessings into our intractable sinfulness, one of the ways it did this was by arbitrarily (and quite against scripture) separating spirit and matter. In this non-canonical separation, our souls became holy and capable of being touched by divinity, while our bodies came to be viewed as gross and defiled and simply ambulatory occasions of sin. Everything about our physical selves was dirty and nasty in the eyes of the early church – especially sex – and even more especially, sex involving women, who were the ultimate in dirty nastiness. We are still a very long way from freeing ourselves from this pernicious teaching.
But God created everything – not just the spiritual but the physical world. Every physical attribute of humanity was given us by God. I suspect God actually likes the physical part of creation since so much variety and attention to detail goes into our beings. Here is part of what Rev. Taylor has to say on the subject. I have read this piece over and over because I so need to hear it myself:
I can say that I think it is important to pray naked in front of a full-length mirror sometimes, especially when you are full of loathing for your body. Maybe you think you are too heavy. Maybe you have never liked the way your hipbones stick out. Do your breasts sag? Are you too hairy? It is always something.....
This can only go on so long, especially for someone who officially believes that God loves flesh and blood, no matter what kind of shape it is in. Whether you are sick or well, lovely or irregular, there comes a time when it is vitally important for your spiritual health to drop your clothes, look in the mirror, and say, “Here I am. This is the body-like-no-other that my life has shaped. I live here. This is my soul’s address.”
After you have taken a good look around, you may decide that there is a lot to be thankful for, all things considered. Bodies take real beatings. That they heal from most things is an underrated miracle. That they give birth is beyond reckoning. When I do this, I generally decide that it is time to do a better job of wearing my skin with gratitude instead of loathing. No matter what I think of my body, I can still offer it to God to go on being useful to the world in ways both sublime and ridiculous.
God loves our bodies – God loves our spirits – God loves us. If we read our Bibles, if we spend any time observing the world around us and all its varied inhabitants - there is no getting away from it: God loves us – AS WE ARE – and we might as well get over ourselves and accept it. Can we do better? Of course we can but we aren’t ever going to manage to do that until we learn to accept ourselves as we are - the way God made us - the way God loves us. Until we actually believe that we are capable of goodness – deep down from the center of our being goodness.
This is not just an academic question. How we choose to act in the world – how we choose to interact with brothers and sisters around us depends first and foremost on whether or not we believe in God’s affirmation. We serve God with our hands and our hearts and our gifts – but we also serve just by consenting to BE the beautiful pieces of creation that God sees and loves.
It would be very good if we could stop obsessing over ourselves – our flaws and our supposed sinfulness – and then maybe we can get on with what we are supposed to we doing -- which is participating in God’s work of healing the world God loves. Amen.
This is not just an academic question. How we choose to act in the world – how we choose to interact with brothers and sisters around us depends first and foremost on whether or not we believe in God’s affirmation. We serve God with our hands and our hearts and our gifts – but we also serve just by consenting to BE the beautiful pieces of creation that God sees and loves.
It would be very good if we could stop obsessing over ourselves – our flaws and our supposed sinfulness – and then maybe we can get on with what we are supposed to we doing -- which is participating in God’s work of healing the world God loves. Amen.
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