Felicity

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

May 1, 2011

Psalm 16 is a profession of faith and a prayer for help. This is appropriate for us and especially for the 35 youth who are being received today into professing membership

Refuge--- Sometimes we need to retreat, “Hunker down”: hide out; what the Sabbath used to be (now have to squeeze in mini-Sabbaths). “No good apart from thee.” (Is translated by the Revised English Bible as “Thou art my felicity.”)

 “Keep me safe, O God, I've run for dear life to you.
I say to God, "Be my Lord!" Without you, nothing makes sense.” (The Message translation)

Refuge is not first a building, like a church building, though it can be a wonderful place to come for God’s presence! But first refuge is found in a relationship,  presence which is invisible but real. In our hearts, minds, and imaginations, the “Lord [can be] always before [us] so [we] shall not be shaken.”

My Uncle Charles Elliston was in the Coast Guard in WWII. He was raised on a flat land farm in north central Texas. He tells me of the fear that he experienced when his relatively small ship was tossed about by waves that were as tall as a three story building. The ship was his refuge on a stormy sea!

This is a metaphor for God’s infinite dependability, sufficiency

Goodly Heritage--- “Goodly” is not a word we use! But for Israel it would have meant land for Israel/David’s people---a land of security and prosperity. But heritage for us is not land but people in this church: those here now and the lively ones who have passed “over chilly Jordan.”

Who in this church do you now give thanks for? Mentors who have walked with you through your confirmation preparation or those you turned to when you needed a word?

 Bob Breihan said that he asked UT students what kept them related to the church. They said that beliefs were important but people the most important----those who loved them when they were younger, and whom they would see when they returned home. This is the gift of heritage: a body of Christ which changes but is the same, too. (We don’t get on and off the train-church at the same time, but it is always a moving train and consists of people on a common journey.)

Path of life, Counsel: “The Lord is my chosen portion,” as as Peterson translates it, “My choice is you, God, first and only.” “Day and night I'll stick with you, God; I've got a good thing going and I'm not letting go.”

“If I would valiant be, ‘gainst all disaster,
Let me in constancy follow the master.
There’s no discouragement shall make me once relent,
my first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.” (Bunyan’s Hymn)

Not WWJD but WWLIMD, “What would Christ, living in me do?” Jesus walked everywhere. Disciples learned by what Jesus said---his wisdom; and by what Jesus did as he walked--- as he spoke and looked and touched and listened. Following Jesus, you and I are on the right path, the life-path.

Joy: “In your presence there is fullness of joy.” Happiness is good: when good things happen. “Rejoice with those who rejoice!” Savor the good times.  But here is something deeper and more lasting:  “quiet joy.” (From Feasting on the Word, Easter Year A, Kimberly Bracken Long, page 387) Again, Peterson’s translation: “I'm happy from the inside out,
      and from the outside in, I'm firmly formed.”

I look back over my life and are able to say that there have been times when I have been up to my neck in sorrow, when I did not think I could go on. But I can say that life has been a gift and I am thankful. I have seen some awful things and experienced them first-hand; but I have not been alone. Life is a struggle, not a stroll in the park. But I would not have missed living for anything. Quiet joy has stood me well.

God’s real presence? Some claim that life is one dimensional, that the only things that are really there are what we see and hear and touch with our senses----that there are no surprises. Many say this with  conviction that borders on faith, not evidence!

It seems to me that either the Most High God is nowhere or everywhere and in relationship to every thing. I choose to trust that Holy God is in all places. I do not know this, but I trust in the reality of this God, who is like Jesus for me.

 I am accompanied; even when I am blind and deaf, the winds of God’s Spirit are with me, the one “in whom I live and move and have my being.” (Peter’s Sermon in the Book of Acts) The gift of faith is gladness of heart, fullness of joy, forevermore.

Refuge, heritage, counsel and joy. Worth recalling and discovering as time goes by.