OK, help me out here. I love the Psalms, but today’s Psalm reading has me really concerned. The Psalmist seems to be suggesting that only perfect people are permitted in God’s house. I know, I know, this has been my struggle in preparing today’s sermon.
You’ve heard me say many times how everybody is welcome in the church, Everybody! Nobody is left out. But here in Psalm 15, the psalmist seems to be suggesting that we need to get a moral security guard at our church entrance to only allow in those who are blameless.
Listen to these opening lines: “O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?” You’d think he would then say something like, “everyone is welcome here,” but instead we get these restrictions.
“Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart; who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors.” These are the ones who may come into God’s house of worship.
Alright, since these are the worship rules, we’ll all have to go home now. Let’s just close the church because honestly, is there anybody that can say they are blameless? We would see a sudden massive drop in our worship attendance.
Whenever the president of my seminary would lead a worship service for the students and faculty he always opened up worship by greeting us with these words; “Welcome sinners!” But then, he would also say, “Welcome saints!”
That opening greeting was always jarring to me, but it always reminded us of who we are and who God is calling us to be. We are all sinners but we are also God’s saints. Sinners and saints!
So, after a lot of soul searching about this Psalm and what it might mean for us today, here are some of my thoughts:
My first thought is that it’s always good to have high standards. Yes, we welcome everyone to any of the ministries and activities of the church including worship, and yes, we seek to be as inclusive as possible, but it’s also important to remember who we are seeking to meet here in this place whenever we gather.
We come into this place to meet the One who has created us and the one who wants us to be the people we have been created to be. We are to come to this place with the very real possibility that we might not be the same person when we leave from here. We might experience spiritual transformation because we have been in the presence of God.
And the reason for this is because at the very heart of our faith is the belief and the hope that God wants to form us in the image of God. And the image of God is outlined by these three very important words by the Psalmist.
We are to walk blameless, do what is right, and speak truth from our hearts. In short, we are to walk, do, and speak in ways that reflect the God who has created us. Walk, do, and speak. That’s more than a cosmetic change. That is more like a extreme makeover from the inside out.
So maybe, the Psalmist is assuming that this is what our goal in coming to this place is; that we want to be here not just to say hi to some friends and enjoy some awesome hazelnut coffee, but to actually allow God to transform us and help us to be the best versions of ourselves we can possibly be, that God created us to be!
I think it’s more of that rather than setting up a barricade for only the morally perfect people to enter here. And maybe this is why the Psalmist doesn’t say that we need morality police to be stationed at each entrance of the church. The Psalmist is putting that responsibility upon each one of us.
Maybe we’re the ones God is calling to examine our own hearts so that when we enter this place, we do so with a willingness, a humility, and and openness to be shaped and formed into God’s people. It’s an honor’s system when we come to worship on Sunday mornings.
The tricky thing is when people believe that God has called them to say who should enter and who should not enter the church for worship. We know ourselves better than anyone else.
And actually, our worship rituals bear this out. So when someone wants to join the church or receive baptism, before they become part of the church, this question is always asked of them,
“On behalf of the whole Church, do you reject all that is evil, repent of your sin, and accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?”
And if that’s true, the person is invited to respond with, “I do.”
And by the way, wouldn’t this be a great question to ask ourselves every single day before we begin our day?
“Will I reject all that is evil, repent of my sin, and accept the freedom and power God gives me to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?”
Hopefully, by answering this question with a resounding “yes,” this will then lead us to say “no” in participating in a conversation that demeans a group of people, or look the other way when someone is being mistreated, or contributing to any unjust social system that promotes inequality, discrimination, racist attitudes, and unfair labor practices.
No wonder that our appointed Old Testament reading for today from the Prophet, Micah is paired with our Psalm 15 reading. We have this often quoted verse and rightly so, where it says, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
And in our appointed Gospel reading for today, Jesus continues this theme of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God where he says,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. Blessed are you when people reviled you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
The psalmist, the prophet, and Jesus are all pointing us to live a life of integrity. Synonyms for integrity include words like soundness, honesty, unity, and oneness.
From its root word, we get terms like integral which means “essential and complete.” We also get the word, “integer” which refers to a whole number and the word, “integration,”which refers to various parts that are joined together into a united whole.
When we live with integrity, we are exhibiting a constancy of heart, soul, mind, and strength. The opposite of living with integrity is hypocrisy where our outward appearance doesn’t match our inward being and who we really are inside.
[Queen Mary Ship]
In 1936, the Queen Mary set sail as one of the largest cruise ships of the time. She survived four decades at sea including service during World War II. Following decommissioning, the Queen Mary docked at Long Beach, California as a floating museum and hotel.
During the conversion, cranes removed the three large smokestacks. Weakened by rust, sections of the funnels crumbled on the dock. The outward appearance of strength and nobility no longer could hide what was now on the inside, a very fragile and broken vessel.
We all have some of Queen Mary in all of us where our outward appearance doesn’t always line up with what is truly in our hearts. This is why the Psalmist reminds us to think about what we are doing on Sunday mornings before entering these doors. Am I aware of my own brokenness, my own shortcomings, and my own need for God’s grace to make me whole again?
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, referred to those early Methodists who were intentionally seeking to help each other move toward Christian perfection in this life as “a holy band.” A holy band is when we are committed to helping each other to live a life of integrity, to seek justice, to be kind, and to resist evil.
These holy bands were actually small groups that would meet each week in between Sunday worship services, where they would pray for one another, encourage one another, confess their sins to one another, and help each other become more like Jesus. We are both sinners and saints.
The Psalmist begins his psalm by asking the question, “O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?” He knows the answer to his own question, “Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right.”
If this is even remotely who we hope to be and hope to become, then it sounds like we are in just the right place.
A Holy Band
O God, you are holy and we want to be more like you. We confess that we are overwhelmed by the struggles of life. We hunger and thirst for righteousness, but find ourselves feeling empty. We grieve in seasons of loss, feeling hopeless and lost. We want to show mercy, but we hold on to old resentments. We want to make peace, but we don’t even know where to begin. Forgive us and help us to be the loving, gracious, peace-making, forgiving, servant-like, and generous people you call us to be. In other words, help us to be more like you! Amen.
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