planted by streams of water

July 10, 2022 • Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Reading: Psalm 1
Rev. Alexis Lillie preaching

[You can view the full worship video recording at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhRQw-qSRlo

Psalm 1 is a lot about the things that are not done, about not taking certain paths or accompanying certain people. Surely a lot can be said about what these paths and people might be, but the interesting thing to me, is the not doing, the emphasis on saying, “no.”

Saying no, and if you read between the lines a bit there’s also not a reason or excuse given! Just, "blessed is the one who does not do these things." Not, “blessed is the one who has a justifiable reason for not doing these things.” Or, “blessed is the one who has to come up with some story about why it's ok for them not to do it.” It’s enough to only say no, without excuses.

This healthy practice of saying no, of resisting in a positive way, creates space. The question then becomes: what is flowing into that space? When you're saying no to constraints on your time, you ideally have more time. How do you spend it? When you say no to unhealthy patterns or behaviors, you hopefully have more health and well-being in your life. How do you engage this health?

Whatever you're saying no to, you're creating space for something else to fill, even if that space is just more space, because you need those buffers.

This passage says, blessed is the person who does not do certain things, who creates space, and in that space meditates on "the law of the Lord,” which I think we can also understand as God's law, the divine law, guidance. This isn't often our go-to when we think of what life-giving things we might want to fill up space we’re creating.

But, our passage talks about "delighting in the law," and that word "delight" invites us to think about our assumptions of "law" differently. How can a word like "delight" be used alongside "law" like that?!

"The Law" connotes for me something that is very prescriptive, as in, “do this, don't do that.” And yet, even "the law" in its original context has the power to be deliciously good. Think of the Sabbath!

What the law creates, what we create through our interpretation, can sometimes become a burden. This becomes the list of do's and don'ts. We end up calling those things "the law" when in actuality they can bring us away from the intention of what God is inviting us into.

In the case of the Sabbath it's exactly what we talked about with regard to saying "no" to certain things in order to create space, to nourish yourself, to exist in community with God and others ... and letting other concerns for your life fall away for that day.

And then we sometimes put our human layer on top of all this. We come in and figure out what we need to do to feel like we did the thing, checked the box, justified our Sabbath. And that gives it the negative connotation. Not the law itself. At its root is a desire for delight, freedom, and flourishing.

The Sabbath is just one example, but it opens us to the idea that the law may actually have delightful roots. And to the idea that creating space for it – by resisting other things that pull our focus – may be something we want to do!

Through this lens, "the law" can be seen as something of abundance that God desires for us. Things that, at the core are sacred, and grace-filled, and delightful … before they get all of our interpretations piled on to them.

What are these spaces of delight for you? What things do you want to create more space for? And how can you the law for what it's intended to be: Something that is brings us more alive, at our core, at our root, and helps us find more delight?

Copyright © 2022 by Alexis Lillie
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