As Black Elk says: "Where the easy way is crossed by the Path of Difficulty, Mark a Holy Place

Everyone Needs a Sanctuary

Psalm 73:1-17

During the recent ordeal when children of polygamist families in Texas were in foster care, there was t= alk from young adults who had moved from polygamist families to live on their own. Many of those who moved = into the mainstream spoke of their difficult adjustment. From early childhood they had been taught that folks on the outside were evil and would destroy them if they associated with them. Even th= ough they discovered otherwise when they left their home and family, it was hard= for them to set aside what they had been taught. It was said, and true, that the yo= ung adults had been brainwashed in their early years; nevertheless, they lived = with a false perspective.

False perspectives, false teachings, prejudices and deceptions are difficult to overcome.

Today’s scripture lesson was written by a man named Asaph. He was reared to believe that whic= h is false. Asaph was a Levite and= a contemporary of David, the psalmist. He had been reared to believe that good things happen to people who = are good, and bad things happen to people whose conduct is bad. Thus, when he saw wicked people prospering and good people suffering he was deeply troubled. What he had been taught to believe= was challenged.

I’ll call her Charlotte= , which isn’t her name. S= he said to me one day something like this: “God must be punishing my family for something one of us has done. You know I’ve bee= n sick almost a year. Our daughter a= nd her husband lost a baby and my husband lost his job. I wish I knew what one of us did th= at was so bad.” I’ve hea= rd similar thoughts by other people. What Asaph believed is still believed by folks. To some who experience heartache a= fter heartache, this is the only explanation that appears rational to them.=

Asaph says that this kind of thinking had colored his life and he was hurting. When we come to verses 16 and 17 i= n the psalm we read these words: “But when I thought how to understand this= , it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God…” In God̵= 7;s sanctuary Asaph began to think differently.

He tells us a few things about his changed perspective after going into the sanctuary of God.

v&nb= sp; First, he was reminded that the final verdict of a person’s life will be at the end of his or her life, not during the journey.

v&nb= sp; Secondly, Asaph realized that he had become a bitter man because he h= ad focused on life’s unfairness, and his bitterness had not only made him miserable, it had also made him stupid and ignorant.

v&nb= sp; Thirdly, he was reminded that he still belonged to God and God was holding his hand. His spirit = was inspired by God’s Spirit! Verses 24-26 read: “[God] You = guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me with honor. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that= I desire other than you. My fle= sh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

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Asaph learned that though life’s journey isn’t always fair, it’s still a blessing to be near God. I think he also learned that some things are beyond our understanding. That’s a difficult lesson fo= r many of us to accept. We want to k= now everything. When you think ab= out that, our desire is to be God - and that’s impossible! There’s much that we canR= 17;t and will never understand, and a part of being human is accepting this trut= h.

When Asaph speaks of going into God’s sanctuary we don’t know whether he is referring to the Temple in Jerusalem, a synagogue or some special = place he had designated in his mind and heart to be a sanctuary. A sanctuary is a place that is set= apart and designated to be holy in one’s mind. The word “holy” means “to be set apart.” It’s a place where God is experienced. Where Asaph’s sanctuary was, we don’t know; but we know = that going there lifted his spirit and life to new heights.

In the sixth chapter of Isaiah we read of another who went into a sanctuary. The prophet Isaiah entered the Temple, a trouble= d man. King Uzziah, whom he had served, h= ad died. Isaiah was troubled bec= ause he knew that he had been more concerned about making King Uzziah happy with= his words than he had about being faithful to God. While he was in the temple contemp= lating how he had failed to be the prophet God called him to be, he had a vision.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Following the vision, he cried out, “Woe is me! I am lost, = for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” That visit to the temple, and the experience Isaiah had, changed his life and he became one of God’s gr= eat prophets.

Moments ago we sang the hymn, Come, Thou Fo= unt of Every Blessing. The second verse of that hymn begins saying, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither= by thy help I’m come…” This comes from a passage in I Samuel 7 that reads: “Then Samuel took a stone an= d set it up between Miz’pah and Je·sha’nah, and named it Eb·e·ne’zer; for he said, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us’” (vs. 12). Ebenezer was more than a stone between two cities. It represented a place where God h= elped Samuel and the Israelites defeat the Philistines. Ebenezer literally means, “s= tone of help.” Thus, in the = future when you sing this hymn, remember that you are affirming God to be your hel= per in life.

One day after a funeral service in a rural cemetery, I talked with a man whose deceased mother had been a friend of the woman whom we had memorialized and buried that morning. As we ta= lked, he told me that he visited his parents’ graves a couple of times each year, and then he pointed to the nearby church and said, “What I lear= ned there shaped my life.” = He went on to say that he and his family were active in a church in a nearby c= ity but at least twice a year he came back to the church of his youth. “It’s here that I take= a hard look at my life,” he said.

Do you have such a place? If not, yo= u need to define such a place and be honest with yourself and God when you go there. Everyone needs a sanct= uary – a place that is set apart to tune life properly! Three faith-lessons affirm this tr= uth!

The first faith-lesson says that we need a sanctuary to keep before us that lif= e is connected to One who is greater than we are. The Bible, from cover-to-cover aff= irms that God is greater than we are.

Terry and Jodi had been married eight years when it seemed that everything was go= ing wrong in marriage. What had previously been a joyful union had become less than joyful. They had wanted children and tried= to have children, but had not become parents.= Thousands of dollars had been spent trying to resolve their situatio= n. Jodi wanted to adopt, but Terry re= fused to adopt. He knew someone who= had adopted a child and it didn’t work out. It’s amazing at how we human= s tend to focus on one situation and refuse to acknowledge the whole picture of adoption. Nevertheless, this = just about destroyed their marriage.

For a time Terry and Jodi saw a marriage counselor, but neither was interested in seeing her or another counselor again.&nbs= p; Like so often happens, the counselor prescribed things for them to do and neither was willing to do as she requested. They had discussed divorce and both believed that’s where they were headed.

Easter came and like they had done throughout their marriage, they selected a chur= ch to attend. Terry says, “= ;That was just the thing to do on Easter.”= The preacher’s sermon was about God raising Jesus from the dead. Being the wise preacher= that he was, he didn’t just focus on resurrection doctrine; he applied Jesus’ resurrection to everyday living. The last point the preacher made w= as that if God could raise Jesus from the dead, God can help us solve what may beset us. That evening as the= y were watching television, Jodi turned off the television and said, “Terry,= we need to talk.” She cont= inued saying, “The pastor said that if God could raise Jesus from the dead,= he can help us.” Terry was willing to listen and share his thoughts.&= nbsp; That week, Terry called the pastor of the church they attended and t= he pastor helped them with their marriage.&nb= sp; They also saw another counselor and worked on their marriage.

That was more than thirty years ago and Terry and Jodi are still married. They adopted two children who are = the pride of their lives. And the= y are still in the church they attended that Easter morning.

This is what happened: The God who= was a mere thought in their minds became the living God who helped them. Terry and Jodi are together because their connected their lives to One who is greater than they are.=

Now hear this: If God raised Jesu= s from the dead, he can help us forgive those who have wronged us. If God raised Jesus from the dead,= he can help us with our marriages. If God raised Jesus from the dead, he can help us with anything that besets us= . Never forget this: We are resurrection people! God the Father raised Jesus the So= n from the dead to live with us!

When you come into this sanctuary or any place you have set apart for God, remind yourself that your life is connected to One who is greater than you are = 211; the God of resurrection power! We need this reminder!

The second faith-lesson says we need a sanctuary with God’s presence beca= use it’s so easy to let our minds lead us into thinking that which isn’t true, good or healthy. Again, this is true cover-to-cover in the Bible. Our minds open before us places where we should not go.

Several months ago I read about a book that intrigued me. The title of the book is The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, written by Jon Scieszka. What fascinated me is that the book is written from the perspective of the Big Bad Wolf.

      I read the book – it takes about 10 minutes to read – and realized that it affirms two powerful truths. The first is that just about every matter under the sun can be viewe= d in different ways. The second tr= uth it affirms is that we can justify doing just about anything we desire. In other words, we can justify a lie. And sadly, the world tel= ls us that this is okay – that lying is okay. Today in political circles this is= an art form known as spin. A measure of truth attached to lie= s is used to prove what we want to prove and justify what we want to justify.

      A headline in The New York Times,= “What a Tangled Web We Weave; We= ALL Practice to Deceive.” The article that followed said that 91% of Americans confess they regularly don’t tell the truth. T= wenty percent admitted they can’t get through the day without telling conscious, premeditated lies. The article says that “as a society, we have moved very far away from the= age when a man’s word was his bond…to a society in which people are more accepting than ever before of exaggerations, falsifications, fabricati= ons, misstatements, misrepresentations, gloss-overs, quibbles, concoctions, equivocations, shuffles, prevarications, trims and truth colored and varnished.”[1]

      It’s so easy to deceive ourselves and to allow ourselves to be deceived. Who hasn’t yielded to a temptation, only to discover that it didn’t produce as we had hoped?<= o:p>

      We all have= to cope with strong temptations and challenging thoughts. William Rodgers Johnston tells abo= ut his father’s sage advice on the subject of sex. “It was the Victorian era,&#= 8221; says Johnston, “when women wore dresses down to their high-top shoes = so that their ‘limbs’ (the word ‘leg’ was taboo) would= not show and ‘sex’ was never mentioned in polite society. Sex education in school and church= was entirely unheard of. But his = dad did have his say on the subject.” Here was his father’s advice = to his son:

v     Sex was started by Adam and Eve and has been around ever since, but each genera= tion that comes along thinks they are the ones who discovered it.

v     Watch it,” counseled his father, “It is stronger than you.”= = [2]

      That’s good advice for a lot= of temptations. “Watch it. It’s stronger than you.”

      For some people that can be said o= f lust, sex, drugs, or power. For oth= ers it can be said about envy; for some it can be said about pride, or anger, or m= oney or anything else that can cause us to be less than we should be. That’= ;s worth remembering: “It’s stronger than we are.” We will n= ever fully control it. We need hel= p.

      We all need a sanctuary to which we can go and tune our minds to what is true = and just. Again, I ask you: Do yo= u have such a place? If you don̵= 7;t, establish one. When you have a sanctuary, be honest with yourself and with God and ask: Is my mind tuned to what is true and just? And am I willing to align my actio= ns with what I honestly believe is true and just?

      The third and final faith-lesson says that we need a sanctuary because we need = to be affirmed as being children of God.&= nbsp; This faith-lesson echoes throughout the Bible. The world in which we live doe= sn’t offer a lot of affirmation. W= e look at each other suspiciously. F= aults and flaws are magnified. In t= he presence of others, we sense insecurity.

     = In God’s sanctuary, we are told that we are loved. The cross that stands before us proclaims that Jesus died for us because he loves us. He forgives our sin and wants to h= ave a relationship with us. We̵= 7;re not perfect, or anywhere near perfect, and we know it; nevertheless God lov= es us.

     = A United Methodist pastor in Mi= ssouri shares a story that one of his seminary professors told. The professor was sitting quietly = on a hill overlooking the great city of Edinburg, Scotland. He noticed a peasant walking up the hill. The man approached him,= sat behind him and, after a period of silence, turned and asked, “Got a match?” The professor n= odded, and the old man took out a pipe and lighted it. There was a second period of silence. The man’s coat= was torn and dirty, his hands were dirty, but there was a particular glow about= his face. After what seemed like = an eternity, the old man said, “You know, I am a shoemaker by trade. I live down there in the city by t= he cowgate. It is an unclean place. Where I live, they are swearing and drinking and fighting all day, every day. But every now and then I climb up = here on the hill and take a look at this to remind me that I am more than flesh.”[3]

     = We can identify with the old shoemaker, can’t we? Our lives get twisted and torn by temptation, by sin, by wondering about our importance to others, by worries= and concerns, by all kinds of hurts and insecurities. Like, Asaph, we need a sanctuary w= here we are affirmed as being children of the Great One – the eternal God = of the universe. In God’s sanctuary, we are affirmed, we are loved!

      Everyone needs a sanctuary! We need a = place that reminds us that we belong to God and God loves us, a place where we can get our thoughts tuned to God and our best possible self, and a place that reminds us that we are connected to One who is greater than we are. We need a point of reference that l= ifts our mind and spirit to God. M= y hope and prayer is that you have such a place.&= nbsp; If you don’t, make this place your sanctuary. Set it apart in your mind as being= holy – a place where you can experience God. In the name of the Father, the Son= , and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Closing Prayer:

      O Love that will not let us go, keep encouraging us until we establish a place where we can rest our weary soul in you, a place where we can tune our spir= it to your spirit, a place where we can be affirmed as being your child now and forever. Help us, O God, to h= ave a sanctuary defined in our mind and heart where we can meet with you and be honest with ourselves and you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Am= en!

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            David B. Wilson

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            First United Methodist Church

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            Hot Springs, Arkansas

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            July 20, 2008

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