Listen to Sermon
Pastor Tom Johnson, September 1, 2013
A Word from Pastor Tom Johnson, St. Luke, Dix Hills, NY
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
“Like a weaned child is my soul within me”
Psalm 131 is a song of ascents—one of the songs the
Israelites sang as they ascended Mt. Zion on their yearly pilgrimages to the
Temple. They sang in preparation for worship. As a choir, slowly climbing the winding paths up the
hill toward the Temple, they sang these powerful words. As each step brought
them closer and to higher elevation they chanted,
“O Lord, I am not proud, I
have no haughty looks. I do not occupy myself with great matters, or with
things that are too hard for me. But I still my soul and make it quiet, like a
child upon its mother’s breast; my soul is quieted within me. O Israel, wait
upon the Lord, from this time forth forevermore.”
As the worshiper anticipates entering the Temple to
bring sacrifices for their sins and offerings of thanksgiving for God’s gifts,
they humble their hearts. “O Lord, I have nothing to brag about. You will not
find a smug expression on my face. I do not come into your presence to commend
myself and my righteousness. Nothing in my hand I bring simply to your goodness
and mercy I cling. Even though I’m about to come into your holy Temple, it does
not mean I have everything figured out. There are questions that still remain
unanswered. There are certain things that are beyond human
comprehension. Your ways are mysterious, O Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are your ways higher than my ways and your thoughts than my
thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).
Human beings cannot go back in time. We cannot
foresee the future. We look at the vast universe through the most powerful
telescopes and we peer at the subatomic world through the most powerful
microscopes, and what we find is more questions than answers. God has revealed himself to us beautifully in the
Bible. But he has not disclosed everything. There is still much that remains a
mystery. It is actually quite humbling to realize how much we don’t know about
the natural world and the Author of creation. Rather than resist the urge to humble ourselves too
far, this Psalm calls us to embrace our limitations—or rather, to let ourselves
be embraced by something and Someone higher, stronger, wiser, and greater than
ourselves. “I still and quiet my soul, like a weaned child is my soul quieted
within me.” “I take a deep breath and slowly exhale. I relax the
tension in my body. I let go of the anxiety. I surrender control. I let God
take me up into his arms. And I drink deeply the milk of his Word and Spirit.”
This illustration of a nursing child is a vivid one.
I’m sure you have experienced the fussiness, loudness, and self-centeredness of
infant children. Maybe your last encounter was right here in our
sanctuary—cries and wailing loud enough to be heard over the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra—a worthy challenger to even the most thundering preacher with a
microphone. And we are grateful for those little ones. And not
only that, according to Jesus they belong in God’s presence more than we
grown-ups. “Unless you become like a little child,” Jesus says, “You will not
enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 18:2-4). In God’s eyes, we are all like little children
fussing and throwing a temper tantrum. We are hungry, thirsty, uncomfortable
with life’s amenities, and cannot understand why the world seems so bent
against us. What we need is a mother’s embrace. We need her rich
milk which will take our hunger and thirst from us. Instead of an aching pit in
our stomachs, we now have the intoxicating, warm nutrients trickling down our
throats. There is a buzz of healing we feel going out from
our core to every extremity of our bodies. A quick and powerful calm overwhelms
the child. The baby grows limp like a boned fish. And the infant’s eyes roll
back and eyelids grow heavy with the milky sedative. Mothers refer to this as
their child being “milk drunk.”
_-_Detail_(7687510126).jpg/399px-Master_of_the_Legend_of_Saint_Magdalena_-_Nursing_Virgin_(ca_1490)_-_Detail_(7687510126).jpg)
Perhaps this is what Paul had in mind when he said,
“Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit through the singing
of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” or what Peter was thinking when he said,
“Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may
grow into salvation” (1 Pet 2:2). Let yourselves be cradled in God’s strong arms.
Surrender all pride, arrogance, and delusion of greatness. With childlike
faith, Gulp down God’s Word as you hear it read, preached, read, or meditate
upon it in your hearts. So, “Take, eat. Drink of it, all of you.” It will
strengthen and preserve you now unto life everlasting. Don’t try to completely
dissect and figure God or his ways out. But, realize the wisdom of receiving
God’s gifts undeservedly and freely. For you know that the eternal Son of God became a
little child and drank at his mother Mary’s breasts. He became a child—a
newborn infant even—to grow up for our forgiveness and eternal salvation. Is it really so strange, then, that he would ask us
to become as children...to receive from him the spiritual nutrition we need to
grow up into the Kingdom? “Taste and see that The Lord is good; blessed is the
one who takes refuge in him” (Ps 34:8). 
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