Christ is in our Midst!
We are a society that often prefers (empty) symbols over substance. We talk a good game, wear all the right colored ribbons, yet somehow remain absolutely detached and aloof from many of the causes we claim to espouse. “Environmentalists” who live in giant houses, whose utility bills for a month approach those of a middle class family for a year, athletes who wear the ribbon de jour, yet live sybaritic life styles, politicians who routinely damn their opponents for policies that they themselves practice, all are symptomatic of a culture of emptiness and hypocrisy. Showing “solidarity” through symbols has become our favored form of compassion.
Such hypocrisy is not confined to the secular world, a world we Christians take continually delight in condemning (as I myself have in the above paragraph). In fact, I would argue that we Christians are often the ultimate hypocrites, and our “two-facedness” contributes much to the ills of the society we routinely damn. Now it is easy to find all kinds of hypocrisy and practicing hypocrites in modern Christianity; I routinely “trot them out”---my own form of sanctimonious puffery---in justifying why I don’t go to church or keep my rule of prayer or fast or do whatever I know I should be doing as a believing Christian.
But let me focus on the one hypocrisy that underwrites all the rest, that turns so much of what I do into sheer sanctimony: a cant that is powerfully illustrated and challenged by David in Psalm 63.
Ponder the opening of Psalm 63: “O God Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is….” David seeks God; he longs to be with Him. David’s life is centered on the quest to know, love, and serve God. Scripture makes clear that this is the goal of David’s life---that no matter how far he falls away from his God, or how many times he falls, he returns again and again. David’s life is built around God.
How different we are---I am from David! Would that I could claim that God was the very center of my life!
A fairer depiction of my spiritual life---and perhaps of yours, as well---is that God often seems like a hobby. I enjoy Him from time to time, sort of like my golf clubs or a stamp album. I can put Him away in a closet when I’m busy with other things. He forms an important part of my daily “to do” list: gotta make sure I say my prayers, read the day’s Scriptures, keep the fast. But do I really thirst for God in the same way, say, that I thirst for a new driver, or for the end of the semester, or even for my team to win its next game?
I submit these attitudes are much more common than we as Christians realize. Consider how we talk about heaven. It’s a place with “heavenly choirs”; there are clunky streets of gold, with beautiful houses and fantastic golf courses; it’s a place first and foremost where we will be reunited with our loved ones. How many times have we heard “heaven” described in these terms? To some degree, granted, these are simple and good-natured attempts to conceptualize the inconceivable. But note the one thing missing in all these traditional descriptions of the kingdom: God Himself.
It’s clear from Christ’s own words that heaven is first and foremost our being with God, our unification with the Almighty. It’s the reason Our Lord talks about the kingdom of heaven being within each one of us. In this sense heaven is not so much a place as it is a condition: it is our invitation to join in the “communion of love” that is the Holy Trinity---to join now and abide for all eternity.
Thus Psalm 63 ought to be for us a powerful didactic meditation. What we seek is nothing less than the Eternal God---and if we aren’t really interested in finding Him here and now, why on earth do we think we’ll somehow develop that interest in eternity?
The beloved nineteenth century Russian elder, St. Seraphim of Sarov, emphasized the centrality of seeking God in the Christian life.
“Prayer, fasting, vigils, and all other Christian practices, however good they may be in themselves, certainly do not constitute the aim of our Christian life; they are but the indispensable means of attaining that aim. For the true aim of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.
Seraphim’s counsel, like David’s meditation a thousand years before Christ, reminds us that everything we do, even our efforts to “get to heaven,” are but steps to our real goal.
Gary
Feast of the Martyrs Plato and Romanus; fourth day of the Nativity Fast.
Psalm 63
A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek You;
my soul thirsts for You,
my body longs for You,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen You in the sanctuary
and beheld Your power and Your glory.
Because Your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify You.
I will praise You as long as I live,
and in Your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise You.
On my bed I remember You;
I think of You through the watches of the night.
Because You are my help,
I sing in the shadow of Your wings.
My soul clings to You;
Your right hand upholds me.a
They who seek my life will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God's name will praise Him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.a
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