whose sin is covered over, is truly happy!
The one the Lord doesn’t consider guilty—
in whose spirit there is no dishonesty—
that one is truly happy!
When I kept quiet, my bones wore out;
I was groaning all day long—
every day, every night!—
because your hand was heavy upon me.
My energy was sapped as if in a summer drought. Selah
So I admitted my sin to you;
I didn’t conceal my guilt.
“I’ll confess my sins to the Lord, ” is what I said.
Then you removed the guilt of my sin. Selah
That’s why all the faithful should pray to you during troubled times,
so that a great flood of water won’t reach them.
You are my secret hideout!
You protect me from trouble.
You surround me with songs of rescue! Selah
I will instruct you and teach you
about the direction you should go.
I’ll advise you and keep my eye on you.
Don’t be like some senseless horse or mule,
whose movement must be controlled
with a bit and a bridle.
Don’t be anything like that!
The pain of the wicked is severe,
but faithful love surrounds the one who trusts the Lord.
You who are righteous, rejoice in the Lord and be glad!
All you whose hearts are right, sing out in joy! Psalm 32 (CEB)
Grace and peace to you from the Holy and Blessed Trinity: Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.
Do you play? Do you fool around much? My father was a great practical jokester. He loved to sneak up on us during the summer as we were playing outside and completely surprise us by dumping 5-gallon bucket of waters on us. This would then turn into this ferocious game of gotcha. Back and forth, we would play this game for entire afternoons and, by the end of the day, we’d come inside for dinner, all of us, including my father, dripping wet.
What’s not unusual about this picture is that we, as children, were engaged in play. What is unusual is that my father was, too. As farmer and rancher, he was always busy. If there wasn't cattle to feed or haying to be done, there was always machinery to be repaired or fences to be fixed. And, yet, he always took time out to play. As an adult.
On these Wednesday evenings, we’ve been considering the psalms along with elements of a book written by Dr. Brene Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston College of Social Work. Her book is The Gifts of Imperfection.
As she has studied what it means to be wholehearted people - or shalom people - Dr. Brown has found that play and rest are important components of wholehearted living. In trying to more fully understand why play and rest are so important, she came across the work of another Dr. Brown - Dr. Stuart Brown, who is a psychiatrist, clinical researcher, and founder of the National Institute for Play. In his research, he has found that play shapes our brain and helps us foster empathy. It helps us navigate complex social groups. And it is at the core of creativity and innovation. One of the key components of play he has found is that play must be “purposeless.”
Purposeless. That seems like a shameful word in our world today, doesn’t it? To be without purpose.
If you’re at all like me, you have a to-do list that never seems to end. My own sense of worth is very connected to being able to check things off that list. It’s a sense of worth that is tied to productivity and to net worth. So much so that the idea of spending time doing anything unrelated to my to-do list actually creates stress for me. Perhaps you are the same. As Brene Brown puts it, “[W]e convince ourselves that playing is a waste of precious time. We even convince ourselves that sleep is a terrible use of our time.” Because we need to get stuff done. We are a nation of exhausted and overstressed adults raising overscheduled children.
Early in this series we talked about the connection between original sin and shame. Remember the story of Adam and Eve? They were given the job to care for the Garden of Eden. Yet, each afternoon God would meet them and walk with them in the garden, doing nothing other than basking in the beauty and joy of what God had created. This time of play and of rest that Adam and Eve experienced with God was eventually broken by sin. And then shame. Shame for their nakedness. And a sense they were no longer good enough to take that afternoon stroll with God. That they were no longer worthy to play and to rest.
How much are we like them? How much do we hold onto our sin and sense of shame and guilt that we are not good enough? How much is our own worthiness tied up in our accomplishments and our productivity? How more exhausted must we become? Holding on to this has a devastating physical effect upon us. It can lead to depression, chronic disease, and deep tiredness. Even the psalmist in tonight’s reading recognizes this: “When I kept quiet, my bones wore out; I was groaning all day long— every day, every night!”
God’s “heavy hand” works to give us an awareness of the need for our repentance. And for letting go of our shame and guilt. Yet, we stubbornly refuse to yield to God. But God knows that, if we only share this shame and guilt - this false sense of worth measured by our productivity and manifested in our exhaustion - it is only then that healing forgiveness comes. And the flood waters of our lives subside. And the pressures diminish.
What in your life brings you joy and meaning? How might you incorporate more purposeless play and rest in your life, knowing that your worth in God’s eyes is NOT tied to your productivity? But to who you are. A beloved child of God created in God’s own image.
You who are righteous, rejoice in the Lord and be glad! All you whose hearts are right, sing out in joy! Amen.
Preached April 3, 2019, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Midweek Lent Worship
Reading: Psalm 32
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