You Are Here
August 4th 2024 Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Psalm 51:1-2, 6-12 Lamentations 3:22-26, 40-41
“You Are Here”
Douglas T. King
I cannot remember the last time I was in a shopping mall. But I still have fond memories of the “You are Here” map. As you entered into this multilevel complex of seemingly forty-six thousand stores, wondering how you would find the one store you needed, there would be your salvation. It stood about six feet tall, offering a layout of the entire mall, with a listing of every store, and a red mark announcing “You are here!”
All you had to do was look up where you wanted to go and then figure out the route to get there. But, of course you could not take a single step toward your destination until you knew where you were beginning. Thank God for the “You are here” mark.
Today we are going to be considering a Jewish liturgical holy day that is not on the radar for most Christians and one that functions as a “You are here!” map for our Jewish friends. Tisha B’Av. It occurs seven weeks before Yom Kipper and falls in early August. Now you may rightly ask why we are discussing this day. The reason is that the spiritual function it serves for our Jewish friends is also a function we greatly need in our own spiritual journeys.
Tisha B’Av is a day of fasting when the destruction of the two temples is remembered. During each of the times those temples stood they were the very center of Jewish religious life. In fact it was believed that the divine actually resided within the temple. When the temple fell it was as if the people’s relationship with God was severed. They had no place and no way to be in right relationship with the divine. The fabric of their existential existence had been ruptured.
When our Jewish friends commemorate the calamity of losing their established relationship with God through the temple, they are reminding themselves of all the ways we separate ourselves from God. On their “You are here” map, they are acknowledging the distance they have created between themselves and the divine. They are recognizing they have a journey to make to return to right relationship with God.
Every year on Tisha B’av, they read from the first chapter of Deuteronomy, “The Lord God spoke to us at Horeb, saying ‘You have stayed long enough on this mountain. Resume your journey…’” Tisha B’Av is the realization that where we are now is not ultimately where we need to be.
One of my favorite writers, Rabbi Alan Lew describes this realization as “…the moment of turning, the moment when we turn away from denial and begin to face exile and alienation as they manifest themselves in our lives…Teshuvah---turning, repentance—is the essential gesture….by which we seek to heal this alienation…to connect with God, to reconcile with others, so that it is this reality that shapes our actions and not just the habitual, unconscious momentum of our lives.
“Ramban, the great medieval philosopher and synthesizer of Jewish law, said that Teshuvah, this kind of moral and spiritual turning, is only complete when we find ourselves in exactly the same position we were in when we went wrong….and we choose to behave differently…The unresolved elements of our lives—the unconscious patterns, the conflicts and problems that seem to arise no matter where we go or with whom we find ourselves—continue to pull us in the same moral and spiritual circumstances over and over again until we figure out how to resolve them. They continue to carry us into harm’s way until we become aware of them, conscious of them, and begin to change them.” (Lew, pp. 41-42)
We all have our own patterns of behavior and thought that lead us away from God and from each other. We often wonder why we experience similar frustrations in a variety of relationships throughout our lives. We usually start by externalizing the problem. Our first thought is to wonder why everyone seems to let us down in the same way. It is always more difficult to look in the mirror and recognize that if the same problems keep arising in our lives, we are the common denominator. We bear responsibility.
Why do I get so angry and frustrated when friends and loved ones disagree with my opinions about the world? Is it because they are all so misinformed? Or because my fragile ego cannot allow me to accept that people important to me could disagree with me with their own valid opinions?
Why do people consistently disappoint me by not meeting my expectations? Is it because of how deeply imperfect they are? Or is it because my selfish needs are beyond what can be reasonably expected from others?
Why is God consistently absent in my life? Is it because God has forgotten me or am I not making any intentional effort to recognize the multitude of ways the divine is present?
What are the patterns in our lives, that if we carefully considered them, could show us the blind spots that have us living in less than faithful geography? We can all use a “You are here” map.
At the very center of the temple there was a room known as the Holy of Holies. It was a primarily empty space. When the temple was destroyed two things were released into the wider world, that emptiness and God’s holiness. We have a choice to make. Do we stay where we are right now, following the unhealthy patterns of our life, surrounded by the emptiness? Or, do we begin a journey to live in the midst of God's holiness; to receive the grace offered to us in Jesus Christ? Spoiler alert, choose the holiness.
Back in the day, when we went to the mall, that “You are here” sign was the first step in getting to something we either needed or wanted or both. When we recognize our own imperfection we are given the opportunity to journey to what we truly want and need. Of course, a mall visit for a brand new pair of sneakers or a new stereo was an obvious desire of ours. Recognizing how our routine behaviors, to which we are so accustomed, are not always a gift but rather a hindrance keeping us from the greater gift of God’s grace, is a little bit more work. But the journey toward greater faithfulness, toward right relationship with the divine and with each other is worth the effort.
Thank God we are given the opportunity to recognize our imperfection. I suppose it is a weird thing to celebrate. But it serves as an invitation. We are being invited to grow closer to our God and to each other. Just as we come forward to be fed by God’s hand at the Lord’s table, let us step forward toward God’s holiness. Now that we know where we are, let us journey toward where we need to be.
Thanks be to God.
Lew, Alan, “This Is Real and You are Completely Unprepared”
Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2003.
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Psalm 51:1-2, 6-12 Lamentations 3:22-26, 40-41
“You Are Here”
Douglas T. King
I cannot remember the last time I was in a shopping mall. But I still have fond memories of the “You are Here” map. As you entered into this multilevel complex of seemingly forty-six thousand stores, wondering how you would find the one store you needed, there would be your salvation. It stood about six feet tall, offering a layout of the entire mall, with a listing of every store, and a red mark announcing “You are here!”
All you had to do was look up where you wanted to go and then figure out the route to get there. But, of course you could not take a single step toward your destination until you knew where you were beginning. Thank God for the “You are here” mark.
Today we are going to be considering a Jewish liturgical holy day that is not on the radar for most Christians and one that functions as a “You are here!” map for our Jewish friends. Tisha B’Av. It occurs seven weeks before Yom Kipper and falls in early August. Now you may rightly ask why we are discussing this day. The reason is that the spiritual function it serves for our Jewish friends is also a function we greatly need in our own spiritual journeys.
Tisha B’Av is a day of fasting when the destruction of the two temples is remembered. During each of the times those temples stood they were the very center of Jewish religious life. In fact it was believed that the divine actually resided within the temple. When the temple fell it was as if the people’s relationship with God was severed. They had no place and no way to be in right relationship with the divine. The fabric of their existential existence had been ruptured.
When our Jewish friends commemorate the calamity of losing their established relationship with God through the temple, they are reminding themselves of all the ways we separate ourselves from God. On their “You are here” map, they are acknowledging the distance they have created between themselves and the divine. They are recognizing they have a journey to make to return to right relationship with God.
Every year on Tisha B’av, they read from the first chapter of Deuteronomy, “The Lord God spoke to us at Horeb, saying ‘You have stayed long enough on this mountain. Resume your journey…’” Tisha B’Av is the realization that where we are now is not ultimately where we need to be.
One of my favorite writers, Rabbi Alan Lew describes this realization as “…the moment of turning, the moment when we turn away from denial and begin to face exile and alienation as they manifest themselves in our lives…Teshuvah---turning, repentance—is the essential gesture….by which we seek to heal this alienation…to connect with God, to reconcile with others, so that it is this reality that shapes our actions and not just the habitual, unconscious momentum of our lives.
“Ramban, the great medieval philosopher and synthesizer of Jewish law, said that Teshuvah, this kind of moral and spiritual turning, is only complete when we find ourselves in exactly the same position we were in when we went wrong….and we choose to behave differently…The unresolved elements of our lives—the unconscious patterns, the conflicts and problems that seem to arise no matter where we go or with whom we find ourselves—continue to pull us in the same moral and spiritual circumstances over and over again until we figure out how to resolve them. They continue to carry us into harm’s way until we become aware of them, conscious of them, and begin to change them.” (Lew, pp. 41-42)
We all have our own patterns of behavior and thought that lead us away from God and from each other. We often wonder why we experience similar frustrations in a variety of relationships throughout our lives. We usually start by externalizing the problem. Our first thought is to wonder why everyone seems to let us down in the same way. It is always more difficult to look in the mirror and recognize that if the same problems keep arising in our lives, we are the common denominator. We bear responsibility.
Why do I get so angry and frustrated when friends and loved ones disagree with my opinions about the world? Is it because they are all so misinformed? Or because my fragile ego cannot allow me to accept that people important to me could disagree with me with their own valid opinions?
Why do people consistently disappoint me by not meeting my expectations? Is it because of how deeply imperfect they are? Or is it because my selfish needs are beyond what can be reasonably expected from others?
Why is God consistently absent in my life? Is it because God has forgotten me or am I not making any intentional effort to recognize the multitude of ways the divine is present?
What are the patterns in our lives, that if we carefully considered them, could show us the blind spots that have us living in less than faithful geography? We can all use a “You are here” map.
At the very center of the temple there was a room known as the Holy of Holies. It was a primarily empty space. When the temple was destroyed two things were released into the wider world, that emptiness and God’s holiness. We have a choice to make. Do we stay where we are right now, following the unhealthy patterns of our life, surrounded by the emptiness? Or, do we begin a journey to live in the midst of God's holiness; to receive the grace offered to us in Jesus Christ? Spoiler alert, choose the holiness.
Back in the day, when we went to the mall, that “You are here” sign was the first step in getting to something we either needed or wanted or both. When we recognize our own imperfection we are given the opportunity to journey to what we truly want and need. Of course, a mall visit for a brand new pair of sneakers or a new stereo was an obvious desire of ours. Recognizing how our routine behaviors, to which we are so accustomed, are not always a gift but rather a hindrance keeping us from the greater gift of God’s grace, is a little bit more work. But the journey toward greater faithfulness, toward right relationship with the divine and with each other is worth the effort.
Thank God we are given the opportunity to recognize our imperfection. I suppose it is a weird thing to celebrate. But it serves as an invitation. We are being invited to grow closer to our God and to each other. Just as we come forward to be fed by God’s hand at the Lord’s table, let us step forward toward God’s holiness. Now that we know where we are, let us journey toward where we need to be.
Thanks be to God.
Lew, Alan, “This Is Real and You are Completely Unprepared”
Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2003.
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