A House of Prayer

Old Mystic, August 23, 2009
Psalms 84

Summary

Church buildings, temples, sanctuaries, and meeting places where Christians gather for worship, are a powerful symbol, an invitation, and an opportunity to engage God in conversation, a dialogue in which God delights.

Sermon

As my son in law once said while preaching, many of us are church “junkies.” I count myself among those people who enjoy watching, visiting, walking through, and spending a quiet time of worship in almost any church building. When Liliana became the Executive Minister of the ABC of Rhode Island, we spent quite some time driving around the state, taking pictures of as many Baptist churches as we could, and enjoying the different styles and sizes as well as pondering the richness of the history associated with those buildings. Among them, I find the experience of seeing the steeple of the First Baptist Church in America exhilarating. There is only a brief moment when it can be seen among the skyscrapers while driving through downtown Providence northbound on I-95. But there it is, majestic, still standing; a powerful witness to Baptist presence in the state and in the continent since 1638.

But my heart leaps with joy when driving on Shewville Road I OMBC. It is not just the beauty of this place with the memorial garden and the lush green of the landscape, the trees, and the bright colors of the flowers. It is that deep sense that I want to be in this place because it feels like home and it is the place where we gather to have a conversation with God whether we are conscious about it or not. We have a longing for the house of God because we have a longing for the Living God.

When we look at the 84th Psalm, we find that that longing translates into a prayer. It is an opening of the heart, a confession, a song, a moment of praise, of adoration, and of pleading. It is a conversation with God that becomes special within the temple when the people of God gather but that at the same time it is an ongoing dialogue—a dialogue that should never stop. It is a deep longing: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! 2My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.”

The temple was for the people of Israel a house of prayer; a powerful symbol of God’s presence and at the same time a dwelling place for the Lord. They knew that the beautiful building could not contain Him yet they believed that the very presence of God was there in the Holy of Holies when the gathered for worship and prayer. There was a conversation with God in spite of the fact that in those days only priests could enter that sacred space. A conversation like the one that took place many years before when King Solomon inaugurated the temple and prayed saying, ““But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God… that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house... Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive.”

The psalmist engages in a conversation with God that is a model and an invitation for us to follow. It begins with an expression of his desire for the relationship. “My heart and my flesh sing for joy for the Living God.” And he recognizes that this is special when he is in the “courts of the Lord.” If in any way we feel like him; if in any way we experience that desire, that longing for God; if in any way we have that spiritual hunger and that longing for the relationship with the Living God, we may be wondering what has happened to the church in America. Shouldn’t this place be packed? After all, aren’t we in this place to sustain this conversation with God? Isn’t everything we do, worship, singing, giving, serving, hugging, smiling, crying, done before the eyes of God and in conversation with him?

Prayer is a dialogue with God and it is perhaps the greatest human experience. It is a conversation that makes us feel at home. The Psalmist illustrates this point by describing how “Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars.” Our experience of conversation with God is like our conversations at the kitchen table with our loved ones. They convey the feeling of being home; the experience of the familiar. They are like comfort food, like the hug of our parents, our siblings, and our children.

For that reason perhaps, prayer gives us that sense of protection; a feeling that everything will be all right. “Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise.” When we can sustain a relationship with the Living God and enjoy a conversation with him we have that sense of protection we couldn’t possibly find anywhere else. And what a significant role the church plays! When two or three are gathered in his name God is in their midst and His presence is special and conveys us that feeling of being home.

For the Psalmist, the conversation is also an opportunity to plea. “O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! 9Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed.” Asking in prayer is something that we have learned quite well. In fact, for many of us, that is pretty much what prayer is all about: asking. There is no question; Jesus teaches us to ask for the things we need to the Father in his name. And so we do. To pray, however, it is not just stopping for a moment and making a short phone call to pass on a laundry list. Prayer is an ongoing conversation that becomes communal when we gather, yet it is a personal relationship with the Living God.

When we walk daily with God, when we seek such a close relationship, when we experience his presence, our ongoing conversation with the Living God is part of our journey. We are not alone no matter how lonely we feel; He is with us all the time, even in the overwhelming silence we often suffer from Him. The pledge of the Psalmist is unwavering: “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.” Our personal journeys may take us to many different places. We may experience being on top of the mount of the transfiguration contemplating the beauty of Jesus Christ or we may go through the valley of shadow and death. Life has its ups and downs; its struggles and its victories. Whatever our journey may take us we always have the opportunity to stay in conversation with God and we can always come home to the House of Prayer.

Prayer is also a channel through which we praise God and when we have a continuous and open conversation with him, words come naturally and freely to express our praise and adoration saying out loud what He means to us. “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor.” “Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise.” God gave us the gift of language and words, and in many cases even the ability to speak more than one language. Yet we are so often short of words to worship God. When I feel that way I resort to Scriptures and, in order to offer some words of praise, I am going to plagiarize Paul when he said, writing to the Romans—though I have to paraphrase these words so they speak directly to God: “Dear Lord, For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us (me) from your love in Christ Jesus our (my) Lord. Receive all praise, O my God!”

We are a church, we are a community of encounter and of dialogue; we are a people in conversation with the Living God. We have this lovely place to gather at least once a week. But the opportunity to engage in conversation with God, to have an open dialogue with him, and to experience his presence is through prayer and that is a constant gift. Let’s talk to God and with God and may He speak to us.