How dear to me is your dwelling place
The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams, Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 25th, 2024
How dear to me is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! Psalm 84
Hello, my friends! It is so good to see all of you! I am very happy to be back with you after my sabbatical. My time away was wonderful, refreshing in so many ways. We had time for travel, time with family and friends, time in creation, and time at home. I came back on Tuesday and wow, what a lot of great happenings to get caught up on! The top hits of the summer seemed to have been the preaching series, the youth service trip and the choir residency in Gloucester. So much life, so much joy, so much for which to give thanks. And speaking of thanks, I am grateful to all of our lay leaders who ensured that our various ministries thrived this summer, as always. One of the hallmarks of Saint George’s is our strong lay leadership. People really “own” their ministries and understand that God’s work in this place and beyond is important. That commitment is really what makes things happen around here. If you are on the newer side, you would be amazed at all of the things that go on every day of the week, large and small, and all of the people who work so tirelessly to live out our call as God’s people in this place. I am especially grateful to our staff and vestry, and particularly our wardens, Karla Walter and Liza Lowe, who continued to exhibit such steadfast leadership this summer. And I am beyond thankful to and for the Rev. Paddy Cavanaugh, our Associate Rector. I knew before that Father Paddy is wonderful, but we all know, on an even deeper level now, that we are exceedingly blessed to have such a loving, committed and exceptionally capable priest in Father Paddy. And knowing that I was leaving you in such good hands enabled me to relax into my sabbatical and not worry about things here.
There were many blessings of the summer for me. I was able to sink into God’s goodness in a variety of ways. One of my favorite ways to experience God (outside of church of course) is to be in the mountains. And Robbie and I were blessed to be able to go to the French Alps, taking the Aguille du Midi lift 12,000 feet up to see summit of Mont Blanc. It was absolutely breath-taking and I had a profound sense of the wonder and majesty of God’s creation. There were so many moments throughout the summer of finding God in different experiences. And about a week ago, I woke up one morning, and heard the words of the Eucharistic prayer singing in me, calling me back to the altar and calling me back to you. The psalm for today speaks to that longing for God that we all have.
How dear to me is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.”
Psalm 84 is a pilgrimage hymn. It expresses the joy of a faithful person on their way to the temple in Jerusalem. The psalmist loves God so much that they imagine living there, like a bird who has found her home at the altar and has made a nest there.
Psalm 84 has been important in both Jewish and Christian liturgy through the centuries. It is appointed for use in the dedication of churches and is a regular part of the Sunday lectionary. So it serves an important formal liturgical function. Psalm 84 also serves a pastoral function. It has given faithful people throughout the centuries hope and solace in difficult times. On October 1, 1944, 602 men, almost the entire male population of Putten a town in the Netherlands, were rounded up by the Nazis and taken to concentration camps in Germany. They knew they were going to almost certain death. Only 48 of them returned at the end of the war. As they were being taken away, they sang Psalm 84. A memorial is held every year on the anniversary of what came to be known as the Putten raid,, but no speeches are made. A crowd simply gathers at the appointed time and a choir sings Psalm 84 as wreaths are being laid, recalling the witness of those men so long ago.
“How dear to me is you dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!”
Why did these men sing Psalm 84? Maybe some of them were in their church choir and were used to signing it. Maybe some of them had memorized it at home or in Sunday school. Singing it as they were led away wasn’t planned of course. Noone knew that they were going to be taken away that night. But as these things go, one person felt it rising from their soul and they gave voice to it. And as they did, others joined in, and it grew and grew, reminding them that God was with them always, and that even if they died, God was with them and they would be in God’s presence forever, singing God’s praises with all the company of heaven.
How dear to me is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.”
Stories about people being courageous and faith-filled as they are being led into the darkness, are inspiring because they remind us of how we want to be when the chips are down for us. Where do we turn when things get really hard- when death is close at hand or when we experience disappointment and defeat? What rises from our spirits? Anger, fatalism, fear? Or do we go to that deeper place, under all of those very understandable emotions, to that internal temple where God dwells in each of us. Faithful responses come forth from us in crisis moments when we have spent year after year in church, worshipping with others, and carrying on the tradition of saying/chanting psalms that began centuries ago. Faithful responses come from spending time in prayer and giving voice to our longing for God, that longing that surpasses all other desires in this life.
On the Sundays that we were home this summer, I visited different Episcopal churches. And it was wonderful to experience other faith communities and give thanks for their gifts and their particular way of being, and it made me even more thankful for you, the people of Saint George’s. We are blessed with a wonderful charism, a beautiful spirit of authenticity, joy, and commitment to the pilgrim way, and giving voice to our longing for what is really real in this life.
How dear to me is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.”
The sparrow has found her a house and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young;
by the side of your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Happy are they who dwell in your house!
They will always be praising you.
Happy are the people whose strength is in you!
whose hearts are set on the pilgrims ’way.