O
Lord who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
I don’t know about you, but, when I am camping I am particular about who I will or will not share a tent with. Tenting presents its own challenges and having a safe and dry place to sleep is super important. I have rules for tent living: shoes are left outside or brushed off and left just inside the door, the door zips open and shut infrequently and quickly, checking for ticks before entry is a must, no food is allowed, and no one’s stuff or person is to touch the side walls of the tent. To be welcome in the tent I need to trust that you will follow the rules mentioned and the rest of the list that I am not going to bore you with.
The
Psalm presents the question, “Who may abide in your tent?”
A
great question.
For the first time, many of us are considering this question in relation to our homes. As COVID restrictions are lifted, decisions rest on us. Whom do you let into your home and what sorts of rules are you considering, if any? Do you ask guests if they have been vaccinated; if not can they come in, yes, no, maybe with a mask? Upon entry do you have hand sanitizer available or ask guests to wash their hands? As a guest do you leave your mask on? What about eating together, or airing out your house, or how many people do you congregate at one time? Everyone’s homes will have different rules.
The
church sanctuary has been our home. Inside the doors we want to feel welcomed and
safe, and to provide the same for everyone who comes in the door. There are
‘rules’, more covert than overt, with behaviour suggestions, usually verbalized
in the form of an announcement when issues arise in the community. These are
our rules, placed on God’s tent. And
such ‘rules’ may get more complicated. The opening words from today’s Psalm
immediately had me think of a recent article in the Calgary Herald. “Should
Churches Require Vaccine Passports?” Communities talk, discern, and make rules.
We
set in place rules, codes of conduct, expectations of how we will interact with
each other – in the hopes that such will help the community be a community.
But, have we ever considered the question from the Psalm? It is addressed to God, asking for God’s answer to, “Who may abide in your tent?”
The
answer given in Psalm 15 to the question is a list that reads like a moral
compass:
Those
who dwell --- in right action, speak truth, refrain from slander, steer clear
of the wicked, keep their promises, are honest in business and legal matters, and
forgo perverting or denying justice -- may abide in the tent.
There
is an expectation of living as a reflection of God’s presence who is in their
midst.
The
verbs of the first verse of the Psalm are important, abide and dwell. In
Hebrew, ABIDE, is connected to the word for landless immigrant, the stranger,
the alien – the very people the Israelites are to welcome and protect. DWELL
has two understandings: God’s tent or encampment in the wilderness and people
peacefully settling down. The verse in asking the question, O Lord who may
abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?, contains the answer. Welcome
is extended to immigrants – to all who are wandering, seeking, trying their
best to peacefully settle down.
We
come to the end of our summer series of praying the prayer book of Jesus; of
reciting a Psalm phrase in response to the praying of each verse. As we have
abided in praying the Psalms, the Psalm phrases dwell within. Has praying the
Psalms and looking deeper into them tented us with the Word of God and the
comfort and challenge that comes with that Word? Are we tented in safety and
welcome, and thus able to offer the same, from focusing our time in resting in
the Word?
O
Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
is
a good way to draw our summer Psalm series to a close.
At
the end of the summer, as the season starts to turn and we will move more of
our living indoors, let us keep in mind the idea of abiding in God’s tent,
dwelling on God’s holy hill.
God’s
tent has a set of instructions that create welcome and safety for the whole
community.
Dwell in right action, speak truth, refrain from slander, steer clear of the wicked, keep your promises, be honest in business and legal matters, and forgo perverting or denying justice – in tent terms think of it this way...
I
act differently in a tent, than in a house, especially when there are other
people involved. I take greater care with a tent, watching the zippers, making
sure tent pegs are in, and not poking the sides or throwing things around
inside it. I refrain from ruff-housing to protect the tent. I clean the tent of
bugs and food to protect from bites and scavengers. I prepare to avoid unwanted water/leaks, to
have soft and flat ground under the tent. I mind what I say inside the tent because
words can be heard by anyone close by on the outside. I watch what I do in the
tent because shadows can be seen by neighbours on the outside. The space is
tight so to survive with others in a tent, one needs to make an effort to get
along.
God’s tent, God dwells on a holy hill – which in scripture refers to Jerusalem; with other scriptures that extend the holy hill to the ends of the earth. Consider the earth -all of the earth - under the canopy of God’s tent.
We
come as immigrants seeking refuge – a tent-
The
people of the world cry for safety and welcome – whether physical, mental,
emotional, spiritual – we are all seeking a place to abide and dwell.
As
people, with God, in creation.
God
grant us – this community- the grace to
live as and be tent dwellers.
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