Be Still - Psalm 46 (January 8, 2017 Snow Sunday Sermon)

Winter weather.  Don’t you love winter weather?  Truly I do.  I think it is truly restful to sit on the couch with a cup of coffee and watch the snow fall and watch the birds all gather around the feeders striving for shelter and food.  Maybe there’s an opportunity to light a fire in the fireplace or turn on the gas logs.  Maybe there’s an opportunity to snuggle with someone you love while watching a movie.  It becomes a good day to have a bowl of warm soup and relax with family or curl up in a chair with a good book.

I think that snow days are an invitation from God to heed verse ten of this Psalm.  It is an invitation from God to “be still.”

Twice in Psalms, here and in Psalm 37, we are told to be still before God.

There are many reasons that Psalmist might remind us to be still before God.

First, in today’s world, it is very easy to stay busy.  It is easy to have to work all day, have activities for children or meetings to attend every night.  Weekends don’t always bring an end to that business.  It is not uncommon for me to hear different folks over the course of the year tell me that they had not had a day off in more than two weeks.  One church I pastored back East, there was a gentleman who had not had a day off of work in more than a month.  Outside of the questionable ethics of a company that places dollar signs over their employees wellbeing and requires that kind of work, it also means that there is not an opportunity for the person to step aside, take a Sabbath Day’s rest, and be still before God, including joining with brothers and sister for worship.

You don’t have to be in the working world either to have to stay busy like that.  I have known several folks who have entered the world of retirees, the time of life where we might think every day is an opportunity to be still before God, but yet their lives (I have seen it with my dad for one) are busier than before they retired.

A snow day calls us to stop—whether it is because work or other activities are cancelled or it is because it is simply too dangerous for us to get out of the house, we stop, even if it is just for a small portion of the day…and hopefully remember to give thanks to God for the beauty of the snow and the opportunity to just rest.

Other times, though, it is not the business of our lives that keeps us from being still.  It is the busyness of our minds and spirits.  There are so many of us who struggle with worry and anxiety.  We are constantly worrying about what might happen.  Our minds are constantly in turmoil concerned about what is going to happen next and what we are going to do when it happens.  Maybe that worry and concern is not about us, but about what others are doing.  In both Psalm thirty seven and forty six, there is constant anxiety and worry by the people of God about either the fact that the evil seem to be prospering or that they are going to be destroyed by their enemy.  The command to “be still,” is the command to stop worrying, the command to stop being anxious.

Why “be still”?

1)     We need to rest.  We are not meant to run non stop.  We meant to take time to stop and be still and rest.  Jesus reminds us that the Sabbath rest was not designed because God need us to stop…it was created for our benefit…it was created because God knew that we needed to stop and rest—to take an opportunity to be refreshed and renewed.

2)     We need to remember that we are not God.  Often times the refusal to stop, the drive to keep going and doing is because we think that who we are is defined by our work, our business.  Other times we work not stop because we are afraid if we don’t, everything is gong to fall apart—that life as we know it is dependent upon us.  We forget that we were created by God, in His Image…who we are is defined by God, not by our jobs, not by our successes…first and foremost we are a Child of the King.  Our value and identity is wrapped up in our Creator alone, nothing else.  Being still reveals to us that when we are still, the world keeps spinning…those around us keep going.

3)     We need to remember that those who come against us are not God.  Being still and ceasing to worry or be anxious is to remember that those things that come against us, those things that might or might not happen, are not God.  They might be able to affect us, but they do not control us and they cannot and will not have the final word in our lives…the Alpha and Omega has both the first and the final Word in our lives…and for those of us who become still and remember that He is God…those of us who have become still and surrendered our lives to God…that final Word is Victory.

4)     Being still gives us an opportunity to hear God.  Often times in our busyness…in in all the chaos of the world around us…and amongst all the voices that are constantly barraging our ears and our minds…we forget to listen to God or we fail to hear or recognize His voice.  Being still gives an opportunity to spend time reading His Word…being still gives us an opportunity to be in prayer…being still gives us an opportunity to worship…being still gives us an opportunity to study…being still gives us an opportunity to be in conversation with other believers…as we all stop and become still before God.

Being still, my brothers and sisters, is not a curse; it is not a punishment; it is not something to be avoided; it is a gift to be cherished and used---let us give thanks to God for the opportunity to simply be still and remember that God is God!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.