Light of Hope - Psalm 27

  

Rudolph’s gotten a bad reputation this week.  It seems like this scene, and others like it during the Christmas Special, have a group of folks worked up.  They are suggesting that Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is a special that promotes bullying, bigotry, horrific parenting, and a utilitarian view of others.  The truth be told, I guess, given a person’s focus, it could be looked at that way.  I mean, if we focus on the way the way the other reindeer treat Rudolph and that’s the totality of the story for us, it is about bullying.  If we look at Rudolph to develop our parenting skills based on Donner, then there is concern.  If look at Coach and Santa and develop a tendency to write off or shun folks who are different than us or if we value people for only what we can get out of them.  If we see this special as an endorsement of any of these behaviors, then by all means, we need to stop watching it—because we have missed the point of seeing the story as a whole.  As for me, I always saw Rudolph and his red nose as message of hope—hope for those who have been bullied, hope for those who are different…

You see, looking at the whole story is important.  It’s all about perspective…and keeping the right perspective…that’s the point that David was trying to get across in our Psalm this morning.

David knew what it was like to have your parent treat you as less than because of who you are.  He was written off by his father because he was the youngest, having been left out the field when Samuel came to anoint the next king.  David knew what it was like to be bullied.  He experienced it within his on family when he brought food to battlefield and his brother turned on him and accused David of just wanting to see bloodshed. He experienced it on the battlefield when mocked by Goliath.  David knew what it was like to be betrayed by those who he helped as Saul sought to kill him time and time again.  He knew what it was like to have failed, having fallen into sin with Bathsheba in so many ways.  If we focus on Jesse, we get a lesson on ranking your children by their birth order and size.  If we focus on David’s brothers we get a lesson on jealousy.  If we focus on Goliath we see a story about bullying.  If we focus on Saul we find a story that supports attempting to take out your competition by whatever means necessary.  If we focus on David’s failings with Bathsheba we find a story that promotes lying, adultery, deception, and murder.  If an endorsement of those behaviors is what we get out of reading David’s story, then we need to stop reading the Scriptures.   Yet if we step back and look at the whole of David’s story, we find a story of rescue, of trust, of repentance, of redemption, of mercy, and we see the work of God preparing for the salvation of the world…we find a story of hope.

Which brings us to the story of Jesus.  If we were to focus on His conception, there is call to question God’s approach on a young teenage girl.  If we focus on King Herod, we get a story supporting genocide as he wipes out all the babies.  If we focus on Jesus’ siblings, we get a picture of a family trying to silence a brother who is a different from everyone else.  If we focus on the disciples, we could get a lesson of trying to set ourselves up as number one.  If focus on the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, and other religious elite, we find support for bullying, bribery, and doing whatever it takes to take out the competition.  If we focus on the Roman soldiers we find support for brutality.  If we focus on Pilate, we find support for caving in to societal pressures.  If those places are our focus and we use them to endorse those behaviors, then we need once more to stop reading the Scriptures short-sightedly.  However, when we place our focus on those things, on those parts of the story, we have missed the point of the story, for we have failed to keep our focus on Jesus.  The story of Jesus is about overcoming all of those things…it is a story of a God who took on our flesh and brought us salvation and freed us from not only our own sins, but the sins of others against us.  The story of Jesus from the manger through the cross to the empty tomb is a story of hope…a story of hope for those who have been bullied, a story of hope for those who are the bullies…a story of hope for those who are different, a story of hope for those who have sought to be like everyone else…a story of hope for the world.

Too often in this world, our focus is in the wrong place, and it leads us to the wrong conclusions. We focus on the bullies and on how unfair we are treated.  We focus on poor parenting and blame them for how we turn out.  We focus on how we have been used and see no value in ourselves other than what we can produce.  We focus on those who would attack us, and we live in fear of where the next attack might come from and how it might be the one that kills us.  We focus on our sins and feel trapped and worthless.  Are these things real? Yes.  Do they have to be acknowledged?  Most definitely.  Should they be our focus, the controlling factor of our lives?  By no means…because if they are the focus then we become nothing more than victims…a mentality that is much to relevant in our culture today.  Whether we perceive ourselves to be victims, or having other people telling us we are victims, then we find ourselves living lives that are marked by a sense of hopelessness.  We become nothing more than what has been done to us.

Thanks be to God that David didn’t have that perspective and that he offers us words that shine the light of hope into our lives.  Rather than focus on “enemies” and letting their treatment of him and attitudes define him, He chose to keep his focus upon God.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh—my adversaries and foes-they shall stumble and fall.”  David’s focus was God and God alone in times of trouble…and he never claimed to be a victim of those things done to him, but in God chose to claim victory before it had ever happened.  He kept his focus upon God no matter what enemy he faced and know that God would bring the victory.

Jesus faced all those who tried to undermine or attack him, and even hanging upon the cross refaced to see himself as a victim—His eyes focused on what God was accomplishing and would accomplish beyond the cross…as He said, “It is finished!” He claimed God’s victory over all that was done to Him!

My brothers and sisters, may we learn to take in the whole story.  May we keep our focus upon God and what He has done and is doing.  May we remember that we have a choice…we can choose to be victims…we can choose to live in hopelessness, our eyes upon our enemies…or we can choose to be victors, claiming for ourselves the victory that has already been won.  We can choose to “wait for the Lord; be strong, …take courage…we can those to believe that we shall see the “goodness of the Lord” not some future day in the skies, but here and now, “in the land of the living.”  When we choose to look at everything in the light of hope, with our eyes focused upon God, we will find ourselves living “in the house of the Lord all the days of [our lives].”

Thanks be to God!

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