On occasion, we like to publish something by one of our alumni.  Here is a brief homily by Ben Fike, a 2011 MDiv graduate and now campus minister of the University Church of Christ in Abilene.  Enjoy!  And, if you have a sermon of your own that you’re particularly proud of (it’s okay to be proud in this case!), send us a link or a manuscript.  We would like to collect such things for wider circulation.

Further Up and Further In: Psalm 1

By Ben Fike

at 9 o’clock worship service, UCC Abilene, 8/28/2011

“What’s next?” Every family, every group of friends, every road trip I’ve been on. There always seems to be someone asking the question, you know? “What’s next?” When I was growing up, it was my older brother. Every family vacation, every dinner, every outing “What’s next?” We’ve only just arrived at my grandpa’s farm, only just pulled into the parking lot of Walrus Ice Cream in downtown Fort Collins, CO where I grew up and he asks the question – “What’s next?”

Where do we go from here?

What happens after this?

Now that he’s 28 years old, my brother has long outgrown this. Although, I wonder if any of us ever really do. As human beings trapped within the constraints of time and space, it’s hard not to get caught up in the endless momentum of it all. Always moving forward, always pressing on. One year, one month, one day, one event, one moment to the next. And then what?

What’s next?

What classes are you taking next semester? What are you going to do after you finish your degree? What are your plans for the summer? What are you doing this weekend? What are we doing for dinner?

What’s next?

Perhaps it is no surprise then, that the Psalmist writing Psalm 1 imagines life as if it is a way, a road, a journey. Or more specifically, two ways – the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. “The Lord watches over the way of the righteous,” he writes.  “But the way of the wicked will perish.” Of course, when he puts it that way, there’s really no choice is there? Do you want to walk the road of the righteous or take the path that sinners tread, follow the advice of the wicked, sit in the seat of scoffers? It’s like here’s two options: 1. You can jump off a cliff, or 2. You can go out to a nice steak dinner with friends. You decide.

I think we get this. We get that we would rather walk along the way of the righteous. We would rather God lead us ahead as we move forward through this life. If life is a way, a road, then we want to walk the path with God rather than without. I think we get this. Right?

But it strikes me, that the Psalmist is not content to keep us moving in one direction, as if the passing of time is the only force at play. As if forward momentum is the only direction we can grow. No, the image shifts, the metaphors mix. And in the poetry of the psalm we find the righteous pilgrims, whose “delight is in the law of the Lord, and on God’s law they meditate day and night” But they are not described as wanderers, troubadours traveling down the highway.

No, the psalmist tells us, “They are like trees.” Like trees?

Yes, “Like trees planted by streams of water,

which yield their fruit in its season,

and their leaves do not wither.

In all that they do they prosper.”

Like trees planted by streams of water. Can you imagine anything more stationary? Can you imagine anything more passive than a tree?

But then, maybe that’s part of the point. To be among the righteous is not merely to be busy, on the move, tracking forward, as if the passing of time controls all that we do. No, to be among the righteous also means to be rooted, to be deep, to sink our legs deep into the life-giving streams flowing from the throne of God. The water of life. Streams of mercy. Justice rolling like a river.

To live in the way of righteousness means God calls us forward, but also grows us deeper, deeper, deeper into God’s love.

The metaphors are mixed, but maybe this is what it means to live among the righteous. We are mixed metaphors. We are walking trees. We are stationary pilgrims. Traveling without moving. Roots sinking deeper into the soft soil as we follow God down the road. Maybe this is what it means to live among God’s people. Moving forward but growing deep.

My hunch is that if you’re like me, we often live as travelers. Pushing on down the road ahead. Always wondering what is just beyond the horizon. Wondering what God’s plan for us might be in the future. What’s next? Where are we going? What’s after this? But perhaps we get so busy sometimes, so caught up in the passing of time, that we fail to live also as trees. To be still. To meditate on God’s Word. To drink deeply from the life giving waters of God as they swish and swirl around our roots. To grow deeper into God.

My hope for us all as we begin the semester, is that we do not get so caught up in the forward momentum of life that we fail to let God grow us deep. Don’t become such a pilgrim that you fail also to be a tree. My hope for us all is that we do not get swept up into life on the road so much that we fail to let God’s streams of mercy sweep around us. My hope for us all is that as God leads us forward, God also grows us deeper. Deeper in God’s way of self-sacrificing love. Deeper into each other.

In the final book of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series, The Last Battle, at the end of the world, all the characters “pass on” from the Old Narnia to the True Narnia. As the children and the creatures and talking animals of Narnia are met with the endless expanse of True Narnia – like a vision of heaven – so real, so green, so fresh it makes their old life seem like a dream. At the end of all things, Aslan, the Lion-King, calls out to those following him, and says, “Come further in! Come further up!”

Further up and further in. This is the way of the righteous. Walking trees. Stationary pilgrims. May God lead us forward. May God grow us deep.