Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. – Psalm 43:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 18, 2016): Psalm 43

Martin Luther King reminded us that “human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable … Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” We are too easily influenced by the status quo. We want things to remain the same. Even inside the church we seem to only want to grab on to what is familiar. I have been reminded in the past and in many ways of the dangers of bringing uncomfortable ideas inside the church, even when I am sure that the ideas are straight from the throne of God. Don’t ask me to love my Muslim brothers, even if Jesus did tell us to love our enemies and pray for those who might want to persecute us (Matthew 5:44). We don’t want to hear that. Our stance seems to be “Come Holy Spirit, just don’t challenge me by your presence.” Or as one parishioner put it – “Jesus is welcome in my church as long as he doesn’t do anything weird.”

Psalm 43 is a short prayer for vindication. The psalmist has met the struggle and he needs to be rescued from the hands of his enemies. And when he is rescued he promises that he will go to the altar of God with a song of joy. But what is sometimes so easy to miss is that the altar is actually a place of sacrifice. It always has been. In the tradition that I grew up in, we made that long walk from the place where we sat in the service to the alter railing at the front of the church when we felt God calling us to change. There we knelt and prayed, or we lifted up a song of thanksgiving, but the idea was always that we had come to a place of sacrifice. I may not agree with everything that the Hindu teacher Sathya Sai Baba wrote, but he did remind us that “Life is a sacrifice … offer it.” (The full quote of Sathya Sai Baba, who believed that he was the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi, is “Life is a song - sing it. Life is a game - play it. Life is a challenge - meet it. Life is a dream - realize it. Life is a sacrifice - offer it. Life is love - enjoy it.” I am not sure that I would want to correct him on any of these assertions.)  But life really is a sacrifice, and I believe that the psalmist understood that. If he came through this trial, he would sing his praise at the altar because his life remained forfeit to his God. His life was on the altar, and God could do whatever he desired with it.

The apostle Paul wrote what I think is a New Testament equivalent to this Psalm. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatian 2:20). I have laid down my life in sacrifice at the altar and I have offered it to my God. He is the one that has chosen to pick it up once again, not me. And to him, my life, every portion of it, is dedicated.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 44