George A. Mason Wilshire Baptist Church th Opening Your Heart 16 Sunday after Pentecost 29 September 2019 Second“Gimme in a series, Shelter” Dallas, Texas

One thing have I sought. One Psalm 27:4-7days of my life. thing do I desire. One thing do I ask of the LORD.

Now, what might he have meant by the house of the LORD? This is That’s the way the psalmist where the Bible and our reading begins this second section of his of it gets fun, subtle and supple.of poetic prayer in Psalm 27. We began a four-weekOpening series Your on this This poem is called a psalm Heartpsalm withlast Sunday.Psalm 27 Rabbi Debra David. That’sto what thefor note says Robbins’s book at the top of the psalm. It can has been a also mean David or David. useful companion for some of us That is, the composer of this as we have meditated1 on these psalm, this hymn to be sung by ancient words. Israel, may more likely have been a Levite, a worship leader, We first joined the psalmist in who worked in the Temple in naming our hope. We started Jerusalem. In other words, right off affirming who God is, someone like Doug or Jeff, don’t that we are not the center of Theour you know?! The temple itself Luniverse,ORD is my and light that and God my issalvation always wasn’t even built during David’s Whomthe true then subject shall of I fear?our lives. reign. His son, Solomon, built the . temple. So, this psalm is likely written as an homage to David, rather than by David himself. But Once we’ve addressed the most the author uses the life of David fundamental thing about our and the whole story of Israel as life—that God is God and we are reference points for meaning. not, that God, and God, alone is the sourceWhat haveof our I askedhope, ofthen God we Last Sunday I talked about how overcan move and over? to otherI only concerns. want to Likelive King Saul had pursued David this:in the house of the LORD all the after the prophet Samuel had anointed David the next king of

Israel. David had to hide in the

1 Reform Jewish Publishing, 2019. clefts of rocks, that is, in places their yards and will eat their where the rock formation seems meals there for a week, to have been carved out, as with reminding them of the fragile caves. They became shelters for nature of life and the protection him in times of trouble. of God without which they wouldsukkot be lost. But shelter is anothersukkah word that recalls Israel’s history. Shelter The are shelters intended translates the word , to make people feel vulnerable sukkotwhich can mean tent or hut or enough that they never forget sukkahmakeshift shelter. These where real security is found. But —which is the plural of after the temple had been built, —were the temporary they also functioned to spur dwellings of the children of gratitude that the house of God Israel as they made their way was a secure home. To be there, through the wilderness from high above all their enemies in Egypt to the Promised Land. And the beautiful temple of Solomon, one of them, called the Tent of gave Israel a feeling that they Meeting, is where the Ark of the had arrived. They were finally Covenant was kept and within sheltered securely—or so they which were the Ten thought. Commandments given to Moses. The Levites would guard that The psalmist uses the language tent and move it with care, as it of tent, dwelling, rock and became a portable temple of temple almost interchangeably sorts. to speak of the desire of the people to be sheltered and We are currently in the Hebrew protected by God. Which means monthRosh of Elul, Hashanah, and tonight at that for us, when we read this sundown begins the Jewish New psalm and meditate on it, we Year, in Hebrew. may connect with it at a literal This begins what is known as the level or on one of many Days of Awe, ten days of spiritual metaphoricalgimme shelter levels. introspection and reflectionYom Kippur that conclude with repentance, the So, . That may be SukkotDay of Atonement— . the literal prayer of one of the Five days later, the festival of roughly 4,800 people who live begins. Observant Jews on the streets of Dallas every will build temporary shelters in night. It’s true that some are 2 Gimme shelter. there suffering from mental the Inn. illness and/or addictions of various kinds. It’s true that some Even when you do have a place choose to live on the streets and to call home, that doesn’t always avoid temporary shelters mean you are safe in it. A verdict because they actually feel safer in the Amber Guyger murder and freer on their own out in the trial is imminent. You remember elements. But when the weather that last September, Officer turns bitterly cold or brutally Guyger mistakenly entered the hot, they often seek shelter, too. apartment of a young And sometimes the shelters are professional black man named full. In their hearts if not on their Botham Jean. Botham was a lips is a Psalm 27 plea to God dedicated Christian, a song that they will be safe in a shelter leader in his Church of Christ of God’s making on their day of congregation in West Dallas. We trouble. know from her testimony that she had heard what she called When people like most of us “shuffling” from inside the read a psalm like this and can’t apartment and could have called relate to it ourselves because our for police backup and stayed in homes feel safe and our security the hallway. But she went in and systems will send out an alarm if said she fired because she was an intruder breaks in, we have a afraid for her life. responsibility spiritually to read this psalm communally—as a And maybe she was. But we need call to help God answer that to talk about this. This is prayer. something black people hear from white people all time, and And we are trying to do just that it’s something we have to come here at Wilshire. We support to grips with once and for all. local shelters. We host the Young black men scare white annual point-in-time count of the people. Period. Which means homeless. We also work with that young black men are always Austin Street Shelter to welcome suspect, just for walking around women into our Community Hall or even eating ice cream on the for one night to eat, get their couch of their own apartment nails done, talk with our watching a football game. members and sleep in a safe and Botham Jean had reason to clean place. It’s called Room in believe he was safe in his own 3 apartment. But in the moment We live in a world where God before the bullet pierced his has given us terrible freedom. gimmeheart, his shelter. spirit must have cried We can do good or evil. We out in the spirit of Psalm 27, mostly want God to leave us alone, until we don’t. We know in our hearts we can’t have it There were 29,927 children in both ways. But that doesn’t stop foster care in the State of Texas us from yearning for a world in in January of this year. Another which the good prevailsGimme shelter and evil 3,378 2were awaiting an adoptive is restrained. We want justice. home. All of these children have We want safety. , lived with terrifying insecurity we pray. because they have not known a safe and secure family and home. If you’re a person of a certain age They may not know the words of or musical taste, you are gimmePsalm 27, shelter. but they know the probably wondering when I’m yearning of the psalmist prayer, goingGimme to get aroundShelter to referencing the Rolling Stones’ gimme song . The wait is shelterIt isn’t just literal shelter we seek over. The song itself is a in life. When we pray desperate plea to stop the , we are asking God for storms, the floods, the rapes and protection. Psalm 27 can also murder that characterize our inspire a prayer for protection lives all too often. The Stones’ from physical and sexual assault. guitarist, Keith Richards, wrote When a person finds himself or the song, which would become herself in a position of his greatest hit with the band. It vulnerability to someone who came at a time when the band uses violence or power or was disintegrating in the late gimmeposition shelter to molest or rape or ’60s. Keith had stolen the degrade that person, the cry girlfriend of his bandmate, Brian is really a shout to Jones. And now Mick Jagger was heaven for help. To stop the filming intimate scenes with her perpetrator. To hold him or her for his debut movie. Jones’s life accountable. was falling apart and would soon

end by drowning in a swimming

2 https://www.adoptuskids.org/adoption- and-foster-care/how-to-adopt-and- foster/state-information/texas 4 The Atlantic pool. Richards was using heroin this month. and snorting cocaine. He was looking out the window of a “Secular Americans, who are London gallery where he was familiar with the ways that staying, when the weather traditional faiths have betrayed turned suddenly, lightning modern liberalism, may not have flashing across the sky. “Leaning examined how organized on the sameOh, open a storm chords is that religion has historically offered threatening,had become myhis verysignature, life today he solutions to their modern crooned, ‘ existential anxieties. If I don’t get some.’ … Heshelter, continued oh yeah, to I’mstrum, gonna [adding] fade “Making friends as an adult anotheraway line: ‘ without a weekly congregation is 3 hard. Establishing a weekend …’” routine to soothe Sunday- afternoon nerves is hard. The psalmist knows something Reconciling the overwhelming we all must learn: the privilege sense of life’s importance with of enjoying God’s presence in the the universe’s ostensible shelter of the temple is the indifference to human suffering consequence of having followed is hard. God’s ways day by day. Ordering our everyday lives according to “Although belief in God is no God’s instructions brings with it panacea for these problems, the experience of God’s4 religion is more than a theism. It Gimmesheltering shelter presence. is a bundle: a theory of the world, a community, a social . Somehow, it’s a identity, a means of finding prayer we all pray, whether we peace and purpose, and a weekly are religious or not. More and routine. Those, like me, who more aren’t. have largely rejected this package-deal, often find Derek Thompson is one such themselves shopping a la carte young atheist. He wrote honestly for meaning, community, and about the challenge of that in routine to fill a faith-shaped

3 The Book of Psalms 4 https://www.loudersound.com/features/the- Robert Alter, (Norton, story-behind-the-song-gimme-shelter-by-the- 2007), p. 92, n.4. rolling-stones 5 5 void.”

It’s a remarkable confession. What he is looking for is just the kind of shelter that the psalmist talks about when he desires to dwell in the house of the Lord forever and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. He wants to feel at home in the world and to sense that there is ultimate meaning to life.

Here is where this verygimme room sheltercomes in, friends. This is one answer to our prayer, . Never take it for granted. Here is where we can sense God’s presence and protection. Here we can gaze upon the beauty, the majesty and the wonder of God all the days of our lives.

Behold, here … here … here, too, is the temple of the LORD. Amen.

5 2019/09/atheism-fastest-growing-religion- https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/ us/598843/

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