Stubborn
Psalm 95[1]
As some of you know
all too well, I can be stubborn at times. I’d like to say it’s a side effect of
having a Ph. D., but if I’m honest, I’d have to admit that my stubborn streak
goes way back. All the way back! When I was in High School, I got the “foot-in-the-mouth”
award, because I used to argue with the Math teacher when I couldn’t see the
logic of an equation. But my stubbornness goes back even farther than that! I
guess the one comfort I can take in my hard-headed condition is that I think I’m
not alone in that predicament. Most of us at some time or another are convinced
that we know what’s best, and when we do, we can be pretty stubborn about
changing our minds.
One of the essential
disciplines in the Christian faith is repentance. In order to repent, we have
to be willing to let go our stubborn insistence that we are right, or that we
are “in the right.” We have to be willing to admit that we have been wrong,
that we have been “in the wrong,” and that we have done wrong. This kind of
repentance is at the heart of observing the season of Lent. It is a time for us
to examine our lives with our eyes wide open so that we can see where we have
strayed in our faith journey. The purpose of repentance is not just to “feel
sorry” for what we have done, but rather to make up our minds that we are going
to change. That takes humility, rather than stubbornness.
One of the themes
that gets repeated over and over in the story of Israel’s people is that they
were stubborn. The prophets continually rebuked them for being “stiff-necked”
in their willful disobedience to God and in continually going their own way. The
prophets repeatedly called the people to humble themselves and return to God. It
seems to me that in order to do that, you have to repent, let go your stubborn
insistence on going your own way, admit that you’re going the wrong way, and open
your heart to what God is trying to do in your life.
The Psalmist was
reflecting on this aspect of Israel’s experience in our lesson for today. He
was particularly talking about the wilderness wanderings, when the people
complained seemingly non-stop about Moses and about God. They didn’t like being
in the wilderness, and they made that clear every chance they got! They weren’t
happy with the way things were going in their lives, and they rarely missed a
chance to blame God, or Moses, or both.
Unfortunately, it would seem that it never even occurred to them that
the root of their bitterness was within themselves, not in someone else. They
simply quarreled with Moses and “tested” God (Exod. 17:2, 3). The question at
the center of their quarrel was significant: “Is the Lord among us or not?" (Exod. 17:7).
I would offer the
suggestion that they were not the first, and certainly not the last, to “test”
God. The Psalmist defines it as
demanding that God prove himself to be trustworthy (Ps. 95:9). Ironically,
there are numerous stories where individuals asked God for a sign or for an
answer using various “tests.” But it would seem that there’s a difference
between trying to discern our direction and demanding that God give us
assurances that we will get out of life whatever it is that we want. One of the
problems with that approach to faith is that you can never get enough proof. You
always need one more test to be sure you can “really” trust God.
The Psalmist says
that the people wandering in the wilderness responded to God in this way
because they were stubborn. He says that they had “hardened” their hearts (Ps.
95:8). They had closed themselves off in such a way that faith was essentially
impossible. And so the Psalmist, speaking to later generations, warns them (and
us) to avoid this kind of stubbornness. How then do we follow this warning? Well,
it seems to me that we start where the Psalmist does. He calls to all those who
would hear, saying “O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before
the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand” (Ps. 95:6-7). The
place where we begin to open our hearts so that we may “listen to his voice”
(Ps. 95:7) is where we humble ourselves enough to kneel before our Maker.
That kind of
humility doesn’t come easily for those of us who have been schooled in a world
where competition is the name of the game. And yet, over and over, the
Scriptures call us to soften our stubborn hearts so that we can open them to the
life-giving presence of God. And over and over, the way the Scriptures instruct
us to begin is by humbling ourselves. We have to humble ourselves to recognize
that we were “weak” and “ungodly” when Christ died for us (Rom. 5:6). It took
humility for St. Paul to bow before Jesus and call the one he had opposed
“Lord”! And it takes humility for us to open our hearts to God.
Humility is difficult for most of us. But it truly is the first step toward repenting of stubbornness. When we
can let down some of our defenses, and soften our hearts, then maybe we can
open ourselves enough to listen, really listen to God’s voice. That’s what it
takes for us to experience the change Jesus called being “born anew.” That’s
what it takes for us to experience the new life of the Spirit that God wants to
give us. The call to faith is a call to humility, a call to soften our hearts
and open them up enough to receive the grace and the love that God wants to
pour into us in such quantity that it becomes like “a spring of water gushing
up to eternal life” (Jn. 4:14).
[1] ©2020 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan
Brehm on 3/15/2020 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
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