Psalm 133
How good and pleasant it is
when God's people live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.
So our Caravan has finally made it. After three weeks of traveling from our homes, through the wilderness, we are finally at the gates of Jerusalem ready to pass through. We are just in time for the Passover Festival. Next week, we shall see what happens in the Holy City when a charismatic rabbi enters with a parade of palms. But for right now, we can just relax knowing that we are finally here! We are home! Spiritually home!
The problem is that as you look around, home seems an awful lot like where we started. We're still in our small little homes looking out our windows at the outside world. We didn't go anywhere. But have we got somewhere? Psalm 133 speaks of a refreshing dew coming down over the whole land. It speaks of love and togetherness revitalizing everything like the sweet cinnamon scented anointing oil that Priests use. My prayer for you is that you find yourselves refreshed. That even thought you're right back where you started; you're not really. You've gotten somewhere in these past few weeks.
There's an old Jewish story I love...
There was once a man who had grown very discontented with his life. It seemed to him that nothing was what he once hoped it would be. He loathed his tiny little village filled with rude and nosy neighbors where nothing ever happened. His children were loud and unruly, making his tiny shack of a house unbearable to live in. What’s more, his wife’s beauty had faded and she seemed to him less kind than when they first met. “There must be something more than all of this,” he thought to himself. Then he remembered a place he had heard of as a child: the beautiful garden of Paradise. There, it was said, everything was perfect and everyone was happy all the days of their lives. The more the man thought about this strange and beautiful place, the more his heart longed to go there. So one morning he made a visit to the local Rabbi, knocking on his door. “Rabbi,” he said, when the kindly man finally appeared in the door frame, “Can you tell me the way to Paradise?” The Rabbi scratched his chin, “Normally, I would tell you that no one knows the way to Paradise and that would be true enough for Eden’s doors were closed to the world before maps were made and anyone who has managed to find there way there has stayed and not returned. But you look determined so I’ll tell you what I do know. It’s only hearsay and rumor, mind you…” “Please!” said the man, “I must know. Anything you could tell me…” “I have heard that it is a 7 day journey north. You must start on the first day of the week and you will arrive on the Sabbath. That’s all I know. Anyone I’ve sent that way has yet to come back…” The man was overjoyed to have received such specific instructions. He thanked the Rabbi and began making his preparations to leave on the first day of the week. When the day came, he was off. He had a staff and enough food in his pack for seven days. He had no compass but once he had fixed himself going north, he simply walked in a straight line. Every night he would leave his shoes pointed in the direction he had been walking. Then, in the morning, he would put his shoes on and continue walking in that direction. Midweek, when the man went to sleep, he pointed his shoes to the north as he had done the nights before. That night, a trickster happened by. He saw the man lying by the side of the road with his shoes pointed North and smiled a big mischievous smile. Chuckling to himself, he crept up to where the man was sleeping, and turned his shoes around so that they now pointed south. Then the trickster disappeared into the night like a wink from God. When morning came, the man put on his shoes and continued on his journey. As he progressed, he began to notice that it all seemed familiar to him. Had he visited the place in a dream? Was he in touch with his ancestral memories? As the days progressed, he was filled more with a sense of awe and wonder. Finally, on the morning of the Sabbath, he reached the village where he had started. But as its gates glowed in the morning light, he saw it as if for the first time. “This is it!” he thought, “The gates of Paradise! O it’s beautiful!” The man walked in and the ground glittered in the sunrise as if the streets were made of gold and he was warmed to see all the heavenly buildings and all the beautiful fruit trees. He marveled at the City of God, alive and bustling with the activity of the saints. Then he came to a house that deep inside he somehow knew was meant for him. There were tears in his eyes as he walked through the door and saw little cherubs laughing and dancing and singing all through the home, and he broke down sobbing when he walked into the bedroom and there sat the most loving and most beautiful angel he had ever seen. The man saw that everything was perfect and he was happy all the days of his life.
Lord, Thank you for being our faithful companion on this and every other journey. Refresh our hearts. Help us to see familiar sights anew. Give us the eyes of faith to see your Kingdom in our midst. Amen.
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