Our Feet Have Not Slipped

Text:  Psalm 66:1-12

Theme:  "Our Feet Have Not Slipped"

21st Sunday After Pentecost

October 13, 2013

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

 

¹Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;

²sing the glory of his name;

give to him glorious praise.

³Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds!

Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.

⁴All the earth worships you;

they sing praises to you,

sing praises to your name."

Selah

⁵Come and see what God has done:

he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.

⁶He turned the sea into dry land;

they passed through the river on foot.

There we rejoiced in him,

⁷who rules by his might for ever,

whose eyes keep watch on the nations-

let the rebellious not exalt themselves.

Selah

⁸Bless our God, O peoples,

let the sound of his praise be heard,

⁹who has kept us among the living,

and has not let our feet slip.

¹⁰For you, O God, have tested us;

you have tried us as silver is tried.

¹¹You brought us into the net;

you laid burdens on our backs;

¹²you let people ride over our heads;

we went through fire and through water;

yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.

 

Out of the twelve verses here in Psalm 66, we now zero in on just two of them:  verses eight and nine:  "Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip."  Our feet have not slipped!

 

When feet slip, the person who owns the feet is, more than likely,  headed for a tumble.  When feet slip, balance is  -- fully or partially -- lost.  When your feet slip, look out;  you are in a vulnerable position.  When you walk, briskly and confidently, on a sidewalk, you pay little mind to the possibility of slipping.  But put an inch or two of ice on the pavement, and the body -- almost instinctively -- senses danger, and precautions are therefore taken so that the feet do not slip out from under us.  No one wants to be in that unfortunate situation where about the only thing to say is "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up."

 

The good news for today, as we head into a time of thinking about how we use what we have been given (the traditional term for that is "stewardship"), is that our feet have not slipped.  Here at First Presbyterian Church, there have surely been times in our one hundred thirty five years when we were unsteady.  There were situations when we had to walk more carefully.  Sometimes we were very weak, and we couldn't take brisk strides.  Sometimes we had to stay still just to maintain balance.  At the other times, we were our own worst enemy, and, to carry the analogy through, we shot ourselves in the foot.   But the good news for today is that our feet have not slipped.  The doors have not been closed, and the mission has not been scuttled.  That is good news  -- and it illustrates the happy truth that our feet have not slipped. 

 

In Psalm 66, our text, the talk of the feet not slipping is in reference to the Exodus.  The Israelites walked through the Red Sea on dry land.  Verse six says: "(God) turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There we rejoiced in God."  And, again, verse eight and nine:  "Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept us among the living and has not let our feet slip."  That's good news!

 

The not-so-good news is that there are still plenty of "Pharaoh"s out there seeking to put us in bondage.  Our feet may yet slip.   Ice is accumulating on the pavement.  There are any one of a number of brightly-lit, neon-colored detours that would pull us away from following our Lord and Master.  It's as if we're walking a tightrope. Our feet could slip, and we'd fall into the trap of growing doubt.  We doubt that God loves us and maybe even doubt God exists.  On such a slippery slope, we find ourselves playing church but not being church. We might affiliate with the church, but, otherwise, we are commitment-phobic.  "Once bitten, twice shy", as they say.   Outwardly, we put on our Sunday best and muster up our politeness.  But inwardly, we smirk and we roll our eyes -- at God and one another -- and think to ourselves:  "Is it really worth it?  What difference does it make?"  In the early church, outsiders looked at the church and said:  "See how they love one another!" In the modern church, outsiders look at the church and could rightly exclaim:  "See how they drag one another into court!"  Yes, it surely seems that we walk on a tightrope.

 

Then the church looks out on the world in general and the American culture in specific.  There are a lot more cars and a lot less patience. There is a lot more skepticism and a lot less confidence -- from Washington D.C. all the way down to city hall.  Everything is -- to borrow the title of a popular TV program -- "Breaking Bad", and people seek to numb the spiritual and mental pain with a bottle, a pill, a needle, a fix, or some way of escape.  Meanwhile, there are more than enough folk who are there to help you find that escape.  Bob Dylan called such a person the "mystery tramp":

 

You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?

When you make such a deal, watch your feet; they're slipping. But I'm here to tell you, First Presbyterian Church:  tightrope or not, our feet have not slipped.  Iced pavement or dry, our feet have not slipped.  Oh yes, we could wish that every seat in this sanctuary were filled.  With a wisp of nostalgia, we could think back on those days when there were four times as many people here of a Sunday.  As our median age approaches retirement, we can yearn for young families.  We can scratch our heads and wonder why Grandpa and Grandma's Presbyterian Church doesn't attract the young millennial generation.

 

Trust me.  The young people know something of what it means to live in a spiritual wasteland.  Church or not, they've grown up on the skepticism of this culture which is as pervasive as the air we breathe.  No trumpeting of family values is going to change that. They'll see right through the way some churches have of quietly excluding the people that they really don't want.  Certainly, they will be attracted for a time with rock and roll, good time, plastic-banana Christianity. They'll feel good for a time at an all-things-to-all-people, all-inclusive kind of church that caters to their every whim and fancy, and that serves a continental breakfast and has a fully-staffed nursery.  But when life hands them bitter pills, when they lose a parent, when their best friend in high school (a soldier) comes back in a box from Afghanistan, all of that "happy Jesus" stuff isn't going to do the trick.   I've read the literature, and the young millennials are telling us:  "Don't 'play' church, BE the church.  Give us something to hold on to."

 

First Presbyterian Church, our feet have not slipped -- because we have something to hold on to. We have the Gospel; we have the sacraments; we have the prayer -- and the way of prayer -- that Jesus taught.  We have music -- a "style"of music, if you will -- that does more than entertain:  it edifies.  We have people who suit up and show up -- in good times and in bad, in season and out of season, tightrope or not -- because they've been touched by something they cannot see.  Yet, it is the most real thing in their lives. It is the grace and love of God for them that never fades and never withers.  You want to know why our feet have not slipped?  That's why. 

 

What does this accomplish?  Well, it produces a people who are not afraid to share ideas, folks who are willing to ask, who are willing to venture risks because the mission is more important than what people think about it.  As a result, six months later, a team from our church heads to Haiti on a mission trip -- borne along by your prayers and your gifts and your enthusiasm.   I could spend entire sermon and more telling you stories about people outside our congregation whose jaws have dropped in amazement at how a church of our size could do such a thing. 

 

Yes, we have a mortgage payment.  Yes, we have to keep the lights on.  Yes, you pay me faithfully every two weeks.  But think of this, we also house a little school that love built -- Denton Christian Preschool -- that gives the neediest of the needy pre-Kindergarten students in our community a fighting chance.  Ask Judy Royal. Those kids come back; they remember; they thank God that this little preschool did what it did.  All we do is give it a home, and we can do more. 

 

Now, more recently, we have opened our door to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. We've given the leaders  a safe place to do what they do:  help people recover from a cunning, baffling, and powerful disease that, unchecked, will kill their minds, souls, and bodies.  And most recently, we have added the Al-anon program so that the loved ones and friends of the alcoholic and addict can, themselves, recover. 

 

And how about the Presbyterian Women organization?  Words fail me.  The list of causes and organizations they  support is incredibly long. Their generosity has planted seeds and has spread like a gentle rain on this spiritually dry world. 

 

Finally, ministers of the Word and Sacrament, pastors, various clergy, and elders -- myself included -- spend a lot of time thinking and even fussing and fretting over what the church has not done and what it could do.  What it has not done is in the past.  What it could do is in the future.  As I read our text, I was reminded of all the things the crucified and risen Lord is doing among us right now in the present.  So, as the psalmist said, "Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip."

 

Amen.