“Lookit mama! Lookit daddy!” There was a study that came out recently, wish I could remember from where-sorry, that was assessing the effect of engagement with social media on parenting and or child development. To grossly reduce a whole lot of findings down to the point I’m after here, the study implied that a parent who was engaged with his/her phone or tablet while “watching” a child was not as effective as a parent. No, duh. I know, but before you go and complain about research that just proves something anyone with the sense God gave geese could figure out, there is something significant here. Something we may know but not really see as so significant. It’s about your face.
Actually, I’m not sure my kids ever said “lookit.” “Watch me,” I heard that one a lot. “Are you watching daddy? Do you see me?” If you aren’t looking, if you aren’t seeing, you aren’t engaged. It’s like you aren’t even there. Children look at your face. They look at your face to see if you are present with them. But they also look at your face to see if what you are saying is true. If you say happy things to a baby with a scowling face they will cry. On the other hand, you can say sad and mean things to a baby with a smiling, happy face and the baby will smile and coo right with you. It’s about your face.
I tell the preachers I teach to pay attention to their face when they preach. First of all about making eye contact, whether you preach from a full manuscript or no notes at all or something in between, the preacher has to figure out how to be able to look at the congregation when preaching, at least part of the time. Most of the time? And then, and this is harder for some folks than you’d think, I tell them to make sure to let their face in on the gospel message. I don’t care how dynamic the sermon you’ve written is, if you looked bored, the hearers will be bored too. If you speak of joy with a frown, or contentment with a look of worry, and grace with a countenance of unforgiving judgement, the message isn’t going to get through.
I know, I don’t do it all that well myself. At least I’m aware of it. We let all kinds of things show up on our faces, don’t we? All kinds of subtext, all kinds of unspoken wounds or worries, all kinds of suspicions and doubts, not to mention the weariness of living in such a complicated world, and the overwhelming sense of failure that dogs our every step. All of that shows up on your face. It’s hard to hide and we’d just as soon people not look too deeply.
And guess what? I’m going to make it worse. It’s not only your face that you are showing to the world around you. It is the face of God.
Psalm 27 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh-- my adversaries and foes-- they shall stumble and fall. 3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident. 4 One thing I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. 5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock. 6 Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD.
7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me! 8 "Come," my heart says, "seek his face!" Your face, LORD, do I seek. 9 Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation! 10 If my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will take me up. 11 Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. 12 Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they are breathing out violence. 13 I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. 14 Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
There is a division in the psalm that has caused some debate in biblical scholarship. Some argue that this was really two different psalms that somehow got mashed together. Look at the tone, they say, in the first six verses and then look at the change in the last eight. It’s like they are two different people, at two different times. One is celebrating, one is afraid. One can see God, but the other has lost their glimpse of the face of God. So, naturally it must be two different people with two different purposes at two different times. Naturally. Further evidence that biblical scholars aren’t real people. Is it really so hard to believe that a moment of confidence gets swept away by doubt? Is it such a stretch to see that even David - since he is the traditional author of this psalm - could have his certainty shaken by something and send him running back into the arms of the One on whom he pours out his life?
Well, of course. We are fickle beings, we humans. Strong as anything one moment, quivering lumps of humanity the next. Sometimes within one conversation. I wonder if this psalm, or something like it came to David on that day when he was dancing before the ark of the covenant when it rolled into Jerusalem. The back story to that one is pretty amazing itself. But skip over the struggle to get this symbol of the very presence of God back home to the city dedicated to the worship of God, and jump ahead to those last few steps of the parade. King David was celebrating the joy of being in God’s presence. David was worshiping. Catch that? David was worshiping. Not by sitting in a pew and reading some lines and dozing through an explication of some obscure passage of scripture. No, David was worshiping by stripping down to his tighty whiteys and dancing. Throwing himself into the experience, tasting the love of God in the sweat that rolled down his face, feeling the touch of God in the clouds of dust kicked up by his dancing feet. “Now my head is lifted up,” he sang, “I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy” he yodeled. “I will sing, and make melody to the Lord!” So, he did. With his whole being, he sang, with his feet and his hands, with his body he made melody to the Lord. David knew how to worship.
But then, he caught a glimpse of his wife, glaring down at him from the palace window. She didn’t see worship, she saw embarrassment, she saw an unseemly display of royal flesh in front of ... well, God and everybody. And maybe, just speculating here, maybe when he caught sight of that face, all the joy drained out of him. All the confidence ran down into the dust at his feet and now he wasn’t sure. Because he saw that face, of disgust, of disappointment, of disapproval, he lost his grip on worship.
I don’t know that that’s what happened. But I know the experience. Of moving from certainty to doubt, of moving from certainty to being lost in the dark. All because of a face. A face that throws you off the track. Could be a stranger’s face, someone passing by who unsettles you. But more often it is someone you know, and trust and even love. And that face can knock you down, send you scurrying into the darkness of despair. That face, which isn’t the face of God, you know that, but yet somehow they have been that before. They have let God’s light shine on you before and you’ve known God’s pleasure through them. So it only makes sense that you could sense judgement and disappointment from them too and think it is God.
But wait, you think, Psalm 27 isn’t about our faces, it is about God’s face. Right, caught me. It’s about God’s face and not our faces. Except ... just how do we seek the face of God? Come, my heart says, seek his face. Your face, O Lord, do I seek. It’s built into us, this desire to seek the face of God. It comes from within. We long for the face of approval and the face of acceptance, we long to look into the face that loves us more than we can even imagine. So, how do we seek that face?
By worshiping. That’s what David says. Come to worship. But not reluctantly or under compulsion. Come with eyes open seeking the face of God. Come ready to look and see, ready to hear and understand, come expecting ... expecting, mind you, to encounter the face of God. You might see that face in an ecstatic experience, a vision or dream. You might. But more likely you will see it in the faces of those around you. Those who love you unconditionally. Those who want only the best for you. Those who are waiting for you to see them. Those for whom you are the face of God. Yeah, there are those for whom the face of God looks like the face you see in the mirror every morning. All they hope for is that you’ll pay attention, that you’ll forgive, that you’ll invite, that you’ll love them. Lookit. Please, oh please, just lookit.
Shalom,
Derek
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