Psalm 133 Meditation for Potluck Worship Scott Hoezee

Few things move us like unity among people. If a movie or television show wants to tug at our heartstrings, it could hardly improve on the tried-and-true method of climaxing the drama by having estranged people come back together. Do you remember the first Home Alone movie from some years back? McCauley Culkin played Kevin, the little boy accidentally left home alone when his family went to Paris for the Christmas holidays.

There was a minor sub-plot in that film involving Kevin's spooky neighbor--a gruff old man whom the neighborhood children avoided. But then Kevin and this old man meet up in church during a children's choir rehearsal a few hours before the Christmas Eve service. The old man's granddaughter was in the choir but he had to come to the rehearsal to hear her. A falling out with his son years earlier made him an unwelcome presence at the actual church service. Innocently Kevin suggests the old man just call his son, but the man says he's not sure he dares. Of course, the man does call, and so the last scene of the movie shows Kevin staring out his living room window, witnessing the old man hugging his son and sweeping his granddaughter up into his arms as they all head toward the man's house for Christmas dinner. It's just a small little scene in a silly little movie, and every time I see it I start to blubber! I try to hide it from Rosemary, but she always knows, rolls her eyes, and so knows again that at bottom, I'm a sap and a sucker for melodrama!

But really, is there anything more beautiful than reunions of family and friends long separated by a chasm of some kind? I am quite certain that some of you are right now wishing to get back together with a son or daughter, a grandchild, an erstwhile best friend. Most of us know people with whom we were once close but now, well, something went wrong. I'd wager that there are any number of people in this congregation who pray daily for a reunion with someone, and a few of us worry that it will never happen before we die. Unity is mighty important to us.

Psalm 133 is a short psalm that packs a wallop. Its opening verse is very to understand. "How good and pleasant is the sight, when brothers (and sisters) live together in unity." Curiously, when I checked the Hebrew of this psalm, I discovered that the word translated as "live" is really a form of the verb shabat, which means "to rest" and is directly related to the word "Sabbath." I was not quite able to figure out how this word got translated as "live together" but clearly whatever else this image means, it ties in with our identity as God's people enjoying the Sabbath rest of shalom that God always intended.

Someone once pointed out that despite the value we place on work, isn't it interesting to notice that Genesis 1 says that Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day. So that means that their very first full day of existence took place on the Sabbath. God no sooner created humanity and he immediately gave them a day off, a Sabbath in which to enjoy each other, enjoy God's world, not doing anything except revel in the prior grace of God.

The Sabbath unity Psalm 133 talks about is what we were made for. It's a great image. But then comes the phrase in verse 2, "It is like . . ." The word "like" lets you know that a simile is coming. This unity is going to be likened to something else. If you are listening to a song on the radio and you hear the singer croon, "Your kisses, my darling, are like honey," you know how to understand that simile. He's not saying that his girlfriend's kisses are sticky or gooey but is picking up on the pleasant sweetness of honey.

So what does the psalmist say unity is like? It's like expensive oil being liberally poured onto a man's head, dribbling down his beard, and soaking into his collar. Now I don't know about you, but that image doesn't initially do much for me! At home my most expensive oil is a bottle of white truffle oil: this is a high quality extra virgin olive oil that has been infused with truffles, the most expensive mushroom in the world. It is in its own way a precious oil, but I doubt that any of you would regard it as a precious experience if you came to my house for dinner one night and I dumped the bottle onto your head!

Psalm 133 has one other image, too, and it is of dew coming off a high mountain and settling onto Mount Zion where the Temple was located. Again, this isn't the first image most of us would reach for! If we see a father and son coming back together after a long period of alienation, I don't think we tumble to saying, "That reminds me of how the grass is wet on really misty mornings sometimes."

Oily hair, stained collars, and dewy grass are not images that do much for us. We obviously need a little cultural translation, and probably some of you already know what that translation involves. The key is when we find out that the person with oil running down his head is not just anyone but Aaron, Moses' brother, the high priest of Israel. So this is the oil of anointing, the sacramental oil applied when setting someone aside for service to God. There was no higher honor than to be anointed like that. Since this first image involves a sacred anointing, we can then see that also the dew coming down from heaven to rest on the Temple is likewise meant to be understood as a kind of anointing of all the people who come on the Sabbath to worship God.

When the people of God get along together, put aside their differences, and gather in a kind of sabbatical experience of worship and rest, then there, right there is the anointed blessing of God. We could even say that there, right there, is the Messiah. Because the Hebrew term "Messiah" and its Greek counterpart "Christ" mean "the anointed one." So where Sabbath rest and holy unity are present among God's people, then Jesus is on display.

Tonight we've gathered again in this Fellowship Hall. That's what we decided to call this space long before it was ever really here. But I don't think that any of us knew how much joy we'd take together in coming here for potlucks and other fellowship times such as we have this evening. There's something about the sharing of a meal that draws us together. All of our worship times do that, of course, but there's something about the happy buzz of conversation such as we had here a few minutes ago that reveals our unity in a poignant way. Happy conversation over food then gives way to united singing of God's praises. As we look around the room we say, "How good, how pleasant, it is to Sabbath together this way, to be part of God's one family."

Such unity, such joy, such delight is like . . . well, what is it like? It's like the oil of the Holy Spirit's anointing each head here. What is it like? It's like the dew of baptism's waters descending from the Holy Spirit and settling onto each person here. What is it like? It's like having Jesus right here, the Anointed One himself, full of grace and truth, and commanding that his blessing of an eternal Sabbath start right here, right now, and even forevermore, Amen.