Psalm 27:1, 5-13

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?

5 One thing have I asked of the Lord; one thing I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life;

6 To behold the fair beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.

7 For in the day of trouble he shall keep me safe in his shelter; he shall hide me in the secrecy of his dwelling and set me high upon a rock.

8 Even now he lifts up my head above my enemies round about me.

9 Therefore I will offer in his dwelling an oblation with sounds of great gladness; I will sing and make music to the Lord.

10 Hearken to my voice, O Lord, when I call; have mercy on me and answer me.

11 You speak in my heart and say, "Seek my face." Your face, Lord, will I seek.

12 Hide not your face from me, nor turn away your servant in displeasure.

13 You have been my helper; cast me not away; do not forsake me, O God of my salvation.

(This year, Monday Matters will focus on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We'll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen. Please note that these days in the church, there are two tracks of readings in the lectionary, offering a choice of psalms. Your church may or may not have read the psalm included in this email.)

In my experience, a majority of the baptisms I’ve witnessed involved an infant, adorably clueless, brought forward by parents and godparents. It’s a beautiful thing. 

Less frequently have I witnessed adults being baptized. Beautiful in its own way. In our increasingly secular culture, the decision of an adult to seek baptism is powerful in its implicit intentionality. Since the early days of the church, there’s a process for preparing adults for baptism known as the Catechumenate, a period of “training and instruction in understandings about God, human relationships and the meaning of life” according to the Book of Occasional Services. Tall order for a curriculum, don’t you think?

I’ve been part of churches that offer the Catechumenate not only for adults seeking baptism, but also for those seeking to be confirmed or to reaffirm faith. As those persons enter the process through a liturgy for the admission to the Catechumenate, they are asked this question: What do you seek? They are to answer with three simple words: Life in Christ.

Think with me this morning about how you would answer that question: What do you seek? How often do you ask yourself that question? Often enough? 

I’m directed to that question by the psalm heard in church yesterday (if the winter storm didn’t knock out your church service). That psalm has a lot to do with seeking. In the first verses, the psalmist says: One thing I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Later on, the psalmist prays: You speak in my heart and say, "Seek my face." Your face, Lord, will I seek.

What does it mean to seek God’s face? The psalmist speaks of a desire to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Perhaps in the time that the psalm was written that was a literal reference to the temple in Jerusalem. For us, it takes on metaphorical sense, with a call to recognize the presence of God in all of life. In the spirit of confession, I spend a good deal of my life as functional atheist, not really aware of God’s abiding presence. I do seek change in that regard, to have God's presence increasingly inform all that I do. I’m well aware that I’m not there yet.

As those entering the Catechumenate embark on study of God and human relationships and the meaning of life, they do so in community, which is one of the ways that we seek God. We seek God by putting ourselves in the company of others who are on that similar journey, learning from each other, listening to each other, being fed with the bread and wine of Holy Eucharist (something we can not do by ourselves).

We seek God in a commitment to our individual spiritual practices. A rhythm and consistency in our prayer life. Reading and meditating on God’s word. Sitting in silence.

We seek God in our service to those in need. In Matthew 25, Jesus says that’s how we come to see Christ the King, even if we don’t realize it at the time. We get some direction from the Baptismal Covenant, which calls us to seek and serve Christ in all persons, to love neighbor as self, to strive for justice and peace. I'm mindful of this critical call, reeling from news of the past weekend, as agents of our government murder an innocent man on our city streets, as top officials baldly lie about it, as too many who claim to follow Christ make excuses. With broken hearts in a broken world, we are called to seek God's presence, power and mercy, to choose compassion.

Soren Kierkegaard said that purity of heart is to will one thing. The psalmist identifies that one thing as seeking God. Join the psalmist this week in prayer for guidance in your own life in that single-minded process. Think this week of how you might sharpen your focus in that regard. 

And as you do, consider that this is miraculously a two way street. By grace, God is seeking us out, captured in the beautiful parable of the one lost sheep that the shepherd goes to find, or in the parable of the prodigal son whose father looks down the driveway for the son to return.

What do you seek? The New Testament letter to the Colossians helps us with an answer: If you have been raised with Christ, seek the thing that are above, where Christ is (Colossians 3:1). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus invited disciples to seek first the kingdom of God, and all else will be added (Matthew 6:33). Blessings in your search this week.

 -Jay Sidebotham