Shaken

 Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous,  who speaks the truth from their heart;  whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others; who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken. (Psalm 15)

          Are the answers the psalmist gives individually sufficient, or only cumulatively sufficient? Many (perhaps most) people will proclaim themselves good. After all, they’ve never done a long list of things they consider evil. I know one evangelist who rather cleverly used the Ten Commandments as his definitional tool. Have you ever… coveted anything belonging to your neighbor, given false testimony about a neighbor, stolen anything from anyone, committed adultery, murdered, not honored  your parents, broken the Sabbath, misused the name of the Lord, made an idol (even supposing it to be God,) or worshipped another god?

          Some people point out that we all sin, so we shouldn’t stand in judgment of someone else’s sin just because ours looks different. They’re at least partly right. All sin is trea-sin, or treason.  But the point at the moment is that, as David writes in the psalm, people who don’t sin are the only ones who may dwell in God’s sacred tent or to live on His holy mountain. That leaves us all out.

          This is the problem with religion, and with people. We all want sin to matter and be judged, but not our sin. We want truth, as long as our lies are overlooked. We don’t want God to make exceptions, except when and for whom we want Him to make exceptions. We want everyone to play by the rules, but we want them to be our rules. And while we sometimes play games about switching ourselves over to His rule as a simple, do it once and it’s done sort of thing, it both is, and is not.

          Oh Father, help each of us, this day, to take the step of faith we need to take. Show us where we need to become blameless, to do righteousness, to speak truth, to not slander, to do no wrong, to cast no slur, to despise evil and to honor those who fear You, to keep oaths and not change our minds or run away, to help and not harm. Please shake us down to a place and condition in which we will no longer be shaken.