Finding Our Place in the World

Psalm 8
Roger Lynn
November 8, 2015
(click here for the audio for this sermon)

When we open ourselves to God’s Spirit and allow it to flow freely in us and through us, remarkable things can happen. What we discover is the reality that the healing power of God’s Love knows no limits. We begin to see the world in a whole new way, and we start to find our place in the world.

The writer of Psalm 8 must have had an experience like this. You can almost imagine him out in a field somewhere, laying on his back at night, staring up into the vast display of stars above him. He gets in touch with just how overwhelming it all is. And he almost heads down the path that leads to a sense of being lost and worthless. “God is so big, and I am so small. I guess I just don’t matter.” or “I’m only one person in a great big universe. Nothing I do really matters anyway. What’s the point?” It’s easy to wander down such paths and get lost in the swamp of hopeless meaninglessness. But that is not our only option. The psalmist, for example, found a different way to go. He traveled through the sense of being overwhelmed and came out on the other side, where he got in touch with the ways in which he was powerfully connected with everything, including God. He recognized that the sense of being small is only an illusion of perspective. When we think we’re separate and not connected, then of course we will feel small and powerless and lost. But when we begin to get in touch with the reality that we are a connected and vital part of all that is, then we find ourselves on the path towards living into our truly amazing potential – a potential which springs directly from an awareness that we have been made in the very image of God. We bear the imprint of the Sacred in the very core of our being. 

Finding our place in the world begins when we get in touch with the immensity of our potential, and continues when we also acknowledge the responsibility of that potential to live gently and compassionately with everyone and everything around us. It is our calling as human beings. It is why we are here. How well do we care for ourselves? How well do we care for each other? How well do we care for the earth and all her creatures? When we begin to take such questions seriously then we are well on our way to finding our place.

It is easy to get overwhelmed. The more we hear about what’s happening in the world, the more intimidating it becomes. There is so much pain and brokenness. There is so much that needs to be done. There is so much healing that needs to take place. Like the psalmist, it is sometimes tempting to think we can’t make a difference in the face of such complex and massive circumstances. We are, after all, just small, fragile human beings. Except it simply isn’t true. Marianne Williamson puts it this way, “Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

So what is your place in the world? Who are you called to be? What are you called to do? Where are you called to make a difference? I invite you to begin by remembering who you are – a child of God. Begin by remembering that you are not alone. Begin by remembering that you don’t have do everything by yourself or on your own. We can only do what we can do, and that will finally be enough. In the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, “We can do no great things; only small things with great love.” Search your heart to discover that which is calling you to share great love. It may seem like a small thing, even inconsequential. Trust that nothing done in love is inconsequential. Together may we open ourselves to the presence of God’s Spirit which is, even now, blowing in us and through us. May we allow ourselves to be guided into the life we have been created to live. When each of us does what we can do, freely sharing our love in whatever ways we find to share it, then discovering our place in the world will just naturally occur, and the world will be well on its way to being healed.