Lent 2 & St David's Day
Reflection 1 on Psalm 121
We have heard the story of David healing Paulinus – helping him to see again.
( A video of the story can be seen here)
How wonderful if St David could help us to see our scripture readings in a new way!
Well, perhaps he can.
We have very little recorded of what David actually said except the words, said to be from his last sermon to the brothers in his monastery:
“Be joyful, keep the faith and do the little things you have heard and seen me do”.
It’s not surprising that we have so few of David’s words – he lived in the 6th century and his biographer wrote down the stories of David 500 years later.
But what a man David must have been if those last words of his, and stories about his birth, childhood ministry and saintliness survived and were handed down for all those centuries.
The start of Psalm 121 “I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come?” are words that have resonated with people for generation after generation – they are still a favourite at funerals today.
After the question comes the answer “my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth”.
The sight of hills takes our breath away, sometimes, it certainly makes us rejoice that God has made this world, including the beauty of the hills.
And the psalmist reminds us that the God who made those wonderful hills is the Lord who made everything. God made us, and loves us and promises to protect us - “the Lord himself watches over you”.
When you hear this Psalm, be joyful, says St David. When you see the hills, be joyful. When you remember that the Lord God is watching over you to protect you, be joyful.
Lift up your eyes, trust in God’s strength and be joyful.
Reflection 2 on Romans 4, 1-5, 13-17
Paul’s letter to the Romans has a lot to say about the importance of faith.
In the part we’ve just heard, Paul explains that Abraham, whom he calls “the father of us all” received God’s promise of descendants because he believed in God, he had faith and trust in God and God’s promise, and he was blessed by God. Abraham didn’t achieve this by keeping to God’s law, but by trusting God’s grace. Abraham is blessed because of his faith, and so, argues Paul, all those who share the faith of Abraham are similarly blessed.
If David was helping us to reflect in this passage, he might remind us of his words “keep the faith”. David did not say ‘keep the rules of the faith’, or ‘keep all God’s laws’. David taught his brothers in the faith to “keep the faith” – to trust in God’s promise of grace, and so to be blessed.
One of the most famous of the stories about St David illustrates this perfectly.
In 545 a synod was held at Brefi, about 60 miles from here, to discuss the beliefs of the church at that time, and particularly to discuss the need for God’s grace. David was a fairly junior abbot at the time, but had been asked to attend. He listened for a long time to what others were saying. When he spoke to explain his understanding of the grace of God, some in the gathering couldn’t hear him, but the ground beneath him was seen to rise up in a twmp (hillock) under his feet, so that he stood as if in a pulpit, and could be heard clearly by everyone there.
The church of Llanddewi Brefi was built on the spot where the miracle happened.
What St David said that day was unrecorded and unremembered – but what the grace of God did in making it possible for him to be heard was never forgotten.
To “Keep the faith” means to trust God’s promises and God’s actions, not trying to find the exact words to explain God’s laws. On this faith and trust St David built up the faith of others.
Reflection 3 on John 3: 1-17
John’s gospel tells us the story of Nicodemus, coming to Jesus by night because he has things on his mind.
Firstly, there are the things he has seen Jesus do & heard about him doing – what Nicodemus calls “these signs” that show that Jesus must be from God. If these things are true, then Nicodemus can see that Jesus must be God’s servant.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again of the Spirit to understand this things Jesus has done, but that just gives Nicodemus more things to be worried about…”how can these things be?”.
Jesus asks “are you a teacher of Israel and you don’t understand these things?”
And then says “I have told you of earthly things and you do not believe – how can I tell you of heavenly things?”
Poor, struggling Nicodemus has seen earthly things – the actions of Jesus – and is trying to understand how Jesus relates to heavenly things – he is beginning to see that since Jesus must have been sent by God, he may actually be the Son of God.
Jesus sums up all this for Nicodemus in perhaps the most quoted verse of the Bible
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Nicodemus is almost ready to accept that God gave and sent his Son, Jesus, into the world to save people and to give them life.
It all begins for Nicodemus with the things he has seen.
And so, St David, speaking to his brothers in the monastery, tells them to “do the little things you have heard and seen me do”. It is in the little actions of a life dedicated to God that people will begin to understand what the kingdom of God looks like.
I trust that St David’s words in his final sermon have helped us to understand better God’s word to us today.
“Be joyful, keep the faith, do the little things”.
I will leave the final word to another saint of wales - Rowan Williams.
Referring back to these words at St David’s last sermon, he states that
“it reminds us that the primary things for us are the relationships around us, the need to work at what’s under our hands, what’s within our reach. We can transform our domestic, our family relationships, our national life to some extent, if we do that with focus and concentration in the presence of God.”
So may we all live as saints of God, to God’s glory, following St David, who followed Christ our Lord. Amen.
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