Good morning! I am Rev. Michelle, and I will be tag-teaming with Mother Eliza over the next three months to help lead worship on Sundays while Mother Storm is on her much-deserved Sabbatical.
Today I’m going to focus on the beginning of Psalm 139.
1 LORD, you have searched me out and known me; *
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
2 You trace my journeys and my resting-places *
and are acquainted with all my ways.
As someone who has read a lot of dystopian fiction, I do have to acknowledge up front that in the abstract, this concept of someone knowing our sitting down and rising up, and discerning our thoughts from afar is terrifying. It is the basic ingredient in surveillance state thrillers like 1984, the Matrix, or Black Mirror. In those stories, there are people (or machines) who are monitoring folks every movement in order to control and manipulate them. The knowledge of their every move is power over them. Those stories continue to resonate stronger than ever today with the uptick in AI, big data, and our dependence on our phones and devices that track our lives in so many ways. When I hear the refrain from 1984 “Big Brother is watching” a chill goes up my spine because I have no trust that Big Brother will be fair or benevolent with the information that he is learning about me.
But God isn’t “Big Brother.” When the Psalmist says “Lord, you have searched me out and known me” this is within the context of a God who is always good. A God who is always just. Always gracious and slow to anger. Always loving. And that changes everything.
How great, truly, is our desire to be known and loved in this way?
In 2023, the Surgeon General wrote a report on the Epidemic of loneliness and the healing effects of social connection and community. Loneliness was defined in that report as a perception of inadequate or non-existent meaningful connections. Or put in other words, loneliness a longing to be known more deeply by others.
At least one in two American adults has reported feeling lonely according to the report, but I have to believe that is much higher. Whether it is due to moving to a new place, starting a new job, unemployment, retiring, infertility, having a baby, having an empty nest, being sick, experiencing a breakup, or grieving the loss of a loved one, the list of circumstances that can trigger loneliness is long, and it is different for each of us. And loneliness can occur without any of these circumstances—we can be surrounded by family and friends and still feel lonely because our desire for connection is greater than the connection we feel.
Again and again throughout the Bible, God seeks out those who are on the outside, who are not known or accepted within their communities and shows them that they are known to him. They are loved.
In womanist theology, God's encounter with Hagar in the wilderness (Genesis 16) is a powerful affirmation that God sees, hears, and values the marginalized. Hagar is an Egyptian slave to Sarai, Abram’s wife. Sarai forces Hagar to sleep with Abram when she believes herself to be infertile and then mistreats her when she conceives. When Hagar runs away, an Angel of Lord finds her near a spring in the desert. He sees her, even in the midst of her abuse and mistreatment. Hagar is the first person in the Bible to name God. She calls God “El Roi” which means “the God who sees me.” —she claims divine recognition in a world that tried to erase her. Her story reminds us that God’s gaze is not reserved for the powerful, but rests tenderly and intentionally on those whom society tries to make invisible.
For another example, in the time of Jesus, people with leprosy were excluded from society because they had a terrifying and highly contagious skin disease. Seen as ritually unclean, they could not participate in religious community, and were socially isolated. And yet, Jesus did not adhere to these social boundaries that excluded them. He not only healed Lepers, but he touched them. He dined with them. He knew them as more than their disease. As more than their appearance. And he knew them as individuals. As children of God. Jesus knew them, and loved them.
For a third example, in Luke 8, Jesus encounters a woman who had been suffering from a bleeding disorder for twelve years, who had spent all of her living upon physicians who could not cure her. So she was socially excluded, like the lepers, and also impoverished from her illness. She came behind Jesus and touched his garment, and immediately was healed. While Jesus could have just continued moving on, after all, he was on his way to heal a child who was dying, he stopped and asked, (even though he knew) Who touched me? He then acknowledged her before the crowds gathered to say that her faith has made her well and to go in peace. Jesus’ healing was not just for her body, but it was social as well. Acknowledging her virtue and restoring her place within her community. Jesus saw her. Jesus knew her. And Jesus loved her.
Being known and loved in community is vitally important and yet feels harder than ever. On social media, we can be seen, but not really known. As we are pulled in so many directions in the busyness of our lives, it can be hard to build the type of community that is the antidote to loneliness. The church is one of God’s answers to that, but it can easily become a place that we can slide into and slide out of without really being seen. Without feeling that we can share ourselves and our lives with each other. I want to encourage you to look around for a minute at the people who are sitting around you.
Whether they are people that you have seen many times before or new faces entirely, I challenge you to make an effort after the service to connect with someone. Deeper connection than just a hello. Share a moment that brought you joy from the week. Ask for prayer. As the community following Jesus, let us practice knowing and loving one another just as God knows and loves us.
And for any who are lonely here today, let me remind you that even if you feel invisible, or like no one really sees what you are going through-- You are not alone. God sees you. God knows you. God loves you. Amen.