Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] July 17, 2016 “Worship Keeps Me Sane” Isaiah 40: 26-31 – Common English Bible 26 Look up at the sky and consider: Who created these? The one who brings out their attendants one by one, summoning each of them by name. Because of God’s great strength and mighty power, not one is missing. 27 Why do you say, Jacob, and declare, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord my God ignores my predicament”? 28 Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth who doesn’t grow tired or weary, whose understanding is beyond human reach, 29 giving power to the tired and reviving the exhausted. 30 Youths will become tired and weary, the young will certainly stumble; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will fly up on wings like eagles; they will run and not be tired; they will walk and not be weary. [1]One day the chief of the Isolated Earth People was walking through the forest. He was looking for a symbol to give life to his people – some great and powerful animal that would show itself to him and teach him an important lesson. As he walked, he spotted the tracks of what must have been a huge deer. The chief became very excited. He took off following the tracks, saying, “Grandfather deer, show yourself to me. Surely you are going to teach me a lesson and become a symbol of my people.” As the chief followed the deer’s tracks, he ran faster and faster through the forest, his eyes were on nothing else. Suddenly the chief ran straight into a huge spider’s web that had been strung across the trees. It made him stumble. When he got to his feet he was angry. He went to strike at the spider but it dodged aside and quickly climbed out of reach. “Grandson,” the spider asked, “why are you racing through the forest looking at nothing but the ground? Why do you act as if you’re blind?” The chief answered, “I was following the tracks of a great deer. You see, I am seeking a symbol of strength for my people.” “I can be such a symbol,” said the spider. “How could you give strength to my people? You are small and weak and I didn’t even see you.” “Grandson,” said the spider, “look upon me. I am patient. I watch and I wait. Then all things come to me. If your people learn this, they will be strong indeed.” The chief saw that it was so, and so the spider became one of the symbols of the Osage people. The spider is a pretty unlikely symbol of strength, and a pretty unlikely hero. But you know what? At this point, I’d like any kind of hero. How are you doing? How are you doing with all this constant, non-stop news of outrage and tragedy? How is it with your soul? The soul crushing news increasingly leaving people numb with despair as a list of city names becomes synonymous with one kind of death after another. In just one month, Orlando, Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights, Baghdad, Dallas, Dhaka, Istanbul, and now Nice. Added to the infamous Newtown, Charleston, Aurora, San Bernadino, Fort Hood, Oklahoma City. And, of course, Ferguson. The list goes on and on. Just like the list of human names grows longer. On Thursday, 22-year-old Deeniquia Dodds was the latest African American transgender woman to be murdered.[2] A community targeted for murder at 10 times the rate of everyone else. And just because Philando Castile was the last black man to be killed while being filmed on an iPhone, and thus making the news, that does not mean he was the last black man killed. The media has said virtually nothing about the same issues in the Latino community. I’m not sure I can muster outrage anymore. I don’t think I can risk tears anymore. I mean, doesn’t that kind of vulnerability threaten to destroy our psyche? But what a privileged position I sit in to even ask those questions. First responders still have to go to work. Refugees still have to keep moving. Residents of every city besieged by war still have to venture outside to get water. People of Color, from President to parking lot attendant, farmworker to civil rights leaders, in the course of “normal” life, still have to face down angry bigots every day. White people can watch the news and debate whether all lives matter or some lives matter or no lives matter. We can watch the news and see graphic videos on a loop of death replayed and replayed and replayed with interest or disinterest while others have no choice but to see their sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, cousins, uncles… their own lives played like a video game, a loop of death reminding you, warning you – Your life is under that constant threat of violent confrontation. That could be you. And yet, still have to go to work, care for children, and listen to people like me who ask “Can I risk any more tears? Can I muster any more outrage?” And yet, 28 Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth who doesn’t grow tired or weary, whose understanding is beyond human reach, 29 giving power to the tired and reviving the exhausted. 30 Youths will become tired and weary, the young will certainly stumble; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will fly up on wings like eagles; they will run and not be tired; they will walk and not be weary. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I don’t know how I could handle all the grief and uncertainty in our world if I didn’t have a church to return to week after week to put my life and all our lives into perspective. It is this rhythm of worship that has sustained our ancestors through war and famine, through the deaths of mothers and fathers and children; through the deaths of those who died after long and courageous fights with cancer and Alzheimer’s as well as those who died in an instant – by accident or by violence. Worship keeps me sane. It asks, in the midst of confusion and competing questions, “What does the Lord require of you?” I can find peace on the top of a mountain or watching waves caress the shore, but worship is different. And I was reminded of this in the opening words of the funeral liturgy in our UCC Book of Worship. I want to read the opening paragraph. It reads: Friends, We gather here in the protective shelter of God’s healing love. [In this hour,] We are free to pour out our grief Release our anger, Face our emptiness, And know that God cares. We gather here as God’s people, Conscious of others who have died And of the frailty of our own existence on earth. [Therefore] We come to comfort and to support one another In our common loss. We gather to hear God’s word of hope That can drive away our despair And move us to offer God our praise. We gather to commend to God with thanksgiving the lives of ______ (fill in the blank) We celebrate the good news of Christ’s resurrection. For whether we live or whether we die We belong to Christ who is Lord Both of the dead and of the living. Don’t the words of ancient liturgies surprise us sometimes with their contemporary application? Word I needed today. That’s why we keep coming together every week. Words that remind us that God knows our grief, anger, and the emptiness we may feel right now. That God cares. And guides us through it to hope and praise and thanksgiving. Who lifts our heads… Like that spider. Or the cross – another unlikely symbol of strength. If we keep our heads focused on the ground, we will run and blindly follow tracks that may or may not take us anywhere but fear and more despair. Or we might simply run around in circles of rage. But here in worship, God lifts our heads to see what is always right here in front of us. Not great and powerful. But a way, a path through, someone to follow who knows death. Not somewhere off in the distance, but right here. Waiting patiently for us to come, to see. We could keep running in circles or we could look up and see, for example, the strength of other unlikely heroes.
If you think about it, if we were to lift our heads, we would see heroes and symbols of strength like these and so many more in every one of us here. When we gather in community instead of isolating ourselves and listen to one another, we will realize that if you can survive your tragedies and broken hearts, then I can too. God can redeem it all to some higher purpose. But we have to lift our heads to see it. And come together to practice it. We have to look up at the sky and consider: Who created these? Summoning the stars and the sky and each one of us by name. Why do we say to God “My way is hidden?” Why do you ___, ___, ___, why do I say that “God ignores my predicament…?” Don’t you know, haven’t you heard that God gives power to the tired and revives the exhausted? Youths will become tired and weary, the young will certainly stumble; but those who hope in the Lord (– who gather in community to worship week after week) Will have their strength renewed; And the persecuted and the oppressed, the prisoner and the poor: they will fly up on wings like eagles; they will run and not be tired; they will walk and not be weary. It’s amazing how often scripture says exactly what we need to hear. This text was chosen and printed in the bulletin long before a sermon was written. The wisdom story each week this summer has been chosen not because it is timely but because it speaks to the person who chose it before the events of that week. And then I have to figure out what to say about it. I had my doubts about this one! But every week so far it has been exactly the right story for that week. So, OK God. I hear you. And you hear our anger and grief, our sense that the state of our world is hopeless, our worry that a narcissistic demagogue who incites violence will become our leader… You get it God. And I hear you. And I thank you for this moment to lift my head and get back to the question: What do you require of me? To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with you.
Worship keeps us sane so that, in moments like these, we can look up and remember the question: And so, what does the Lord require of you? [1] “How the Spider Became a Symbol of the Osage People” in Doorways to the Soul: 52 Wisdom Tales from Around the World, edited by Elisa Davy Pearmain, Pilgrim Press, 1998. [2] http://dcist.com/2016/07/transgender_woman_dies_from_gunshot.php [3] http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/21/us/mccool-funeral-son-break-down-orlando-trnd/ [4] http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/1.637361
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI love being a Archives
March 2024
|