The Fifth Sunday after
Pentecost, Year C
5 June 2016
5 June 2016
Listen here.
May the words of my mouth and
the meditations of all our hearts be always acceptable to you O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
Dag
Hammarskjold was one of the most outstanding and highly respected international
leaders of the 20th century. He
spent the latter part of his life devoted to pursuing the principles of the
United Nations Charter, which proposed international cooperation and
reconciliation for a peaceful world.
It
was known that Hammarskjold saw his work not only as a political role but also
as a religious calling. On his travels
around the world, Hammarskjold always took with him three items, found in his
briefcase, and recovered after the plane crash that took his life in 1961. These included a copy of the NT, a copy of
the Psalms, and a copy of the United Nations Charter.[1]
Indeed,
Hammarskjold must have understood that the book of Psalms
·
Pronounces
God’s claim upon the whole world
·
Conveys
God’s will for justice, righteousness and peace among all peoples &
nations, and
·
Anticipates
Jesus’ bold position that the kingdom of God has come near.
While
ancient Israelites used the psalms in their liturgy, these texts are much more
than sophisticated poems. We read them
at every Sunday service, Evensong and daily morning & evening prayer –
daily in the chapel at 8:30 and 5pm, you are invited! We read the whole book of psalms in 30 days
according to the order provided in the Book of Common Prayer. Turn in your books of common prayer (BCP) to
page 613, looking at the italicized text just above the number 24. “Fifth day, morning prayer,” which we read
for MP until BCP 27, where it says, “Fifth day, evening prayer,” etc.
At
their heart, the psalms are not only humanity’s response to God, but
also God’s word to humanity. In
this mutual conversation, we remember humanity’s ancient conversation
with the Sacred and we remember Eternity’s divine conversation with
humanity.
Professor
Walter Brueggemann[2] offers a three-part
framework to help with the enormous task of re-membering.
First,
Psalms of Orientation reflect ours and God’s grounded sense of
well-being found in the stories of creation, of the Torah, of wisdom literature. Psalm 145 is a fine example, affirming God’s
providential care. Secondly, the Psalms
of Disorientation offer personal and communal lament as found in that
despairing place of unresolve and the very human experience of being felt
denied by God and God’s experience of denial by humanity. Psalm 88, for example, embraces this
unresolved disorientation and precious helplessness. Finally, Psalms of New Orientation
offer personal and communal thanksgiving, confidence and praise in remembering
the larger arch of creation.
Today’s
Psalm, #30, is a New Orientation psalm of thanksgiving, remembering the eternal
story of going into trouble,
sure, and of coming out of
trouble that invokes a response that cannot be silent: praise and
thanksgiving. Getting into trouble,
getting out of trouble, invoking burst of praise to God.
This
theme, apparent in the first verses of the psalm, is palpable in the reading
from 1st Kings and from the Gospel of Luke.
The psalmist, like anyone who grieves a loss, needs to tell the story –
more, to remember, over and over, the details of the death and the rescue that
occurs from which the response bursts forth: Lord, you have drawn me up, you have healed me, you have lifted me up
and restored me to life. The imagery
of death captures and holds power for both the psalmist then and for us, now.
This
psalmist invites us to remember. When were we, too, were brought to the
Pit? What was it like to demand from God
an explanation for the depth of suffering? Finally, upon delivery, can we
remember how we had to
tell someone about that welling up of joy?
Remember how we could not stay silent, but instead give thanks and
praise God?
With
a veritable economy of words, the psalmist recounts the theme of the widow
whose son died and yet lived again, according to the word of the Lord spoken by
Elijah. The psalmist anticipates the
other widow’s story from Luke, in which Jesus’ encounters her dead son and
restores him to life through a compassionate command to “Rise!” It seems the psalmist knew that from
this encounter, people could only respond by glorifying God and sharing their
praise.
Through
these ancient stories, we remember humanity’s ancient conversation with
the Sacred and we remember Eternity’s divine conversation with humanity. And so God re-members us,
re-weaves us into God’s beloved community and re-binds our broken hearts with compassion
and with holy Love. Again, we give
thanks.
The
last Hebrew word in this psalm
is one of confessional thanks. With that
thanks there is a commitment
to remember vividly the pre-rescue situation and to keep that
memory alive. With thanks, we confess. When we give thanks, we admit that we rely
upon another. To thank is a
commitment to relationship.
The
Psalms hold a response to deep, human yearnings: the cries of our soul, the
songs of surrender, the hymns of praise.
At the heart of this Psalm, with any interpretation, is this: God
re-members us.
So
how do we re-member others into our community?
1. We see & serve others – we really see them, respecting their
dignity in every way. This week, we can
look deeply into the eyes of those we encounter and attend to their needs,
putting our needs to the side.
2.
We
suffer with or have compassion with others – having
compassion as for scripture’s widows and their sons, suffering with others and re-membering them
into the community. This week, we can
offer compassion.
3. We say thank you – We re-member others into our community by
giving thanks. And, in so doing, we
admit our relationship with them and with God, the God who re-members us all
back into community.
At
their heart, the psalms are not only humanity’s response to God, but also God’s
word to humanity. In this mutual
conversation, we remember humanity’s conversation with the Sacred
and we remember Eternity’s conversation with humanity.
Today’s
good news is that God remembers us, our whole selves, our whole humanity, our
whole ancient story. Our silence is
impossible!
Let
us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It
is right to give God thanks and praise.
[1] Story inspired by New
Interpreter Bible Commentary, “The Book of Psalms,” page 641 quoting Dorothy V.
Jones, “The Example of Dag Hammarskjold: Style and Effectiveness at the UN,” The Christian Century 111, 32 (Nov. 9,
1994) 1050.
[2] Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms: A Theological
Commentary (Minneapolis, Augsburg, 1984)
No comments:
Post a Comment