President Obama and Representative John Lewis led thousands in a commemorative march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, on Saturday, March 7, 2015. Photo Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
A Sermon
for Lent 5
By
Magdalena I. García
Preached
at Edgewater Presbyterian Church, Chicago
Psalm
126 - New
Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
A
Harvest of Joy / A Song of Ascents
1 When
the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The
Lord has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
4 Restore
our fortunes, O Lord,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
5 May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
6 Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.
Introduction
Did
you know that last Friday was the International Day of Happiness? I learned
about this by chance, as I was doing my morning reading online, and came across
notes in various newspapers, both here in the US and abroad.
Here
is what the UN website says about the celebration: “The General Assembly of the
United Nations in its resolution
66/281
of 12 July 2012 proclaimed 20 March the International Day of
Happiness recognizing the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal
goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings around the world and the
importance of their recognition in public policy objectives.”[i]
And
the UN posted a video clip,[ii]
featuring Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying “Be happy” in multiple languages:
“Be happy... vive le bonheur... sé feliz...” All this with Pharrell Williams’
song “Happy” playing in the background (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0A3-wc0rpw)! Needless to say, for the rest of the
day, I went around with the beat in my bones and the melody in my head...
“Because
I’m happy...
Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I’m happy...
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Because I’m happy...”
Depending
on your life’s circumstances, you might be wondering... What is there to be happy
about? Is there anything to be happy
about? We know that all is not well, but for people of faith, no matter the circumstances,
there is always reason to rejoice.
The
Psalmist declared: Even
though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your
rod and your staff—they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said: Consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I
tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But
if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is
thrown into the oven, will [God] not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
(Matthew 6:28-30)
The
apostle Paul wrote: We
know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are
called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
And
thus we often hear people in church say: “God is good all the time, all the time God is
good.”
Structure of Psalm 126
Our
Scripture reading for today is a song of happiness. Different
translations of the Bible assign different titles to the psalm, such as: “A
Harvest of Joy”, “A Song of Ascents”, or “A Pilgrimage Song”. This is the kind
of psalm that the Israelites, the Jewish people of Bible times, sang along the
way...as they climbed Mt. Zion and rejoiced on their annual pilgrimage to the
temple in Jerusalem.
Psalm
126 has two parts. In the opening part, verses 1-3, there is a joyous
celebration of the people knowing that they had been blessed by God.
1 When the Lord restored the
fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
But
in the closing part, verses 4-6, there is a heartfelt longing of the people hoping
that they will again be blessed by God.
4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
5 May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
6 Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.
Or,
depending on how we interpret the Hebrew, we see a fervent affirmation that God
is capable of turning tears into joy.
Throughout
the book of Psalms we see this dynamic over and over: we see how the Israelites
remembered their various traumas (such as the slavery in Egypt or the
Babylonian exile), but we also see how these awful experiences resulted in spiritual
growth and renewed faith for the people of God. This
is the reason why they could confidently sing: “ ... those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy...”
Contemporary Application
But
what about us? Can we also look back and give thanks? Can we look back and rejoice?
What has enslaved us and exiled us? How do PAST trials inform our PRESENT struggles?
How do PAST victories strengthen our PRESENT resolve? Here are a couple of examples
from contemporary events in society and in the church...
EXAMPLE 1: 50th anniversary of Selma
Two
weeks ago President Obama spoke before thousands on Saturday morning, March 7, 2015,
during a commemorative ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the events of “Bloody
Sunday” when over 600 non-violent protesters were attacked by Alabama state
troopers as they attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights.
He
gave an eloquent speech during which he reminded all of us, that despite the ongoing
civil rights struggles of our time, there is reason to rejoice.
Allow
me to quote an excerpt from the President’s speech:
“Just
this week, I was asked whether I thought the Department of Justice’s Ferguson
report shows that, with respect to race, little has changed in this country. I
understand the question, for the report’s narrative was woefully familiar. It
evoked the kind of abuse and disregard for citizens that spawned the Civil
Rights Movement. But I rejected the notion that nothing’s changed. What
happened in Ferguson may not be unique, but it’s no longer endemic, or
sanctioned by law and custom; and before the Civil Rights Movement, it most
surely was.”[iii]
Selma
invites us to look back and rejoice that, by God’s grace, we are no longer the racist
nation we once were, because
of the achievements of the Civil Rights Movement.
EXAMPLE 2: Approval of Gay Marriage in
the PC(U.S.A.)[iv]
Closer
to home, in our own denomination, amendment 14-F of the “Directory for Worship”
in the Book of Order was approved by
a majority of the presbyteries last Tuesday, March 17.
The
Rev. Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the church, immediately issued a statement,
which was shared online along with a video clip. Likewise, the Moderator of the
221st General Assembly (2014), Ruling Elder Heath K. Rada, and the Vice Moderator, the Reverend Larissa
Kwong Abazia, issued a joint letter on the marriage ammendment.
Allow
me to quote an excerpt from the Moderators’ letter:[v]
“The
approved amendment to the Book of Order lifts up the sanctity of marriage and
the commitment of loving couples within the church. It also allows teaching
elders to exercise their pastoral discretion in officiating weddings and in
doing so ‘... the teaching elder may seek the counsel of the session, which has
authority to permit or deny the use of church property for a marriage service.’
“We
trust that God whose Word brought Creation into being is also the same Word
that speaks to us today. With confidence, we believe that God calls the Church
into living as a transformative community that embraces the call to be God’s
beloved community in the world.”
I know that there is wide diversity of opinion along the theological spectrum on this
issue—and on many other issues facing the church of our time—, but I am convinced that Amendment 14-F invites us
to look back and rejoice that, by God’s grace, we are no longer the homophobic church
we once were, because of the advances of the beloved community.
(NOTE: At this point, as I was
delivering the sermon, I stepped away from the script and invited this racially
diverse congregation to consider how their “opening song” from Africa might be considered
an abomination in other Presbyterian settings where the norm is still a “choral
introit” featuring Euro-centric music. And yet, isn’t it wonderful that there is
room for this kind of expression that deviates from what has long been considered
the norm and, in so doing, creates a space to honor God’s given diversity? I also
invited them to join me in exploring the symbolism of the carved dove sitting over
the baptismal font. It has a broken wing, but that brokenness surely does not affect
the font nor invalidate the sacrament. In the same manner, our passing disagreements,
though they may disfigure the life of the church for a time, they do not change
the nature or the unity of the body of Christ.)
Finally,
I think Psalm 126 invites us to entertain THIS question: What is the world waiting
to rejoice about? Here are some possibilities: Gender equality, racial
inclusion, pay equity, access to healthcare, education for girls, land
ownership for women, freedom from unjust incarceration for men of color, immigration
status... The list goes on... And we better pay attention, because whatever is robbing
the world—God’s world—of the opportunity to rejoice, that, my friends, is our
calling as Christians!
When
we read Psalm 126 in the Common English
Bible translation, here is what it says:
1 When
the Lord changed Zion’s circumstances for the better,
it was like we had been dreaming.
2 Our mouths were suddenly filled with laughter;
our tongues were filled with joyful shouts.
It was even said, at that time, among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them!”
3 Yes, the Lord has done great things for us,
and we are overjoyed.
The
church is called to join hands with God and to work tirelessly and selflessly to
“change circumstances for the better,” so
that the world may rejoice. The church is called to join hands with other
partners and to work tirelessly and selflessly to “change circumstances for the better,” until
the world can indeed join in the chorus and sing: “Because I’m happy...”
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[i] http://www.un.org/en/events/happinessday/
[ii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52XxHs_5yBU#t=20
[iii] http://time.com/3736357/barack-obama-selma-speech-transcript/
[iv] http://www.pcusa.org/news/2015/3/17/amendment-14-f-approved/
[v] http://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/oga/pdf/mod-vice-mod-marriage-passage.pdf
